Snowbird Mountain Music Festival
Friday, 17 July 2009 14:53
Sandy Shupe
The Snowbird Mountain Music Festival was held July 10-12 at the Snowbird Resort, located in Little Cottonwood Canyon above the Salt Lake Valley. It is a new event, not the folk and bluegrass festival held for several years on the same weekend at the same resort as an Intermountain Acoustic Music Association event.
Snowbird is a beautiful setting and the new main stage on the Peruvian Terrace was framed with impressive, sculptured cliffs. What great photographic opportunities for the artists! Snowbird management was obviously hoping to retain the audiences from the past folk/Bluegrass festivals and add a Country fan base as well. The space did seem packed with Country fans on Friday and Saturday night for Son Volt, Cowboy Junkies and Old 97’s. The folk, singer/songwriter and Bluegrass artists did not get the larger audiences.
There was enough talent to draw in Bluegrass lovers. It was varied enough to please fans of all ages and expose everyone to new talent and experimental sounds. Who doesn’t admire the energy of the young Belleville Outfit and Greencards? The seasoned sounds of The Seldom Scene and Alison Brown Quartet fed our Bluegrass souls. There were amazing musicians to watch in each group. It was a joy to be there. But numbers of paying acoustic/bluegrass fans were down from years past.
This new festival is sponsored by the Snowbird Renaissance Center (SRC). This is a non-profit arm of Snowbird to foster cultural, educational and artistic events. Speaking from my educational and music background, I hope they can maximize their mission. The survival of folk and Bluegrass depends on pulling in young musicians and cultivating new interests. The band camp performance was a delight to watch. The singer/songwriters were inspiring.
However, for me a real music festival is more than listening to good music. It is becoming immersed in the musical experience. It is watching the professionals and becoming inspired. It’s playing, learning new licks, sharing songs and feeling part of the community there. Jamming has always been limited at Snowbird by their corporate clients and tourists. It was even more so, this year because meetings were being held during the day in the lodge. It’s also a pricy resort. A three day festival needs a grocery store close by for us poor musicians.
Parking was an even bigger problem this year because the bike event had expanded. Snowbird provides a shuttle bus and a good natured driver. However, if this is a family event and you are coming to play music and stay for the day, you have children, sweaters, food, and instruments. The walk to the bathrooms from the Pond Stage where contests and band scramble was held was long, especially carrying a child. Of course it is the staff’s responsibility to maximize the numbers on property.
Our family likes to camp at festivals so we tried out Tanner Flat. It has been misnamed since nothing there is flat. It is a beautiful camping experience and the individual spaces provide privacy and beauty. The hardworking hosts keep restrooms clean and areas safe. However, even if the musicians could organize to camp in the group spaces, the area guidelines would be to end jamming at 10:00 pm.
There is always trade-offs in life. I have finally come to realize that we are not going to create a Strawberry Festival experience in Utah because there is just not the venue for it nor the crowds to pay the dollars to support it. If we want to see national acoustic talent, we need to put their money where our hearts are. I’m wondering how many Bluegrass musicians will be on the Snowbird Mountain Music Festival next year. From my event promotion experience, I think they’ll be far more Country acts. Granted, the rain may have deterred some fans, but Pagosa Springs devotees come expecting to be rained on at least once a day.
Next year, I intend to support the folk and Bluegrass musicians at Snowbird Mountain Music Festival because I would like to see the opportunity continue. I would also like to enroll all of you in supporting concerts in the area because without your support, they can’t continue. We also have the opportunity to support a true Bluegrass festival at Ft. Buenaventura in Ogden. It has great potential and if we want these experiences to happen, they need our support. Snowbird Mountain Music Lineup
Friday, July 10, 2009
Cowboy Junkies, Son Volt, Justin Townes Earle
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Old 97’s, Alison Brown Quartet, The Seldom Scene, Bearfoot, The Bellville Outfit, Jim Lauderdale, T.R. Richie, The Doc Young Band
Sunday, July 12
Darrell Scott, Steel Drivers, The Greencards, T.R. Richie, Tift Merritt, Hammer Down, Abalone Dots, The Nay Family Band, Kate Macleod, Steve Seskin, Dan Weldon
Alicia McGovern: We Just Fly
Thursday, 02 July 2009 03:02
Tara Shupe
The first strums of guitar on Alicia McGovern's new release We Just Fly is tension-filled repetition, joined immediately by a simple banjo roll. Then, Alicia's sweet pure voice comes in, doubled.. just slightly off, enhancing this tension and emphasizing the lyrics to “Carolina”, a complicated love song to home; that place you came from that defines you, that you leave and return to time and time again though the complexities of that family and origin you didn't necessarily choose keep you wondering why. Soft, low-key arrangements follow. Alicia and her guitar are joined throughout the CD by various flavor-instruments to accentuate the allusions. Thoughtfully painted complex heart-songs with titles like “Patron Saint” and the soulful “Lazarus”, about a love affair miraculous like burning bushes in the bible, make you wish you were a believer to.
