Tara Linhardt is a music educator, recording artist and independent film producer in Loudon County, VA. She has a Masters in Education and has been performing and teaching traditional music for years both privately and in festivals, workshops, and traditional music camps such as the Traditions Week at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD and the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival. Tara also holds the Guinness Book World's Record for organizing the Largest Mandolin Ensemble in the history of the world!
Bluegrass has been gradually working itself into a worldwide phenomenon, and this year’s convention of the International Bluegrass Music Association really gave one a chance to see that. I made friends from all over Europe, Australia, and Asia while in Raleigh.
Pieter Groenveld from the European World of Bluegrass said that there were were 12 bands in Raleigh this year from overseas. Groenveld worked at the European World of Bluegrass table in the Exhibition Center with information about bluegrass festivals, bands, and events throughout Europe. They have the European Festival Directory 2012/13 available so one can quickly find festivals over there. I opened the guide and there were over 100 different festivals listed at a glance by date.
One of the biggest festivals he said was the European World of Bluegrass Festival (EWOB). This year it was May 9th-May 11th in the Netherlands with 42 bands from around the world, and contests too.
The winner of the EWOB Festival Band Contest gets to come to the US and perform at the ROMP Festival each year. The EWOB Festival also has the Liz Meyer European Innovation of Bluegrass Music Award, which is awarded to a band does the best job of pulling in their country’s own traditional music into their bluegrass. Groenveld said that Tony Rice had told him that it was Liz Meyer who first introduced him to David Grisman. There is a history making bluegrass moment…
EWOB also has a CD with 48 tracks from their annual festival representing the blend of European and American bluegrass. For more information on any of the EWOB activities check out their web site.
I did happen to catch one of the bands that showcased at IBMA this year from Italy. They were called Red Wine and gave a really fun and lively show. Here is a clip if you want to have a little taste of Red Wine.
My favorite of the International Bluegrass Representatives this year was the Ozaki Brothers who, in their 80s, came all the way from Japan to receive their Distinguished Achievement Award from the IBMA. In a previous visit to the US, they had received their award for being Pioneers for Bluegrass Music from the Bluegrass Museum in Owensboro.
They had started trying to play and sing what was still called Country Music of the US back in the 1940s when World War II was still going on. There would be great dissension if people knew they were listening to the enemy’s music, so they hid their hand crank record player in a closet and played whatever records they could get.
There was little food or supplies available in Japan at the time, and metal was very hard to come by, so they had to make a needle for the record player from bamboo. They went on to eventually get a mandolin and a guitar, formed a bluegrass duet and performed in US Army camps to get their start in the music. They were the first bluegrass band in Japan and influenced countless people in Japan, letting them know about and hear bluegrass for the first time.
Now they are in their 80s and their excitement and love of the music is as strong as ever. Their acceptance speech was so moving that I started recording it in the middle of the speech as one of the brothers said something to the extent of this was one of the happiest days of his life.
Here is what I captured of their acceptance. You can see an interview we did together afterwards here.
IBMA’s World of Bluegrass gives folks many chances to meet and learn from others in the industry, both from experts on panels and just chances to mix, mingle and swap stories with other musicians, broadcasters, mangers, and festival promoters.
I attended a few of the seminars where I learned things, and got new ideas to chew on in each one.
All sorts of topics were covered, like grant writing, getting radio or internet play, using new forms of media, getting gigs, song publishing, among them. One of the more popular seminars this year was headed up by Murphy Henry who brought together a panel of female musicians to discuss some of the concepts in her new book, Pretty Good For A Girl. I am happy to report that the room was well represented with both men and women in attendance. Some good points were brought up, questions pondered, and stories told.
My favorite seminar yet again, I have to say was headed up by Tony Williamson. He has an amazing collection of delectable vintage instruments and also knows a phenomenal amount about the instruments, their history, and bluegrass history in general. The last two years he has had amazing seminars on the instruments of bluegrass and their history, combined with hot jammin’ on the ones he was discussing.
