Line Item…

The 1,332 incandescent light bulbs that illuminate this National Historic Landmark straddling the Virginia/Tennessee state line, bring appropriate illumination to this western Virginia outpost.  It’s not only one of the few great American cities that share two states like Kansas City and Texarkana, but it’s also arguably the birthplace of what we now know as country music as the scene of the earliest recordings of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family.  The “Singing Brakeman” cut two tracks in the afternoon of August 4th, 1927 for Ralph Peer of Victor’s Talking Machine Company, “Soldier’s Rest” and “Sleep, Baby, Sleep.”  The Carter family rolled in from Maces Spring to record “Wandering Boy” and “Poor Orphan Child,” that same year and they rest, as they say, is treasured history.  So this is a fitting setting for a three-day celebration of what the genre has become, a legion of devoted musicians just trying to do the right thing with what they’ve been given.  Dedicated disciples, two or three generations later, tapping the mother lode that ran through Bristol and the surrounding rolling hills.  Deep grats to Brad Spivey who called me from Bristol this time last year and said, “Where  the hell are YOU man?  This is right down your alley.”  And after taking it all in this year, the 10th edition of the Rhythm  and Roots Reunion, I’m still wondering how it took so long to put this remarkable event on my radar. It works by most every measure…the perfect setting in historic downtown Bristol whose State Street IS the state line between Virginia and Tennessee with a carnival-like assortment of food, arts and crafts vendors with over-the-top southern hospitality.  And then there’s the cavalcade of musical talent that populates this singular place for these three potent days…that’s what it’s all about.  What follows is an illustrated flat-rock skip over the river of music that flowed through this cultural crossroads last weekend.  It’s just a glimpse.

After a summer of Travelin’ McCourys out with the Lee Boys, Dierks Bentley and Dan Tyminski, the patriarch returned for a family reunion that brought it all home.

The no-punches-pulled full-tilt string band Cadillac Sky has gained well-deserved cult status for its resonant songwriting, its instrumental virtuosity and its unbridled energy on stage.  They held court mightily at the lovingly-restored Paramount Theater downtown.  At right are banjo shredder Matt Menefee and lead singer/songwriter Bryan Simpson in his favorite checkerboard flannel shirt.

The Infamous Stringdusters close out the festival’s first night on the Piedmont Stage and make it perfectly clear that they’re fully engaged in their mission of taking bluegrass to places yet unvisited.  Their joy in carving out their own groove is contagious…it’s a thrill to have been there at the beginning and to witness what this sextet has become.  Pure music power.

 

Seven-time IBMA bass player of the year Missy Raines strutted out her gifted young band, the New Hip early Saturday on the Paramount stage,  featuring yet another of those Berklee bluegrassers Dominick Leslie (left), a former Rockygrass and MerleFest mandolin winner.

 

Sugar Hill sensation Sarah Jarosz captivated a full-house in the old Cameo Theater with a solo set of her winning originals from Song Up In Her Head and well-chosen covers like Patty Griffin’s “Long Ride Home.”  This Austin-born and bred triple-threat has spent the last few years attracting an A-list of musical collaborators that would be the envy of anyone in this genre, let alone just another Texas gal in cowboy boots.  Keep an eye and an ear on this already mainstream teen talent.  Watch for her on Austin City Limits on November 6th.

Red Molly’s rich harmonies brought chills and throat lumps to a full Paramount Theater on Saturday…Abbie Gardner, Laurie MacAllister and Molly Venter have distilled wide influences into a lush mix.  Think Wailin’ Jennys meet Sometimes Why.

One of the weekend’s sweet surprises was finding Virginia’s resident fiddle-fatale Nate Leath leading a jazz- and blues- laced set in Bristol’s Shanghai back room with Lenoir, NC’s Harris Brothers.  Hot swing ruled…it was over the top good.

My honky tonk mentor Brad Spivey had encouraged us to partake of Kelley Breiding and the Cowboys sometime during the weekend…kind of a Loretta meets Patsy retro act that we found in the old Theatre Bristol space.  A Tar Heel with Texas tendencies, Kelley kept Mr. Spivey smiling as we enjoyed the intent dog house playing of Nick MacMillian (left).

