The Hog Roast Meet

We have come back to the Soggy Bottom Bluegrass Club to take part in their annual Hog Roast. We now seem to be like old timers. We waited with anticipation for Paula, Connie and Jim and Brenda and Dave to arrive. When they did we were again given a heartwarming welcome. It was as though we had never been away. Connie again wanted to submerge us in an All American Cookout.
This is a festive weekend, celebrating nothing in particular. This is now a traditional event, having been done for the last 24 years. It is also Soggy Bottoms most popular event. The central event is the roasting of a pig. However all through the weekend there is a lot of talkin’, pickin’ and drinkin’. I set out with the guitar on Friday morning. Sat outside a trailer with a man called Russ and Frank, who was from he trailer next to us. They both play dobro (Slide guitar). We picked for a few minutes then moved up to a covered area (The Pavilion). We played for a bit and were joined by a banjo player. Then a bass player joined us. Followed by Michelle, a banjo player. Soon there were 2 mandolins, another guitar and another dobro player. We played a whole range of tunes and songs, most of them simple three chord progressions, but with a lot of lead breaks in there as well. It was great fun. I backed out after about 2 hours to get lunch. Although there is no central concert there is some amazing playing that goes on around peoples campfires. I saw one group, it was a scratch band, but they were really good. They stood in a tight horseshoe shape, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, bass, lead guitar and played music which varied from bluegrass through swing to jazz. In the middle was a chair. People took turns to sit in the chair and just listen to this band in surround sound. About 12.30 on the Saturday night, while wandering around I came across a small group of players, three guitars, banjo and bass. They were just playing modern jazz, sounded weird, but incredible. About 50 yards from them was an open session made up of girls (of all ages). Just across the little creek was a campfire with predominantly young people. Their idea of a campfire was to bring a tree stump (about 18inches wide by 3ft high) in on the back of a pickup and burn it (they were sort of in charge of roasting the pig). They did nothing but shout laugh ‘whoop’ and drink homemade ‘shots’ and eat ‘puddings’. Shots are m ore or less neat alcohol + a flavour. Puddings are made up. The recipe varies but is usually miracle whip (like Angel Delight), cream and some sort of alcohol. The mix is then dispensed into little plastic pots similar to the milk cartons you get in café’s these days. These are then carried round from campfire to campfire then shared, or used as forfeits. However they were very friendly and harmless (mostly).