“You Ran Off With the Gypsies” is another song describing moments using religious terminology to define poignant moments of self discovery in experience. “This America” is an excellent critique on our nations tendency to use terms like “democracy” to describe the capitalism that permeates everything.
The title track to the CD “We Just Fly” is a relationship song, also analyzing the complex dynamics of time and place and the friends involved in between, the word friend becomes more complex every moment. “Emily”, banjo and cello beautifully complimenting the lyrics sung to a child, is advice and observations to a creature living among this labyrinthine of biological interaction. "Mighty Hand" starts out with a prayer and withdrawing money to go out on The Journey, getting out of dodge as they say, when you take it into your own hands to decide your destiny with references to the border patrol? These frequent references to God and religious acts aren't your typical references, and this is good. It is vague and, intentionally or non-intentional, I appreciate this and am not really turned off by it. It's part of the story, more poetic than preaching.
“You Rise Up” is another love song to a traveler leaving to embark on the ultimate journey of knowledge. “Yellowed papers” is a song of the hidden dreams written down by a mother at the age of the perspective voice, seen years later. And, finally “Fare Thee Well” is a bid farewell by a traveler leaving a lover, vexed by the prospects of the unknown.
A thoughtfully beautiful and calming listen, both lyrically and in it's production, for those late nights of internal strife. It's a CD to get you thinking about journeys, and answers and finding the light in love.
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Sneakin’ Out On the Fly: Sneakin’ Out’s explosive, serendipitous chemistry.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009 13:45
Tara Shupe
If you’ve been to Portland, Ore., recently, you may have seen Sneakin' Out
performing outside of a gas station, at a bus stop, coffee shop, the
park—anywhere the unlikely trio of mandolin, acoustic bass and
everything-but-the-kitchen-sink percussion can demonstrate their
eclectic sound.
Mike Schmitt, Don Henson and David Gerow first
crossed paths in Michigan through a mutual friend and a series of
somewhat serendipitous events. Two out of three reunited years later in
the Northwest when Gerow called Schmitt out of the blue.
“I
got wind that he was coming back, and I barely knew him,” says Schmitt.
“He said, ‘It’s Dave. Remember me? I moved to Portland. I don’t know
anybody. I’m bored and broke. I’m hungry—can I come over?’”
That
night, Gerow moved into Schmitt’s house—and never left. “We started
working on this duo that had, at that time, no name, no repertoire, no
nothing,” says Schmitt. “Dave didn’t even know how to play the bass.”
Within
a couple of weeks, with four songs under their belt, they took to the
streets. Gerow played familiar melodies on mandolin and Mike eked out
simple bass lines. “Everyone who walked by would say pretty much the
same thing: ‘I’ve never heard anything like this,’” Gerow recalls.
Encouraged by the response, they continued to play. Constantly.
Gerow,
in his mid-30s, new to town, an unemployed musician, saw his
opportunity to make something of his fledgling music career. “I’ve
got 25 years experience, and I’ve got this eager, enthusiastic guy who
will just follow me anywhere—it didn’t matter what it was for, or how
long,” Gerow says. “He didn’t have a vehicle or any money himself. So
he would carry this full-scale upright bass, without a gig-bag, on a bicycle, under his arm and
ride 20, 30 blocks to where I said, ‘Meet me at 7 o’clock in the
morning so we can play these four songs for $2 apiece and a cup of
coffee. Maybe.’”
By the time Henson returned to
Portland from Michigan two months later, Schmitt and Gerow had worked
up a set of 12 songs. It didn’t take long before those songs inspired
Sneakin’ Out to become a bona fide band.
On
the morning of their first gig as a trio, Gerow suggested they play an
improv version of Pink Floyd’s “Money.” The venue owner grabbed a cheap
Easter basket from a nearby shelf filled with miscellaneous percussion
instruments—claves, maracas, a tiny tambourine and random toys. He
handed it to Henson and said, “Hey, you might as well join in.” Henson
sat on the curb and dug through the basket. He pulled out a couple of
items and, with zero preparation, launched into the song’s familiar
cash-register intro.
“I’m not sure what he did, between the
shakers and the tambourine and whatever he had. There was a service
bell. With all these things he just came up with the intro,” Gerow
says. “And everybody knew just instantly exactly what it was, and even
the look on Don’s face was, ‘What the hell is going on?’ Mike came in
with the bass line and I came in with my part and that was the first
song that we ever all three played together. It was so serendipitous.
And from that point on, we have been pedal to the metal, nonstop, in
pursuit of that moment.”
No Longer A Stranger. The Jeremy Garrett Sessions.
Wednesday, 01 April 2009 00:00
Before going off to study music at South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, Jeremy hadn't left the State of Idaho much. He describes Levelland as very flat and very windy, without even a ditch or a Denny's to stop it's blowing. With nothing to do but practice Jeremy got very good. He returned to Idaho and joined up with his father Glen Garrett in his band The Grasshoppers. Touring around for years in this fantastic band, winning many contests and making records prepared him for The Big Move... Nashville. “There was like five different groups I was playing with, and driving my own car to every gig. Basically I would be playing with Bobby Osborne in Indiana at Bean Blossom and then drive all night to meet Ronnie (Bowman) somewhere in North Carolina to play and then drive back on Saturday to meat Bobby Osborne at the Grand Old Opry. I was doing that for a couple of years, just a side man as hard as I could, playing with everybody till the Dusters converged."