I have such a renewed respect and admiration for upstate New York’s Gibson Brothers, who join the Stanleys, the Louvins and the Everlys in the firmament of the music’s most compelling brother acts with solid songwriting and a vise-like grip on harmony as it should be sung.  They’ve weathered the vagaries of the bluegrass business and are back on top of the heap and deservedly so.  Eric and Leigh are more than worthy.  If you haven’t discovered them, it’s time.

Saturday night’s headliner, with a head lately full of silver locks, was veteran torch-bearer Ricky Skaggs and his finely-tuned bluegrass machine Kentucky Thunder, playing to a huge Saturday night outdoor crowd in perfect pre-fall weather.  There’s no way around the chops this band has maintained for decades…faster and cleaner than the rest, and yes, he still misses his momma’s fried chicken, if there was any doubt.

There will be some who will contest my assertion that RS&KT were Saturday headliners, as the closing honors on the Piedmont Stage went to the darkly mysterious king of the country western troubadours, Unknown Hinson…think Eddie Munster grown up and gone wrong.  I’ve missed his previous Richmond appearances and may very well miss the next one.

Day three began with a delightful reunion with Annie & the Beekeepers on the breezy Moore Street stage…we haven’t enjoyed Annie Lynch & Alex Spaulding and their delicate harmonies and thoughtful lyrics since a quiet night in Bruce Olsen’s northside Sound Dog Studios a year or so ago.   Bruce’s son Adrian (below left) lent a hand on bass and drums.  It was the perfect way to ease into our last day of Rhythm & Roots. 

 

One of this generation’s most profound songsmiths Darrell Scott held forth Saturday night in the Paramount where he alternated between a powerfully-played concert grand piano and his expressive six-string.  He also called upon the bottomless well of fiddle chops, Casey Driessen for a couple of show stoppers including “With A Memory Like Mine” and closed with his signature coal miner’s lament, “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive.”  He did another strong Sunday set outdoors on the Piedmont Stage (above) with Casey and mandolin great Matt Flinner.  Few have earned more respect from fellow artists and fans alike than Darrell Scott.  Did you catch him on Jimmy Fallon’s show last night in Robert Plant’s new Band of Joy?  Not sure who the drummer was, but I did also recognize Buddy Miller, Patty Griffin and Byron House.  And Darrell’s also part of this weekend’s Williams Fortune Music Festival just east of Staunton, hosted by Robin & Linda Williams and Statler Brother Jimmy Fortune.  Gotta make that trip one of these years….but I digress.

A festival like this tenth anniversary edition of Bristol’s Rhythm & Roots Reunion is heavy with top-drawer talent both familiar and not.  I’ve only scratched the surface of the incredible roster of Americana acts that rivals MerleFest and Floydfest in its extent and quality.  If I hadn’t read the artist writeups rather thoroughly Friday night for example, we would have likely missed the new Nashville supergroup 18 South comprised of longtime favorite Jon Randall Stewart and a gifted Jessi Alexander sharing vocal chores and accompanied by guitar wizard Guthrie Trapp, keyboardist Jimmi Wallace, the great Mike Bub on bass and the go-to acoustic rhythm king Larry Atamanuik on drums.  I hope this proves to be the long-overdue vehicle that brings Jon the notice he’s deserved for so long.  Gotta get them to R’Town somehow.

If it’s a proper Virginia roots festival, you can count on state folklorist Jon Lohman (above left) holding forth with his own stage dedicated to informal and insightful performances including the stirring Sunday gospel workshop with the Reverend Frank Newsome and members of Doyle Lawson’s celebrated Quicksilver.  The harmonies brought tears and Rev. Newsome’s lined singing of “Amazing Grace” with the audience reverently following his lead, was supernal.  Thanks again Jon.

And a parting shot of those fine Honey Dewdrops from Scottsville (Kagey, Laura & Barry) who played their first BRRR and like us, are confident it won’t be their last.  Save those dates…September 16-18, 2011! 

