Blues and Brews

Wow, I cannot believe how delayed the posting about my little trip to Mammoth is. It was about a month ago now. Let me just say this to any California readers: if you have not been to the blues and brews festival in Mammoth, you must go! Tickets actually sold out this year, and I am sure they will sell out next year as well. We had an incredible time, though the weekend started off somewhat slow.

We started out being stuck on the 395 for half an hour due to road construction. Thank god I had Twilight!! As soon as we started edging our way up into the mountains though, all worries ceased to disappear.

Mammoth definitely wasn't what I expected. I guess I was thinking it was more of a big ski city, like Aspen. Regardless though, I actually fell in love with the city more because of how quaint it was. The first night we went out we discovered how much the elevation affects drinking. I was tipsy after drinking half a beer. It was definitely an odd night as my husband and I drank Irish car bombs with some guys who had been at the festival the year before. I held my own, while the men all got drunk. It was quite amusing actually.




The next morning, we prepared to head out to the festival. It started at eleven, but we knew we should definitely eat something of a hearty lunch before making the trek down to where the festival was. I was glad that I had bought tickets ahead of time. As we walked down to a quaint wine and cheese spot, we overheard locals talking about how the festival was sold out and people were already trying to buy tickets off of others.


And then...it was just chaos. Over seventy different breweries were there, and we had a blast tasting. I had a watermelon beer which I fell in love with along with a pomegranate ale that would knock the socks off of anyone's taste buds.



And then came the act that we had come to the festival for: Kenny Wayne Shepherd. Kenny is, by far, one of the best guitarists out there right now, and if you have never seen him play you're missing out. He started out on the scene when he was sixteen, and he was touted as the next Stevie Ray Vaughan. While he still plays a few SRV and Jimi Hendrix covers sometimes, he definitely holds his own. And his lead singer, Noah Hunt, has the most comforting, soothing voice. It's deep and silky smooth and always makes me swoon. The weirdest thing was that as they took the stage, I actually recognized the bass player, Scott, who had played in a band with my ex. It definitely tripped me out. And JJ Johnson, a drummer that people like John Mayer covet, attempted to throw ...count them...THREE drumsticks to me. The last one I wouldn't let my husband hop over the barricade for, and just as the security guard reached it some old fart snatched it out of his hands and took off with it. I was SO pissed!!!





Aside from that little incident, the trip was incredible. Seriously, with views like these, how could you not relax?