Last year it focused on many vintage mandolins (particularly Lloyd Loar histories), and this year he mixed in history, examples and music on the banjo and guitar as well. He had Jim Mills on the panel giving loads of cool histories and details of the banjo, and Chris Elderidge on old pre-war guitars. I highly recommend his talks to anyone interested in what we play and why they are the way they are, or what type of instrument was actually used by whom and when.
Tony isn’t dry at all either. He has so much fun talking about this musical ear candy, and bluegrass history is so full of funny stories, that it is hard not to get excited about all the instruments in the room right along with him.
Here are a few clips so you can pick up a few things too.
In this first one he tries to get as close as possible to using the “right instruments” that were used in the old famous recordings of Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, and Lester Flatt and they jam on some Bluegrass Breakdown.
In this next, they discuss Lloyd Loar mandolins and how they got help from Henry Ford’s idea on car paint methods, and how Loar influenced banjo development too with ball bearing and cast tone ring banjos, just to mention a few topics they covered.
This year’s World of Bluegrass in Raleigh was chock full of highlights, but few that we experienced in the Bluegrass Today press office can match this delightful interview Tara Linhardt conducted with Yasushi and Hisashi Ozaki on Thursday afternoon following their acceptance of a Distinguished Achievement Award for the East Mountain Boys. Their discussion of learning to play bluegrass in occupied Japan is priceless.
So Sunday at Grey Fox is a day when, for many, the festival is gradually winding down, but for many of the kids and families, it is the day they have been waiting for all weekend, and for some probably all year. There is an instrument-making workshop in the morning where little guys can jam along with the musicians in the Family Tent, but then the big, big deal is the Grey Fox Bluegrass Academy for Kids, which is funded by sponsors, donors, and even a little bit by the kids themselves.
That is not to say that there are only kid’s events going on. For instance, I saw Special Consensus rock the stage that morning with some good ole bluegrass, and they even got in on the action with the kids when the Bluegrass Academy took over the main stage later in the day.
All weekend there were kids of varying ages busking all over the festival. Pretty fun, and funny really. They not only learn elements of playing bluegrass, but also how one can try to throw out a case and make a few dollars. The kids get to then feel like they help to keep it running, and they actually did raise a good bit of money. I saw people donating both normal American dollars and Grey Fox bluegrass bucks.
Attending the Academy is free for the kids who come and has been steadily growing since it first began 15 years ago. This year there were over a 100 kids in the academy in total. They divided some into the senior kids, which did not have the matching shirts.
They also grant a plaque to one lucky Kid’s Academy student for having the best attitude and being the most excited to be there taking part. This year that Spirit Award wet to 13 year old Becket Panfil.
Folks also can donate year round to either the Bluegrass Academy for Kids or the Scholarships to music schools that are granted each year to a deserving young person by making tax deductible donations to the Grey Fox Educational Fund. They can be sent to:
Grey Fox Educational Fund
c/o Lucia Sperato
Story Malone and Associates
705 York Rd
Baltimore, MD 21204
Make sure to specify which program you want to support on your check.
This year there were two recipients of the coveted Grey Fox Scholarships: Laney Jones (going to Berklee College of Music) and Kaia Kater (going to Davis and Elkins College).
Here is Kaia on stage this weekend.
In sum, folks come back to Grey Fox year after year for a variety of reasons – the music, activities, and dancing are obvious – but they also come back year after year because of the nice way they are treated, the educational programs it supports, the care the organizers take in being as green as possible (recycling everywhere, etc) and the friends that they make here and the sense of community that develops. I am looking forward to next year as are so many other folks!
Before starting to festival mode this morning, I discovered that this area has loads to offer folks who might be interested in hiking around, checking out waterfalls, etc. (For info about such things one can contact www.HuyakPreserve.org.) With help from one of their friendly members, I was turned on to some great trails and a lovely waterfall, and then found some great views of the festival from some of the surrounding hillsides.
I started my day with the Rushad Eggleston and Duncan Wickel show on the main stage. I’ll tell you what, that is some seriously unique stuff! Rushad jumps all over the stage while playing his cello, never skipping a beat, and plays in all sorts of different styles. Maybe it is best if I just put a few photos and links and let you see for yourselves. He was partnered with a great fiddle player named Duncan Wickel, and they did some things I bet many in the audience never expected to see on stage.
