pert near

I usually spend every other Friday driving my part of the circus half way to Vernal. This weekend proved different, though. The girls' grandma was also headed out to Vernal so she picked them up from my house at 2:30 and set out with them. 

The Man and I decided that called for an impromptu date night.  It's not very often that we have a kidless Friday where I'm not spending most of the evening on the road.

After asking my sister, McKell, what she was up to I got this text:
"Heya Sis!!! Tonight we are going to the Hog Wallow to hear a really fun blue grassy rock 'n roll jug band called Waiting on Trial.  Wanna come????? Please????"

She had me at "Hog Wallow" and "jug band."  Seriously... how could we not?

The Hog Wallow turned out to be one of those "hole in the wall" types of places... except it had so much character.  I would totally be okay going there for dinner and sitting on the secluded patio they had.  It even had a waterfall.

West and I had gone out to eat before hand, but I kind of wished we'd waited.  They had some pretty appetizing smells wafting through the place.

Sister Kel and her man, Scott

While we waited for the bands to set up we sat at a table that had a checkerboard etched into it.  West and I headed out to the car and dug through all  the change hiding spots until we had enough coins to play a copper vs. silver checkers game.

I laughed until I cried.  Who knew that playing checkers with The Man could be so fun?
And then the opening band, Puddle Mountain Ramblers, started.  They're a local act and I fell in love with them at the first song.  They had so much energy and I couldn't keep myself from bouncing with the beat.  The music just made me so happy.

I did feel misled that there weren't any jugs being played though.

And also, I felt like getting up and dancing like George Clooney in O Brother.
(this clip is really long, but the dance is at the first so you don't have to watch it all :).



McKell dared me to get up and do it... 
I didn't, no matter how much their music made me want to.  Don't worry, I kept it cool.
 

Puddle Mountain Ramblers

This guy resembled James Spader in my mind's eye.

And he pretty much had the coolest shirt ever.

Except no one else understood why I thought it was so cool.

A guy in a blue grass band wearing a shirt that says "pert near," oh the irony! I loved it!
West said, "what's 'pert near'?"
McKell and Scott said, "what's 'pert near'?"
When I asked the guy for a picture because he had the coolest shirt ever he said, "you know the band?"
I said, "they're a band?  I only know the phrase."
He said, "I don't know the phrase."

Maybe I spent a little too much time out in the country...

Haven't y'all ever heard this phrase???
"Are you done yet?"
"Pert near."

West said, "it sounds like a lazy way of saying 'pretty near'."
It is! That's it exactly!

West called me a hick. 
I'm not a hick.  I've just done my time in the country ( a small little bit about that here).

Here's Pert' Near Sandstone.  The band.  Not the phrase.



And the band McKell and Scott had wanted to see, Waiting on Trial.
They're from Colorado.

I found it interesting that the guy here on the left looked like he belonged in a rock band over a bluegrass band.  And the guy on the bass? Total skater.  It's interesting, isn't it?  How people break out of molds?  I love it.

I'm looking at this post and feeling how excited I am over bluegrass. 
I suppose I should ask, am I a hick?
Pert near.  As much as a city girl can be.
Bluegrass players aren't the only ones who get to break out of molds.