Another in the can

Jan 15, 2018 | Welcome Column

The third Monday of the month is normally Bert Daniel’s day to write Welcome to our web site visitors, but he requested and was granted the day off. Bert’s a physician and a very busy guy. While I’m no doc, and, to be honest, not especially busy, I really am today given my four day absence do to this year’s GREAT 48 Jam in Bakersfield.  Normally I’d grab an already published Welcome (we’ve got thousands) and post it here, but I really do need to say a few things about the 48.

Once again we had a great time down in Bakersfield. The Marriott was packed, the Friday night concert band, Cardinal Tradition was stirring, and the jamming was epic. While we have no firm numbers yet, I had the sense that for the first time since we started 10 years ago, we may have seen the numbers dip just a bit. And I believe I know the reason why. Through more of a glitch than anything else, the hotel opened only one new block of rooms and the opened no more. This, I learned during the months leading up to the event, discourage some people from attending; folks typically like to be put up in the epicenter of the activity, and because of a contractual omission, we just didn’t have an ample supply of rooms this year. This problem will be corrected in 2019. But that was the closest thing we had to a problem.

I won’t go into all the glorious details that invariably spring from a state-wide bluegrass get together in our country’s’ largest state, what with my list of to-do’s for this third Monday, but I do want to thank, with the most sincere gratitude, our GREAT 48 Manager, Jack Pierce. Cool, calm and collected; that’s what’s needed for any large, complicated event. Thanks, Jack.

Read about: