It's post festival now--I'm in a motel near Albany with plans to do a family history tour upstate with my brother for the next few days. Reviewing Zen Curmudgeon's great post about High Mountain Hay Fever (I didn't realize Dry Branch had hosting duties two consecutive weeks--no wonder Ron looked so tired by the end of Grey Fox), I realize that I haven't posted any of my photography from the festival.
Here's a small tease, the Saturday evening birthday ceremony celebrating 30 years on the hill. As Mary Doub is quick to point out, that is not 30 years of Grey Fox, but consecutive years of one festival or another (Berkshire Mountain Bluegrass, Winterhawk, and Grey Fox) on the Rothvoss Farm.
In the photo, that's Tim O'Brien, Kit Swaggert O'Brien, Ron Thomason, Mary Doub, and Mary Burdette, left to right. 
Monday, July 17, 2006
Birthday on the hill
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Steve Earle reconstruction
It's Sunday morning and Dry Branch is on stage, opening the short Sunday program. Crooked Still and King Wilkie are coming up, but it's all over by 3 or so. I've got my camp packed up, all my devices are recharged, and I have a moment to post about Steve Earle's get closing set last night.
I have seen the Bluegrass Dukes four or five times now, but each time I am more impressed. Most of the material was familiar, not surprisingly weighted heavily toward political songs. Rich Man's War, Jerusalem, the Civil War suite of Ben McCulloch and Dixieland. He opened with the Burritos' Vancouver Might Be Just My Kind of Town (I know that's not the right name, but I have always loved the song) and closed with Christmas in Washington ("Come Back Woody Guthrie").
Not surprisingly, Earle was complete unapologetic about expressing his views. "Some people say that artists shouldn't speak out. I thought that was our job. I'm sorry if there are some people here that might not like it, but I'm going to do everything I can every day to bring the troops home--now," he said.
He also weighed in on the peace sign controversy. "Is the sign back up?" he asked, referring to the large illuminated sign hanging in the trees off to stage right. Sure enough, it was burning brightly.
He also said that his political bent is nothing new. "If people didn't think my earlier material was political, they weren't listening very closely," he said, launching into Copperhead Road, his hit song from early in his career about a Vietnam vet who returns home to drug dealing.
But besides the politics, the reason his message is so potent is the quality of the songwriting and bluegrass musicianship. Earle explained that he grew up around bluegrass and even though it took him many years to come back to it, it is his favorite musical style. That came through in the inspired playing of the Bluegrass Dukes--Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott, Casey Driessen and Dennis Crouch.
He introduced O'Brien as "the man who saved my ass when I pissed off Del McCoury in the middle of a tour," a more candid description of that fiasco than I have heard Earle cop to before. It was obvious that the Bluegrass Dukes love playing with Earle, all clustered around a single microphone. Several times, O'Brien made comments about how much fun he was having. As much as I love Tim as a lead performer, his harmony vocals, side instrumentals and band leadership are brilliant in a backup role.
To showcase the band, Earle stepped off stage for two great O'Brien-Scott numbers I hadn't heard before. Other Earle material in the set included the two-song coal mining set, Harlan Man and Mountain, Carrie Brown, Hometown Blues, and serveral covers, including the Parsons-Hillman classic Sin City and Willin' from Little Feat. The crowd cheered him back for a series of encores, ending with Earle and his solo guitar leading the audience with Come Back, Woody Guthrie. If there were any red-state bluegrassers still on site, they were probably back in camp long before Earle wrapped up at about 2 am.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
High Mountain Hay Fever, Westcliffe, Colorado
From Zen Curmudgeon: Dan's at Greyfox (a fest on my "someday" list), doing his best for real time blogging. I've been in the uplands of southern Colorado, in Westcliffe, a town so far upslope they export sunlight and import oxygen. It's also the home of the High Mountain Hay Fever Bluegrass Festival.
Hay Fever is a charming festival hosted by traditional bluegrass stalwarts, Dry Branch Fire Squad. (Pete Wernick would have no problem with this fest's name or lineup.) Located at the end on Main Street and overooking a gorgeous valley in the Wet Mountains, the main stage performers mount a stage built inside a huge yellow striped tent capable of accomodating hundreds of folding- and camp- chair seated enthusiasts. Across the street, in the town's bowling alley, the "workshop stage" hosts more intimate sessions with room for only a few dozen spectators. Fire Squad's Ron Thomason books some of the best in old time and trad-grass acts.
This year's weather was a relief to ranchers and fire crews with nearly constant rainfall for the weekend. This did complicate the task of the Old Blue sound crew, who performed admirably despite the challenges of amplifying acoustic music in a tent under constant assault of downpours and constant audience chatter.
