Festival Planning

Howdy Folks!

Never mind the fact that our daffodils were rudely covered with snow this weekend, it IS spring, and therefore time to turn our attention to the dizzying array of festival possibilities.

We are in the throes of mapping out a schedule to include both some of our favorites as well as some new stops.

Here's the way it looks thus far:

DelFest
May 26-29
http://www.delfest.com/

SmileFest
June 3-5
http://www.smilefest.com/

DMB Caravan
June 24-26
http://www.dmbcaravan.com/

All Good Festival
July 14-17
http://www.allgoodfestival.com/

FloydFest
July 28-31
http://www.floydfest.com/

Elysian Fields
August 5-7
http://www.elysianfieldsmusic.com/

Music on the Mountaintop
August 26-27
http://www.musiconthemountaintop.com/

Pickin in the Panhandle
Sept 9-11
http://www.panhandlepickin.com/

Watermelon Park
Sept 22-25
http://www.watermelonpark.com/

The Festy
October 7-9
http://www.thefesty.com/

Crozet Music
October TBA
http://www.crozetmusicfestival.com/

WHEW!

That's a whole lot of rolling, camping, shooting and writing, but it looks like a great line up and we can't wait! There are a few obvious omissions....and while we can't make them all, we're certainly open to suggestions. Anyone?

The Lawrence Olds Quartet

Between the Carolina Chocolate Drops, The Sometimes Favorites, and Galactic just to name a few that popped out at me from the packed music schedule, it was, as usual, a busy weekend in Charlottesville.

Buried on that list was a band you’ve probably yet to hear about, The Lawrence Olds Quartet, hailing from RVA.

Likely, you've not heard of them for a variety of legitimate reasons. First, despite the straight shot on Route 64, Richmond, musically, is another planet. Second, they’ve been on a bit of a hiatus, and they’re just, literally, getting back behind the wheel with a new release called “A Second Chance.”

If you read their blog, (http://www.lawrenceolds.com/), or the liner notes on A Second Chance, you can piece together the story behind the release’s title. You see, Lawrence, a former JMU footballer, is as big and strong as they come. You wouldn’t expect a guy like that to succumb to a rogue infection, lose part of his lung and almost die. But that’s where he found himself last year. Lying in the ICU, he announced to everyone in the room that not only was he going to get better, but he also was going to release a CD to celebrate his second chance.

True to his word, Lawrence has gone and done just that, and playing to an intimate and appreciative crowd at Cville Coffee this Saturday, the Lawrence Olds Quartet kicked off what I’m sure will be an increasing presence here.

Beyond the standards, I’ll admit that I don’t know a whole lot about jazz, but I do know that this quartet has a special combination of skilled musicianship, velvety vocals and, well, darn it, just plain LOVE about what they are doing and why. They’ve taken songs that I knew, and many that I didn’t added their own arrangement and polish and they’ve hit the road with them, driving hard from jazz to blues and back.

I took my kid to this show, and Lawrence says he loves nothing better than to see younger fans in the audience. “I love that kind of vibe, where kids can really get turned on by the stand up bass or the guitar riffs.” I wasn’t surprised to find my son at the end of the show up front and center with guitarist Chris Whiteman, asking questions and telling him all about the lessons he has started taking.

I want these guys to play at my house. Or maybe at your house, and you could invite me. But, barring that, I want them to make a return trip to Charlottesville as soon as possible and I want you to be there when they do!

The Lawrence Olds quartet is Lawrence Olds, Chris Whiteman, Charlie Kilpatrick and Mike Hawkins.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops add it up for us!

We had the distinct honor and privilege to not only attend but also to interview and photograph the newly Grammy Award anointed Carolina Chocolate Drops this weekend when they played to a foot stomping, lyric hollering, hand clapping sold out crowd at the Jefferson Theatre.

The results of our encounter are posted at The Bluegrass Blog:

http://www.thebluegrassblog.com/carolina-chocolate-drops-2/

More photos can be seen at:

http://www.blogger.com/www.photosbymilo.com


At the risk of doing the math for you.....

If you've seen them then you already know.

If you haven't, you need to!

Here comes the sun.....

