Starbelly Jam 2019 - Part 1

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I am writing this holed up in a dive hotel in southern Wyoming in the midst of a three week road trip with my doggie.  It is basically an agenda of simply being on the road to wherever, whenever.  The only thing on the agenda was to go to Colorado to see an old friend I haven't seen since July 9, 1995.  The date is easy to remember as it is the day of the final Grateful Dead show in Chicago.

Since I was going to be in the area, I got tickets to the final two shows of the Dead & Company tour that was finishing in Boulder, Colorado.  In quite often typical road trip fashion though, I have had some crazy break down stories on the mountain passes east of Vail.  They definitely put a huge fork in the road for the journey I have been on.  There is no doubt about that.

I missed the first of the two shows because of it all, but was able to get in for the final one last night.  It was an incredible concert, but that is a story all of its own.  What I will say about it is that while I was swimming through the height of bliss for that string of hours in that stadium, thoughts of seeing The Wild Turkeys at Starbelly Jam!

Dead & Company - Boulder, Colorado - July 6, 2019

Starbelly is a festival back home in Crawford Bay on the East Shore of Kootenay Lake, BC on July 19.  This is their 20th year!

Last night, the festival, and The Wild Turkeys, had both found their way into the stream of all my thoughts of what The Grateful Dead has meant to my life:  Everything it has given me, and especially all the people it has brought my way!  

(The vast, vast majority of people in my life are due to the trickling effect of that band.  It is doubtful I would even be living out in BC without it.)

It made me smile when the Turkeys came into mind while I was gruuuvin' in that stadium.  I love the Wild Turkeys!  I haven't seen them too many times, but that's mostly because I don't get out much.  It is a band of local guys who all share a passion for the band I love so much, The Grateful Dead.  They just have fun covering their tunes, and only play shows around our area.  

As far as I am concerned, The Wild Turkeys are quite synonymous with the Starbelly Jam festival as they have played there many times over the years, dating back to the first year the festival was held.  That was in July of 1999...the same year I had moved to the area.

I moved to the West Kootenay on May 1, 1999.  It is no secret that I live and breathe all things Grateful Dead related, so my impending collision with the Turkeys was inevitable, and the first time I saw them was only weeks after my arrival to the area.  They were playing at The Royal on Baker Street in Nelson.  It was the simple 'Steal Your Face' image on their poster that grabbed my attention, and drove me to going to their show, of which my mind had been to before it had even happened.

Timmy was the first one of the boys I met in the band.  That was when a bunch of us were all crammed into the little band room downstairs after the Fat Cats show at The Civic on Vernon Street in town.  (Renamed, "Finley's Bar & Grill" by great new owners since around 2003.)  He and I were sitting at the same tiny table, and were immersed in all the fun with everyone else.

**It turns out that some of the guys are tied heavily with the Fat Cats, which naturally extended a further branch towards them as The Fatties are really good friends of mine.

The Wild Turkeys - Some fantastic West Kootenay boys!

As for Starbelly Jam itself...

Phot0 by Louis Bockner - www.facebook.com/lbockner 

I have very vivid memories of Starbelly, but they are not from me being there as I have never been!

I lived with Christa in Queens Bay for the first three years I lived here:  July 99 to April 2002.  (Q.B. is five minutes from the ferry to the festival, but on the opposite side of Kootenay Lake.)

My tiny little 14 foot cabin on Christa's property in Queens Bay, BC

Back then, Christa had an ice cream truck, and she hit the festival circuit hard!  Her traveling partner was her daughter, Hazel, was only 7 months old then.  I'd always see them preparing for, or returning from, whatever festival.  

It could get quite comical looking out the window of my little cabin to see Christa up and down the ramp carrying all her stuff in and out of the truck because Hazel would be at her feet the whole time.  Mostly she just wanted to help her mama, but she was a baby, so it was like walking through a moving mine field for Christa.  

Her arriving home from festivals was one of my favourite ways to hang out with Christa.  I would come and play with Hazel, and kinda run some interference so Christa could get stuff done.  I'd just be hangin' out talking to both of them...mama and baby.  It was fantastic.  I love those two so, so much!  

