Tom and Patricia Clemmer have always been big fans of the Bedford Blues & BBQ festival, but this year meant so much more as they watched the opening band assemble onstage and strike its first chord. Their hearts resonated with the first notes.
After years of bringing their children to the event, one of them was onstage leading the opening act this time around -- Michael Lee Clemmer, 22, vocalist and lead guitarist of The Michael Lee Band.
"I can't believe it," Patricia Clemmer said as her son's group performed. "I'm real proud of him. I don't know how to put it into words. It just feels like where he should be."
And others agreed. The band got a raucous reception -- there was much cheering and whistling as each song ended, after many played air guitar along with the group.
"I'm excited to do it," said Michael Lee Clemmer, whose band has built a following from playing local clubs.
Performing on the Bedford festival stage had always been his dream, he said. "I've been coming here since I was a kid."
He said that he grew up listening to blues and that his parents even checked him out of preschool once to attend a B.B. King concert.
Tom Clemmer said his son began going to blues jams on his own as a teenager. "You wonder if this is the next step to him actually making a living at this," he said before the show. "It's exciting."
The Michael Lee Band led four other groups and performers. The headliner was singer and songwriter Robert Cray while Taj Mahal is the top-billed performer tonight.
"We chase the blues all over town," said Will Reese of Weatherford, a surveyor who drove up from a job in Houston to catch Clemmer's band with his girlfriend, Judy Coady of Fort Worth.
He likened Coady to a blues social director who alerts friends via text message to the next music event.
"I can find good blues any night of the week in Fort Worth," Coady asserted.
She called the Bedford festival a venue with great talent, a fun atmosphere and an affordable price. General admission is $5, while reserved seats at the front cost $15. Then there's party tent seating for $25 and party cabanas for a family at $275, or $225 for four adults.
Despite the event's name, there's no barbecue served the first day of the two-day event, to some festivalgoers' surprise and disappointment. There were free samplings of Australian wine -- but only sips amounting to less than an ounce.
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