Who's the picker?

I'm just back from MerleFest with lots to report on over the next few days. Here's a little tease of fingerboard closeups of some of the festival's hot pickers. Can you identify who's who? I'll post the solution later.

Blogging from MerleFest will be limited

Internet access at MerleFest is much more difficult than I'd been led to believe. I'm on briefly now, but won't have time to share much now.

For gossip-lovers, here's one tidbit from the roots romance line. Reminding the audience of Casey Driessen public proposal to his wife during last year's festival, Jim Lauderdale announced his engagement to Bryn Davies, formerly Bryn Bright, who seems to be everywhere these days. Last night, she was one of the Lauderdale Bluegrass Band, along with Randy Koors and others.

The other Thursday night highlight was John Prine, who said he "started backwards," delighting the audience by opening the set with "Paradise," "Angel From Montgomery," and "Sam Stone," all from his first record from 1972.

More later...if I can.

New site features

Instead of getting any sleep the night before leaving for MerleFest I started work on the integration of the blog and the bee into the main Festival Preview site. It's pretty cool, and a sign of a more bloggish moves to come. I definitely need some design work and I'd like to see other bloggers join in and for discussions to take off. Lots to do when I get back.

Family day for Taylor & Rodriguez

It's getting late on Wednesday and I'll have to shut down soon to get ready for my flight to Charlotte for MerleFest. There are a lot of Old Settler's items I'm not going to get to today. Hopefully, I get back to posting on many of these topics overlapping with my upcoming MerleFest content.

* report on the Vassar Clements tribute
* Peter Rowan interview
* Austin prodigy Sarah Jarosz
* interview with Mike Phelan of Marley's Ghost
* impressions of Todd Snider
* Sharon Gilchrist does double duty
* Kat Edmonson is the cat's meow
* campground vignettes, more

I did want to get in one more report on Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez, since they'll be playing again Friday and Saturday at MerleFest. They played the last set of the festival on Sunday afternoon at the campground stage. It was a family affair for Carrie, as her grandmother, novelist Frances Nail, and other members of her family watched the talented fiddler and vocalist put on a very entertaining set of music.

Taylor and Rodriguez showed off their duet vocals on "Sweet Tequila Blues" and others, Carrie's feisty solo on "Never Gonna Be Your Bride," great lead guitar from John Platania, and Taylor's greatest hits including "Wild Thing." Rodriguez is an Austin native and Taylor had considerable success locally as a part of the Armadillo scene in the 1970s. Also, their set included a number of Austin-related songs, so the whole thing had a homey, Sunday afternoon feel to it.

I sat down with Chip for a quick interview before leaving to make my flight out of Austin. We agreed to pick up the conversation at MerleFest. Which is also where I am going to pick up the conversation on this blog beginning Friday morning. MerleFest has a real press facility on site and I expect to be able to file reports throughout the festival. See you then.

Mike Marshall on jam bands

I caught up with Mike Marshall after the mandolin workshop and before the Vassar tribute, which he would be leading. At the workshop, he had talked about his own role in the newgrass movement and as part of a generation of musicians who changed the music. I asked him if thought that the new generation of jam bands was doing something similar.

"Grisman and Bush and Béla took the music in a natural progression from what Bill Monroe and others had laid down as a foundation," he said. "The jam band thing to me feels like a turn more than a natural progression. They are trying to accomplish something different, which is in essence is a party. When you see Yonder Mountain it is really about the atmosphere of the evening more than about taking the instruments to the next place.

"What is cool is that they are bringing a whole bunch of people to the music that otherwise weren't interested because socially they weren't comfortable. So they provide a social environment for that social group where they feel at home, but what's good is that some of those people will go check out Del McCoury or David Grisman."

I asked Marshall what trends in the music he thinks will influence the future. "It is probably going international. We have embraced all the Americana grooves and melodic ideas--blues and rock and Cajun and funk--and incorporated all that into what we call bluegrass. So it is natural that the next generation will expand their reach to Cuba, Brazil, India, and China," Marshall said.

