The second tier in life is where you find a lot of first-rate talent. Like Avis, where they try harder. The rank below the top is full of people who still care. Not that everyone in the executive suites has lost it. But many of them have forgotten what it means to strive.
Yesterday was the end of the three-day Mid-Winter Bluegrass Festival in metro Denver. It’s an annual event that attracts top talent—in the most real sense of the word—but not the biggest names in bluegrass. I took in a Sunday afternoon show with Audi Blaylock, a hard-driving guitarist in his late 40s who tours the country with three band mates half his age.
Talk about hard-driving. They rode up from a show in Wichita the night before, arriving in town just in time for the Colorado sunrise and a few hours of sleep. After their two sets, Audi told me, they’d hit the road for Havisu, Arizona. I told him that the Travelin’ McCourys, a top-tier bluegrass act, happened to be arriving in town for a show yesterday as well, though not at the Mid-Winter Fest.
“They fly,” Audi noted.
Here’s to the second tier, where they still strive, and still drive.