I slept in this morning again.  I got up about 8:30 and started preparing for the day. Rich continued to sleep on though.  Finally, he opened his eyes and started moving around.  Time for a shower and then off to breakfast.  That’s two days in a row that we’ve eaten breakfast late.

We headed down to the coffee shop in the Carew Towers.  We noticed this yesterday as we wondered around.  It’s a 50s type coffee shop where you can sit at the counter.  We take a table in the busy room and get coffee right away.  That’s a good thing.  We order and get our breakfast.  I love being in the southern side of the U.S.  I can have grits with breakfast. 

The room is filled with all types of people.  However, there is a large number from a family staying at the hotel for a wedding.  We’ve run into different members throughout the hotel.  They gathered on Friday and had several events.  A couple of girls in the elevator were exhausted by Saturday morning.  I mention them because I hear them talking all around me about different aspect of the wedding.  One set of the family are on their way out of the door.  The two year old girl is telling everyone in the place good-bye as she is lead out.

We then head out to look for the food court that has a Gold Star Chili in it.  That’s where we’ll do lunch today.  I noticed a souvenir shop and just have to buy a Pigs Fly sweatshirt. Two reasons.  It’s a good motto and I need something warmer for tonight.  Pink was a good color for me, too.  We get some more explanations of the city from the guy working the shop.  Everyone is so friendly, which is another Southern trait.

We decided to check out the Observation Deck at the top of the Carew Towers, which connects to the hotel.  We rode up to the 45^th floor and transferred over to the smallest elevator I ever saw.  It was more like a large phone booth.  Rich and I fit comfortably, but that’s about all that could fit in it.  This took us up a couple of more floors.  From here, you walk up a couple of more floors.  After paying the $2.00 admission, we stepped out onto the roof.  From here, you can see all around the city.  We walked all four sides.  Jon, Rich’s brother, called while we were up there.  Kind of hard to say we can’t help you find the liquor store back home in Schaumburg because we are on the 50^th floor in Cincy!

We decide to go to the Freedom Underground Railroad Museum today.  This is located right at the bottom of Vine Street, which is about 4 blocks away.  The morning is a little cool, but the sun is out.  We arrive at the back of the building and it takes a little while to find the front door.  After paying the fee, we walk back to get our audio devices from the Tour desk.  We found these very helpful in other museum and hoped it would help here. 

We make it up to the first floor.  There is a very large group of people (maybe 30 or so) wearing the same exact t-shirt.  They are from a family reunion from what the shirt says.  Pretty soon I notice there are other groups as well.  These are all black families taking a tour of the museum.  I feel a little out of place. 

Rich and I start off at the same pace and very quickly end up going different ways.  The history starts in the 1500s and runs to the modern day.  In several places, a tour overwhelms me and I can’t see the displays so I have to move on.  We came in today to see the “Hymns, Blues, and Rock: Music of Change” exhibit.  It was small, but had some good displays tracing music from days on the farms and plantations to modern R&B and gospel today.  At the end, there was a room where the kids could play different instruments and create their own music.  There were a few adults in there as well and not with kids plunking around and banging on drums.  I still think the Rock and Soul Museum in Memphis did the best job I’ve see with the displays and music selections that you could listen to as you read through the exhibit.  I highly recommend that you see this one, which was done by the Smithsonian.

We finished the museum and headed back up Vine to lunch.  We got into the mall and found the Gold Star Chili.  I wondered around the food court, but didn’t see anything better.  So I settle for chili dogs.  They were almost miniature dogs and so cute.  Gold Star seems more Tex Mex than Skyline.  I guess Skyline is what I’m used to though.  It’s what we always ate when we came to Cincy.

After lunch, we go out to the street again to try and find the Visitor’s Center in Fountain Square.  It appears that some sort of music festival was winding down.  Probably the lunchtime concert in the square.  We walk around and never find the Center.  Darn.  It’s after Rich’s afternoon coffee time, so we head into the Westin Hotel and to the coffee shop there.  We decide to take the skywalk back across the street to the Hilton.  Now we can say we were on the skywalk system.  The skywalk  is a series of glass walkways throughout the downtown area that take you from building to building without going down to the street.  Great for a cold and snowy day.

It’s 3:00 by this time.  Only a couple of more hours until the Blues Fest starts again for the night.  We go back to the hotel to hang out.  Every time I walk into the hotel, I see something different in the décor.  It’s amazing.  The main hall into the towers built with the hotel has this amazing silver leaf ceiling.

Rich takes a nap and I finish Day 2 of the blog.  By 4:30, we are packed down and hitting the sidewalk for the trek down to the park.  It’s pretty nice out.  We head in through the Will Call entrance again, even though we have our tickets.  There is no one in line and no performers waiting to check in either.  We make our way to main stage and set up base camp.  We head out for beer and water.

