Mountain Highway at the 2024 Manton Bluegrass Festival – photo © Bill Warren
Manton, Michigan is a small, tight-knit community in northern Michigan’s lower peninsula. It also happens to be my old stomping grounds.
This small community will celebrate the 100th Manton Harvest Festival over Labor Day. The weekend is topped off by the Harvest Festival Parade on Labor Day itself. A bit of trivia – my mother attended every parade until her passing the Monday after the parade in 2022. She was 99 ½ years old.
The town has many shows throughout the summer. This past Saturday was the Manton Bluegrass Festival.
It is a free event sponsored by businesses and individuals from the area. The lineup consists of three Michigan bands and one nationally touring band.
Pastor Jeff Swainston serves as MC and books the bands. He does an excellent job of keeping the sponsors acknowledged.
Steel & Wood from Petosky, Michigan opened the show. They play traditional bluegrass, some original music, and a bit of traditional country. The band was established ten years ago. Their lead singer told me that she and her husband lived in Lexington, Kentucky for a time, and that’s where she caught the bluegrass bug.
Forked Run comes from Fenton, Michigan and is lead by John Coffey. He is joined by grandson Gavin Conley, and son-in-law Chads Phelps, along with Rick Boring, and Dana Cupp. This configuration has played together for about four years, and John and Dana have played music together for many more years than that.
A cornerstone of the festival is Local Mash. This is a name picked by Tony and Jennifer Strickland Zapolnik, close friends with Pastor Jeff. This year they brought Isaac Smith, Jeremie Cole, and Ronnie Blankenship from Harbourtown to be the rest of the Mash. They put on a fun-filled show every time they get together.
Mountain Highway came in from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee as this year’s touring band. They are regulars at Dollywood and other venues in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. This is their second trip to Manton. They have become a crowd favorite. Banjo player, Victoria Glover, tells me that it was 2017 at the Nothin’ Fancy Festival where we first met them. They had all been playing instruments for less than a year at that time.
The band has matured into a well-rounded, very entertaining group. Their guitar player, Josh, has been with the band for a year, and makes a good addition. Joe looked pretty good for driving twelve hours from Pennsylvania, and going about 22 hours without sleep! He did take a power nap between sets. They played at Pastor Jeff’s church Sunday morning and evening before heading back to Pigeon Forge for Monday shows.
The festival was partially funded by donations and a raffle. The raffle prizes were a Fender banjo and Earl Scruggs book donated by Jim Fisk. Mountain Highway also added in some merchandise. My grandson, Andrew Saul, won the banjo! My oldest great grandchildren had a big time plunking on it that evening.
It is not often that this old picture taker gets in front of the lens, but I did with Mountain Highway in front of the Manton Station stage. The stage is in Railroad Park. Why that name? The tracks run through the middle of the park. The train passes through a couple times a week. The railroad does work with the community rearranging the schedule so as not to interfere with doings at the park. That’s a pretty good relationship!
Manton is a hidden gem. Stop in if you are headed up US 131.
Support your local music venues.