Slowly but surely, the Festival Project is beginning to thaw out and reemerge into the beautiful spring sunshine. On a day like today, when it is 70+ degrees here, all I can think about is WHEN IS THE NEXT FESTIVAL? BRING IT ON!!!

Of course, when I imply that "we" are thawing out, I actually mean me, and not Milo. Milo has been hard at work taking fabulous pics, and supporting local music here all winter, while I've been hibernating. If you haven't been keeping track, catch up with him here:

www.photosbymilo.com

Good stuff, including some Yonder Mountain from their show this week!

In the meantime, takea minute if you can and show a little love to a brand new blogger friend of ours here: www. odetorockandroll.blogspot.com

Sharing the love, until next time!

Crooked Still’s Gregory Liszt releases new album with his band The Deadly Gentlemen

This is not your granddaddy’s bluegrass…..

In fact, maybe it’s not really bluegrass at all. It’s more like bluegrass’s naughty out-of-town cousin who gave you your first beer out behind the barn. You liked it, more than you knew you were supposed to and now you’re carrying this guilty little secret around because you can’t stop thinking about how you want some more.

Fortunately for you, this here buzz is free, yup, that’s right, courtesy of Gregory Liszt and The Deadly Gentlemen, these tracks can be yours, all yours, for the low, low price of just a few clicks. (http://deadlygentlemen.bandcamp.com/) The band refers to themselves as "epic folk/grasscore," whatever you want to call it, it's working hard for me.

Notably, I love Sober Cure and the title track, Carry Me To Home. Strong work gentlemen. Slainte!

The Fishing (and Picking) Report with Larry Keel and Natural Bridge

Catching up on Picking and Fishing with Larry Keel and Natural Bridge

One of the highlights at the Infamous Stringduster’s new Festival “The Festy” was a Sunday appearance by Larry Keel and Natural Bridge.

The trio quickly became a quartet as they were joined on stage by guitarist and Larry’s brother, Gary. When asked if they played together a lot, Larry responded “It’s rare. But when we do festivals in the area, he comes out and does some picking with us, it’s always so fun! ”

After their rousing set, the band spoke with members of the press and then settled in to relax. “Everyone’s just here to want to hang out for a bit, which we don’t get to do much” said Mark Shimick. “The Stringdusters will play a lot of traditional bluegrass festivals, where we play some jam band festivals, so we don’t get together that much so it’s nice to see them.”

The band is known to end up picking in the parking lot on occasion, which they enjoy, and Larry explained; “when I started going to festivals/fiddlers conventions, that’s what it was all about, before being a performer at them it was about all our friends getting together, making a big ol’ pot of soup or something, playing a bunch of music all night and then all day, then playing all night again. That’s where you get your chops down, where you learn to play. It’s very special.” Jenny agreed “That’s a great place to go when you’re just learning, listening and absorbing and getting in to the pulse of it all, watching others, the old-timers, new-timers and everything in between, and then slowly you start picking yourself, it’s a great way to absorb it and take it further, if you want to or just enjoy it for what it’s worth. “

The band has had a busy but fun year, listing some of their highlights “we’ve had a wonderful season this year, Telluride, Grand Targhee, Music on the Mountaintop, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco was really awesome too, French Broad, Watermelon Park.”

I couldn’t resist asking for a fishing update as well, “I haven't done as much of that as I’ve wanted to,” said Larry, “I did some out in Idaho, fly fishing. I fish every kind of way I can, I do a lot of bass fishing, I did some fishing in the Outer Banks this summer, some saltwater fishing. I caught a lot of bass in Georgia. Every chance I get, I go!”

When asked what it was like to be on the road as a musical couple, Mark pointed out (and Larry agreed) “Jenny is the bedrock of the band, seriously, she takes care of a lot of stuff to let Larry have his creativity and she’ll let me know if I have something I need to do.”

“We wouldn’t want it any other way,” explained Jenny, “we knew, one way or another, we wanted to work together and be together, so here it is!”