 

So we segue into our third Richmond Folk Festival which is just two weeks away down by the river.  Jon L. will again be bringing a treasure chest full of Virginia talent and craftsmanship to the Virginia Folklife Area and the main festival stages will again ring with a fresh collection of some of the world’s most formidable musical artistry.  Chris Bopst and I were interviewed for story on programming the festival in rvanews.  160,000 people can’t be wrong…if you weren’t among them for last year’s festival, don’t miss it this year.  No excuses…it’s free.  And check out the art on this year’s souvenir poster by Drive By Truckers illustrator Wes Freed.  Very cool…

Off to Nashville next week for the IBMA festivities…I’ll be reporting back as time and energy allows. It’s the last day of summer…and I couldn’t be more ready for the equinox.  Full moon, rain and cool on the way…pretty please….TT

Sharper Harper

One of my fellow Folk Festival volunteers was there even though he hadn’t heard of Jesse Harper, or Daniel Clarke or John Winn or Darrell Muller.  He had seen guitarist Trey Pollard in some other configuration, but suffice to say, he wasn’t prepared for what unfolded Friday night at Ashland Coffee & Tea as Jesse gathered his main men to do a couple of richly-rendered sets brimming with Harper originals and choice covers.  Jesse has all the goods that could take him to the next level…with solid self-penned tunes like
“Run,” “Falling,” “Porch Swing,” “Memphis,” and “One True Thing” along with an expressive, evolving vocal style and smartly tasteful guitar work.  He’s a total package ready to break through the artistic glass ceiling.  It was a joy to watch and listen to these guys take great delight in each others’ contributions and Kay Landry’s sensitive work on the mixing board brought every nuance to the all-in-the-family trackside crowd.  Though it’s not as good as being there, here’s a video of their take on Johnny Mercer’s “I’m An Old Cowhand” I shot with my new phone (and my very first YouTube upload). It’s always a treat when Daniel’s in the band especially given his busy schedule touring with the Dixie Chicks and the Court Yard Hounds.  Here’s Danny C dueting with Emily Robison at a Court Yard Hounds gig up in Rochester, NY this summer.  And he’s completely jazzed about k.d. lang’s upcoming country-flavored album they’ve been finishing up in Nashville.  He’ll be out globetrotting in support of that March release for most of 2011.  Pretty cool.

And the ever-versatile John Winn took a vocal turn on “With A Little Help From My Friends,” and performed perfect fills on sax, flute and clarinet.  John brings his quartet consisting of Adam Larrabee on guitar, Randall Pharr on bass and Brian Caputo on drums to a 7pm free show in the beautifully restored Henrico Theater on Nine Mile this Thursday night.  Free, but reservations required at 328-4491.  And if Daniel makes it back from his Hounds gig in Minneapolis, he’ll probably sit in too.  The boys love to play.

Another Harper was in the audience that night…mando prodigy Harper Speagle-Price (at left with fellow 8-stringer Sam Bush) fresh from an inspiring summer soaking up the music at Mt. Shasta Camp in California and other western outposts.  Hear what her fingers are thinking now at Ellwood’s Coffee this Friday night from 8-10pm…Jack Cowardin sits in on fiddle. 

They’ll be up against those roving Johnson Boys that night…that’s right, the Big Boss Combo heads north for a no-cover stop at the Ironhorse across the street from AC&T.  The tunes and the wisecracks run from 9 to midnight…Rusty, Harry, Tiny, Slim and Big Red will be expecting you.

Back up one night and enjoy the newly formed but well-seasoned Commonwealth Bluegrass Band (above) during their monthly stop at Gus’s Italian Cafe in Mechanicsville this Thursday from 6:30 to 9.  No cover but get there early if you want a table.  They’ll be at their fresh-out-of-Galax best.

And head-mongrel Page Wilson with his Reckless Abandon band shares the bill with Brad Spivey and the Honky Tonk Experience this Saturday night at Pocahontas State Park down in the big amphitheater.  Page’s bum knee has made for tough going this summer…head on out and show him some love, and enjoy some homemade all-American music.

