I've been writing about music as well as writing music this year.
Here are a few highlights of my writing work (most published in Bluegrass Unlimited) this year.
The Seldom Scene—Remains To Be Scene
Reviewed by Kevin Slick
How does a band with a legendary status continue to live up to the mythology that inevitably grows and threatens to overshadow any new recording? The legendary Seldom Scene answer the question with their new album that positively glows with the same causal brilliance that has always been a hallmark of the group. The line up of guitarist and mandolin player Lou Reid, bassist Ronnie Simpkins, banjoist and fiddler Ron Stewart, Dobro player Fred Travers, and guitarist Dudley Connell honor the tradition they’ve inherited by not trying to copy anyone, just being their own authentic selves, finding songs others might have missed, returning to old favorites, and always sounding like they’re having the time of their lives playing the music they love.
“A Good Time Man Like Me Ain’t Got No Business (Singin’ The Blues)” was recorded by songwriter Jim Croce 50 years ago, and when you hear it on this album it’s as if it was written specifically for the Seldom Scene treatment. Woody Guthrie’s “Hard Travelin’” and Bob Dylan’s “Walkin’ Down The Line” remind us that the arbitrary lines between folk, country, old-time and bluegrass are just that…arbitrary, a good song is a good song no matter where it came from.
The opening track is another great example of this “Last of the Steam Powered Trains” could have been a hit for any bluegrass band if they had bothered to look back to the Kinks albums from the late 60s. That’s a great example of The Seldom Scene tradition, they find the great songs others miss.
An old favorite that comes back for an encore here is “White Line” first heard 50 years ago, delivered with subtle grace and soulful playing that brings just the perfect touch of sadness and beauty.
One tradition of The Scene is their interpretation of Bob Dylan’s surreal lyrics set to memorable melodies. On this album, which appears to be the last with Dudley Connell, it’s appropriate that he gets one more chance to sing the beautiful poetry of Dylan in a stunning rendition of “Farewell Angelina.” A musical ensemble that can evolve as The Seldom Scene has done, growing, changing and still remaining recognizable is a unique thing in the world of music, not just bluegrass but any genre. A new album that reminds us of that unique quality is always worth celebrating.
The Seldom Scene — There’s More To Be Scene
By Kevin Slick
The Seldom Scene is changing…again, and this is to be expected. Longtime guitarist and vocalist Dudley Connell has stepped aside and Clay Hess has joined the band. If one looks back at their fifty-plus years you’ll note that about every seven or eight years there’s a change in the band. In most cases, it’s a matter of one person leaving and another joining. Sixteen people came and went over that time, and yet the band remains. Generally, there is a core group of three or four members who remain.
The Seldom Scene first appeared in 1971, according to legend it was at a party where they all first played together and realized there was something worth continuing. Of course, legends often leave out many details. In truth, most of the future members of the group had known each other or even played in other bands together.
There are different versions of the story of the band’s beginnings but all agree that John Starling, Mike Auldridge, John Duffey, Ben Eldridge, and Tom Gray began playing together in late 1971. The band name, legend has it, came from Charlie Waller who had played with both Duffey and Gray in The Country Gentlemen. As word spread of this new group playing together, Waller noted that no one had actually seen them perform yet. Waller said “I keep hearing this rumor that you have a band, what do you call yourselves? The Seldom Seen?” Everyone liked the name, especially after John Starling suggested they change the spelling to “Scene.”
With a name in place, they started playing out. A few gigs at a less than appreciative venue led them to find a place better suited to bluegrass and that place was the Red Fox in Bethesda, Maryland. The band kicked off 1972 at the Red Fox and began building a following in the Washington D.C. area.
An early promotional flyer for the band states that they got together for the “avowed purpose of playing for fun” While you’d be hard-pressed to find a band that says they’re trying to have an awful time playing music there was something in that declaration from the band that set them apart from other groups at that time.