The day's lineup ranged from the quirky (Leroy Troy) to traditional (Hart Brothers, Cedar Hill) to the old-timey clogothonics of Heidi Clare and Atagallop (Heidi's new CD, I Declare, is absolutely worth the price).
and the retro-entertainment of Karl Shiflett and the Big Country Show.
whose lead singer and front man, Dudley Connell, appeared earlier in the day accompanying Sally Love.
There's a definite appeal to this festival. The bands are of the old school, playing technically difficult music with ease born of skill and long practice. The audience is sincerely appreciative, a factor that seems to draw the best performances from every band on the up close and personal main stage. Set in one of the most scenic and yet un-touristed parts of Colorado, High Mountain Hay Fever deserves a spot on every bluegrass fan's calendar.
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Saturday night
Well, I had a nice afternoon and early evening showing my brother and his girlfriend around. The flip side of that is that my blogging went dark for about six hours. Maybe I'll reconstruct it later--I have notes from the Grey Fox memories workshop that I'll definitely what to post. But now I'm back on it with Mountain Heart on stage. I did catch about half of Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, including the final three or four songs.
Ricky talked about his history on the hill and quibbled with the date assigned to him in the first appearances listing in the program. Boone Creek played here in 1976, he said.
When Ricky does Monroe songs like Uncle Pen and Beautiful Kentucky Rose, I don't think there is a better bluegrass band out there. The Grey Fox audience recognized it, too, returning the love that Ricky was sending out.
I'm going to see some of Mountain Heart up close and personal to see how they grab me. When I last saw them in Tacoma, I thought they had great instrumental chops, but wasn't sure I got their identity as a band. Of course, I'm most excited about the Steve Earle set coming next. I'll certainly be ringside for that.
Sister act
In my coverage of last year's IBMA conference in Nashville, I featured a young band looking to break into the festival circuit. The Lovell Sisters, three teenage bluegrassers from Georgia, were getting a tryout in the Grey Fox suite during the conference. They charmed the small audience, and got a verbal commitment to play the 2006 festival.
Now here it is and the Lovells are on the main stage and are living up to their promise. Their musicianship, singing and stage presence point to be bright future for these girls. After their breakthrough here, I would expect to see them on many other festival stages in the years ahead.
King Wilkie is coming up next. I'm still waiting for brother Walt, who is going on two hours late as I type this.
Stealth appearances
I had a chance to chat briefly with Bela Fleck, who said with a sly smile that his presence here was a "stealth appearance." Yes, the Flecktones were off this weekend, though they leave for a tour of Spain on Monday. I wanted to ask him for his views on the Wernick-Ferguson debate, but didn't push it other than to get his agreement to do a future interview. Actually, it was the interview-by-email that I did a year ago that got me started in this direction, so I'll certainly want to follow up at some time soon.
The other stealth performer with Abigail Washburn was The Duhks' guitarist Jordon McConnell. Abby explained at her workshop that she will be touring the next several weeks with Ben Sollee opening for The Duhks, and that McConnell will be sitting in on her sets. I caught the end of the workshop, enough to see Abby tell some stories about her experiences in China, including of singing a Chinese folk song to a cabbie in Beijing and how he stopped the cab in busy traffic to jump out and demonstrate the proper body language while singing. "Singing is not about the notes but about the spirit," she said.
Late start on Saturday morning
Sorry to say I got a slow start this morning and can't report on the Abigail Washburn 11 am set. She is up again on the workshop stage at 1, so I can see then what guests are on hand. Right now, the Red Stick Ramblers, one of the Dance Stage mainstays is taking their main stage set. These guys are a hot band with a Cajun feel, definitely worth a listen. Also there is a "low notes" workshop on now with Mike Bub and Rushad Eggleston. Hopefully I will catch a bit of that, too.
I stayed around camp longer than expected this morning to hang some more with Chris. A few of the Hit & Run Bluegrass players, who are camped next to us, came over for a bit of picking. Man, I wish I had brought my mando after all. I was thinking that I was streamlining my traveling load, but a clear mistake in retrospect.
My brother Walter and his mate Tanya will be visiting for the day, arriving from their home in New Jersey around 2. That will undoubtedly also cut into my blogging for today, so I'll apologise in advance. There are a lot of highlights today. Some of my favs King Wilkie and Crooked Still are on this afternoon. The Lovell Sisters, a set a teenage sisters I first saw last fall, have the potential to surprise a lot of people today.
The big trend of the day is what I would call red-state bluegrass. One of the nice things about the bluegrass world is that diverse views on politics, religion and culture are well accepted. Today, Ricky Skaggs, probably the most prominent of the traditional values set, anchors an extended program of mainstream Nashville bluegrass. That includes two of the hottest bluegrass acts on the country charts, The Grascals and Mountain Heart, and the leading male vocalist of the genre, Larry Sparks with his Lonesome Ramblers. It's going to be a great evening of bluegrass, though with a distinctly red-state spin.
