Who's going to Hangtown ?

The Fish and I will be up there Wed. night. See ya there.

Is Walt still planning to come? 

Still looking for a ticket. It's hard to make plans when tickets go on sale. I'm always buying tickets to sold out events at the last minute these days.

Hope to meet some of you there!

Hey Redneck and MarkD (and Gary), we are in for Fri-Sun. I believe the better half also got late night tics for Fri and Sat. Camping out in Mystery Meadows again.

Looking forward to seeing you guys there (and hopefully Bart/Benice, Walt, Ro and the rest of the normal Hangtown crew)

Gary as in "Gary Fish" of DNB fame?

>>>Hope to meet some of you there!

no spot taken

Have not heard Judit.

Tiger, yes.

Are they sold out? I doubt it.

Bart and BeNice will be there Thur. morning. 

Achilles Wheel Thursday  night indoors to open up the festival. 

Glad you are safe Mark! This fire stuff is getting old. See the rest of you guys next week   FESTIVAL

DSO should have that place rocking, can't wait to hear drums with some Skip bombs

Have a great time, y'all!

(((Drums 'n' Bombs)))

Can't make it to Hangtown (again), but am hoping to check out Achilles Wheel on the 20th.

Have fun!

>>>>Still looking for a ticket. It's hard to make plans when tickets go on sale. I'm always buying tickets to sold out events at the last minute these days.

GREAT NEWS TIGER!!! Tickets are still on sale and there passes available on stubhub too. Enjoy the shows!!!!

our good friend (and occasional Zoner) Todd the Conductor from Montana -- and his partner M -- are attending but last I heard they were unable to score a camping pass for staying in their van

can hardly wait for Hangtown... only a little more than a week away!

best lineup ever!

Dance one for me Zonahs! I would absolutely love to be at this gig! 

I will be there working it....

Look for face tickets or face RV passes on Cashortrade.org

See you there:)

Thanks for the ticket advice. I had heard it was sold out but I guess that was just camping.

 Glad I was able to see a daily schedule. Sat is the only day worth paying for IMO.

Hangtown could have done w/o DSO. That band does nothing for me.

>>I will be there working it....

good deal

have a blast everybody!

I will agree that Friday's lineup is a little weak, but the rest of the weekend is looking pretty damn good to me. 

Achilles Wheel and RRE on Thursday.

Saturday is strong all day.  Todd Snider (YAY!) Greensky, RRE and Salmon latenight.

Sunday brings Lucas Nelson, Leftover Salmon and RRE.

It is a fine little festival that is well run. One I look forward to every yr.

Oooh, what a fun lineup!!! Have a great time, westie zoners!!!

Looks like tll the gallows stage sets are only 35 min.  I really liked that they had overlapping stages previously and that the "second" stage acts got to stretch out. This is way more of a standard concert set up with some filler while you go pee.  Still, some great music will be played to great people and great fun will be had.

Looks like you are "camping" in an industrial park.

Nice lineup though.

County fairgrounds aren't the best for camping locations, or festivals. You can find me at Eden Vale Inn all weekend.

While I prefer a more bucolic setting, this is the High Sierra/NorCal typical fest setting.  It's got some advantages, one of which being that the Safeway is literally next door, which cuts down on the amount of shit you need to bring.  Where we camp is just an open field, not better or worse than all open fields.

Very first yr we got rooms. Soon found out that was a pain in the ass. Now we fork over for the RV VIP.  Works for me. I just need to rob a bank and all will be OK.

I think it is a Raleys, Alias.

Safeway, Raleys, whatevs.  They sell sandwiches and snacks and beer and coffee.

And wine.

Thursday looks like a good first day to me. Friday - Achilles Wheel, CRB > DSO will be killer. Turkuaz latenight will be coolio.