Mike Auldridge said that the group “Was just trying to please ourselves.” Ben Eldridge added, “We started the band for our own amusement more than anything else and I don’t think the attitude has changed much.” Asked about the band’s beginnings and what caught the attention of the audience, Tom Gray said “The essence of the Seldom Scene was to play contemporary bluegrass from the perspective of urban dwellers in the Washington area. There has always been an active bluegrass community there. Along with tunes from contemporary writers, we would continue playing bluegrass classics, but smooth out the rough edges. It was a continuation of what John Duffey started in The Country Gentlemen.” He continued “As Duffey suspected, there are a lot of others in the same demographic. People who would grow to love the traditional music but didn’t grow up listening to it. He knew there were a lot of people, college students or city dwellers who liked acoustic music but hadn’t been introduced to bluegrass. Of course, we were blessed with the extreme vocal talents of Duffey, Starling, and Auldridge.”
“Some of this music that had been sung for several decades, and maybe was getting a bit stale. When we did play bluegrass standards, Starling observed that we could play that material smoother, and neater than the originals so we were like a breath of fresh air. We respected the tradition and sang Monroe, Stanleys, etc. but also sought out material from more contemporary writers, Starling had a wide taste and would find material we could play.”
That wide taste in material would be another important ingredient in the band’s evolution, along with their style of performance. Dudley Connell observed “Presentation has always been a significant part of the legacy of the Seldom Scene. There’s a certain nonchalance about it, it wasn’t canned or schtick, it was real, it was a bunch of guys playing music and having fun who enjoyed each other’s company and it just so happened that the music was really great.”
“The Seldom Scene literally changed the map,” says Connell, “The Scene crossed all the barriers. Some of the earlier artists like Monroe or the Stanleys when people up north listened to that it sounded absolutely foreign and The Scene was presenting something different. Others like the Country Gentlemen or Emerson and Waldron brought in contemporary writers, however, the Scene had that smooth voice of John Starling combined with the power of John Duffey’s tenor that could peel the paint off the walls and that combination of singers is one of the most influential things that ever came into bluegrass.”
Lee Olsen who was the booking agent for the band for many years had this to say about the group “They’re legendary, one of the most significant bands in bluegrass history, they were innovative in so many different ways. They also had a deep connection with top singers in the pop and country fields like Linda Ronstadt and Emmy Lou Harris as well as great songwriters like Paul Craft. Live At The Cellar Door was a real breakthrough album, one of the first double albums in bluegrass.”
For many people, myself included, The Seldom Scene was a “gateway” to hardcore bluegrass. Along with Will The Circle Be Unbroken album from The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and the Old and In The Way album, the early records and performances of The Seldom Scene drew a wider audience into bluegrass. One factor is the synchronicity of their approach with what was going on in popular music at the same time. The early seventies was a time when singer-songwriters were coming to the forefront of pop music. James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, and groups like Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young were not only releasing albums of acoustic-based music but presenting concerts where matching suits and well-rehearsed stage banter were out the window and replaced by a more easygoing, natural flowing connection with the audience, exactly what the Seldom Scene was doing. Listen to those early albums from the Scene and you’ll hear any number of songs that would have easily fit onto an album by Jackson Browne or James Taylor and indeed the Scene covered those writers. Conversely, songs like “Ripple” from The Grateful Dead would have sounded completely at home on a Seldom Scene album. Whether they were trying to or not, the band was breaking down barriers that were in reality arbitrary in the first place.
One of the stand-out tracks on that album was “Rider” which had appeared on their album Act III and was well known in folk music circles having appeared in the book American Ballads and Folk Songs by John and Alan Lomax. The song was also a counter-culture hit for The Grateful Dead who recorded it in the mid-sixties. Tom Gray recalled “Regarding the way ‘Rider’ worked out, I guess we were a jam band before that term was created. The tune kept getting longer, with each player playing all his licks in the key of C. Once someone pointed out that we took up 13 minutes, we agreed to shorten those extended breaks.” Even so, the song clocked in at almost seven minutes on the live album which was another bit of synchronicity with trends in popular music - long jam songs on double live albums. That album ended up on shelves in people’s record collection next to The Rolling Stones or Jimi Hendrix.
While the band was opening new doors and ears to bluegrass, they had a dedicated following in those who already loved the genre although some, including some well-known bluegrass artists, found them unserious and didn’t care for their live shows in particular John Duffey’s antics. To a much wider audience, though, those antics and irreverent humor were what made the band stand out and brought in that new audience who stayed when they heard the quality of the songs and the arrangements.
