I drove roughly 9 hours in a 36 hour span and would do it all over again today if I could make a carbon copy of the experiences we had at Yellowstock with Gustafer Yellowgold, Rachel Loshak and the Okee Dokee Brothers on Saturday, and then with the Dirty Sock Funtime Band at Sesame Place on Sunday.
‘Twas a crisp, picture perfect Fall weekend with new friends, a hotel swimming pool, great music, Elmo, Zoe and the Count. Even Oscar the Grouch seemed cheerier than usual.
At the first ever Yellowstock, we were treated to hearing Rachel Loshak perform – our first time – and a pair of fresh out of the river Okee Dokee Brothers songs from the album they are recording with Dean Jones right now. News flash: these guys are superb and those new songs about companionship are about as tender and beautiful as any I’ve heard this year, with choruses that leave me weak in the knees. Good thing I was seated or I might have gone all ‘timber!’ on a gaggle of small children.
And speaking of great live music, The Dirty Sock Funtime Band proved once again to be one of the finest in-concert kindie acts around; non-stop energy and humor from the NYC-based sextet. The band debuted a new song at Sesame Place, the tropical ditty “The Garbage Bug”. The tune is set to be included on their new album “The Dirty Socks Come Clean” due in early-2012.
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Our time at Yellowstock continued to build on the most outgoing, friendship-making year of my life. We’re admittedly on the anti-social side of the social butterfly spectrum, but amazingly enough my girls have never meet, played with, and enjoyed more time together with more children not related to them then they have this year. I feel like I’m finally fulfilling some parental duty that I’ve long since ignored, the one that mandates raising children that can interact with other children without cowering in fear behind my leg. They get that awkward shyness from me, and their mum ain’t exactly an award winning conversationalist either. 2011, however, has been a banner year for coming out of shells and I’m going to go ahead and take most of the credit for this. Ya see, I have been making a real effort to become less shell-protected myself and as a result I am putting us all in prime mingling positions. Into the fire we go! And instead of getting roasted, we have found new friends to make s’mores with.
Scenes from out Mellow Yellow Okee Dokee Weekend Away With Dirty Socks:
*OWTK received complimentary tickets to Sesame Place. The opinions expressed above are unbiased and honest.