Saturday looks killer from 2:15 on thru the end! Sunday looks nice to round things out. Again dance one for me Zonahs!  

looking at the festival map, it appears that both outdoor stages are in the same enclosed area this year

http://hangtownfestival.com/map/

as I recall, the Gallows Stage used to be in a field with tent camping, close to the main entrance... now it's much nearer to the Main Stage (El Dorado Stage), in a gently sloping grassy area that I believe was formerly used for tent camping just outside the main fence... now, apparently, it's inside the fence

might be a better set-up this year, as that lower field used to get kinda spongy and muddy if it had been raining... certainly it will mean less walking between outdoor stages

this new arrangement is probably why the Gallows Stage performances have been cut to 35 minutes, as Alias observed

but... there used to be a small "tweener" stage just inside the main gate to the concert field, and it looks like they did away with that... that's a bummer, because I saw some pretty good up-and-coming bands there, and I'll miss that... Horseshoes & Hand Grenades comes to mind as one "new" band I really liked at the tweener stage

only a week away!!

Hi Gary, time to party in the parking lot one more time!

Looks like it should be a nice weekend, see you all at the same place same time

https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/Placerville+CA+95667:4:US

Hey Bart, I am going to join you guys for chair drop this year, we scored som nice low backs when our neighbors moved.  I'm a morning person (unfortunately).

Gary, I see where you think the 2d stage may be, there were a bunch of vendors in that spot.  If it is what I am thinking of the slope is away from the other stage, with a small hill separating the two. 

Same stage it was last yr.  It is that small stage that was just inside the gate. Next to the beer and wine vendors. It's a tweener stage.

No Problem BOTB, it is the same people in line every year. Looking forward to hanging with you and Redneck. 

The Force is with me, We found a Star Wars DVD and a Larry Coryell CD in a dumpster today!

Doh! Usually get in line around 9:30 maybe earlier if I see someone up there. We have breakfast then head over to the Fairgrounds around 8:30 hang out with the RV crowd. 

^^^ Mark, check out the festival map by clicking on the link I provided above

it appears to me that there is no need for a tweener stage anymore because all of the time between acts on the Main Stage (El Dorado Stage) is taken up by short performances on the Gallows Stage, which has been moved from where it was in years past

Red, I don't have your email anymore as I deleted that account (due to the yahoo data breach episode) before saving any email addys so I sent a text to the last # of yours I have in the phone. BTW, I fucking love the occupation on your viva profile.

We will be out in the car camping area so hopefully we find a spot early afternoon Friday near you fine folks. Was super fun last time we shared a camp. 

New email contact for me is helpslip66atgeemail if you want to holler. Looking forward to kicking back for a few days with the Hangtown crew, see you all in about a week.

The map is kind of off kilter, but that stage is where it was last yr. Just changed the name to Gallows and did away with the old Gallows altogether. But it is a tweener stage.  It's purpose is to fill the gap between sets on the main stage.

They downsized a little this yr, but I think the lineup is very strong.

kinda pathetic what's going on at the other Zone board...

http://thephilzone.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=407

What a load of garbage. 2 mins reading that shit and I remember why I don't go there.

FUCK THEM G - Fish !

I'm With Mark I Never Go There !

I rarely visit the other Zone board, maybe a couple times a year

and

in retrospect, I regret posting that link (4 posts above) because of its negative vibe on this otherwise positive thread

onward... to Hangtown! 

it starts only 5 days from today... I can barely contain my excitement!

in other good news, Todd The Conductor & his partner were able to score an RV camping pass for Mystery Meadow, and they'll be rolling in from Montana sometime on Thursday!

Looks like beautiful weather all week, a little rain cleaned all the smoke out of the air and perked all the plants up. We are having a nice Indian Summer, all the trees are changing a chill at night, just perfect for a Hangtown Party

Festival is near, see you guys at the RV  

We are packed and loaded

NPR "ted talks" today tells us that festivals are a perfect example of the type of "play" that is necessary to our health.  So you may now tell people you are going to a health retreat.

Packed?  HA!

I wonder if we ask really nice would they postpone the fest for a week. Or switch Friday's lineup with Sat?

Just remember Mark! 50,80, 37  and you are there. 

I am leaving to go there right after Hangtown.