The Seldom Scene has always chosen songs that they enjoy playing and can arrange in a way that best shows off the individual members of the band. That’s not uncommon in the music business, any group wants to have great material, but the Scene has always been especially skilled at finding songs that work for a bluegrass band and will also catch the attention of a wider audience. Importantly those songs that might have been recorded before by an artist like James Taylor or Jackson Browne never sound like a novelty, but as something that sounds exactly like The Seldom Scene. There never appeared to be a song selection based on appealing to one segment of the audience or another and yet the band, in those early days especially, was very much in sync with the broader music world.
Interestingly, the first song the band recorded in 1972 for Rebel Records was not an old bluegrass standard but rather the James Taylor song “Sweet Baby James” Tom Gray related that “It’s not an easy song to do, the chords and timing are different than the standard bluegrass tunes.” As would become a tradition for the band, once they had the song down, they started to rearrange things. Gray continues “Duffey had an idea in that song—instead of going to the six minor chord in the chorus, the usual way the song goes, we’ll go to the four chord because it will sound stronger but we’ll save it until the last chorus. It’s in the key of Eb, that suited John Starling’s voice, so instead of playing the Cm, we played the Ab which sounded stronger. It was only one note that was different—Duffey’s higher note on the chorus, that’s the kind of idea that we worked into the music. People might not recognize what was different, but they heard something they liked.”
Starting with that first album Act I in 1972, The Seldom Scene would release five albums at the rate of one per year featuring a wide range of material filtered through the Scene’s arrangements including songs previously recorded by The Monkees, Peter, Paul and Mary, Eagles, Steve Goodman, John Prine, The Grateful Dead as well as artists like Merle Haggard, Hank Williams and a solid collection of Bill Monroe, Stanley Brothers, and other traditional material.
Also, essential to the early Scene records and shows was original material from writers like Paul Craft and Herb Pedersen, the latter having written perhaps their most famous song “Wait A Minute,” the recording of which features the classic trio harmonies, an ending where they shift parts in a tapestry of sound and a unique bass part for a bluegrass record. Bassist Tom Gray relates “What I did with ‘Wait A Minute’ was not my idea originally. Herb Pedersen had given John Starling a tape to learn the song and the bass player on the demo was playing electric bass in more of a folk-rock style. The bass was on the 1 and the 2, not on the 1 and 3 as it usually is. When we recorded the song, Starling suggested we do it just like the demo, so I played on the 1 and 2 and I played the electric bass guitar.”
The original lineup of the band would continue until 1977 when John Starling would leave and Phil Rosenthal would join the band. By this time, the Scene had already recorded some of Rosenthal’s songs, and one, “Muddy Water” was already a fan favorite.
He recounts the process of joining the band, “I was in a band called Old Dog and Mike Auldridge really liked that band and suggested that we do a record together which was very exciting. While we were recording, I looked in the control room and there was the rest of the Seldom Scene sitting there. During a break, John Duffey said they’d like to talk to me. They told me that John Starling was leaving and they were looking for someone to take his place and would I be interested in auditioning them?
“Here I am doing an album with this band, Old Dog, that I really loved and they asked me to audition. I said I was flattered but that I thought I just wanted to continue with the group I was playing with. I remember John Duffey looked at me with a double-take ‘What the heck?’ kind of look, and said, ‘Well think about it, Phil.’
“Later my wife and I were driving and we said ‘Wait a minute, the Seldom Scene? We’d have to move but this band was the Seldom Scene! I called them that afternoon and said that I would like to audition. They said the most important thing was to see if our voices fit together well because the harmonies needed to be right. Four or five days later they called and offered me the job.”
Rosenthal would continue with the band for the next nine years during which time the band released another five albums, approximately one every year and a half. There would be a healthy dose of Rosenthal’s originals and songs from the wide variety of sources the band had become famous for such as “After Midnight,” “Lay Down Sally,” “Jamaica, Say You Will” and “Stompin’ At The Savoy.”
