end of day 1: Yonder, Keller, Lotus and a whole lotta Weir.

hey all !

it's early on day 2- as i'm writing this AOD are rocking out onstage- kind of wish i was out in the crowd, but i'm going to save my energy for the unbelievable day of music starting at 3 p.m. and not ending until they kick the late night All-Star jam off the stage.

yesterday, we got a little wet and did a whole lot of dancing: the evening had us moving from the Magic Hat Stage to the main stage and back until around 4:45 in the morning. the was Yonder Mountain String Band, Keller Williams and the Keels, Lotus, Bob Weir and Ratdog, Benevento/Russo Duo and STS9 to round things out with the late night set.

yonder came on just as it began to downpour- i think it could hurricane and we'd still have a great time in the mud. they promised to try to "melt down the mountain." here's pics:

i've been a fan of Keller for a while now but this was my first chance to see him live. he was characteristically Keller and filled his set with covers, including a Tom Petty mini-medley consisting of "Breakdown," "Last Dance With Mary Jane," kicked back into "Breakdown" and continued back with "Jane." The crowd went nuts when it was time to scream "well i don't know what i've been told/you never slow down, you never grow old/i'm tired of screwing up, tired of goin' down/tired of myself, tired of this town."

i was waiting for someone to dig into John Denver's "Country Road"; i've had it in my head ever since hitting West Virginia. Keller's sped up, picked out version was great. he also gave us renditions of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" and, oddly, Eve 6's "Inside out"- during which everyone around me made sure to comment on how much they hated the original version... before singing along to every word. including me.anyway, things escalated even more when Bob Weir walked onstage to join in on Beck's "Loser."

this was our second dose of Weir that day and we still had him for the Ratdog set later on. i'll admit i tried to leave the Keller set to see Benevento on the Rope-A-Dope stage but couldn't get away. glad i didn't because i would have missed the openers to Lotus. the guys were definitely on and jammed out the Magic Hat staged for a little over an hour with their acoustic jammed out beats. Ratdog hit the stage almost immediately after Lotus's last night disappeared into the the now clear, now full of stars, sky. the day was momentarily forgotten- all that was there was Weir and the band, teaching us the blues. the band opened with crowd favorite "Casey Jones.”

Larry Keel and his "Rock Slid in the pocket" wife Jenny Keel, sat in with Keller's band:

...from what i've heard, Ratdog's set wasn't supposed to go on for the nearly two hours it did. apparently the band refused to get off the stage- the set didn't end until nearly 5 this morning. thanks guys (i'll have the set-list for you very soon).