Top:  Christa and Hazel during 1999/2000.  
Bottom:  Christa, Hazel and I skating on the pond at the Balfour Golf Course - December 31, 1999
(These are the only photos I have of the two of them.)

I had heard great things about Starbelly right from the beginning.  Each year I lived in Queens Bay, I house sat for Christa while the festival was on, so I did not attend.  Her stories of it, upon coming home from the first one, added to the whole picture of the West Kootenay region for me.

In the years since the beginning days of the festival, other things have also kept me away as well.  After I left Queens Bay, I moved deep in the bush, up the mountain, west of Nelson.  All told, it was about an hour and fifteen minutes away  (When factoring my gnarly driveway.), so it was no longer just a short pop down to the ferry kinda thing to get to.

​Even back then, I had many friends who had Starbelly marked on their calendar as an annual event they were not missing.  There was always great music, and lots of other things to do for everyone.  It was equally great for the individual, as well as families and their kids.  The tales coming out of that festival every year grew and grew.

Above three photos by Louis Bockner - www.facebook.com/lbockner 

​Aside from the housesitting for those who would be attending, my body's epic journey of pain was a big contributing factor on my missing out on Starbelly!  

My body first fell apart in 1993, but in June of 2002 stuff happened that I could never express into words...the worst it has ever been.  (I'm not getting into the depth of that here.)  I have never been the same since.

Despite all the craziness in my body, I dug into dragging my banged up self through triathlons.  I was hooked right away from the first race I did!  I didn't care how much it hurt to do them, I just found them liberating and invigorating.  (Just as with my body, my triathlon life is a massive story of its own for another time as well.

Fundraiser at Save-On-Foods with Tiyenna (She totally bailed me out to help me pull this off.)

I got so much from the triathlon world, that I wanted to start giving back to it somehow, so in 2007 I did my first ever fundraiser at Save-On-Foods.  I wanted to raise some bucks to buy a trophy to donate to our local triathlon.  (It was for the athlete who overcomes adversity to race.)  The date given to me by the grocery store was the Saturday of the weekend of Starbelly Jam.  I missed another one!

Even though they beat the living hell out of me, triathlon had taken over my life during my summers for some years, so festivals were not a thing on my radar.  There was also another massive life turn that came when I got beat down by an animal on June 30, 2009.  That set off a chain of events where I ended up losing about five and a half of the next six years of my life.  It also left me with more permanent changes within my body as with my 2002 breakdown.

It just seemed to be that something was always keeping me away from the festival, but the stories from those who went never ceased to keep rolling in!  

I have always been intrigued by Starbelly, and even with never having been, I have grown an attachment to it in my own way.  This will be their 20th anniversary of the event, so it seems like the perfect year for me to attend for my first time. 

(It was on hiatus for one summer a few years ago, and even never having been, it left me a bit sad to know it would not be happening.  I was delighted to hear it would be returning when it did.)  

Timmy showing me his new amplifier last month.

I went to Timmy's house a couple weeks before I left on this road trip down to Colorado (and the ensuing wandering).  He's such a great guy.  He was showing me his new amplifier he had just gotten, and was super psyched on.  He invited me to come to their jam sessions leading up to the festival, but unfortunately I'm unable to attend because of my road trip in the States.  (There could be a likelihood that I roll into the festival straight from the USA.)

This road trip I am on has seemed to add to the nature of attending Starbelly Jam to see the Wild Turkeys.  I have been some gorgeous places on my trip, but back home in the West Kootenay is really a special place!  It is so damned beautiful and full of so many incredible people...and it's home!  

When I was riding that train of bliss in the Dead & Company show last night, and having the image float into my mind of being at Starbelly watching the Turkeys play gave me a nice feeling of my home...one of rippling warmth.  It made me smile more, and painted more happiness into being there gruuuvin' hard in Boulder last night!

The Wild Turkeys at Starbelly Jam is in eleven days, and I can't wait!

Starbelly Jam Society
Box 15 Crawford Bay, BC
V0B 1E0
starbellyjam.org/
info@starbellyjam.org​