By 1986, about fifteen years into the band’s history, Phil Rosenthal and Tom Gray had departed and T. Michael Coleman took over on bass alongside Lou Reid on guitar and vocals joining Duffey, Eldridge, and Auldridge. This lineup of the band remained in place until a two-year period between 1993 and ’95 when Reid left, Starling returned briefly followed by Moondi Klein taking over guitar and vocals. The original members remaining were John Duffey, Ben Eldridge, and Mike Auldridge. During this time the band released a greatest hits album as well as two concert recordings for the 15th and 20th anniversaries of the group.
In 1995 there was a major overhaul of the band when three-fifths of the group left. Dudley Connell picks up the story “I was on the mailing list for the band Chesapeake, and I got a postcard that said they were forming as a full-time band and the Seldom Scene is retiring. I called John Duffey and said how sad I was that the band was quitting—John said, ‘Well, we’re not really quitting we’re just looking for a guitar player and singer, a Dobro player and singer, and a bass player who sings.’ He was kind of making fun of the situation. I said that we should get together and sing sometime and it was dead silence on the other end of the line and I thought, oh no, I’ve stepped over some kind of line. John asked me if I knew any of their songs, I said not really but I’ve heard them. He gave me a half dozen songs to learn.
“He invited Ronnie Simpkins, who I’d played music with, and Fred Travers, who I knew as well. He hired us on the spot but he didn’t actually tell us that so we were walking around for a while before our first gig asking each other, ‘Are we in the band or not?’”
Out of this major overhaul came the longest-running version of the band in terms of a core group that stayed together. Connell, Ronnie Simpkins, and Fred Travers, joined by Lou Reid returning on mandolin, would play together for the next twenty-nine years.
As the band has continued, they have reached back to that founding principle of having fun both in the playing of the music together and in sharing that fun with the audience. In an interview in 1983, John Duffey had this to say “If your presentation is good it doesn’t matter if you’re having the worst night you ever had on your instrument, if you presented it well, then it’s okay. The audience is intelligent and you can’t fool them and they might notice a mistake but the rest of it was okay.”
Lou Reid related how Duffey’s attitude of being real with the audience worked, “John Duffey always made me feel better about making a mistake and I learned how to deal with that, it can bring the band and the audience together, we’re all in it together. John used to make a joke about messing up and that helped connect with the audience.”
Every member of the band that I spoke with shared their appreciation for John Duffey. Dudley Connell put it succinctly “John WAS the scene.”
It was not only his piercing tenor voice and his creative if sometimes crazy, mandolin playing, Duffey was also a major force in the business end of the band early on.”
Phil Rosenthal remembered “We didn’t have an agent when I joined the band. John did the booking, and by that I mean he answered the phone if you called. We didn’t really go looking for work, people wanted the band and so we had as many gigs as we wanted.”
Lou Reid remembers that Duffey told him to never sell the band short, “John Duffey was really a stickler about getting the best deal for the band. Back in the original band, they got a call from a festival in Canada. John asked how much money they were talking about and they said probably fifteen hundred dollars and John said ‘Which one of us do you want?’ John gave him a price of about 10 grand and they eventually gave him that amount.”
As the band has moved past the fifty-year mark and no original members remain onstage as part of the Seldom Scene, finding and maintaining the essence of the band becomes more important.
Connell talks about the challenges and benefits of playing in the Seldom Scene “None of us has ever tried to copy the players who had been in the band in the past. What we’ve tried to do is compliment each other to the best of our ability. It’s a loyalty to the Scene’s sound and legacy. The hardest thing to do is to introduce new songs but not neglect the old ones and since there’s a limited amount of time that you’re on stage, it’s a trick, but it’s a good trick to have. We have more material than we know what to do with. A band that has this much longevity, you realize that these songs represent something in people’s lives and it’s important to keep that legacy alive, adding new songs and respecting the tradition.”
Lou Reid adds “It’s not easy to pick just one thing that is the essence of the group, but the Seldom Scene is a playful band. We take the music seriously, but not to the point that you can’t make a mistake—and if you do you laugh it off. We just keep with the formula that has worked. It’s hard to emulate the original guys, but the formula that we use is to keep the Scene the band it’s always been. We take music from whatever sources we can, wherever we can find it.”