Taking second runner up mandolin honors at Galax this year was Brian Muller who joined his dad Paul, uncle Damian and Galax resident Ken Melton for the annual bluegrass gospel service at Hebron Church out in Goochland Sunday. Paul can always be counted on to deliver a well-chosen and -executed set list for this much-anticipated summer sing…it was recorded for a subsequent CD…let me know if you want one…including classics like “A Beautiful Life” and “The First Step To Heaven” in fine four-part harmony.

We’re getting excited about getting the JAMinc/In Your Ear fall schedule started on September 10 with Mike McAdam and Ericson Holt.  Check their websites and call Wally to make your reservations at 804.320.7067. 

Enjoy the blessed relief of temps in the eighties all week…a well-earned break.  And a hydrilla-free James River.  How did that happen?   TT

(Commonwealth Bluegrass Band photo by Si Cottrell)

Summer Love

I’ll confess to a level of frustration at Lake Wobegon, Minnesota’s historian and chief gossip Garrison Keillor’s apparent need to become a singer too.  The past few years of his three-decades-old Prairie Home Companion radio show have found him soloing and sharing vocals with nearly all his guests…and not always successfully, IMHO.  But from his grand entrance from the rear of the sold-out audience at Lewis Ginter last Friday with Summer Love tour co-star Sara Watkins, through the rest of the three-hour enchanted evening, I’ve had a change of heart.  Garrison loves the American songbook and takes sincere joy from participation in it.  A simple melody becomes a wondrous new thing with the right harmony line, and my frustration has now become envy when considering all the luminaries with whom he gets to collaborate.  His earnestness gives him great license.  Accompanied by the Guy’s All Star Shoe Band led by keyboardist Rich Dworsky and guitarist Pat Donohue, Garrison and Sara cast a spell with a range of tunes that included romantic old standards and new, including Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There.”  Sometimes  cheesy but ultimately charming.  And of course Keillor’s unrivaled gifts as an observer and storyteller were made all the more impressive when seeing him spin all those engaging yarns without script or note. Human Foley wizard Fred Newman provided a dazzling array of his signature vocal sound effects, astounding in their accuracy.  It was a comfortably cloudy and breezy evening on the lawn above Ginter’s Rose Garden complete with a well-timed twilight flyover by a wedge of Canada geese during a moving sing-along of “Amazing Grace” that was already producing goose bumps.  I was disappointed that the delightfully versatile Sue Scott wasn’t on the tour, nor did Garrison make even one reference to the fact he was at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.  But it was a fitting exclamation point on a challenging Groovin’ In The Garden season that we hope will encourage the promoters at Haymaker to do it all again in the spring of 2011. 

Rewind to a previous Wednesday night at Ashland Coffee and Tea where we witnessed FloydFest discoveries Morwenna Lasko and Jay Pun cast a spell with their inspired interplay.  Charlottesville-based and Berklee trained, don’t miss any opportunity to hear them with or without their band.  Take a look at the road ahead for them here.

On the way home from a weekend with family near Sparta, NC, I stopped by Felt’s Park in Galax for a walkaround of the hallowed grounds of the Old Time Fiddler’s Convention just getting underway for its 75th year.  It’s almost with a sense of shame that I admit to never having been to this event that so many of my musician friends hold so dear…Randy Cook showed me around and told of amazing jams he’d already been part of with the likes of Adam Steffey, Sierra Hull, Clay Hess and others…and this was only Tuesday!  The new stage seen above made its debut this past week and this year’s winners can be seen here.  (Only the youth winners were listed at the time of this posting)

Tonight affords a rare opportunity to hear two of our town’s jazz greats performing together…John Winn along with his dad Jack’s quartet will do a few sets from 7-10p at Bogart’s in the Fan to benefit the new Patrick Henry Charter School.

This coming Friday poses a dilemma that I’ll leave you to deal with…John sits in with Jesse Harper and pals Daniel Clarke, Darrell Muller and Trey Pollard at AC&T while up in Charlottesville at the Southern, four of the six former members of King Wilkie (Ted Pitney, Nick Reeb, Abe Spear and Jake Hopping) will perform as the Low Country Suits.  Ted and friends will surely do some stuff from his terrific new EP Genesee.  Decisions, decisions.