Most of Marshall's festival appearances are as part of a duet. He played Wintergrass will Hamilton de Holanda. In June, he'll take the stage at Telluride in a duo with Edgar Meyer. "For some reason, I go into these very intimate kind of situations where it is like a converstaion between two old friends. I love the intimacy and space that happens when there are just two instruments," he said.

Jam meets grass at OSMF

For several years, Old Settler's has worked to bring in a younger audience by booking a portion of its lineup with popular bands from the jam-band circuit. This festival, it was acoustic magician Keller Williams, all-out rockers New Monsoon, Texas jammers Flounders Without Eyes, and newcomers Green Mountain Grass.

Musically, I thought the acts fit perfectly well. Keller Williams is an amazing entertainer, completely appropriate as a festival headliner. A lot of traditional roots fans had their eyes opened by an example of what's being done in bluegrass-related music in a vibrant sector of innovation.

I caught the end of New Monsoon's set, which ran on the Bluebonnet Stage while the Vassar Clements tribute was playing on the main stage. I felt like I stepped into a mini Grateful Dead show, and had a good time grooving to the music. I also liked Green Mountain Grass quite a lot, since its a jam band that uses mainly bluegrass instruments.

The lineup succeeded in attracting a market of jam band followers to the festival. I ended up spending a good deal of time with Dave, a jam-bander who was set up near me in the campground. Dave had come down from College Station, Tex., where he works in computers, but his main thing is his love of jam music and the jam lifestyle.

Dave was reasonably literate about more traditional music forms. He certainly was excited to be seeing Peter Rowan, and he'd seen Del McCoury any number of times. Some of the new things he heard that he liked were The Waybacks, Marley's Ghost, and Todd Snider.

Totally off the top of my head, I'd say the jam banders comprised about a third of the audience. Another third was traditional folk and bluegrass music fans, and the others were ordinary young Texans out to have a good time. The latter group and maybe some of the jammers were a little rowdy in the campground. Alcohol seemed to be the drug of choice.

On the other hand, there was quite a lot of good picking in the campgrounds. I had my mando along and got in on a couple of jams. I'm always a little shy about getting in, but almost always have a great time while wishing I was confident enough to take the lead on some songs.

The various audience segments coexisted more than they mixed in the campground and the stage lineup. Since the overall attendance of the festival was well less than capacity, the differing styles and behaviors never become a problem. In a sold-out situation, I'm not so sure that the harmony would maintain.

Is the marriage of roots Americana and jam rock one of convenience or one that will grow and become stronger over time? I'll be following the story in the festivals ahead, especially at Telluride, where the marriage has enjoyed its greatest success.

In the next item, I'll talk with mandolin master Mike Marshall about jamgrass and the newest generation of jam musicians.

Remembering Helga Ruby

I'm rushing off now with members of my family to commemorate the first-year anniversary of our mother's death. I'll be back with more Old Settler's content later, but I'd like to mention here that my mother supported the work I was just beginning a year ago to create this website and business. Without Helga Ruby, who first exposed me to folk music in the folk revival days, there would be no Festival Preview. Thanks for your unlimited support for me, mom. We miss you.

Meeting the "king of Kerrville"

In the campground, I had an interesting chat with Javier, the self-styled tee-pee dwelling "king of Kerrville." Kerrville of course is the long-running folk music/singer songwriter festival that runs 19 days every June in a town not too far from here. A non-stop story-teller, Javier has been dispensing wisdom as well as barbeque to the Kerrville faithful every year since the beginning, but he feels that the community spirit at the festival has begun to deteriorate, largely because of a division among RV campers and tent campers at the festival.

The full story is covered in his wife's book about Kerrville, "Hot Jams and Cold Showers," which has to be the best-ever music festival book title. The problem, said Javier, is that the management began to cater exclusively to the desires of the trailer set, while at the same time making a variety of mistakes involving the site's drainage and physical improvements.

Despite the problems, Javier still thinks Kerrville is the best festival going, though he thought there was a lot to admire in the campground setup at Old Settler's Camp Ben McCullough.

