Richardson - The lady turned to her friend standing behind her in the crowd and asked, "How many times did you fall in love listening to that one!" Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night fame was singing the beginning of a song that David Loggins wrote, "Pieces of April." Widely known as the voice of Three Dog Night, Negron was a very popular musical act in the 1998 Wildflower Art and Music Festival and he had the crowd up and grooving to hit after hit, like "Eli’s Coming," "One," and the old Hoyt Axton tune, "Joy to the World."
A band that included two of his sons backed Negron and the lead singer joked that he could tour inexpensively these days because he still had part of his group on an allowance.
"I never thought I’d have a two-year-old son at 61," Negron told the crowd, "but then back in 1969 I was sure I’d be dead by now."
The former lead singer for Three Dog Night was just one of many entertainers that highlighted the tenth Wildflower Arts and Music Festival, an event that blooms a little sweeter every year. Jonny Lang’s band churned their way through an energetic set and right around the corner was Peter Frampton playing the songs that helped him get nominated for a pair of Grammy awards.
Austin bluesman Chris Duarte told the crowd gathered at the Plaza Stage, "Hey, we’re here to play our butts off," and his band (John Jordan and Edward Meyers) made his words good. Over on the Galatyn Park Amphitheatre Stage, Cathy Richardson’s band was proving why they were brought down from Chicago for this show. In all, there were five stages allowing almost 40 artists to showcase their talents.
Richardson mayor pro tem John Murphy welcomed the crowd to this 10th Wildflower Arts and Music Festival and the City of Richardson should be credited with developing one of the finest events around. The festival is one block east of Central Avenue in Galatyn Park. The city made their annual highlight easy to get to, they made it easy to park and that all makes it easy to plan on making this an annual favorite weekend. The best plan would be to have a room at the park’s Renaissance Hotel; that would place you within walking distance of the award-winning festival.
A stroll through the booths was popular for people picking up unique Mother’s Day gifts and Bob Munro’s Sacred Pause booth was worth the trip alone. Every year more people become involved in the art of photography, but a true gift of perception is only bestowed on a lucky few. Surely Munro is carving his niche by turning out religious imagery from around the world so eye-catching that it forces that moment of reflection.
The younger crowd enjoyed splashing around in Plaza Fountain and painting their own Wildflower T-shirt. Everyone else was singing "Jeremiah was a Bullfrog" with Chuck Negron. And it was hard to tell who was having the best time.
