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For my first time, I joined family and friends--most of them musical with instruments and original songs and long-time participants--for four days and three nights in Laytonville, Mendocino county at the Black Oak Ranch for the 10th annual Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival. Some 20 performing acts on three stages and over 3000 attendees braved days that were as hot as 114 degrees for political activist urban folk singers such as Steve Earle, Bruce Cockburn, Arlo Guthrie & Family, but it was the lesser known presenters that I really liked. At most of the URLs I include here, you can listen to samples of the music for free.
Friday on the Music Meadow Main Stage, I was energized by guitar-playing singer-songwriters The Kennedys www.kennedysmusic.com/sound.html ,Maura and Pete, singing "Namaste" and other songs from their latest album "half a million miles" as well as older material. Then when Adrienne Young and Little Sadie www.adrienneyoung.com/ came on, I was knocked over! Adrienne is a tremendous singer and the four guys who make up "Little Sadie" play bass, guitar, drums, fiddle and banjo with style and verve. She refers to her style as "pop-inflected old time music" and the numbers she and the group played and sang from her just-released second album "Art of Virtue" were moving indeed! Utah Philips and then Arlo Guthrie and Family followed them later; I'd heard both before (Utah with Ani DiFranco, who pulled him into popularity). They were all crowd-pleasers, but not as interesting or exciting to me as the newer acts.
Saturday was hot--someone said it got up to 114 degrees!--and on the smaller intimate Arlo Hagler Memorial Stage I took in Adrienne Young and Little Sadie again and--late night after all the other shows elsewhere--a tremendous trancy set by Railroad Earth www.railroadearth.com/listen/ whom I'd never heard before. The energy--and this went from almost midnight to almost two a.m.--was a high as any psytrance rave I've danced at. An added plus was their having to do a second encore truly unplugged because of the sound policy for the festival--and that number was also truly amazing! Railroad Earth stands out among the hundreds (thousands?) of Dead-influenced groups for their musicianship, experience and creativity; they are Todd Sheaffer, lead vocals, acoustic guitars, Tim Carbone, violin, vocals, John Skehan, mandolin, vocals, Andy Goessling, acoustic guitars, banjo, dobro, mandolin, flute, pennywhistle, saxophones and vocals, Carey Harmon, drums, hand percussion, vocals, Johnny Grubb, upright bass. Whew! Then on Sunday afternoon, with other members of our group I boogied to an entirely different set of their music at the Main Stage.
In the Revival Tent on Saturday we participated in a harmonies workshop with the Canadian group that I've heard on Prairie Home Companion (BTW, they're on July 1), the Wailin' Jennys www.thewailinjennys.com/ soprano Ruth Moody, mezzo Nicky Mehta, and alto Annabelle Chvostek. Their harmonic styling is indeed haunting and powerful; listen to their "Bring Me a Little Water Sylvie" at prairiehome.publicradio.org/prog...shtml I also took them in on the Main Stage Sunday, but I was happy I'd had the intimacy of the smaller session the day before!
On the Main Stage Saturday, I was again turned on by groups new to me: The Websters and Scott Nygaard www.chriswebstermusic.com/ www.scottnygaard.com/3_websters.html are Chris Webster, vocals, Cassie Webster, vocals and whistling, and Scott Nygaard: guitars and vocals. Again, there were more miles, this one with great numbers from their latest album "Ten Thousand Miles." Next, singer songwriter Mary Gauthier www.marygauthier.com/music.html so bowled me over with numbers like "Wheel Inside the Wheel," "Empty Spaces," and "Prayer Without Words" from her latest album "Mercy Now" that I bought the album and have been playing it a lot. I'm tempted to call her a beat poet born thirty years later but she's more than just that. Steve Earle www.steveearle.com/ was the big headliner Saturday night on the Main Stage, and I enjoyed his schizophrenic content that consisted half of pissed-off political rants and the other half desperate suicidal lost-love songs. I guess he IS in recovery!
On the Main Stage Sunday I really enjoyed a highly unusual rendition of the late Kate Wolf's songs by funky punky Clan Dyken www.clandyken.com/ from Calaveras county, California. They consist of Dyken brothers: Gary on the bass, Bear on guitars, vocals and other primitive instruments, and Mark on drums and vocals. Wavy Gravy, who presided as unofficial emcee of the festival with his endless stories I've heard and he's recounted too many times, calls them with his typical hyperbole, "One of the greatest rock and roll bands in the free world." Later that night, there were The Roches and Bruce Cockburn to close a tremendous three days and nights of sharing music, feelings and space together where I definitely had sensed the spirit of the late Kate Wolf living on.
