Sam Bush “Bringing In The Georgia Mail“

Five behind-the-scenes scenes at Newport Folk.

I thought it would be fun to take a peek back at the weekend, and let you in on a few stories from mvyradio’s On The Road adventures in Newport.

I’m sure you have some kind of vision of what we do when we go to these festivals. You can pictures staff wearing headphones, huddled over soundboards and laptops. You might have come to a festival, and met staffers at an mvyradio table or tent.

But there are lots of little jobs that we have, that you may never have conceived.

Like the Staff Stalker.

If you’ve ever been a part of an mvy auction, you might have bid on an autographed cd or poster or something. How did it get autographed?

Well, when we’re in a place like Newport Folk, where there are dozens of bands, and we’re backstage, we assign a staff member to the Staff Stalker job, hand them a sharpie, and tell them to get as many autographs as possible. So you might have a cd that says "To mvyradio, thanks for everything, Bob Weir," or something.

Unfortunately, due to cutbacks, we weren’t able to bring a Staff Stalker this year. Curse this economy!

In fact, we were lean and mean with our on-site staff. We combined a few jobs, so several of us, were doing several things at once. And somehow, the sharpie ended up in my hands at one point.

Gary, our marketing man, had found this beautiful book of photographs, featuring amazing black and white portraits of John Prine and Doc Watson and Steve Earle and more. Including Sam Bush.

And I was headed over to the Sam Bush stage, so I was assigned the stalking.

But, multiple job man that I am, I had another direction to run in, so I handed the job off to Julie, who was in charge of our t-shirt tent.

But, Julie, multiple job woman that she is, had another direction to run, too. So she handed the book off to Craig.

Craig wasn’t even working for mvy. He’s was on the air with us, years ago, was at the festival as a civilian, and I thought it was okay to ask him to help.

Unfortunately, all this chaos leads to some bad communication.

Craig didn’t understand that the book was for mvyradio. He thought the book was for Julie.

So during the next mvyradio auction, be on the lookout for a nice, signed picture of Sam Bush that says, “To Julie, Thanks Sister, Love Sam.”

Hear Sam Bush's set recorded at Newport Folk 2010. It's also available for free download in the mvyradio archives.