As the storm clouds loomed over the Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival, attendees sat content in their brightly colored lawn chairs in front of the Great Southern Bank stage. Spectators chatted excitedly amongst themselves, waving at old friends and sipping beers in the shade of the trees. The sense of community was apparent the moment one entered the festival as people of all ages gathered around to enjoy music together.

It was around 3:30 p.m. when, after being introduced by an announcer, members of The Dave & Deke Combo took the stage. They came out in their dark blue overalls over white button ups and smiled from under their large cowboy hats. After warming up the crowd on they introduced Doug Kershaw. Kershaw had his flight canceled at 10 p.m. the previous night and had to rent a car and drive to Columbia with his wife. Despite the heat, Kershaw wore all black with red accents on the shoulders of his button up shirt, along with a pair of sunglasses.

The artists combined their talents to perform a total of eight songs together, including “Diggy Diggy Lo” and “Louisiana Man” which, in 1969 was broadcast to Earth from the moon by the astronauts of the Apollo 12 mission. The audience laughed and cheered at the performers’ light banter in between songs.

The band announced that because of the weather delay, the group was unable to perform for the whole sixty minutes as they had planned. The audience, which was filled with sounds of dismay, was quickly reassured when the band was granted an extra ten minutes on stage.

As the band played “Jambalaya,” their last song of the day, the gray clouds had almost completely vanished, allowing the sun to shine over the stage and onto the peaceful crowd and performers.

_Edited by Janae McKenzie | jmckenzie@themaneater.com_