The Story of the Stringdusters starts, like most bands, with a bunch of jamming. “I met Andy Hall at IBMA. I'd met Jesse before as well somewhere, maybe at IBMA or some festival. But, we jammed together a bunch one year at IBMA (the International Bluegrass Music Association's annual convention held each October in Nashville). I was filling in with Ronnie Bowman from time to time then. Later I eventually joined the group full time, as did Andy Hall and Jesse Cobb. So the three of us were in Ronnie's band at the same time for awhile. That's how we got to be kind of tight. And, Andy Hall knew the other guys. Travis Book kind of came around afterwords. At IBMA he jammed with us in the hallway for an evening, and we had a good time jamming with him so we kept him in our mind and contacted him and he moved out.
The Stringdusters work as hard as anyone in music, all of them very dedicated to trying to make something happen. “Our break is probably three or four weeks long. We came to town to pick. We are all trying to make it and work as hard as we can. We don't necessarily want to do that forever. From a business stand point I think that's probably impossible. But while we are younger and less responsible for things in the world it's probably a good time for us to work as hard as we can and grow our business and our name as a band, and individually to. Definitely musically. I've been in lots of different bands but this is definitely the tightest group of people that I've ever been in a band with and definitely the most professional. Everybody is very focused on playing the best music that we can but also making it as successful as we can. It's just really cool to have six guys on one page.”
Touring 2/3rds of the year has it's pros and cons. “I don't ever feel like I'm even at work when I'm on the road. It's more like we are getting together with the guys to hang out and play some music. We love to play.” Jeremy and Travis have both found themselves understanding and supportive wives. For the rest of these stone-washed, shiny-tipped Nashville playboys, times can be tough. “Last year we did 150 shows. We were probably on the road 250 days last year. This year will be similar. And, that's a lot, especially if you have a family at home or have any ambition of starting a family, that's pretty much impossible. 78 days I think would be perfect, but that's just my opinion you know.”
It is a golden age for the “indie” band. Little labels put out the albums and distribute but promotion is, many times, up to the band to do or delegate. “Each one of us in the band have different jobs that we do. I have been sort of the slacker of the bunch, as of late. I used to handle all the merchandising and it kind of became a big job and I don't have great computer skills, and I also don't have a really good computer yet so I passed that off to Andy Falco and he's really good at keeping track of all that stuff. I handle odd jobs, but everybody does something. Pandolfi does all the booking, or deals with the booking agent I should say, and handles the books. Travis Book does a lot of promotion. He does all the stuff on the internet; the blogging, the myspace, the website, he coordinates all that stuff, and also helps with our street-team. Artists Farm is a company that has been working on helping to spread the word on our shows everywhere we go, trying to get more people in the seats.”
During Jeremy's 3 to 4 week vacation from The Dusters he didn't just sit around watching Jimmy Martin videos, he recorded his first solo project, I Am A Stranger, that came out March 31st. “It's something I've been working on for a long time. I've always wanted to do a solo record. I've had songs in my head from way back in the past growing up. I always try to make a mental note every time I hear a good song. I made a huge list. I've been compiling this list for over a year now. Working with each song, and boiling them down, coming up with their final arrangements, but also the whole time trying to keep an idea of how I want the whole record to flow. So I ended up cutting some of the ideas that I had and writing new material that fit the record. Even at the last minute I dropped a couple songs and added one I had no intention of ever adding, but that's what the record needed.”
Pulling from many influences and his talented picker friends Jeremy has created, from the few tracks I heard on his site, a really enjoyable and diverse album. “The important thing for me, making the record, was to have a creative outlet for my own music that I was hearing in my head that I wasn't able to put into The Stringdusters. It was a way to get those creative ideas out on a recording so I could hear them. And now I have a fresh perspective it seems like, now that I've done this record, since this was my first one and everything. It has 11 songs on it. I co-wrote a bunch of the stuff. Its got a lot of my friends who I really admire musically on the record. All the Stringdusters are on there on a few cuts. I've got some friends like Julie Elkins who's a banjo player from Montana. She played in a group called Kane's River and I've always loved her banjo playing so I really wanted her on this record and was lucky enough to get her on there. I also had Shawn Lane, probably one of my favorite mandolin players. Unsung hero. He never gets enough credit in the instrumental world really. But I just think he's fantastic. I used some of the bigger session players, like Paul Franklin on peddle steal guitar on a track.”
Co-writing the title track with his father Glen as well as writing some with his hero John Pennell (Fork in the Road, Every time You Say Goodbye) were highlights of the experience. Bringing old-time, bluegrass, pop, swing, old-country and a hodge-podge of everything on his i-pod to the table Jeremy promises an array of musical flavors. “It definitely is a big variety. I wanted to play music that I felt rather than try and pigeon hole the album in a certain genre or make it be a certain thing, I just wanted to let it be what it was.”
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