April, 2008:

It was Friday night of Wanee Fest 2008 when Gov’t Mule was into its second set back at the main Peach Stage. Though I’d been dancing my ass off with the Mule and cherishing every second of this experience, I knew but one thing: I cannot miss Junior Brown.

Truth be told, Junior was one my primary reasons for shelling out $185 (after fees and taxes) for a 3-day ticket to this thing. I mean, yes I was dying to see Ratdog and yes I was dying to see moe. play again, but since starting my own guitar journey, Junior was the can’t-miss.

Apparently this was also the case for the flock of bluesmen who met me at the Mushroom Stage at 12:15 in hopes that even though the Mule was running its second set late (all the acts were running behind), we’d get a chance to be in FRONT for the Junior Brown set. I was pleased and relieved to know that my decision making process to leave a Gov’t Mule set in exchange for Junior Brown was sound, judging from the caliber of guitarists standing around me.

One of them was Tony Tyler, who I mentioned in a previous post. A wild frock of curly blonde hair and a goatee frame, I noticed him first as he approached the stage area. With him were a handful of other guitarists whom I’d seen the previous evening at the campground jam. More on the campground jam in a later post. Gladly, they’d been also driven to Junior’s set.

I struck up conversation first with their drummer, a young blonde kid that looked just like Derek Trucks. He gets that a lot, he said. Then, an older fella wearing a ‘Got Duane’ t-shirt with a mustache, the one playing the flametop Les Paul the night before. I told him I had recently picked up the guitar, and how I wasn’t the same since. He was very friendly and engaging — smart guy, I could tell right away, wish I’d gotten his name — and he even gave me some advice, loosely paraphrased here:

The way I get my tone is to crank the mids up as high as they can go, and then start bumping up the trebs and the bass until you get it right. I prefer my [tube] overdrive to be just just close to the breakup point but not distorted.

Then, conversation struck up with a second of the dudes from the night before. He told me that “all of these guys, we’re truly close friends,” and that they were from a smaller town in Georgia, I forgot the name. He motioned to the mustache fella, the blonde kid (Tony), and to a bunch of other guys, who I ended up chatting brienfly with about music, guitars, and Junior Brown.

I was very glad to be talking to these guys. It was surreal, as the night before I was in total awe of their guitar chops at the campsite jam, and now, here I was, getting to talk to them and jaw around about gear and tone and the festival, influences…. shit, I was in newbie guitarist heaven. It probably showed.

Below is one of the two short videos I caught of Junior Brown and Warren Haynes jammin’, tradin’ licks and havin’ fun. I believe they played Dust My Broom, and I know they ended with Johnny B. Goode, at close to 3am.