Yup. That was John McCauley (of Deer Tick) in a bear suit, with plaid overalls and a captains hat leading the likes of The Decemberists, Gillian Welch, David Rawlins, David Wax Museum, The Low Anthem, Sallie Ford, Matt Vasquez, Pokey LaFarge, the Felice Brothers and more in what can only be (and often was) described as — a hootenanny.
I guess you could call that the highlight of the evening. I mean it's not often you hear a group of musicians of that pedigree perform “Goodnight, Irene’’ then go directly into “La Bamba,’’ “Twist and Shout,’’ “I Wanna Be Sedated,’’ and then back to “La Bamba’’ and “Twist and Shout.’’ Thank the stars Jay Sweet, producer of the legendary festival, was able to remember the trail of songs because I was certainly far too caught up on the moment (and busy dodging guitar playing, captain hat wearing bears) to get that straight.
Or maybe that wasn't the highlight. Maybe it was Pete Seeger leading the crowd in a rendition of "Happy Birthday" to help Ramblin' Jack Elliott welcome in his 80th... errr, I mean 78th year (Elliott has decided to start going backwards from here on out) while Jay presented him with a cake and had him blow out the candles.
Or maybe it was McCauley and Sallie Ford doing John Prine's "In Spite of Ourselves." OK, maybe that's a moment I put a bit higher than others might. A highlight for me, though, none the less.
Truth be told, the entire evening was a highlight that left each one of the 250 attendees grinning uncontrollably and shaking their heads on the way to the parking lot. To the other 249 people there that night, I say this:
Yes. It happened. But if I didn't have the images to pour over the next morning, I wouldn't have believed it either.