Clay Hess, the newest member of the band is already well acquainted with the traditions of the band, “The main factor is fun. There are no egos, it’s all about music and having a good time. If you make a mistake, make fun of yourself, that was the first thing I was told when I joined the band.”
Like others who have been in the Scene, he referred to John Duffey’s influence still being a major part of the group, “Duffey really set the tradition he loved to play music and the fans loving it was just a bonus, everyone that’s ever been here just loved to play music, and that’s a pre-requisite to being asked to join the band.”
Hess reflected on the way the band continues to arrange music with the song first and foremost, selecting the instrumental and vocal approach that best supports the song rather than starting from a point of having to have a certain number of solos or playing at a speed that might impress some in the audience “That’s musical maturity—making what you do fit the song rather than trying to make the song fit what you do,” Hess observed.
Thinking about the longevity of the band and the prospects going forward everyone is optimistic. “In some straight-ahead bluegrass bands there’s a lot that doesn’t fit, it’s like trying to put a square peg in a round hole trying to bring in different material,” said Hess, “That’s the beauty of the band—there’s nothing off limits. We could play an old Flatt and Scruggs tune or a Kinks song and pull it off. It’s the Swiss Army knife band, it can do anything. As for the future, Hess says “The band could go on forever as long as you’re playing the songs, paying homage to the tradition but you’re not trying to duplicate the exact way they were done before.” Lou Reid mentioned the great fans of the Seldom Scene and how much he appreciates them “Hanging in there with us over the years, I think we’ve all grown together I’m just really thankful.”
Watching the latest version of the band recently at a gig in Hagerstown, Maryland. I was struck by the power of the songs and the connection with the audience. A track from the latest album Man at the Crossroads is almost whispered by Fred Travers with instrumental backing that seems almost too subtle and fragile to be coming from the bluegrass band while a stillness fills the room and the performance becomes an intimate conversation between old friends. Indeed the audience is an old friend to the Seldom Scene, in many cases literal friends who have known the band members for decades, but even first-timers are welcomed into that conversation with the band.
The “No Egos, Playful Band” was on full display when someone shouted out “Little Georgia Rose.” “Do you know that one Clay?” asked Lou Reid. “I mean do you know the vocal intro?” To which Hess replied, “I think I can do that, I’ve heard it before.” Cue laughter from the rest of the band and the audience. “How’s your voice Lou?” asks Fred Travers from the other side of the stage, referencing the key change at the end of the song that sends the lead vocal into the stratosphere. A chord from the guitar, and they launch into the familiar opening, sliding into the harmonies, if not on the first note, by the second or third, sending a jolt through the audience that is electric. It’s safe to say that even if the performance isn’t note perfect (and it was at least 95%) no one is unhappy, we’re all basking in the wonderful song we love, shared by the band we love.
And so the Seldom Scene changes again and goes on again and just might do that forever. As long as there are musicians who have fun playing and sharing the music with an audience, instead of playing at them. As long as musicians are willing to honor the legacy of the band and understand that a big part of that legacy is to never rest on your laurels but keep experimenting and laughing at mistakes, there can always be a Seldom Scene.
Dudley Connell put it like this, “Let the Scene live forever, I know I’ll go see them as long as I can,” and I think it’s fair to say most of us agree.
Jake Blount and Mali Obomsawin Symbiont
By Kevin Slick
Somewhere someone is considering adapting one of Octavia Butler’s futuristic novels as a feature film Good news, the perfect soundtrack is already here - Symbiont by Jake Blount and Mali Obosomsawin. Truly future folk music, post apocalyptic worship music.
This should not be surprising as the album is based, at least in part, on a science fiction theme of connections between life forms.
Swirling dreams that dance across a sonic landscape constantly in motion. Voices reach out through time before and times to come, ancient sounds filtered through technology. We return home to somewhere we’ve never been before.
The melding of techno samples, electronic and acoustic sounds feels natural. This could be the folk music of our great, great grandchildren.
Perhaps an audio glimpse of the future where the banjo sits along side the drum machine and radio static is understood to be a percussion instrument, where found sounds hold as much power and respect as the orchestra.