I then checked out the Six Deadly Venoms from New York City. They were smoking hot!
Then I saw a fun new band that came all the way from Ireland called I Draw Slow.
Following them I checked out Nora Jane Struthers and The Party Line rockin’ the Main Stage, High Meadow Stage as they call it.
Then a moment many had been waiting for… Tim O’Brien, Casey Dreisen, Mike Bub, Noam Pikilney, and Bryan Sutton took the stage. Shoot, its hard to get better than that.
Here is a little taste…
Then came the duet of Chris Thile and Michael Daves. At one point in their set, they asked the crowd for suggestions for a fiddle tune medley. I love seeing a festival crowd excitedly calling out bluegrass fiddle tunes instead of the Stairway to Heaven or Freebird.
Here is the result…
Jerry Douglas did a great set of old school style rocking bluegrass with Tim O’Brien on mando, Shawn Camp on guitar, Barry Bales on bass, Charlie Cushman on banjo, and Johnny Warren on fiddle.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops had the fans going crazy too, and were singin’ and pickin’ up a storm. Here is a fun piece with the old style bones and banjo.
Well it was another hot one at Grey Fox on Friday! Hot temperature and hot pickin! It is impossible to catch all of the cool things happening at once, but I will share with you some of the elements that made for another memorable day up on the Helderberg Escarpment (the mountains leading up to the Catskill Mountains.)
Upon arrival I came upon the amazingly large and focused yoga class in the Catskill Stage area. Leave it to Grey Fox to even have a live band playing for the morning yoga class. Rick Manning and his musical partner were playing soothing fiddle tunes to stretch by.
Then on my way to the vendor line to buy my breakfast, I passed an enterprising young lemonade entrepreneur, and then a few roads further on another fire lane, a young gal hard at work shooting the people with her giant water gun (if they asked for it), and with the heat we had this week she had loads of business. The festival does do its best to think of everything and accommodate so it does have those tents stationed throughout the festival that one can stand in and get a cool mist of water on them all day too, but having a little girl with a giant watergun can be a bit more fun sometimes.
I ate my breakfast to the fun at the mandolin workshop where Joe Walsh, Jenni Lyn Gardiner, and Akira Ostuka were answering questions and demonstrating how to shred a mandolin and amusing one and all. Mandolin players are just such fun people really.
The banjo people, of course, started hovering around by the end, as the banjo workshop followed and Ira Gitlin and Bill Keith took over and the banjo talk began. The family tent always was loaded with kids and had all sorts of acts from clowns during the day to movies at night that I would notice as I walked by.
Bands were working hard performing in different contexts and on different stages, and no big rigs were allowed up the hill to the main stage so heroes like Shelley Howard would come to save the day with their handy golf carts.
So many great bluegrass acts of many kinds… Too many to list here.
Check their web site and you can see the amazing line ups they have for everyday.
I included a few photos and video links here to give just a glimpse.
Not-so-secret agent Tara reporting in from the Grey Fox Festival in the green rolling hills of beautiful upstate New York.
So far I just love the place. Everyone I meet is completely nice and helpful and laid back. It is a really big festival with lots of activities in tents all happening at once, a nice variety of vendors, and ample choices for food. There are plenty of meat as well as veggie options of many kinds. A couple different fancy coffee stands with really long named fancy drinks with “…cinno” on the end etc. Real fruit smoothies, and a whole ice cream parlor booth. Food vendors seem to generally stay open until midnight too, which all you festival goers know is a great thing, and one gets to change their boring old American currency for the fun loving “bluegrass bucks” or “Funny Money” as they call it here.
As for variety of education-related activities, this festival really does a fantastic job. They have scheduled mediation classes, yoga classes, workshops on all the normal bluegrass instruments by great teachers and, of course, their famous 4 day “Kid’s Academy” headed up by Brian Wickland. Then they have a slow jam tent, dance tent, family (kids) tent, etc. So much to do it can be overwhelming.
I really love that they also offer scholarships toward college for 2-5 deserving kids each year who want to attend music schools. From their past recipients many have gone on to become well respected professional musicians. The Scholarship Fund is called the Bill Vernon Memorial Scholarship Fund (Bill would love that).