"Bright Place" turns dark for The Waybacks

Now it's day 2 of the festival, but I won't try to follow the order of the stage schedule. The next bunch of items are random observations and interviews from the rest of the wonderful Old Settler's Music Festival.

I'll start with James Nash, the hot flat-picking guitarist and vocalist for The Waybacks, one of only two bands (with Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez playing both in Austin and at MerleFest next weekend. I haven't been able to do much preview coverage for MerleFest, which I'll be coving later this week, so some quick items on those bands is now in order.

The MerleFest preview is that Bob Weir of Grateful Dead fame will be appearing with them at MerleFest. Actually, the first-ever public appearance of Weir and The Waybacks is Wednesday evening at The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, an event that is also the CD release party for The Wabe's new From the Pasture to the Future.

I asked Nash how they had come to be hooked up with Weir. He said it happened naturally, through friends suggesting that they jam together. When they did, everyone had a good time, and they decided to do a few gigs together. They've had several rehearsals in recent weeks, and are set to perform twice later this week.

Nash said they'll play mainly Waybacks material with a few Grateful Dead songs thrown in. He said it was amazing how much they sound like the Dead when Weir is on vocals. As for his own history, Nash, who grew up in Tennessee, was not a Dead fan growing up but got into the scene a little bit after arriving in California as a college student.

The other big Wayback news, at least for the Austin crowd, was the return of favorite son fiddler Warren Hood, who has decamped to joined the San Francisco-based band full-time. The hot-fiddling, baby-faced son of the late Champ Hood brings another lead instrumental voice to the band's electic mix of jazz, rock, blues and folk styles. Hood was welcomed by the audience as a returning hero.

One of the few technical glitches of the Old Settler's event took place during the Waybacks' set, which began in daylight but continue past sundown. The stage lights never came on as the set progressed and it ended with the band playing in complete darkness. Not exactly the "bright place" the band sings about in one of its trademark songs.

I asked Nash, whose hot picking did not seem diminished by the conditions, for a reaction. He said that noone told them there was a lighting problem and that he only slowly realized what as happening during the course of the set. In the end, Nash's compadre Stevie Coyle was calling out to the audience, "We're over here." Nash said it was a good experience to have no choice but to play without looking at the fingerboard, which is what he tries to do in any case.

Just as the band finished its encore song and was bowing into the darkness, the stage lights suddenly came on and then functioned perfectly well for the rest of the Friday night show.

Austin's Claritin couple

Here's one I got from the local alternative weekly, The Austin Chronicle, which answered a question that I've been wanting to look into for awhile: How did Austin musicial spouses Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis come to be the spokespeople in a national television ad campaign for an anti-allergy medication?

In the Chronicle's Q&A with Robison, he said the whole thing happened very quickly. The ad agency had the spot scripted and needed the right talent. Someone at the agency knew about Robison and Willis, and thought they would be right for the ad. They were contacted through their manager. Everything was ready to go, and the musicians just had to go in for the shoot.

For Robison and Willis, aside from whatever fee they earned, the commercials also raised the artists' profiles at a time when they have new record releases. Very savvy.

Skydancing with Peter Rowan

I made too much about reggaebilly in my Peter Rowan's Skydancer Trio in the program bio. (Yes, I wrote the artist bios that appeared in the official festival program.) The trio is mandolin-vocalist Sharon Gilchrist from the Rowan-Rice quartet and percussionist Jeff Hogan.

They played mostly the familiar Rowan repertoire, but with a perhaps more of a world rhythm to it. Midnight Moonlight, Land of the Navaho, and Panama Red from Old & In the Way, Roanoke, White Dove, and Walls of Time from the Monroe years. And they did close with No Woman, No Cry, so maybe it was reggaebilly after all.

Later in the festival, after a set by the full Peter Rowan-Tony Rice Quartet, I got a chance to sit down with Peter Rowan for a chat, which I'll be blogging about later.

Kinky meets his base

As an out-of-stater, I'd thought Kinky Friedman's campaign for Texas governor was more than half satirical. But his appearance at Old Settler's was a serious campaign stop for an anti-politician on the stump for signatures to meet a May 11 deadline to qualify for the ballot.