While this music may seem so new as to be startling and disorienting the familiar sounds of the past are woven into the texture all through the sonic landscape. This is true for the lyrics as well, certainly in the traditional texts and songs but also in the overall feel. Consider the lyrics of so many traditional folk songs - “My Lord what a morning, when the stars begin to fall”, “When the moon is red with blood, I want to be in that number…”, “No more water but the fire next time”, you can make the case that spirituals have been deep into a futuristic vibe since forever. A better world coming, some kind of change happening, what is it? Not sure, but something’s there.
Keep on walking forward. Pick up the words you remember, the sounds you find and create new stories that bring the past into the future.
Imagine a world where genres have been forgotten and we fearlessly take what feels true and right to express ourselves.
It’s music now. The record store dividers of the last century are gone and we listen for what feels true and right and what our hearts need.
Nefesh Mountain—Beacons
Reviewed by Kevin Slick
Doni Zasloff and Eric Lindberg the husband and wife duo known as Nefesh Mountain have sent a love letter of hope and possibility to the world with their new album. The release is a double disc set of songs that exemplify the old adage of “Three Chords And The Truth” and while there may be more than three chords employed from time to time, the lyrics feel true and perfectly suited to this moment in time.
The album is divided into two parts, Americana and bluegrass which may have been unnecessary as the songs all work together with similar themes and of course the same singers, but if you prefer banjo instead of pedal steel you can go to the bluegrass set. “Regrets in the Rearview” kicks off the bluegrass tracks with lyrics that speak of trusting the Great Spirit and all things unforeseen. With Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Cody Kilby, Stuart Duncan, Rob McCoury and Mark Schatz on board you know the instrumentation is top notch.
“This is Me” is a powerful up-tempo song that is completely within the bluegrass lyrical tradition of the old home place and finding your path in the world. There’s a slight twist to tradition though as the old home place in this case is Brooklyn, New York. That’s an important twist for if bluegrass is to survive and thrive there must be a place for everyone to sing their own story whether your grew up on a farm in the hills or an apartment in the city.
“Man of Manzanita” is a beautiful tribute to the music of Tony Rice that feels both personal and universal. It would be hard for any fan of Rice to listen without a smile as they weave references to his many classic songs into the lyrics. The eighteen tracks that make up the new album cover a lot of sonic territory and yet never sounds disjointed or random. The lyrics are both bittersweet and uplifting but above all honest. An album that features a diverse collection of song styles that fits together with such a high level of songwriting and performance is something to celebrate.
High Mountain Hay Fever; A Good Time for a Good Cause
-Kevin Slick
When a few families in the Wet Mountain Valley of southern Colorado took note of the lack of children’s health services in the early 2000s they did what most people with the means to help might do, they donated money to the local clinic to be used by anyone who needed financial assistance. A year later they found that most of the money remained unused and got a very clear message that the folks in the community did not like the idea of charity. What happened next was the birth of a bluegrass festival where the community could come together and raise money for children’s health care and for the past twenty plus years, since the first festival in 2003, High Mountain Hay Fever, a 2024 nominee for IBMA’s Event of the Year, has raised over $900,000 for children’s health needs in Custer County, Colorado.
Over the years the support for children’s health has evolved from donating to the local clinic to the creation of the High Mountain Hay Fever Children’s Health Fund which now supports a variety of projects and services in the community from physical and mental health to dental as well as supporting sports, dance, music and arts, truly looking at children’s health in a holistic way. The Fund receives applications during the year and awards as many grants as possible.
The festival and the health fund are registered non-profit organizations and rely on a dedicated core of volunteers, many of whom have been there since the beginning.
One of the people involved with this project from the start is Ron Thomason. He tells the story of the decision to create a festival, “The other folks involved with this project said ‘You know how to have a Bluegrass festivaI’ and I thought, well, I knew how to be at a Bluegrass festival and could read the word if I saw it.” Actually Thomason had more than just some experience with festivals having been involved with the Winterhawk festival which eventually became Grey Fox, not to mention his years of playing Bluegrass with Ralph Stanley and many others as well as over forty years leading Dry Branch Fire Squad.