But then it will be topped off by the most outspoken of all blue-state bluegrassers, with Steve Earle and his Bluegrass Dukes, who take the stage just before midnight to balance things out. Maybe Grey Fox is the fair and balanced festival. I did hear a story that management had attendees take down a huge illuminated peace sign that had been erected yesterday in the trees near the stage. The rumor I heard is that management felt that the sign was politicizing the festival and that there is a segment here that is not anti-war. That seems reasonable to me. I don't think we should take the politics out of bluegrass, but we shouldn't let it polarize the community.
On that subject, I'll mention how much I was struck by some of Ron Thomason's political speech yesterday. Normally, the home-spun story-telling leader of Dry Branch Fire Squad, steers pretty clear of controversy, but his song about welcoming home a soldier in a coffin was highly charged. He also tossed in some comments about homophobia and shook his head about his home-state senator, Wayne Allard (R-CO).
Tim O'Brien also had a brief political moment with his clever "Republican Blues" song, which he introduced with a warning that some people might prefer to step out for a 3-1/2 minute break. Now I'm off to look in on the workshop.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Closing down Friday night
The big news from the Jerry Douglas set is that Bela Fleck made his appearance. He's back on stage now, one of Tim O'Brien's many guests as Danny Barnes leads the group on Cripple Creek. I have a lot of stuff in my notes but I'm running really low on steam--a woman next to be in the pit poked me awake, she said she thought I was going to fall over. Well, it is 1:45 am. So all my brilliant observations are going to have to wait. See you on Saturday.
FestivaLink tour
I met Ann Blonston, president of FestivaLink, backstage for a tour of its recording trailer and a chat about our mutual business plans. Despite my public criticism of FestivaLink's pricing structure, I am really quite supportive of what they are trying to do. I think it would be good for everybody if there were a standard channel for legal festival recordings. Initially it could arrive as a parallel infrastructure to the robust tape trading community. Later, it would begin to supplant some of the less virtuous forms of tape trading.
So I like what Blonston is trying to do and think that my own publishing strategy is potentially complementary. After our visit, I can say that I like Blonston personally too. She has a track record and a reputation in the acoustic music industry. She says all the right things about her motivations and approach to the business.
One news item that emerged from our discussion is that FestivaLink will partner with Martha's Vineyard Radio to promote streaming and downloadable sets from the Newport Folk Festival. With that festival in early August, that leaves limited time for signing artist agreements. That was the same situation she faced with Grey Fox, where there was limited time for artist relations. I didn't press her for what names she has agreements for, but I get the impression that some of the bigger names are not on board.
Blonston explained that frequently the problem has been with artists' record labels, who might prefer to control the market for all artist recordings. That's understandable, and it is just one of the many problems FestivaLink will face as it grows its business. I wish it the best of luck.
Del McCoury is on the main stage, and the requests are being called out. I think I'll go catch the end of the set.
Blog has been acting up, may be up now
I lost several posts from earlier, including a nice report from the Danny Barnes workshop. Maybe I will recreate it later. Now here is a quick post from the Darrell Scott, John Cowan, Pat Flynn trio set. I remember asking John Cowan about the trio some months ago, but I forgot how he mentioned they just pulled in a bunch of favorite songs each of them brought. He gave What a Day for a Daydream as an example.
Sure enough, that was the encore, and the set included great stuff like Jackson Brown's Barricades of Heaven and Little Feat's Fat Man in the Bathtub. Darrell Scott is a perfect stand-in for Lowell George, by the way. Also You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, All Along the Watchtower and Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line. Also originals like Scott and Cowan's Six Red Birds.
Pat Flynn talked of the great thing about festivals is meeting people you haven't seen in years as he introduced Bela Fleck's mother and step-father in the audience. No Bela sighting yet, but there is every reason to think he will be here tomorrow. By the way, Abigail Washburn has two gigs scheduled for the morning--what is billed as a solo set at 11 on the main stage and a "Traveling Daughter" workshop at 1 on the Masters Stage with Casey Driessen, Ben Sollee, and Jordan McConnell, who is The Duhks' guitarist.
Short one with Uncle Duster
As it turned out I didn't catch much of Hot Buttered Rum, but I did see a lot of The Infamous Stringdusters. Another very appealing band of young men playing traditional music. They sound as good doing straight-ahead Bill Monroe as anybody, and they bring a lot of original touches as well.
They brought out Uncle Earl as special guests for a nice boy-band-meets-girl-band version of Under the Weeping Willow Tree. The two bands have toured together a lot and there was a lot of joking about whether the combination would be called Uncle Duster or String of Earls.
Actually the Earls are up again on the main stage but I'm going around back for Danny Barnes's workshop on the Masters stage. Later.
