Blue Sage Is More Than a Trio

I jumped in the car and raced from a family dinner with my son-in-law's parents, where we had just christened their newly remodeled kitchen with a delicious spaghetti dinner.  Kate is a wonderful cook.  I don't think I could have picked a better mother-in-law for my daughter.  No wonder "the kids" are doing so well ... Kate and I have become good friends and in the process learned we think so much alike.  My daughter and son-in-law and my grandpuppy Daisy joined us for dinner, too, so we enjoyed plenty of fetching fun in the backyard.

 

A smallish representation of the concert posse gathered at Murray Park's Amphitheater for the last gasp of summer Labor Day Murray Arts Festival.  Our seats were front, side front, but front nonetheless.  The audience was quite subdued compared with the varied and animated crowds we had experienced at Deer Valley and USANA.  These folks came to sit quietly in their seats and listen.  So did we.

Blue Sage (fka Blue Sage Trio, til they added a fourth member) was playing when I arrived.  The husband and wife team of Mike Iverson (guitar), Shaunna Iverson (bass) perform with their daughter, Heather, and Rob Ricks, both on fiddle.  Blue Sage's music combines Celtic and cowboy influences in such numbers as "Up Around the Bend," and "I'm Back on the Street Again."  Their tonal qualities combined to emit a train-like sound for this heartwrenching song:

I'd rather be sleepin' under a railroad bridge
Than to love a woman who brings me pain.

Sigh.  I'm sure my gentlemen friends will have opinions on those lines.  Blue Sage moved to more inspirational thoughts about the seasons of life with their rendition of Michael Martin Murphey's "Dancing In the Meadow."

When the seasons pass and the hourglass has all too quickly shattered,
You'll lay me low beneath the snow and wonder if I mattered.
Late in the night, your hair gone white will surely stand on end.
You'll hear me sing, my banjo ring, the voice of your old friend.
If you get brave, run to my grave and holler, "Are you dead?" "No!"
No tombstone can cover my bones. I'm dancing in the meadow.

One wise soul said that for me, dance is a form of meditation and that I should dance every single day.  It's been quite a summer and I've gotten nearly a daily dosage of dancing.  The concert posse and friends have danced at the foot of the stage ... on the stage ... and, yes, in the meadow.   {may it continue}