Excited to be going to this for the first time- been on the radar forever but it always comes at a tough time of year, and expensive.  But outdoor DSO in what may be its last few go-rounds got me to go.  Gonna be a good time!

Housesitter is here, car is packed.

Placerville in the morning. 

Lukas Nelson POTR  should be a rocking new comer. 

Big Bummer KVMR will not be broadcasting this year.

Havablast!

Just scored a room at the Gold Country Inn- so glad Placerville has one hotel not on Expedia! They still have at least one available..

Will definitely have time for meeting new people...

See you there Half Dome, On the road and ready to chill

Can't wait to see all my East Coast Hobo's

Same place same time

Big shout out to Walt, gonna miss you buddy.

All the best, all the time. Be well and hope to see you next year.

Walt! last night was for you Buddy, Achilles Wheel killed it. RRE had one of the better show I have seen in awhile. War Head Boogie got the crowd hopping last night, Andy G looked great being back on stage again. 

Sorry my Brain is still melted, to be continued  

I really thought that the CRB DSO combo  or the Achilles Wheel RRE sets would be  my highlight of the festival...

Sunday just topped it all, Joe Craven in the morning   then the Lukas Nelson POTR set was way off the charts, this guy can play, I have seen him a few times already. Sunday he just was great  the 2 Petty songs with a nice acoustic  Neil Young song had my head spinning. Then it was Left over Salmon set. Lukas came out and went right into a 20 minute Down by the River then went into Alabama with Vince OMG  what a set. RRE came out solid but the damage was already done. One of the best Hangtowns for me to date

What a freaky weekend it was. It is  just to hard to explain how much fun this festival really is.  Big shout outs For Mark and Gary for all they do plus BOTB, Redneck ATGD and L for making me laugh all weekend.

Mark and I got to talk with Walt on the phone for over an hour, we really brightened up his day 

The weather was the big highlight of the whole week, it was beautiful

BeNIce was a superstar as usually  

I will let the others chime in with more details and set lists

Bart is on the road already going down to UCSF today, no rest for the sick they tell me

I feel fine but these Dr's keep on telling me I am in advance stage everything I just think it is advance age

I plan on being at TXR tonight for dinner if all goes well

Thanks again everyone for making this one the best yet. 

Great reporting, Bart!

It would be great to see you at TXR, but the kids and wife will not take too kindly to my ditching them on Halloween.  It's truly the only night that I am absolutely prohibited from going out (unless I slip them something and sneak out while they're sleeping).

Let's keep in touch.  And all the best for you and your dealings with UCSF.

Keep up the good fight, Buddy.

Great report, Bart! So happy you got a chance to talk with Walt - he must have really loved connecting with you and Mark. I'm going to see him on Thursday.

It sounds like a great time with wonderful music and friends, kind of like it always sounds. Lukas Nelson and POTR got enthusiastic and appreciative reviews in every iteration from everyone I read on Facebook.

I'll be thinking of you and BeNice at UCSF, hoping they can help you out. Much love.

Just pulled into San Rafael super nice day check in and off to the city I go...

https://www.jambase.com/article/railroad-earth-concludes-2017-hangtown-m...

Thanks Johnny and Judit, not sure why I am the only one posting, I know we all had a blast

My new band of the festival was Tim Carbone​'s Contribution  That Gimme Shelter cover they did was spot one. 

2 sets of Bluesky Greengrass was very good, these guys just get better and better every  time I see them

The best people watching event ever

Lukas cover of Breakdown and American Girl was really really really good

That is super cool Bart.

Thanks for the G-2.

Best. Scene. Ever.

With a shooting star!

Chatted with some old friends I hadn't seen in years- would have been nice to finally meet some other Zoners but alas my laptop's wi-fi card doesn't work- so I couldn't

come here to ask for directions...

Went the first three years and was one of the few greybeards there, made it back this year and there's geezers everywhere...

Starting to recover here. What a great weekend!