 

JAMinc’s In Your Ear Studio Concert Series gets rolling again for the fall season on September 10 as former Richmonder and Good Humor Band alum Mike McAdam joins Eric Holt and most likely our own Robbin Thompson (playing AC&T solo 8/21) sitting in for what should be a memorable musical evening.  That’s Mike (right)with GHB back in 1976.  He’s since been on tour with players like Steve Earle and Mary Chapin Carpenter…reservations soon at JAMinc.org.  Down the road:  Duck Baker on November 12 and Jonathan Byrd on December 2.  And don’t forget about our great compilation CD available at Plan 9 and soon on our website.  And it’s hard to believe that we’re less than two months away from the third edition of the Richmond Folk Festival, down by the river side the weekend of October 8-10.  I’m about to bust wanting to share the incredible lineup of artists set to join us this year…I know the bar’s set pretty high but this might be the best ever…you’ll just have to trust me until the official announcement which will likely come this week.  Fall can’t come soon enough for me.   TT

(Mike McAdam and John Winn photos from their websites)

Ground Broken

“Breaking Ground” was the theme of last weekend’s incomparable celebration of human creativity that is FloydFest. Here’s how founder/dreamer Kris Hodges set things up: “It’s a joy to see the seed of FloydFest, planted in the deep rich soil of these Blue Ridge Mountains, tending to it along each stage, through sweat, toil, wind, rain and sunshine, and witnessing the fruit that it bears here today. Is it delicious? Is it healthy? Does it have good color? To be honest, sometimes I can’t say. It’s different planting seeds of abstraction, as opposed to those of material substance.” I would say without hesitation that this ninth harvest of the fruits of untold labors of love was bumper crop. Hundreds of musical artists of countless extraction, gifted craftsmen, imaginative vendors of all things delicious, dedicated production crew and staff plus an army of volunteers, all pooled their energy in the midst of record-breaking heat to present an event that’s logically impossible, much like Manhattan is impossible in its complexity and cultural richness. There were aesthetic enhancements in the form of rustic floral plantings, magnificent new pegged-beam stage structures, and the best special effect of all, a full moon on Saturday night. There were hauntingly beautiful young girls in dreadlocks, astonishingly acrobatic stilt walkers and fire dancers suspended from illuminated helium balloons.

Not to mention some of the most varied and tasty festival food you’ll ever find including without a doubt the most decadently rich, melt-in-your-mouth cake donuts ever.

 

And then there were the intrepid campers, seen above at the daily “Church of Clean” services, waiting patiently to rinse away dust and sweat in the Rinnai-heated outdoor showers. A full Floydian experience can only be had by making the commitment to live there, whether it’s in a small pup tent or an often-maligned RV with noisy generator. It was togetherness to the nines and I’ll commend all who braved the hot proximity, including my bride of 31 years who was a trouper in our truckbed tent. Late night breezes and moonlight through the tent flap made for surprisingly sweet dreams.

But FloydFest is powered by the music, and the carefully chosen lineup was as solid as ever, with names like Levon Helm, Old Crow Medicine Show, Grace Potter, Galactic, Railroad Earth, Tift Merritt, Soulive and Mountain Heart. But for us, it was the joy of discovering new voices and this year it happened at the Virginia Folklife porch stage hosted by the genial, steeped-in-tradition Jon Lohman. In a replay of FloydFest 8’s Friday night, there was a site-wide power failure that forced the porch to become an intimate, acoustic, lantern-lit stage for Charlottesville’s stunningly accomplished violinist/fiddler Morwenna Lasko and her guitarist/partner Jay Pun. The magic was enhanced by the fact that we weren’t familiar with these two Berklee grads who mesmerized the reverent crowd straining to hear every nuanced note without the aid of amplification. The bonus is that the duo will play Ashland Coffee and Tea tonight (Wednesday) night at 7. I hope to see you there. Sorry…no pictures….it was too dark! But for us, the fest was off and running. Following are some other illustrated highlights.

FloydFest founder Kris Hodges drumming for Butch Robins’ Imagicnation

Richmond’s own Hot Seats (formerly Special Ed and the Short Bus) hold forth in the Blue Ridge and Beyond Dance tent.