"I'm 61 years old, too young for Medicare and too old for women to care," he started out. "But I care. I care about Texas."

Mixing his droll humor with policy positions and attacks on the incumbent, he laid out a series of positions in favor of biodiesel fuel, education funding, casino gambling, and guest workers and opposed to highway tolls, capital punishment, and banning gay marriage. He is also pro-cigar and pro-Guinness, displaying both props proudly throughout the appearance.

The latter had recently caused him some trouble when he was seen imbibing while riding in the grand marshall's car during a St. Patrick's Day parade. "I admit I did drink the Guinness," he said, "but I did not swallow."

Playing his outsider role to the hilt, he hit out at politics as "the only field where the more experience you have, the worse you get." He said that musicians would do a better job than politicians. "We won't get a hell of a lot done in the morning, sure, but we'll work late and be honest." He said his career had proved that he is not afraid to offend people, unlike professional politicians.

When he finished, he stepped down from the platform to greet the festival audience, many waving items to autograph. "I'll sign anything but bad legislation," he said.

Settling in on Thursday

The festival got off on the right note the first night with a rollicking campaign appearance by candidate Kinky Friedman and fine musical performances from Abigail Washburn and Peter Rowan. Earlier, as I had arrived and set up at Camp Ben McCullough, there had been on-and-off rain showers, but the evening was cool and dry by the time the program got underway at the cozy campground stage. (There was more rain overnight, but the rest of the weekend was glorious.)

You probably recognize Abigail Washburn as the waifish banjo player from Uncle Earl, but for tonight and a main-stage set on Saturday, she played in her duo format with cellist Ben Sollee. With the g'earls, Washburn showcases her Chinese material, but here she was able to stretch out with a number of songs in Mandarin or with Chinese musical influences. Sollee, whose cello playing is more melodic than the only other bluegrass cellist I know of, Rushad Eggleston, had some fun teasing Washburn, joking that the title of a beautiful melody sung in Mandarin sounded to him like "soybean casserole." The tune will be on an upcoming Washburn EP featuring Béla Fleck and Casey Driessen in addition to Sollee.

The Kinkster was up next, and he didn't disappoint. Coming up in the next item.

Delightful OSMF festival goes underappreciated

Not having attended other highly regarded Texas festivals such as Kerrville or Austin City Limits, I can't rightfully call Old Settler's "the best little music festival in Texas," but after returning today from a magical weekend in the hill country outside of Austin I can say those others would be hard-pressed to equal the musical excellence, production quality, and site comforts of this really fine event.

The problem is that the Austin-area fan base has so many choices that not enough of them showed up for the organizers to break even on the event, a reality that threatens the festival's future. Official attendance figures were not available, but festival president Randy Collier was candid in telling me that the total gate was down from last year despite fine weather, a great lineup, and a sustained marketing effort.

To be sure, thousands of festival-goers did show up and several vendors I spoke with were satisfied with traffic at their booths, but as an attendee I never had any trouble getting great seating locations, prime campground space, or quick service on the festival shuttle bus. Those are nice things for attendees, but are problematic for the promoters. The festival could easily have handled 50 percent again as much gate without stressing any of the systems. An equivalent event in many other parts of the country would certainly have drawn better.

Hopefully, the light turnout will not discourage Collier and the other organizers from proceeding with plans for a 20th annual event next spring. After enjoying this festival so much, Festival Preview will certainly be back in 2007.

I'll have lots more about OSMF on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Blog moves to center stage

I'm just back from Old Settler's with loads to write about but little time to do it, since I'll be headed out for MerleFest in a couple of days. So instead of carefully prepared and edited articles on the primary Festival Preview site, I will produce my OSMF coverage in a series of postings here on the blog.

I have some new ideas for how to better integrate the blog and home site (and the bee, for those who have been following). If those work out as I hope, this more blog-centric style of working may become my model for future festival coverage, since it should allow me to be more timely and comprehensive.

Now, on to OSMF news, interviews and analysis....