The first act is the Blues in School group.  The area school system has a program where they teach the kids to play the blues.  There is a big concern that young people aren’t learning the blues and there won’t be anyone to carry on this tradition.  The guys start off playing the Star Spangle Banner a la Jimi Hendrix.  Bet you didn’t realize Jimi was really playing the blues with a very electric sound.  They break into “Red House.”  They do a great job.  A couple of girls join them for a song that not that strong on the vocals.  Then they do Adele’s “Rolling the Deep.”  The lead breaks out in full voice and does an excellent job.  Too bad she doesn’t use that voice for the blues songs!

Then the Noah Wotherspoon Band takes the stage.  Noah is this year’s group finalist from Cincinnati to the International Blues Competition in Memphis.  If he doesn’t win it, that band is very, very, very good.  He and his band are excellent and have such style.  After the set, Rich headed out for beer and came back with a CD from Noah with a signature.  Rich said Noah took the time to talk to him also.  Now I have an early version of Noah’s work.  Thanks, Rich.  Another up close and personal moment.

Next up was Southern Hospitality.  This is a fairly new group created by some veteran bluesmen.  Damon Fowler, Victor Wainwright, and JP Soars have put together this group to play a set of blues fests.  They do a song from each of them and some standards.  I was really impressed.  I might have to add each of them to our collection.  Rich did pick one and bought Victor’s CD and got it signed.  He had a little conversation with Victor also. Can you say, “Up close and personal?”

Now I chose to stay on instead of leaving today for tonight’s fare to hear Trampled Under Foot.  I had heard a couple of songs on Bluesville (XM).  The sound was really great.  I didn’t know anything about them, except they must like Led Zeppelin.  I had gone to the concession area and came back to find a single guy on stage playing the guitar and the drums at the same time.  He was doing a great job, but where was Trampled Under Foot?  After the song stops, he climbs down to the stage and another guy and a girl come out.  The girl is wearing a tiny hot pink dress.  That got some attention from the guys in the audience.  Turns out that Nick and Danielle are left handed guitar players!  They start out and you get blown away by the sound of Danielle’s beautiful voice.  Nick is an award winning guitar player.  Kris can bang the drums better than most I’ve heard.  Pretty soon, there is a large circle of people filing in from everywhere. 

At the end of the set, the emcee asks for an encore and they come out and play Led Zeppelin’s “Trampled Underfoot!”  Danielle does Plant better than Plant!  If you ever get a chance to listen to this band, do it!  They are well worth any effort.

NOTE:  I looked up their website when I got home.  They are also a Zeppelin tribute band.  No wonder their encore was so cool!

Then we hear Duke Robillard and his band.  It was a nice and easy way to end the evening.  Duke is a master guitarist and he does a great job with just about everything he plays.  But by this time, I’m tired and it’s almost midnight.

So the walk back to the hotel was hard.  We were tired and just wanted to fall down.  It was another great day in the Bluesville neighborhood though.  One of the best experiences I have had in the music world in a long time.  We were laying bed trying to go to sleep, but just couldn’t quit talking about it.

Our other up close and personal things for today were:

• A guy wearing the Stage Crew t-shirt came and sat down right next to Rich during the Southern Hospitality set.  We wondered about it, but didn’t get too bothered.  He and Rich talked a little during the set.  At the end, he said he had to go back to work.  But before he left, he handed Rich a free drink coupon to get whatever he wanted.  We didn’t even bother to ask his name!
• Most of the acts brought CDs and merchandise.  They even came up to the merchandise tent to sign CDs for people.  I was impressed that you could see someone and then go talk to them.  Now we have some CDs and autographs to go with them as well as the stories of talking to them.
• Noah actually held a conversation with Rich when he got the CD for me.  Rich was pretty impressed that Noah would bother to talk to him!
• I had to have a Trampled Under Foot CD.  So I went up to purchase one and then got in line for their signatures.  The line filled in rather quickly.  I was about 5 or 6 back from the front.  All kinds of people were trying to cut.  No way.  I got to the front and talk to Nick first.  Just had to mention that he was a lefty.  We did a secret lefty handshake.  Danielle knew the handshake also.  Just had to tell her how wonderful her voice was.  Kris was last, but not least.  His drum solo was excellent.
• The guy on line in front of me was from Kansas City, the hometown for Trampled Under Foot.  He had followed the group up to watch them.  The band recognized him and talked to him like they knew him.  He waved as he finished up his quest for another set of signatures and I started down the line for mine.
• By the time Duke finished his set, most everyone had left the park.  As we were waiting to get a signature, Noah came up and bought a CD to get autographed.  He’s like regular people too, trying to talk to the Blues greats.

Great time had by all in Cincy.  We’ll be back again.