GRF 2022, Saturday

The early acts on Saturday did not make for a compelling bill, and so we decided to have a mellow morning instead of rushing out for "gates open" at 10:00.  We'd brought some yogurt and orange juice, which with our beer and cider might have filled a small fridge in one of the rooms, but took up only a bit of the big one in the kitchen.  We were kind of embarrassed not to have more food to cook ... next year!  Joined the crew out on the patios in front of their rooms, yucked it up a bit more, and shared impressions of the Festival so far.

We'd all been a bit disappointed when they announced that they'd be staying at the Franklin County Fairgrounds instead of returning to Greenfield Community College, where they'd been for years and which we loved.  But we had to admit that there were lots of plusses to the Fairgrounds and they'd tried to address the minuses.  There had been lots of audio leakage between stages last year, but this year they'd lined up the vendors a little better to create more distinct areas between stages.  Their selection of vendors was as good as ever, and they keep adding kids (and adult) activities.  This year they had a whale exhibit, the BMX bikers, the Frisbee Dogs, an Art Tent, and they even had a VIP tent (at outrageous prices of course).  And they did a great thing in putting up a large tent with open sides that they filled with picnic tables, perfectly positioned to let you cool off, eat your food from the vendors at a table instead of balancing it on your lap, and also hear the set at the Dean's Beans Stage.  They also opened the huge, shaded basement of the Grandstand for people to cool off in, they had a hammock jungle, and they added the shady (well, shadier) Green House Stage.  No hot air balloons like they used to have, but it was very acceptable and very well done.

Strange though, that the attendance didn't seem to be over the top like in previous years.  There was never much of a line to get in (partly because they managed opening times and checking bags a lot better), and though the stage-fronts were as packed as ever for the big acts, the edges were pretty empty at times.  None of the days sold out, tickets were available at the gate all weekend.  The good thing about this was that it was never really packed like the last few years and there was no problem walking around, though the shady Green House Stage was usually filled.  Perhaps they'll take a look at their bottom line and realize that they need to get some bigger acts ... I sure hope so.

The heat was *really* oppressive on Saturday and Sunday.  They had a lot of water stations and water sprinklers set up, but also a lot of hot, hard-packed, dusty ground and pavement to burn your bare feet.  There were a few clouds but we could have used a lot more.  Luckily there was a breeze all weekend, not strong but enough to cool you off and make you say, "Aaaahhh!!" every once in a while.  A guy in a chair near us was suddenly unresponsive on Saturday afternoon, probably from heat stroke.  But we all yelled for security and they had the golf carts over with ice to put on his neck and medical professionals to tend to him within a minute. 

There had been a schedule switch and Matthew Fowler went on at the Dean's Beans Stage at noon.  I'd just had a snack (a "BBQ cup") in the big tent with the picnic tables and was undecided how much of his set I'd listen to.  But then I realized they were really good and walked up front.  He was the dreaded one guy strumming his folk songs on an acoustic, but he had two women with him who supplied excellent, moody harmonies.  And then one of them picked up a clarinet and the other one picked up an oboe and they made a great sound!  This was excellent main-stream folk but with an unexpected edge from the woodwinds.

Back to the GSB Stage and saw a bit of Steve Poltz, who's another folkie with a guitar.  He's really got some chops and knows his way around his instrument.  It would have been good if he'd concentrated on that, but instead he talked a lot.  He name-dropped Molly Tuttle and then Billy Strings and then Anthony d'Amato and then even Emmylou Harris, and later he told everyone how he'd had a stroke and after that was suddenly a Grateful Dead fan.  The funny thing was when he introduced the song he'd co-written with Molly Tuttle, a chorus of voices shouted out, "How fast can you play it?" as Molly had told us to do.  He staggered back, he was so surprised!  He had no idea how to react and we could almost hear Molly laughing.

It was peak heat by then and I took a break out at the car, where the open hatch shed a little shade.  Then met Dave back at the Artifact Cider Stage for a band I really wanted to hear, Poor Monroe.  This is a basically amateur bluegrass band from the area who were tickled pink that they'd been asked to perform at the Festival.  They mentioned several times that this was by far the biggest gig they'd ever had, and they were psyched for it.  They danced back and forth around a ribbon mike and showed some great vocal arrangements and a great variety of talent (to put it kindly).  They started off with an a cappella cover of On the Resurrection Morning and then their name-sake song, Poor Monroe.  Then they did a Jimmy Martin song and then a Peter Rowan song (not the Rowan and Martin you're thinking of), and then a David Grisman song and I was in bluegrass cover heaven, singing along with all the lyrics (Dave was loving it too).  But most of the people there were shade seekers, not necessarily bluegrass fans, and when they asked how many people in the audience had heard of a band called Hot Rize only 4 people put their hands up, two of which were me!  Not heard of the best bluegrass band to ever exist????  I was beyond shocked.  They said that the song they were about to play was perfect for the Artifact Cider stage and then lit into Hard Pressed.  They followed that with one of my favorite Hot Rize songs, Pete Wernick's Just Like You.  Loved their set!