Well-belted blues from Saretta Wesley guesting with Brooklyn’s The Mumbles in the VIP Tent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Same venue…all the way from Stockholm, Sweden…the Rockridge Brothers. Old time music crosses oceans…

 

 

A steamy Dreaming Creek main stage set on Friday from Konono #1 featuring likembe (thumb piano) master Mingiedi. Check the cool vintage horn speaker…low-fidelity at its finest.

The distaff side of Alaska’s (now Nashville’s) Bearfoot, Angela Oudean and Odessa Jorgensen.

 

We’d gotten a heads-up on this inventive band from Jon Baliles…we weren’t disappointed. The Low Anthem plays The Porch. Haunting harmonies and arrangements. And watch their deeply moving claymation video “Charlie Darwin.” Do it!

Next up on The Porch, a genre-bending jam led by resonant baritone Alexis P. Suter and her rock-solid band and backup singers, with guests Bassekou Koyate on ngoni, a small West African lute that was precursor to the banjo, along with local legends Danny Knicely on mando and fiddle rebel Nate Leath. Jon Lohman also bent a few choice notes on his harp. Two back-to-back sets that confirmed the notion that “Porch Is Good.”

 

 

FloydFest afforded an all-too-rare chance to catch Brooklyn’s WIYOS with former Richmonder Parrish Ellis on guitar and vocals. Even rarer now that the band’s disbanding with Parrish going back to school in Asheville. But these guys mined a very rich vein of rhythmic retro music.

The Hoorah Cloggers backed by stringband Farm Use Only high-stepped it in the Dance Tent during Levon Helm’s Saturday night main stage set and put an exclamation point on our FF 9 experience…an early exit was necessitated by Sunday’s Music for Massey benefit back home…more on that to follow. This would be our fourth FloydFest and one can only imagine what Kris and Erika might have in store for the tenth anniversary year in 2011. Lord willing, we’ll be there to find out. Maybe you too? Power props to all who put in so much of their hearts and souls to stage such an ambitious and thoroughly engaging event. Especially production guru John McBroom, who not only played in two bands, Blue Mule and Imagicnation, he was first-responder to the numerous and inevitable “fires” to be expected during high-intensity situations like this. Cool as a cuke…job well done. And thanks to Graves Mountain pal Bart Tuthill for sharing his mountain top perch with us, Jack Cowardin, Barry Lawson, Keagy Parrish and Laura Wortman. Couldn’t imagine a sweeter way to spend our last night in the hills…on a log cabin porch under a full July moon. Or maybe it was all just a dream.

======================================

The long ride home Sunday was justified by the 6th annual Music for Massey/Connor’s Heroes benefit concert at Innsbrook, despite another day of searing heat and humidity that kept attendance down well below expectations. But the intrepid, well-hydrated thousand were treated to one of the most entertaining shows the West End venue has ever seen. Alt-country singer/bandleader/actor (and Simon Cowell’s replacement on Idol?) brought his sequined pink suit, his seasoned band of 25 years and road cases full of wit and charm for his two-hour turn on stage. He was simply electric, obliging with his smash “Wicked Game” and more recent “Bad Bad Thing” along with a scream-laced stroll through the audience to render “Love Me Tender.” What a kick to see a real pro at work. And speaking of road cases, check out this one in Mr. Isaak’s collection once belonging to Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) from the classic rock mockumentary Spinal Tap. Shouldn’t it be in the rock Hall of Fame in Cleveland? I’m just sayin’…

Full credit also goes to our six-year MFM veterans from the West Coast…James, Warren, Chuck and Joe, the Waybacks who gave it all up despite the bulging thermometer. And Louisiana roots rocker Marc Broussard, more acclimated than most to the muggy conditions. It was a seriously good day of music with the only downside being that way too many of you missed it. Thanks to all who came and to Jim Napier and company for pulling it off. Concert promotion’s not for sissies.

So meet me in Ashland tonight for Morwenna Lasko and Friday for the great Jimmy LaFave. Or will it be Cadillac Sky at the Southern in Charlottesville? Jury’s still out…TT