Thomason is quick to credit Dr. Ralph Stanley’s open minded attitude about music and desire to use diverse influences as something that shapes his work in programing High Mountain Hay Fever. Over the years the attendees at the festival have seen artists ranging from The Kody Norris Show to Chris Jones and the Night Drivers, Fog Holler to Ralph Stanley 2, Kaia Kater to Jim Lauderdale and anything and everything in between. The audience has listened and danced to Black string band music from The Ebony Hillbillies and laughed with The Moron Brothers. Those who choose to label musical styles would find Bluegrass, Folk, Americana, Singer-Songwriter, Country, Folk-Rock among the sounds that emanate from the stage.
Much of what brings people back year after year is that diversity. Board member Heidi Clare notes that “Often bands who were hesitant to come to the festival have such a great experience they’re coming up to me before the weekend is over wanting to know when they can come back again because the audience is so great, and why are they so great? It’s because Ron has trained them, you don’t need to know the bands that are playing, you just need to come and open your brain”.
That diversity of performers is noted by bands playing the festival as well. Mike Mitchell says “The variety of the performers had us in the audience more than at any other festival, we wanted to hear all the diverse artists, we were fans and audience members as much as we were performers. We were engaged the whole time, we didn’t know what was coming next”.
Jason Hicks, of Colorado’s Blue Canyon Boys had this to say, High Mountain Hay Fever is seriously one of our favorite festivals to play. With the Sangre De Cristo mountains hovering in the background, it is one of the best stage backdrops in the world. Ron Thomasson always compiles a stellar and thoughtful lineup of bands/musicians and HMHF one of the most appreciative and attentive audiences of all Colorado festivals! We are always thrilled to be a part of the lineup!”
With bands playing two or three sets over there weekend you might even hear some of that diversity from one band. When The Hillbenders, who had just recorded their Bluegrass version of Tommy, played they did one set dedicated to that project, another one of progressive originals and one set of hard core traditional Bluegrass around a single mic. Bringing in bands that will appeal to a wider range of listeners than the regular traditional Bluegrass fans is part of the vision to enlarge the overall audience for the genre.
Many have cited the range of new performers and new sounds alongside the favorite elements that return every year as a reason they come back to Westcliffe, CO year after year. Among the expected traditions are the Sunday morning gospel set with host band Dry Branch Fire Squad, Ron Thomason’s stories and of course the view from the festival grounds.
You could probably fill a book with band photos taken behind the stage looking out at the Sangre de Cristo range of the Rocky Mountains. It’s not uncommon to find a number of festival attendees sitting outside the MainStage tent area taking in the view while listening to the music, especially as the sun begins to set over the mountain range. The natural beauty doesn’t end when the sun goes down, Westcliffe, CO being a designated international dark sky community, features a stunning view of the night sky. The town has the highest elevation of any designated dark sky community in the world so the views of the Milky Way are unique to say the least.
Another of the regular elements of the festival is the High Mountain Hayseeds program for kids lead by Heidi Clare. “That’s something I never would thought of, involving the kids along with their parents at the festival” says Thomason. Heidi and helpers meet with the kids every morning and using ukuleles, which kids can sign out for the weekend to practice learn several songs to perform on the main stage as well as impromptu “pop up concerts” throughout the weekend. More than an activity to occupy the children’s time, the Hayseeds make the kids part of the festival. The kids take playing on stage to close out the festival on Sunday afternoon seriously. One performer who’s child was a part of the Hayseeds program said that his son told him that he was “going to take a nap because he had a gig that afternoon”.
According to Thomason, one of the reasons for the continued success of the festival is the Board of Directors who work so well together. “ Everyone has their own area of expertise and everyone trusts each other to do the work”. That sentiment is echoed by Board member Dana Diehl who extends that idea of cooperation to the performers and the audience saying “When you’re here at the festival, you’re a partner in the work we’re doing in the community”. The mission of the festival, supporting children’s health, makes High Mountain Hay Fever something special. There’s an enthusiasm that is more than just the excitement of seeing great performers. Valerie Smith, who has played the festival several times says “Kindness and enthusiasm are abundant among friends, musicians, and festival staff at the High Mountain Fever Festival, making it a must-attend event.”