Another difference here is that they anyone camping in the festival is basically entered into best campsite contests and the Greenest campsite contest. Grey Fox makes is very easy to recycle everywhere, which is a nice touch. As I understand it, whomever wins the “greenest campsite award will get 2 free tickets to next year’s festival.
People also take pride in their campsites in other ways too. Having only been here one day, I am sure I will have some follow up on campsites decor and activities. The campground has designated and labeled Quiet Camping areas, and then the normal all night party areas. Some vendors are conveniently located right down in the campground area too, with others up on top of the hill with the main stage.
The festival has lovely little road signs throughout the campsite with names of famous bluegrass greats so one can remember their way around. Some of the camps also motivate to create their own added festival activities, such as the Third Annual Parade on Saturday and the Toga Party on Friday night that the Grillbillies spearhead.
Another really wonderful thing they still have going on here is the chairs for the audience. I LOVE the festivals where all sorts of folks bring all sorts of chairs. It makes a beautiful quilt-work landscape, and is a bit like a large trusting potluck. Everyone brings one or a few to pitch in and they look so cool. Almost all my favorite festival memories seem to take place at festivals with the non-matching chair oceans that people bring and leave there for the weekend. It makes me feel good about the world and the folks in it that festivals can still run knowing people can bring their supplies and add them and trust each other with them.
Oh yes, and one would not want to forget… there is even music to watch here too!
They have 4 stages going most of the day and into the night, with some traditional style bluegrass like Danny Paisley and his gang, and a fairly eclectic mix of other traditional-based music groups, some of whom are definitely mixing in many different flavors and influences. The full schedule can be seen on line, but I have included some photos and video links here to get a little taste of the cool stuff going on here.
Here are some fun video links from the Kelller Williams and the Travelin McCouries Show. They picked really hilarious songs for the most part and had a great time with them and played them hot enough to melt a few faces.
What festival goer has not met interesting people in festival lines? Here is a Keller Williams song capturing beatifully the concept of meeting your baby in the port-o-potty line. Just goes to show you that one maybe ought not whine about things, but see the glass as half full.
Hmm. Big line for the bathrooms, or the food, etc… I wonder what way cool person I could be about to meet?
Well, I just came back from my first time to Idaho and the big National Oldtime Fiddlers’ Contest & Festival out there in Weiser. As a Virginia festival goer, it was really interesting with some definite differences between our festivals out east and the way they do it in Weiser.
The scenery just coming into the festival was beautiful. I drove in from the Oregon side to a wonderful view of fields and mountains, and then saw the signs for the contest as soon as I hit Weiser, Idaho. The festival is rather spread out through the town, with the contest being held in the high school, some vendors and stage shows happening in the park in town, and jammin’ happening in the different campground areas – all of which is either very affordably priced or free to the public. On the last day there is even an official parade and carnival.
The contest is only for fiddle players. It is very sad that folks out there don’t get to watch a long mandolin contest (’cause what is better than that?), but maybe they could add that soon. They just added a brand new banjo contest this year, so maybe mandolin people will be next?
People pay to enter and the fiddling contests are broken down into many categories based on ages of the contestants, and limited to a certain number of entrants. That way people feel the contest is more fair since they are going against folks of a similar age group. They have Small Fry (under 9), Junior Junior Division (under 13), Junior Division (under 18), Young Adult (18-36), Adult (37-59), Senior (60-69), and Senior Senior (over 70), each with prize money and trophies.
The Grand National Champion contest has all ages going for gold together. They also have a Twin Fiddlin’ Contest, which I have never seen in the East Coast festivals I have attended.
They also have Certified Showcase contest, where the people who have won contests in other National Old Time Fiddlers Contest (NOTFA) states can come and have a fun and entertaining different type of contest where they compete for Best Costume, Fanciest Fiddlin’, or Best Entertainer, and this stuff is generally really fun with silly, wild costumes.
Another difference from my usual East Coast festivals is that adults can have up to 3 instruments accompanying them and kids can have up to 2 accompanists. They mic the contestants and their band with a single mic that hangs from the ceiling and just adjusts up and down depending on the height of the fiddlers, and the judges are sequestered in the library where they can only hear and not see the contestants (except the twin fiddling contest where they watch you work together).
