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Tommy Alverson Family Gathering | |
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Tommy Alverson's 10th Annual Family Gathering | ||||||||||||||
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WOW! Last year, Tommy promised that #10 was going to be special, and he was right. Tommy Alverson's 10th Annual Family Gathering at Bosque Bottoms may have been the best outdoor Texas music festival we have attended. Three days of outstanding music, good camping, and a fun and lively crowd. The event was held in a big field with two stages a half mile south of Meridian. The Camping One of the things that makes this a fun event is that you're able to camp in the same field as the concert. There are plenty of campsites available - the first few rows of campsites are set back about 100 yards from the stage and are reserved for tents - no generators and no water or electricity. The rest of the huge field where the stages are set is open for RVs, tents, or anything else suitable for spending some time trying to get some shuteye. Walking the campground you'll see all types of camping gear from huge new 40' RVs to cots with a sleeping bag. There is nothing better than listening to some great music and then walking back to your campsite. In fact, the sites are so close that some people stay at their campsite and enjoy the music from there.
There are a few water and electric sites along the side of the field and in another area close by. The water and electric sites were all reserved when Tommy had a Birthday Bash Party and Campsite Selection Party earlier in the year. Once you get a water and electric site it is yours for the following years. Occasionally someone will relinquish their site, so make sure you call early when it's time to reserve the sites for next years event if you want water and electic. One of the great things about this event is that you can bring your own drinks, chairs, and anything else you need (except glass bottles and dogs) to have a good time. As you can see from the pictures, on the outer limits of where the stages were, you could set up a canopy and chairs to provide some shade from the sun. One canopy group even set up a small wading pool!
There are a few food vendors to keep you fat and happy and some vendors selling ice and other goods. The campground and music was in Bosque Bottoms park which is 4 blocks or so south of Meridian. It was an easy walk to downtown Meridian if you wanted to enjoy their restaurants, needed staples, or wanted to spend some money at some of the antique shops. The Party
We love to walk around after the concert and listen to some outstanding music at the various campfires. You'll find campfires with 2 to 15 musicians pickin' and singin'. The majority of the time, the main stage musicians will join the campfire music. If you attend next year, take a nap so you'll have the energy to attend the excellent music around the campfires which goes on until the sun rises. Of course, the party and dancing is always going on from the time the music starts until it ends - then it moves to the campgrounds. The Fans Tommy's Family Gathering attracts an older fan base that is out to have a good time as well as listen to and appreciate some outstanding music - unlike some outdoor music festivals that primarily attract the younger college kids where chugging beer and partying is more important than the music. Each year at the Gathering you'll see the same core group of Tommy fans that have been attending the Family Gathering for the last 5 to 10 years - which makes the event fun as you renew acquaintances and dance and party with people you see once, maybe twice a year. Tommy's fans are fun loving, friendly, and out to have a good time and they make you fell like you're part of the family - maybe that's why Tommy calls this a Family Gathering. This event is kid friendly.
The Music Oh, yeah, the real reason we came to Tommy's Family Gathering is because of the excellent line-up of some of the best singer songwriters in Texas and beyond. Tommy held the event at Meridian's Bosque Bottom's because he had outgrown some of the other spots but also because he wanted to set up two stages for the music. The stages were set up about 100 feet apart from each other and as soon as the music stopped on one stage, it immediately started on the next stage without missing a beat. Continuous music starting aroun noon and concluding at midnight or later - no downtime and the transition from stage to stage was executed flawlessly, as was the whole event. Congratulations to Tommy and his staff of hundreds to make this event run so smoothly. No question this year was the best line-up of the 4 Family Gatherings that we have attended - we were tempted to buy CDs of a majority of the bands. This year Tommy had 46 different bands/musicians each of whom played a minimum of 30 minutes and the headliners typically played an hour or more.
Here are the line-up for each day:
Music Highlights We could go on and on about all of the musicians, but you would get bored if you attended the event or depressed because you missed such a great concert. So, in the interest of time and not wanting to incur the wrath of some of our visitors, here are the highlights from our perspective: Thursday - Kevin Deal is always good and boy can he play the harmonica; Matt Martindale and his new band get better each time we see them
Friday - Michael Hearne is always outstanding but when he pulled a number of musicians to the stage (Tommy Alverson, Blacktop Gypsy, Jed and Kelly, Terry Rasor, and more) to sing one of his hits, it brought tears and/or goose bumps to everyone listening and singing! 1100 Springs, Ed Burleson, and Davin James are always fun to watch and listen to and they were playing up a storm this weekend.
Saturday - It's hard to beat Rusty Wier, Joe Pat Hennen, and Randy Brown - all were excellent. But the two highlights from the entire weekend
Tommy - you are going to be hard pressed to top this one, but I know you're already planning how to do it. Hope to see all of you there next year. Click here to see some additional pictures. Come back later and we hope to have some video snippets of this great event.
Live.Play.Enjoy......Attend Tommy's Next Family Gathering
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and Terri Hendrix is outstanding. At this event Terri had Lloyd Maines (excellent guitar player, fantastic pedal steel picker, and father of Dixie Chicks Natalie Maines) and a bongo/drums/cymbals player who was outstanding. Terri has unbelievable stage presence and her folksy style of singing has elements of blues, pop, and traditional county - what a pleasure to listen to.
were the Tejas Brothers and Tommy Alverson. The Tejas Brothers played early Saturday afternoon when most of the crowd was still trying to sleep off all the Friday night partying, so the crowd started very small. But as their
music (sounds of Tejano and an all out mismatch of country, blues, R&B, and polka!) started to fill the campground, the crowd grew and grew and soon everyone was dancing, cheering, and having a good ole time. The Tejas Brothers are very dynamic and fun to watch and they really seem to enjoy entertaining the crowd. They play some fantastic tunes that will get you out of your seat and dancing and you'll hate to see them finish their set. It's hard not to love their energy, stage presence, and spicy Tex Mex sound which "fuses Mexican polkas and folk music with 1950s style rock, doo wop, and blues". Don't miss the chance to see them playing the concert scene and around the DFW area. Sorry about the pictures - they don't capture the enthusiasm and good nature of the Tejas Brothers - my photographer was too busy enjoying the band, dancing, and having fun and neglected to take a number of shots!
Tommy Alverson finished the Family Gathering and put on one his best shows ever! He played a mixture of his old and new songs and as always got the fans going with "Una Mas Cerveza". He started at 9:30 and for the next 3 hours or more (it was easy to loose track of time when you're having so much fun) entertained the crowd by singing his tunes and bringing a lot of the other singer/songwriters and band members to play and sing along with him or sing solo. One of the things we love about Tommy is that he enjoys sharing the stage will fellow musicians and the crowd loves it! His set was a fun way to end the 10th annual Family Gathering. 