Started off Thursday with phenomenal sets from Achilles Wheel, RRE and my new hot band Fruition. Never seen Fruition before and I am wondering why. Wow they are good.  AW really raised the bar with that first set and RRE and Fruition rose to it.

Friday was actually kind of weak.  Good sets from Fruition and DSO.

Saturday it was really great to see Todd Snider solo and looking well.  He was almost his old self in a very entertaining set. I felt really good afterward as I had not seen him this good in awhile.  Then we got a 2 hr acoustic set with Achilles Wheel Trio at the pumpkin carving event. Great set. Those guys are incredible.  Then, when I finally realized I was not going to get to San Rafael for David's return( I had been trying to get a ride to my car for about 24 hrs with no luck.), I was depressed and took a nap. Greensky was good. I used to like them a lot, but they are very spacey these days. I like my bluegrass a little more traditional.  Then the night turned around. We missed Pemberton and over an hour of RRE as we were in the RV watching Doug's live stream from San Rafael.  Wow what a difference that made. David looked and sounded great. Picked me up big time. Enjoyed the end of RRE but it was not as good as Thursday night.  Took our chairs into the latenight to check out the Shook Twins.  Realized I was not on the right drugs for them. Not sure what the right drugs would have been. But came back for Leftover Salmon and their set was pretty good. Not great all the way through, but a good set. 

Sunday slept in(RVs are awesome!) till The Brothers Gow set. I had not seen them before and Gary had said they were good and they were. High energy and decent musicianship. Enjoyed their set.  I had seen Lucas Nelson and POTR a couple yrs ago at Hardly strictly and was impressed. Saw them back up Neil Young for 2 shows and they were less than dazzling. But wow they/he really kicked it up on Sunday. Great set!  Breakdown and the rest of his acoustic mini-set was awesome. In fact, his whole set was awesome.  Then Leftover came out and kicked ass.  I usually like sitins for a short song or 2, but Lucas's elongated sitin with Leftover was off the charts. Truly a highlight of the festival. RRE finished off the main stage with another good not great set of only an hour and a half.  Checked out a little Scott Pemberton in the late night. They were good. Not great, and I was pretty tired and needed to get up early to get the RV back, so I did not stay more than half an hour.

All in all a very good festival musically. Maybe the best Hangtown yet(musically). The highs were that high.  But the real value of Hangtown goes beyond the music. It is one of the best run festivals I have ever been to.  The folks running it, the crews they have yr after yr(mostly same people), and all the wonderful peaceful attendees. And it is small enough not to be overwelming. The Supernaturall program is great and well worth the extra bucks. Truly a great experience that I look forward to every yr. This was my 7th (of 7) Hangtowns and I hope it will not be my last. But financial restrictions are limiting. (Buying a house is way more expensive than you realize till it hits you.)   Thanks to everyone I hung out with, especially Bart and BeNice who are kind of like the unofficial local hosts with the mosts, and my traveling partner Garyfish. Seemed to me that everyone there had a blast.  Hope everyone made it home OK. 

Only major drawback was no Walt. Hopefully he will be able to attend next yr(in which case I will again find the money to get there).

Sorry we missed you Half Dome.

Oh yeah. Someone left a Mexican blanket in the storage compartment of the RV. I have it here.

Haven't double posted in a long time.

Great time last weekend, I'm just slowing down enough to post.  Fest like that is sweet because it reminds you how many good, chill people are in this world.  Buncha fun loving good timing music lovers.  Musically, I didn't see any clunkers.  I'll give special shout outs to Fruition (better then I realized), Achilles Wheel (lived up to the hype), Ideateam (winners in the category of best funk), Greensky (prog-grass?), and Lukas Nelson (rock and roooooolllll, best of the sons of famous country stars by a long shot).  RRE was good and I always enjoy my once a year immersion but they still have that annoying habit of ending their shows on some  overly dramatic dirge that goes on forever and leaves you going whatevs instead of wanting more.  DSO was fun but a little underwhelming. Thanks to bart and benice for their hospitality and especially benice for her magic healing powers.  I didn't realize that y'all were headed to UCSF so soon, I hope everything is going OK.  Great to see the RV fellas and our fellow dirt surfers from Reno. Always good to catch up with those guys.  It's a nice fest, let's do it again some time.