They have a good bit more Western Swing influence out there in the contest music as well as in the campgrounds. There still was some bluegrass and old time jammin’, but I have never been to a festival with that many great musicians who could play swing and different types of acoustic jazz, so that is what I really got into. I guess for me that is the fun, gourmet campground jammin’ that I don’t usually see as much of.
The official dates for the contests at the festival are Monday, June 17th through Saturday, June 22nd, but many of the jammers in the campground are not really as interested in the contests as the campground jamming. They get there the week before, with the pickin’ really kicking into high gear by about the Wednesday before the festival starts.
Understanding the campgrounds took me a little bit to figure out too. There are a number of different small campgrounds, each with its own name, fees and culture. There is Fiddletown which is in a grassy field behind the high school where the contests are held, and is generally where the contestants and their families camp. It has its own road signs to help folks navigate their way through the campground, which sure seems like a great idea to me after all the funny ways we often have to describe how to find our campsites at the festivals.
People who are not camping in Fiddletown call it “Tintown” because of its tendency to have many large RVs camping there.
Roosterfest last Sunday was a wonderful day full of awesome music, with folks reuniting, catching up, swapping stories and remembering the great Rooster Ruley who passed away earlier this year
Rooster was a truly unique character who seemed to be from an earlier time in many ways. He was an amazing musician, and could be a hilarious guy to talk to with his own way of looking at things to be sure. Roosterfest did a really good job of catching some of that. His repair abilities and his music had touched so many people over the course of his life, and many of them came out to pay their respects and jam on some tunes, often ones that Rooster would have liked to get a piece of himself.
I pulled in after seeing the sign duct taped up marking Roosterfest. The duct tape made me smile as it reminded me of Rooster already, who could rig up and fix so many cars and random things with his low cost, random, dusty odds and ends in piles that he kept everywhere.
Continuing on with the Rooster theme one was greeted by a huge Franken-Rooster walking from the parking lot. I heard the gigantic Franken-Rooster came with Marc Cline who also emceed during the day as Barney Fife. Marc is also well known in the area for being the one who made Foam-Henge (a life size replica of Stone Henge made all of styrofoam, they tell me. I must now go and check that out next time I am in Rockbridge County).
Rooster’s van was on display there too. It had actually been driven to its location there. I remember many a time when Rooster had towed his little van into a festival so that he could camp in it, and then towed it back home.
The first band of the day was Burr Datz and his large bluegrass band assortment of fine pickers from many ages and walks of life. From that point on there was music on and off stage for the rest of the day. There was straight ahead bluegrass, old time, jazz grass, and sure enough some “what-not” or “other” category going on. Steve Holk, The Hall Brothers, Nothin Fancy (with a few different folks than usual) Ricky and Will Lee and Ruth Huffman and their gang, and many more.
Then came the long set with Wyatt Rice, Mark Schatz, Nate Leath, and rotating kick-butt banjo guys. There was Tommy Morse, Buddy Wolf, Will Lee, Sammy Shelor, and Rex McGee each one at a time, and then all together up there. This was the CD Release Band for Rooster’s new album called Rooster’s Ruckus, and they played tunes off the CD like Lady of Spain, Ground Speed, Bye Bye Blues and some classic tunes Rooster was known for like Bugle Call Rag.
The folks on stage were telling their Rooster stories, as were folks all around Roosterfest. Mark Schatz told a few great ones like the one where he first met Rooster. Mark had a gig in Lexington and ended up needing a bass for the show. Rooster showed up with two basses for him to chose from. Neither one was set up like Mark was used to, so Rooster got out an old hack saw and cut that neck down to Mark’s specs right there.
Available for purchase was the new Rooster’s Ruckus CD, Rooster T-shirts, and bumper stickers.
It was a day full of great music, hilarious stories and good times with that central Rooster theme. They just don’t make folks like Rooster too often, and I can’t imagine a better way for him to be remembered than at an all out throw down music fest in his honor with hordes of bluegrass buddies.