Friday morning with Chatham County Line
After the late start yesterday, I'm getting a break from the Grey Fox scheduling format, where many bands do two main stage sets, either Thursday-Friday or Saturday-Sunday. That means I'm getting a great early show of Chatham County Line, Hot Buttered Rum and Infamous Stringdusters. What fun. The skies are blue and what a day of music to come.
I just enjoyed CCL, which I've only caught in bits and pieces before. Here I saw an uninterrupted set. These four young guys from North Carolina are very appealing. The highlights are Dave Wilson's songs and vocals and John Teer's mandolin and fiddle work. Banjo, guitar and bass fill out the all-acoustic quartet. Several of their songs are about being lonesome for Carolina. They also featured new tunes from their just-released CD Speed of the Whippoorill.
Hot Buttered Rum is just coming up. Back later.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Thursday night is hopping
After the dramatic sunset, there was an even better moonrise coming up over the ridge about 45 minutes later. Not quite full, but enough to get the crowd juiced, especially once Railroad Earth came on to close out the night. They play standard bluegrass instruments except for the drums, but they're plugged in and the sound is very Dead-like. I got out of the VIP pit to get the feel for the crowd. The dancers have taken over the front 10 rows or so. Feels like a Dead show too. My favorite song so far was the somewhat obscure Band number Canadian Driftwood, which I hadn't heard for years.
Earlier, I kept track of the set list for the Austin Lounge Lizards, since I like these guys a lot and this is the third time I've seen them this year. Here it is:
1. Hey Little Minivan
2. Teenage Immigrant Welfare Mother on Drugs
3. Can I Have All Your Stuff When You're Dead
4. Old Blevins
5. Stupid Texas Song
6. The Dogs, They Really Miss You
7. Leonard Cohen is Working a Day Job, They Say
8. My One God's the One
9. 80 Hillbillies in a Haunted House
10. German Rap
11. Buenos Dios Budweiser
12. The Drugs I Need
13. Go Ahead and Die
A couple of those may not be the right names. They are all funny and the stage shtick is a lot of fun. I forgot how much the new guy, Koryy Simeone adds a new dimension with his manic fiddle and mandolin playing, not to mention the talent for rapping in German.
Earlier, Tim and Mollie O'Brien offered a folkie set that set the table for lots more Tim throughout the weekend. I also hope to get him for a chat maybe tomrrow. As I mentioned earlier, Uncle Earl was delightful with lots of new matierial. I got closeup photos of all their shoes, which I may be able to post tomorrow as a quiz.
That's all for Day 1. Even though its geogrpahy can't compare to a Telluride or Strawberry, Grey Fox is quickly becoming a favorite festival for me. I'm set up in a group camp with Chris Shuler, who I met here last year. It's about a three minute walk from my tent to the main stage. Then I have a cozier relationship with the management here than anywhere else, my early banding problem notwithstanding. The blogging facilities are limited compared with Telluride, but it seems like I'm able to get possission of the single available Ethernet line without too much trouble.
Bye for now. See you on Friday.
Wernick fires back
After the recent exchange of opinions between musician Pete Wernick and festival impressario Craig Ferguson in this blog and an Internet radio station, I was looking forward to hooking up with Wernick at Grey Fox, where he performed on the main stage this afternoon with his jam-camp students.
I was ready with my tape recorder to do an interview, but it turned out that Pete was way ahead of me, having spent much of the previous night composing a written response to Ferguson's reply, which was published in Festival Preview yesterday, I will publish the complete text of Wernick's latest message in the next post.
Instead of an interview, we chatted over vegie burritos in the hospitality tent, joined also by Ken Irwin, the president of Rounder Records. The gist of it is that Wernick doesn't want to let the matter drop. Words mean something and Telluride isn't bluegrass. He recognizes that he may not be endearing himself to Planet Bluegrass, but he feels the matter is important enough to press the issue.
Tim and Mollie O'Brien are starting on the main stage. There was just a stunning sunset. I'm running out of power on the computer. Later.
Bela Fleck to guest with Abigail Washburn
Uncle Earl is midway through a delicious set featuring lots of new material from an upcoming album. Right now Erin Coates, the new bassist formerly of Hit & Run Bluegrass, also playing here, is being introduced. But on the last introduction, of Abigail Washburn, looking great in her red dress ("she was the only one the did not get the black dress memo," said KC Groves), she mentioned who would be playing with her in her Saturday morning solo set. Ben Sollee, cello, no surprise. KC Driessen, fiddle, they're friends. Someone I guitar, I missed who it was. This is getting to be a full band. And Bela Fleck, banjo, big surprise.
Well, we know that Bela has done stuff with Abigail before, including producing her solo album. But you might think Bela would be busy with the Flecktones. Yet he is turning up at Grey Fox unannounced.
Meanwhile the band-audience mutual love-fest is happening on stage as Uncle Earl moves into I Don't Need No Man. Beautiful. Time to move on to my next post, which is catching up with the Pete Wernick narrative.
