BARRY COURTER: Lisa, do you have big Halloween plans for tomorrow night? I know things are pretty over-the-top at your house year-round what with the trapeze in the living room and all.
LISA DENTON: It's a circus every weekend, so Halloween won't be that much different. I'm still vacuuming up confetti and sequins from last year. But I have decided to nix another human cannonball trick. Let's just say when a human cannonball goes awry, it really goes awry. But the new skylight is swell.
BARRY: I'm sort of conflicted about Halloween. I like it, but I don't dress up or do the party thing. When it comes to costumes, I'm a PJs 24/7 kind of guy.
I do enjoy a good show, however, and the city's newest music venue, Songbirds Guitar Museum, continues to book amazing acts. Victor Wooten is there on Friday. Victor is an amazing bass player known for his work with Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, but he does a lot of solo work as well. He also does a lot of workshops and seminars and gave one of the coolest commencement speeches ever last year at the University of Vermont Rubenstein School (https://youtu.be/o_3u41KI57E). He told me he'd never given a speech while playing the bass before but he had a ball doing it.
LISA: I understand what he means. I've been at this job so long, I need my fingers to think. When people ask me how to word something, I automatically start wiggling my fingers like I'm at my computer keyboard. It's weird. At least with a computer, I don't have to do the carriage return motion anymore, like with a typewriter. That was even weirder.
BARRY: That was weird when you did like. Like a tic. I bet you turn the car radio down to read the road map or directions, too. Actually, I think everyone does that. Still weird, though.
Anyway, last week we mentioned that our friend Cindy Pinion had created a new bluegrass festival. Well, it's called the Fall Forever Bluegrass Festival and it takes place this weekend at Mountain Cove Farm in Chickamauga, Ga. It's actually Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and she's lined up some pretty good pickers and singers.
Set to play are Lonesome River Band, David Parmley and Cardinal Tradition, The Kody Norris Show, Alan Bibey and Grasstowne, The Dismembered Tennesseans, The Darrell Webb Band and many other local and regional bands. It's a beautiful location, so it should be a blast.
LISA: There are bluegrass musicians who aren't as devoted to bluegrass as Cindy is. I'm sure this new festival will be as big a hit as the Boxcar Pinion Memorial Bluegrass Festival she does each spring in memory of her daddy.
And I know it's obscene to talk about such things in October, but the Santa Arrival Parade is Saturday at Hamilton Place. Like it or not, 'tis the season.
Get event details every Thursday in Chattanooga Now or online anytime at www.ChattanoogaNow.com.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354. Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.