32 replies to this topic

[Thom]

J. Henry Waugh, the Adam Again shows were legendary at C-Stone every year they played. It was a much anticipated artist at the festival and NOT to be missed. They packed the tent!

I am a 16 year veteran and I think I am going to leave in the next hour to be there the last day. If there was no C-stone '83 then I was at the first and will be at the last.

[sondog]

end of an era...

[Crow]

I am back home from Cornerstone, and it was an amazing experience. It was the hottest Cornerstone ever, literally, with temperatures over 100 degrees by the end of the week. But I did get to hang out with old friends from our Camp 77s campsite, and I got to talk to J. Robert Parks. Highlights included some energetic reels by Iona, smoking hot set by Ashley Cleveland and Kenny Greenberg, Neal Morse getting some serious prog on, and sets by old favorites like The Violet Burning, The Choir, and the 77s. I also discovered some cool new bands: The Soil and the Sun, which was kind of a cross between Fleet Foxes and Waterdeep, Kye Kye, kind of an heir apparent to the great Echoing Green, and Sean Michael, who was a guitarist who plays some down and dirty delta blues. Glenn Kaiser played a set playing a cigar-box guitar with a terrific harmonica player named Joe Filisko. In the Imaginarium I heard a fascinating series of talks on spiritual and moral themes in the Joss Whedon-verse. I missed the Blue Like Jazz screening, but I heard they had about three hundred people there.

The craziest, and most fitting, event of the week was when a group of people built a longboat, carried it down the main road to the beach, and set it into the lake. Then they set the boat on fire, as a kind of Viking funeral for Cornerstone. The Choir played the last gig of the fest, ending their set with their song "To Bid Farewell," which was a very emotional way to end it all. One speaker at the fest described Cornerstone as "the island of misfit toys", a place for people to find acceptance who don't feel part of the rest of the American Evangelical subculture. That is how I have always thought of Cornerstone, the only place where dorky white guys like me can hang out with Christian punks, metalheads, hippies, goths, comic book geeks, and a lot of other cool crazy folks. Cornerstone will be sorely missed. But I think the spirit of it will live on. Jesus People USA are planning on opening a music venue in north Chicago where they can host shows. Shoot, just with all the talented musicians within JPUSA, they can host a street festival kind of thing. And I hope someone will put on an Imaginarium somewhere.

[M. Leary]

Awesome, Jim. Thanks.

[winter shaker]

[Crow]

A moving recap of the festival, with footage of the afore-mentioned "Viking Funeral"

[Persona]

Very moving. Thanks for sharing.

[Thom]

Well, after consulting with some many Cornerstone friends including festival staff over the years it is conclusive (for me, at least) the first Cornerstone was indeed 1984. Sorry, Stef. The timeline of my life makes a whole lot more sense now.

Crow, sorry to have missed meeting you yet again. It would have been great to meet up a C-Stone for some conversation. I also caught a flicker of Mike Hertenstein but lost him in the shuffle of the Gallery stage emptying out after morning worship. Would have loved to have caught up with him.

I must say, the final Cornerstone is exactly as it should have been. Intimate. Dusty. A sense of belonging and a sense of lostness. Every moment uttered something special that only comes from a brief connection with a community through the spirit.

[sounddoctorin]

Crow, on 23 May 2012 - 09:10 PM, said:

Here’s a trip down memory lane. Someone posted to YouTube the sets from the 77s, Daniel Amos, and Steve Taylor from the first Cornerstone in 1984. This is the time when Steve jumped off the stage and broke his ankle. Also you can see Mike Roe do his best David Byrne impersonation during his song "It's So Sad", and a glorious display of (un)forgettable '80s fashion sense.

https://www.youtube....be_gdata_player

I snagged the video of the '84 concert the other day. ya! Wish I could have been there. I was looking for work that year after finishing college and not really in a position to do that kind of thing. Then I got a job at U of Oregon and started sharing the gospel on the usenet/internet in '86 and helped with the call for votes to get rec.music.christian ...then became so dispised for calling gossip to account that people probably would have shot me if I ever showed up. lol.

Anyway WHEN did Steve Break his ankle? It wasn't that stage drop during 'meet the press' was it? If so he had an amazing ability to finish the concert with it.

[Persona]

sounddoctorin, on 22 October 2012 - 10:50 PM, said:

Anyway WHEN did Steve Break his ankle? It wasn't that stage drop during 'meet the press' was it? If so he had an amazing ability to finish the concert with it.

Yep. That was it. I haven't watched that whole video but I clearly remember him explaining it during the encore. He said there was a kid down there that he was trying to avoid, "and sonofagun, if I didn't break my ankle." Then we got to see him later being carted out in the back of a station wagon.

[Justin Hanvey]

Never made it to this. Unfortunately. It was considered the Nirvana of Christian Music Festivals to my mid nineties youth group. We did go to Creation East though a couple years. My best memory of that was seeing my friend Marc Byrd play with his band Common Children and my other friend Drew who was in Common Children balancing guitars and bicycles on his nose. The 7Ball stage. All fun stuff.

But I really wanted to go to Cornerstone.

[Thom Wade]

I used to bug Marc and the Children any chance I got. I was a big fan of CC (technically, I still am). I used to run a fansite for the Choir and got in pretty good with the band in the sense that they recognized me (and then I did some writing for 7Ball which suddenly got me the chance to do a variety of interviews with heroes)...although...Dan is I think the only one who knows me by name... Dan mentioned the Children in an e-mail and I used my 7Ball connection to get into a Choir Show and they were one of the opening acts and I was blown away. I had to get the album and grabbed up the two that followed.

[Persona]

If I were to make a Life's Top 25, I do believe "Delicate Fade" would crack the Top 10.