This is the story of my adventure with Col.'s band Crossroads and the day I became an unexpected band roadie. Also Links to Corey Smiths and Mothers finests myspace pages.

Col.s band Crossroads performed May 22,2009 at Freedom Weekend Aloft at Heritage Park in Simpsonville,S.C. Here is my story. The band was to meet at Leonards House,the lead singer,at 11:30 a.m. to load the equipment trailer with all their musical instruments and then caravan from there to the gig. My job was to deliver Col. to Leonards house,since their wouldn't be enough room for him in Mike,the drummers truck until he got to the house. We arrived at the house at 12:00 because of having to pick up some things and load Col. Wheelchair into The Back of Mike's truck. He doesn't need to use the Wheel chair unless he has to walk a long way. I was then to pick up free tickets and parking passes for the festival. I was given the passes and then we waited on everyone to arrive. The original plan was Col. would then ride in Mike's truck to the gig., and I would come to the festival later. Col. has a hard time getting around in the morning so when it was time to leave he was still in my car and I ended up driving him to the gig. That was the moment I became the Unexpected band roadie!

Off we all went in a caravan of Trucks and cars. Leanard was in the lead pulling the trailer. Col. and I were right behind,followed by the rest of the band in their cars and trucks. Four vehicles in all. When we arrived at the gate I pointed to the Truck in front of us and they told us where to park and sent us on through. I couldn't find the entrance into the parking lot and wound up following Leonard into the backstage loading area. Security there wasn't going to let us in at first. Luckily, He finally let us in and I was able to drop off Col. He was feeling week so they let us park backstage until we got done unloading. They finally let Mike through with the Wheelchair. I had to get it down off the truck and take it to Col. so he could get around. Most of the band is there backstage now and their all excited! its only 1:00P.M. in the afternoon. They are now not scheduled to take the stage until 6pm.

The stage manager talks to us and tells them to Unload all their equipment onto this rolling platform backstage. He also told us he didn't get the call that this band was coming until either the night before or an hour before we got there. I don't remember which it was at this point. The guys are eager to set up. This is when we learn the workings of how multiple bands are set up. First the Headliner,who performs last is set up, then,they push all his stuff to the back of the stage and the band that performs just before him is set up. They then roll their stuff back on one of those platform things and the next band is set up. Luckily for us their were only 3 bands.

This is how the day went. Corey Smith was the headliner so they were working on setting him up when we arrived. Mothers Finest was to perform at 7:00p.m. just ahead of him. Crossroads was told they could probably take the stage at 5:15p.m.,so at this point the band is having a meeting backstage to stretch out their song list. They had a very nice 2 room area with a bathroom and air conditioning for the band to use. I took pictures of it.

• This sign was on the rooms for the bands backstage.

• Col. relaxing backstage.

  • There was a shower in each of the 2 rooms backstage. I was fascinated by this.lol!

At 4:30 P.M They were still setting up corey smith

• corey smith

I got to tell you,before this day I had no Idea who Corey Smith was or what he sang. He is a very talented artist. Seems to be something between a white rapper and a country artist to me. Leonard new who he was and had brought his daughters little guitar with him. He met Corey and had him sign the guitar. He later brought her backstage to meet him. All I can tell you is he is really nice and somewhat quiet. The only converstation I had with the young man was I said Hello and he said Hello back.If you ask about anyone under the age of 25,they seem to know who he is.! My friend Nikki is envious that I got to meet him.! He Finished and they set up mothers finest They also had to go through a sound check. It was around 5:30p.m. before crossroads could set up. They went straight from their sound check into their songs.

• picture of the guys taken on stage. They got to play the original half hour they were promised,it was just a little bit late starting.

• crossroads on stage.

crossroads setting up.

Crossroads played from 6:15 to 6:45pm and were immediately followed by Mothers Finest who took the stage promplty at 7:00pm.

Earlier in the day a guy come around and put wrist bands on all of us that were backstage with the band. As one person said"Now I feel like a real band roadie". They didn't have the gate open into the ampitheater earlier in the day so me and another person with the band had to climb down the stage and over the barricade to set up our chairs and video cameras. We were told we were only allowed to video Our band. That was fine with us. We then had to climb back over the barricade and back up the stage,with help from the band to get back up there. Finally the side gate to the theater got open about 4:30p.m. No more climbing.

I took video of crossroads performance. It can be viewed on YouTube, youtube crossroads video . One of the video's is on crossroads bands myspace page.

I hope you enjoyed my adventure. reneti

P.S. If anyone here can help me I have a computer problem. Something on my computer is blocking the video and picture uploads to Myspace. Can someone tell me what to reset? I had to use a friends computer to put the one video I added to crossroads page. Youtube had a program I was able to use. Thanks, reneti

This blog also posted at myspace.com/reneti

For a clearer view of the pics click on the link to my myspace page. I tried everything I know here and can't get them the way I want.

We had 2 free tickets to attend another day at the festival,so Jk and Nikki and I went to see Gavin Degraw on Sunday night. At least I knew one of his songs. * gavin degraw

Now if only this guy would tour again! *

Have a great day! reneti