Good Food, Good Music, Good Fellowship. What Else is There?

Yesterday proved to be a very satisfying day indeed. It started around 3:00 PM with all of the Hungry Hill Bluegrass Band members (Jenny Lester, Bob Hamilton, Mark Thibeault, Nadine Landry and Ross Nickerson), Brad Goguen from Southern Flavour Bluegrass Band, Helen Floyd and me, meeting at Richard and Heather Brown's big old farm house in Bloomfield.

After a short stay at the Brown's home, and with introductions out of the way, the majority of us met at the Norton Catholic Hall to set the sound equipment up for the performance to come later that evening. When the sound check was complete, Hungry Hill had a short practice, then we all met at the Brown's home for a nicely prepared meal. For me, that was a real nice feeling of fellowship time.

At 7:00 PM, Helen, who acted as emceee, introduced Southern Flavour Bluegrass Band (Heather Brown, Richard Brown, Winston Rees, Brad Goguen). Southern Flavour kicked the the show off in fine style, playing a half hour set, paving the way for Hungry Hill.

Hungry Hill dazzled us with their talent. Jenny Lester is a fine fiddle player and sings wonderful lead vocals. When she's not playing fiddle, she plays rhythm guitar. Nadine Landry really knows how to handle an upright bass and has incredible vocal talent. I was really impressed with her singing. Bob Hamilton played mandolin, was lead vocal on a few tunes and provided harmony vocals on several numbers. Mark Thibeault played resophonic guitar and rhythm guitar. We learned Mark is a luthier and built two of the guitars being used by Hungry Hill. The workmanship of his guitars is very good - visit his web site, Rayco Resophonics. Last but not least, Ross Nickerson tore it up more than once on the 5-string banjo. The band put on a great performance. I talked to several people at intermission who said they were impressed, and rightly so.

The show was ended with Hungry Hill and Southern Flavour doing one of Heather Brown's favourite songs - Hard Times (Come Again No More). Earlier today, Heather told me it was the highlight of the day for her.

As good as the performance was, there was more fun to come. We ended up having a jam in the kitchen of the performance hall; a true kitchen party. The jam lasted for two hours and was a lot of fun.

Other than Nadine Landry, originally from Quebec, just a few minutes from the Campbellton, NB border, none of the Hungry Hill band members had ever been in the Maritime provinces and were enjoying their visit. I think we gave them a nice Maritime welcome and they appreciated it.

I want to thank Richard and Heather Brown for their exceptional hospitality and down to earth approach to life in general. Although I was the "organizer" of this event, one thing is certain - without the help of Richard and Heather, this event would not have been possible. Thanks for opening up your home to all of us Farmer(s) Brown.