My wife and I typically don't go out for entertainment on weekends since everything costs so much nowadays and most all venues are some distance away from where we live. But a new venue called the "Mockingbird Opry" had its first show last night (sort of a test run to see what attendance might be) in a small town just 15 miles or so south of us. One of the featured acts was a bluegrass group called the "Amite River Boys."

Damn good show!

I had a secondary reason for wanting to go since one of the members of the group was a classmate of mine all the way through school back at home and someone I hadn't seen since our graduation in 1964. Managed to rekindle an old acquaintance with him and ended up spending most of the intermission between shows catching up on the last 42 years.

The 'boys' got an encore call and a standing ovation when they finished. It's hard to believe that this was only their second public performance (according to my friend). It's obvious that, while they may not have been performing as a group very long, each of them has been playing for quite some time. I knew my friend had played guitar (for which he has a natural talent) since he was a youngster (he said since he was 11 or 12 because I asked). I think some of the others have been playing for a similar time.

The group members showed a variety of ages. One fellow was at least 70, my friend is about 60 and the rest were probably in their late 20s to mid-30s. Good to see music bridging some generation gaps like this.

Hope the attendance was good enough to convince the promoters to make this a regular event.