Friday on the Music Meadow Main Stage, I was energized by guitar-playing singer-songwriters The Kennedys www.kennedysmusic.com/sound.html ,Maura and Pete, singing "Namaste" and other songs from their latest album "half a million miles" as well as older material. Then when Adrienne Young and Little Sadie www.adrienneyoung.com/ came on, I was knocked over! Adrienne is a tremendous singer and the four guys who make up "Little Sadie" play bass, guitar, drums, fiddle and banjo with style and verve. She refers to her style as "pop-inflected old time music" and the numbers she and the group played and sang from her just-released second album "Art of Virtue" were moving indeed! Utah Philips and then Arlo Guthrie and Family followed them later; I'd heard both before (Utah with Ani DiFranco, who pulled him into popularity). They were all crowd-pleasers, but not as interesting or exciting to me as the newer acts.
Saturday was hot--someone said it got up to 114 degrees!--and on the smaller intimate Arlo Hagler Memorial Stage I took in Adrienne Young and Little Sadie again and--late night after all the other shows elsewhere--a tremendous trancy set by Railroad Earth www.railroadearth.com/listen/ whom I'd never heard before. The energy--and this went from almost midnight to almost two a.m.--was a high as any psytrance rave I've danced at. An added plus was their having to do a second encore truly unplugged because of the sound policy for the festival--and that number was also truly amazing! Railroad Earth stands out among the hundreds (thousands?) of Dead-influenced groups for their musicianship, experience and creativity; they are Todd Sheaffer, lead vocals, acoustic guitars, Tim Carbone, violin, vocals, John Skehan, mandolin, vocals, Andy Goessling, acoustic guitars, banjo, dobro, mandolin, flute, pennywhistle, saxophones and vocals, Carey Harmon, drums, hand percussion, vocals, Johnny Grubb, upright bass. Whew! Then on Sunday afternoon, with other members of our group I boogied to an entirely different set of their music at the Main Stage.
In the Revival Tent on Saturday we participated in a harmonies workshop with the Canadian group that I've heard on Prairie Home Companion (BTW, they're on July 1), the Wailin' Jennys www.thewailinjennys.com/ soprano Ruth Moody, mezzo Nicky Mehta, and alto Annabelle Chvostek. Their harmonic styling is indeed haunting and powerful; listen to their "Bring Me a Little Water Sylvie" at prairiehome.publicradio.org/prog...shtml I also took them in on the Main Stage Sunday, but I was happy I'd had the intimacy of the smaller session the day before!
On the Main Stage Saturday, I was again turned on by groups new to me: The Websters and Scott Nygaard www.chriswebstermusic.com/ www.scottnygaard.com/3_websters.html are Chris Webster, vocals, Cassie Webster, vocals and whistling, and Scott Nygaard: guitars and vocals. Again, there were more miles, this one with great numbers from their latest album "Ten Thousand Miles." Next, singer songwriter Mary Gauthier www.marygauthier.com/music.html so bowled me over with numbers like "Wheel Inside the Wheel," "Empty Spaces," and "Prayer Without Words" from her latest album "Mercy Now" that I bought the album and have been playing it a lot. I'm tempted to call her a beat poet born thirty years later but she's more than just that. Steve Earle www.steveearle.com/ was the big headliner Saturday night on the Main Stage, and I enjoyed his schizophrenic content that consisted half of pissed-off political rants and the other half desperate suicidal lost-love songs. I guess he IS in recovery!
On the Main Stage Sunday I really enjoyed a highly unusual rendition of the late Kate Wolf's songs by funky punky Clan Dyken www.clandyken.com/ from Calaveras county, California. They consist of Dyken brothers: Gary on the bass, Bear on guitars, vocals and other primitive instruments, and Mark on drums and vocals. Wavy Gravy, who presided as unofficial emcee of the festival with his endless stories I've heard and he's recounted too many times, calls them with his typical hyperbole, "One of the greatest rock and roll bands in the free world." Later that night, there were The Roches and Bruce Cockburn to close a tremendous three days and nights of sharing music, feelings and space together where I definitely had sensed the spirit of the late Kate Wolf living on.
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