When asked about the noticeable absence of a banjo in the group, Larry explained: “We had our banjo player for a while, he’s out in Colorado now, he’s restarted up his old band and we’re back to our trio that we’ve had for 10 years, and that’s our core part of the band but we have a few very special guests we like to bring in to make it a quartet. Today it was Nate Leath on the fiddle, which, he’s as great fiddler player as there is, really. We have quite a few special guests we like to get out, like Will Lee on the 5 string banjo, he’s a master and a wonderful singer too. We sort of switch it up, have trios, have a banjo or a fiddle, we like to mix it up. And I think our audience likes that. It keeps it fresh for them and it keeps it fresh for us."

When asked where their evening was headed, Larry smiled “I’m looking forward to picking with as many of these folks as I can, we don’t always get to hang out, so it’s sure nice when we do!”

Introducing The Festy!

Incredible music, a breathtaking venue and promotional visionaries got married about a year ago and gave birth to a baby this weekend and its name is The Festy.

The first cries issued forth from this newborn on Saturday, October 9th on the double stages in front of the Devil’s Backbone Brewery, in beautiful Nelson County, Virginia were soft and sweet, with performances by Sarah Siskind, Robinella and Crooked Still, but as the evening and weekend progressed, the cries turned lusty and ferocious culminating with stage thumping and fist pumping performances by the Infamous Stringdusters (the event’s curators and hosts) and Railroad Earth.

Like most newborns, this baby didn’t get much sleep this weekend, as the jams went on well into the wee hours both on stage and in the form of impromptu campfire performances throughout the campground. “I was walking back through the camp zone after it got dark and I saw all these fires, and heard the sounds of picking and people hanging out and that’s a big piece of the whole puzzle that makes a great vibe,” said Stringdusters guitarist, Andy Falco, “there are not enough facial expressions that we can make to show how excited we are about this festival.”

That the award winning Stringdusters could line up a few friends to “gig for a weekend” wouldn’t surprise anyone. The true indicator of success, however, lay not only in the breadth of talent represented, but also its depth. Included in the line up were legendary flat pickers Larry Keel and Tony Rice. The crowd was in awe, as were a number of the performers. Said Keel about their involvement: “We were called by the Stringdusters and they said they were having a festival up here…I love playing in the hills of Virginia, and they said they really wanted us to be a part of it, so we worked it out and we’re real glad we did.”

Unlike some festival events, where bands roll in and roll out in a dizzying cloud of dust, the goal of these organizers was to create an environment and a vibe where performers would want to stick around, not only to catch up with friends, but also to sit in and jam with one another, something so many love to do, but for which they don’t always find the opportunity. Said Jenny Keel; “The hanging out factor was good. Having the band mastermind it all had a great impact and a very positive one.” There was a veritable love-fest backstage, between artists, organizers, the production team, and volunteers and this vibe flowed from behind the curtain out across the stage and into the crowd which sang and danced their hearts out for two full days and nights. Said Allan "El Ron" Ronquillo, promoter from Running Smooth and good friend of Railroad Earth, “when an event is done well like this, everyone, from the band to the fans, walks away feeling empowered.”

More than just a concert, the Festy was designed as a lifestyle, wellness and music experience. In addition to music, the event hosted both a trail running and mountain bike race on the two mornings. Yoga classes were free and available to all participants. A climbing wall, massage therapists, instrument workshops and educational workshops on environmental sustainability were all in the mix. “What we’re doing here” said Michael Allenby, (owner of The Artist Farm, and event co-producer) “is creating an experience for people who love the outdoor culture.” Said Devils Backbone Brewing Company owner and venue developer, Steve Crandall, “we’ve done a lot of work to point event participants in the direction of local resources here, we’re about creating sustainability.” With crisp fall weather and access to hiking trails, participants took full advantage of what the area had to offer. “People come to this area and fall in love with it instantaneously, we can’t manufacture or fabricate any of these mountains around us, that’s their dream, the Blue Ridge Mountains, when folks pull in here…..it’s overwhelming ” said the event’s production company, Cerberus’s co-owner, Justin Billcheck.

Great time, great music, great location, this nascent event just knocked it right out of the park. Go ahead and mark your calendars, this baby will turn one next year on October 8 & 9, 2011 and that’s going to be a birthday party no one should miss!