Songs & Strings Tour Journal
Autumn 2002, West Coast
Michael DeLalla & Andrew McKnight
October 27, 2002: Nevada Day
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Songs & Strings Tour JournalAutumn 2002, West Coast
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 The Brewery Arts Center and its exquisite concert hall at St. Teresa's chapel, Carson City NV
Michael guarded by one of the angel frescos
Andrew in a deeply spiritual musical moment during "For This Time" |
Sunday morning in Napa brought the brilliant blue California sky just in time for us to make our first-ever cross-Sierra pilgrimage into Nevada. We traveled in the company of an old familiar friend, the cross-country US Route 50 that runs very close to each of our front doors back in Virginia. The route through the Sierra Nevadas includes many miles winding through the spectacular valleys of the American River's Middle Fork. As we have walked along the banks of the American at other times and places this too added a bit of welcome familiarity in this strange and glorious alpine region. The smells and sights of the high Sierra in autumn are certainly stunning. The signs warning motorists to pull off to put on tire chains before climbing any higher were thankfully a couple of weeks premature for our trip! Crossing the divide at Echo Summit (7300 feet elevation) suddenly rewarded me with my first view of the sparkling blue jewel called Lake Tahoe. The next hour or so brought us down to and around the lake and through some more lovely mountain scenery. The character of the mountain slopes definitely changed as we headed eastward into ever-drier country. Our journey to Nevada was to be part of Carson City's Nevada Day Arts and Heritage Festival celebrating Nevada's admission to the U.S. in 1864. The annual parade in Carson City on Nevada Day has long been one of the cultural highlights here in Nevada's capital city. Locals think that since the state legislature changed the holiday from its traditional date (Oct. 31) to a more convenient neighboring 3-day weekend has encouraged many Nevadans to leave for the weekend and leave the celebrating to others. The concept of celebrating the date of a state's admission to the U.S. is a little different to those of us living in Virginia. Would we celebrate joining the U.S. the first or the second time? It seems like a great holiday to Nevadans though, so I hope they go back to celebrating all together on the date that matters. Carson City sure turned out to be a different experience! There are those who say that Nevada is a country all its own. We were hosted in an exquisite mansion built in the 1870s for the state's governor by the biggest timber baron in the region, who made his fortune selling timber to the mining companies to build the shafts to extract the mighty Comstock lode of silver. The Bliss Mansion sits across the street from the current governor's mansion and right down the street from the downtown casinos. Our hosts Ron and Joyce shared some great local stories with us in this palatial home, now an active Bed and Breakfast. Ron is a fine guitar player himself and a teacher of American history, so I suspect we could have sat around a couple of days and hardly scratched the surface of doubtless many great conversations. Our evening was capped by our concert at St. Teresa's chapel, now part of the Brewery Arts Center. I have rarely performed in such an exquisite setting. The frescoes on the walls and ceiling cast divine magic over the evening, and may have inspired both of us to be performing near the top of our abilities. Fabulous sound engineering and room acoustics put the silver lining on the evening, as well as being flatly spoiled rotten everywhere we went. We'll come back to earth when we resume our journey through arid eastern California tomorrow, but it sure was nice to be so well cared for, and I am again renewed, and pretty charged up to head out to redwood country on the "Lost" North Coast of California. Andrew |
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