Music on the RV Road

We are drawn to RVing as a way of ‘sight-seeing’ the country, taking in all the places and experiences to be offered on our journeys. In planning this blog I thought about a different goal I have with my Pleasure-Way: since many of my trips center around finding music I plan a trip around ‘sound-hearing’ the country. Music festivals, planning around specific concerts and just finding people around a campfire to play and sing with are an essential part of my own RV life. My Plateau XLTD has proven to be a nimble, agile way to get to those crowded festival campgrounds and it provides a welcome gathering place for a shared enjoying the music. 

Music has always been an important aspect of my life. From the soundtracks my parents played on the home stereo console, my first transistor radio, the cassette deck in the car, to my speaker stereo with FM playing static-free music. Early on I found myself drawn to the choir at school and belting out ‘100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall’ at Boy Scout camp. My grandfather’s visits always included a host of Irish tunes that involved some tragic tale of tangled love or ancient war. 

I took up playing an acoustic guitar in my early 20s, taking lessons at a local folk center and poring over my Beatles and Bob Dylan songbooks to gradually learn how to scratch-out a tune. Seeing many memorable concerts during those years was inspiring; the draw and pleasure of being in the presence of solo artists and bands led me to wanting to learn more chords and even to take the leap to singing along with the chords I was playing. I found that the time I spent with my guitar was so rewarding and such a welcome break for the work-a-day world. 

After many years of playing on my own, I finally took the step to join a music circle consisting of fellow musicians who took turns playing a song and letting the other people play and sing along. I often think of a lyric from the song ‘The Town I Loved So Well’:

There was music there

In the Derry air

Like a language that we all

Could Understand

Music is an element of our world, an artform that can reach us on countless levels. In learning a song you like, it can take on a deeper level of impact to you; the lyrics you repeat in practice may begin to take on new meanings, the combination of notes in a guitar chord resonate differently. When you add another person playing an instrument or singing, there is a completely new dynamic. 

Have guitar… will travel

Once I began the new journey of RVing I found that the guitar I brought along was a key to meeting many fellow musicians on the road. From playing around the campfire to exploring local open mics, I’ve made many new friends where we not only share the RV quest, but also a passion for certain bands and making music together. In Arizona one of those friends had a fold down stage on his toy hauler where we had a chance to play out in the middle of the desert as the sun set over the mountains. 

This past April a friend down in North Carolina and I followed up on a long standing goal of meeting in our RVs at a yearly bluegrass festival called Merlefest. This event commemorates the late son of a renowned bluegrass artist, the late Doc Watson. My friend owns an A-frame RV, and had been to the campground next to the concert area for the past four years, so I joined him there for the 5 day event. The trip involved a first for me since owning my Pleasure-Way: I left my tow vehicle behind at home and just drown the RV to the event. The agility and compact nature of it was a joy to drive, and made fitting-in to the somewhat crowded campground out in the middle of a grassy parkland easy. 

We left each morning of the school bus shuttles for a day of varied musical artists, and after nightfall returned to the campground where many of us gathered to play and sing round the campfire to the wee hours of the night. I am already planning on reserving my campground spot for next year’s Merlefest and looking at other blues, rock and folk festivals to enjoy now that I own my Plateau.