Great reviews!

^Fruition is playing TXR.  Only problem is that the show is on 11/11, which is the same night as JRAD at the Fox and Phil at the Warfield.

Should I pay the $15 for Fruition and bypass JRAD?

Depends on how much you like JRAD.  But Fruition does play in NorCal quite a bit.

A bit of Hangtown weather, check the nice blue skies, today it is raining   

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=yfp-t&p=lukas+nelson+brea...

Thanks, Just got the chords to Tom Petty's "Breakdown". Nice version.

One more just for you Bluelight. You really should think about going next year. With the zoner crew that goes every year, we can hook you up big time  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO3QDacho2c

OK one more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlL-7W_4dg4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh6S7wk2Zeg

check the crowd size out, this is a small festival. I just have to throw in some Achilles Wheel opening up the Festival

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph4hiYNauXI

One more for this after glow I still have

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDXWKdfqNVM&t=36

Thanks a lot Bart.

Is Hangtown always this time of the year? I would love to extend the summer.

Yes it is, I will give you more info as it comes in  

Thank you very much!

These videos are pretty cool.

Nobody claimed the blanket? Rob?

Not ours this time, Mark, but good looking out.

Had another great time this year, though I must admit I wasn't blown away by any of the music, also wasn't disappointed by any of the music (other than DSO, but thats more about a dead cover band closing a night, same as jrad at hsmf a few years ago). First time seeing Bluesky (caught 2nd set only) but they had an impressive set, closing with a rave up of Traffic's Light Up Or Leave Me Alone that took a second to recognize. LOS is always a good time, and the main set NY covers with Lucas Nelson sitting in were pretty tasty. Nelson's solo "I Am A Child" during the POTR set was also a surpise and cool as hell. The acoustic Achilles pumpkin carving set was a nice early afternoon elixer, whatever afternoon that was. Plenty of good music was played all weekend, and for us the vibe can't be beat for a fest this size within a few hours drive.

A big thanks to Red and Alias for letting us share their shade, it was a classic sunny and warm autumn weekend in Gold Country. It was great seeing everyone again though I wish we could have/would have spent more time with the non urban dirt campers, but we generally like to chill on the hill at the main stage. Also sorry to have not crossed paths with Half Dome.

On the not so sunny side of festivals, as I walked back to our tent from camp Red/Alias on Sunday morning there were three cops near our tent talking to a couple of women. It turns out one of them had lost their vehicle key fob saturday night and whoever found it proceeded to walk through the lot using the fob to then find and steal said vehicle. Pretty shitty festival for those people and I doubt they will be returning. The sierra foothills definitely has a robust tweeker population.

I see Mark D -- several times! -- in one of the Lukas-Leftover videos, wearing the Tiny Hat that BeNice gave to him... he's up front in the VIP area (during this time I was hanging w/ Bart & BeNice etc., in front of the SBD... the sound quality & mix was much better back by the SBD, but I must say that the view from the VIP pit was unmatched...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh6S7wk2Zeg

from about 1:24 to 1:32 and again from 1:36 to 1:44 as the camera pans back the other way... haha

also visible in nearly all of these pans is former Zoner and pro-photographer Sueshi, often seen on a step-stool above the crowd

2:32 to 2:47  another glimpse

4:23 - 4:38  and yet another

8:39 - 9:01  a good long look at Mark here

13:54 - 14:02

14:40 - 14:45  

truly a kickass event this year -- by far the best of the 3 Hangtowns I've attended -- with a stellar lineup nearly throughout, quality Zoner representation, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect

I was right behind the soundboard- the big guy in the tall-backed chair... 

I gotta lose some weight.......

.......

Lukas is going to chip a tooth playing the guitar with his teeth like that. {{{ FRONT TEETH ARE OVER~RATED }}}

Love that photograph MarkD.