Looking ahead, the festival will continue with their slogan “Small Scale, Big Time” which is a pretty accurate description of the event in the very small town of Westcliffe, CO bringing in internationally known artists and presenting the music in an intimate setting, that also features unparalleled views of the Rocky Mountains. That said, Ron Thomason indicates that they’re always looking at ways to improve the experience. “We’re finding out we can handle more people than we thought, so maybe we will bring in some bigger names”. However the festival grows and evolves, Thomason’s mission to challenge and excite the listeners while expanding the notion of what works at a Bluegrass festival will remain a driving force and the support for children’s health will always be the reason the volunteers work so hard every year to create this singular event. As Board member Dana Diehl says “It’s a good time for a good cause”.
My Black Country
Alice Randall
Black Privilege Publishing
By Kevin Slick
Alice Randall has written a book that anyone who loves American Roots Music, be it Country, Bluegrass, Folk or Americana should read. For those who regularly fear the death or degradation of their favorite genre, they may find that the music they love is much deeper and expansive than they imagined and that there’s so much more to discover. The book is a memoir and that’s key to it’s power and possibilities. A simple history book would recount the lives and careers of DeFord Bailey, Leslie Riddle, Rufus Payne (aka Tee Tot) Arnold Shultz and the many other black musicians who were instrumental in creating what we know as Country and Bluegrass today. Ms. Randall’s memoir takes us on her journey through the world of Country Music. A journey that includes major success as a songwriter, “XXXs and OOOs” being a number one hit for Trisha Yearwood, as well as the predictable prejudices faced as a woman of color. There’s a dynamic quality to the narrative as she explores the black history of this music and expands her ideas as to what it means to be “Country”. Is a musical genre primarily a sound? A collection of instruments? I see direct parallels to Bluegrass in this story. Could it be that embracing diversity isn’t about bringing in something new to the genre and changing it but rather going back to the roots and discovering the diversity and dynamism that was there all along but has been covered up or allowed to calcify into music that simply seeks to replicate one sound.
Fire on the Prairie
Jake Leg
By Kevin Slick
Jake Leg, based on Colorado’s Front Range is the kind of band that could easily fill up an album with mind bending hot licks played at extreme speeds. Fortunately for us all they chose to fill up an album with powerful songwriting, memorable melodies and picking that serves the song first and foremost. The three original members of the band, Eric Wiggs, guitar, Dylan McCarthy, mandolin and Justin Hoffenberg, fiddle are well known for their instrumental prowess playing in a variety of bands over the years and that top notch playing is well represented here but the songwriting and vocals are equally impressive on this debut recording. The title track is a spooky minor key song of apocalyptic visions fueled by a furious fiddle. “Jackie”, a wistful song about a friend gone too soon, rises above the melancholy theme with a memorable melodic hook and lyrics that feel both poetic and conversational. The sound of the album is superb, the trio, supported by Bradley Morse on bass, creates a solid groove whether funky, straight up country, waltzing, Celtic or Blues. The closer “Floyd Hill” really rips. Each player shines creating a masterclass in tasteful playing that soars. Jake Leg is one of the finest new acoustic bands you’re going to hear anywhere and you can start by checking out this new album.
Volume 4
Kieran Kane and Rayna Gellert
By Kevin Slick
As the title suggests, this is the 4th album release from Kane and Gellert, two artists with long careers in Americana Roots music. The music is spontaneous and often sparse, guitar and fiddle or two guitars with light percussion supporting the vocals. Originals flow easily into traditional tunes, due perhaps, to their ability to write such timeless material. There are several new songs alongside older tunes one might remember from the recordings of the O’Kanes. The duo recorded and mixed the album at their home in East Nashville and at a cabin in the Adirondacks in New York State. The music was all recorded live and there’s a freshness to the sound that fills the album, somewhat like a postcard from a traveling friend sharing their latest journey. The music on this album as well the work they’ve released in recent years is essential listening for anyone who is looking to find how the roots of Americana are growing. Kane and Gellert continue the tradition of pioneers like The Carter Family with powerful music shared with the focus on the soul. Extraneous production has been removed so the power of the music comes through. A refreshing, honest, all natural musical experience awaits the listener.