My Milaca Magic Moment!

MY Magic Moment in Milaca!

By Tom Peschges

Spent the weekend in Milaca MN for RecFest.   A wonderful little Bluegrass Festival in a charming little town put on by some really nice people.  Great line up of bands.  It was so fun sharing the stage with our friends  Blue Groove and the Tony Rook Band as well as Sarah Mae and the Birkland Boys and Porcupine Creek.    I have been to quite a few Bluegrass Festivals now, both as a performer and as an attendee. There is almost always a magic moment somewhere in the course of a weekend at one of these things and you never know when or where it will show up. It might be on stage, or it might be in a late night jam with some really amazing musicians. My Milaca magic moment came in an evening jam with a group of folks in a jam tent. There were probably 20 or so people gathered around maybe 10 musicians. Mostly they were older than me ( that always makes me feel good) They were playing simple 3 and 4 chord bluegrass standards.   Shortly after I arrived, one lady was starting to leave and I stopped her…. I just had to know her story. 

I asked her what her name was, and she replied “Mary Anderson” and she was the youngest of 9 children. With further prompting, discovered that she was 86 years old and had been playing guitar since she was a teenager. “The guitar is like a part of me… I could never give it up” she said. Then asked her if we could sing a song together.    What happened next I will carry with me for a very long time.    Check it out: