Saturday afternoon, Dave and I once again headed south west towards France and the Devil’s Bridge Inn. It seemed that it would be just him and me since the other “official” members of the band couldn’t make it, so I had been psyching myself up for a guitar-washboard duo. However a phone call on the way there informed us that Denis would be playing after all and that possibly an old saxophone playing friend of his and Dave’s would be coming too.
The weather was perfect for a drive out into the countryside, a slight shiver of Fall in the air and I couldn’t help thinking of Vermont looking at the rolling pine covered hills. Our harmonica playing friend Blaise was sipping a beer on the inn’s patio when we got there and the master of the house announced that they would be filled to the brim and had already refused 30 reservations to folks wanting to join the fun. So it was with high spirits that the five of us set our gear up before enjoying a glass of local wine and some good food in the last of the setting sun.
It honestly can be said that we jammed an evening of steaming hot blues! When I step outside while we took a short break at around 10:30 pm, the contrast between the stuffy hot smoke filled and sweat smelling inside air and the cool freshly cut wheat and pine breeze said it all. And when we finished up at 1:30 am, to the dismay of a crowd that still wanted “one last one for the road”, I could hardly move a muscle without cramping up and could not think of a number we knew that hadn’t been played.
Fortunately a slice of blueberry pie and a cup of coffee where just the thing to face the long drive home.