Beerfest and Bluegrass

Casey Henry

The Dixie Bee-Liners had quite the trip last weekend. We flew out to a resort near Lake Tahoe to play at an event called Beerfest and Bluegrass. Flew out on Friday, played one set on Saturday, flew home on Sunday. It would have been cool to be able to go see the lake, perhaps, or maybe even Susanville, Calif., (the town our new CD is named after), which was only about an hour away, but the schedule was so tight all we had time to see was the road in between the airport and the gig.

Of the three bands, we were the headliners so we played last—from 6:00-7:30—staring straight into the setting sun the entire time. It must have been painful to watch me squint (my sunglasses were safely at home in Nashville) because one guy (the banjo player from Mud Thump, who opened the show) offered me his straw hat. I declined the nice offer because it would have caused my hair to become sweatily plastered to my head. Then the bass player from the same band offered his sunglasses (visible in this picture on their homepage). Those I accepted and they made my life much more comfortable.

The crowd had been sampling the wares of the thirty or so participating breweries for four hours by the time we hit the stage, so there was much raucous dancing. The stage faced an outdoor ice skating rink (not filled with ice at this time of year, obviously), which made a great dance floor. They gave us two genuine encores and we ended up playing nearly two hours straight.

Northstar Restort treated us really well, putting us up in our own condos and shuttling us back and forth from the airport. They even rented an instrument for our bass player Sav to use so we wouldn’t have to worry about flying with one.

The flight home held one more little adventure. The Southwest fight attendants couldn’t help but notice we were a band as we all came tromping on board with our instruments. One of them asked if we’d play a tune on the plane! I declined, but Brandi, Buddy, and Rachel were up for it. They gathered in the rear galley of the plane and played, “Airmail Special on the Fly” (what else?!). I could barely hear them from where I was sitting, but I got this picture. When they were done the attandant came over the intercom and said, “That was the Dixie Bee-Liners. You can get their new CD Susanville in baggage claim!” That got a laugh.

Buddy and Brandi (barely visible behind the flight attendant, who is holding the intercom mic in front of them).

And, in case you were wondering, my favorites out of the beers I sampled were the ones from Eel River Brewery in Fortuna, Calif. They make organic beer and I tasted their IPA and their Blonde Ale. Two thumbs up!