Then back to the GSB Stage for Parsonsfield, whom I'd seen a couple of times before at GRF.  They played a great set of bluegrass-tinged folk, led by Chris Freeman on vocals and guitar and with Antonio Alcorn on banjo and other stuff.  They also had a great keyboards sound from a small box that could be set to sound like a piano or a harpsichord, or somewhere in between.  The frustrating thing was that for once the sound guys really couldn't get them right.  There were feedback and cutting-out problems throughout their set.  Very unusual for GRF, which is generally excellent on sound.

Time to wander, have another beer and lots of water, and look for some shade after that.  I can't emphasize enough how hot it was, though the humidity was fine.  You'd be in the seats at the Main Stage and realize that you were just turning into a shriveled up piece of bacon in the middle of a hot and dusty field.  I'd checked out the Green House Stage several times, which featured shade and lush grass, but it was hard to get a seat there it was so packed.  I bet some people did not move from there all day.

Then back to the GSB Stage and caught most of Katie Pruitt's act.  I'd checked out a couple of her videos and she's a rocker, I was really looking forward to seeing her and she did not disappoint!  She reminded me of seeing Annie DiFranco on the same stage a year ago, at about the same time of afternoon.  She had a great band with her (all from Georgia, one of them shouted out, "Go Braves, Go Dawgs!" when introduced) and she'd engineered a really good setlist mixing some of her ballads with power anthems.  She closed with CSN&Y's Ohio, and she rocked the whole world with that.

I should digress for a second to say that this was ... is ... a tough time for freedom loving people, for all of us.  You can read about it in the current papers and you'll be able to read about it later in your history books I'm sure.  But right-wing politics are ascendant in our country, especially represented in late June 2022 by a couple of politicized Supreme Court decisions, overturning a New York gun law that had been on the books for over a hundred years and overturning the federally-guaranteed right to abortion that had been on the books for fifty.  They rolled back our rights!  These decisions are not popularly supported by a wide margin, are illogical (anti-states rights on the one hand and pro-states rights on the other), and represent a shocking power play to control us by limiting our rights and our protections.  Pruitt played Ohio as a protest anthem, and several other groups expressed vehemence against what's been happening.  I think almost everybody in the crowd agreed.

Back to the Green House for the next couple of hours.  I'd met up with Sarah and we both grabbed some more water and pulled up a seat on the lawn there.  The Festival organizers were announcing Green House pop-up acts by text message and Sarah and I had both heard that Parsonsfield would be playing there soon, so moseyed on over.  The band was as almost as good as at the Main Stage but without the sound problems.  They brought the funky keyboard machine with them, had a small trap set, and Freeman and Alcorn rotated on guitar, banjo, and mandolin.  A short set but very fun!

Wandered around some more after that ... the afternoon was beginning to get on and some of the vendors were already out of wares and beginning to close up.  But then we got a text that LSD would be on the small stage soon, and so bee-lined over there.  We squeezed into about the same spot on the lawn and were quickly surrounded by almost everybody else in Western Mass.  The people out at the other stages must have been wondering where everybody went.  Where we were was over in a back corner of the Fairgrounds, waiting for the great Lake Street Dive.

And then they pulled up in a golf cart and soon went on!  Bridget was on her big bass of course, Akie on some kind of mouth-powered melodica, Mike C had a combination tambourine/frame drum that was Bluetoothed to an amplifier, James Cornelison (the new guy) was on an acoustic guitar, and Rachael was as radiant as ever.  They only played three or four songs but this was a great teaser for their impending evening set.  The second song they did was the classic Neighbor Song ... great to hear them still playing the wonderful songs from their first few albums as well as the new stuff.  And right from the first note it was clear that the vocal backup by Bridget and Mike was as good or better than ever.  Then they jumped in the golf cart and took off, this time surrounded by their fans and looking a little alarmed at the adulation.

Out to the car for another long break after that.  I should have remained in the fray and caught some of Rayland Baxter, The Dip, and/or StompBoxTrio, but just thinking about that made me tired!  I had to get my act together, summon up energy, and then return to the main stage for ...

Ripe was Dave's favorite band of the Festival.  They're another product of Berklee College Of Music led by the dynamic Robbie Wulfsohn on vocals.  Though they look like a bunch of headbangers (and can play that way), like Pruitt they had a great setlist, mixing tempos and instrumental arrangements.  Another band that I enjoyed a lot more than I thought I was going to.

OK GRF, time to fasten the seat belts and get set for the main act!  Lake Street Dive came out after the sun had gone fully down and you realized that maybe it was still early Summer.  They spread out across the stage like the last time we'd seen them at GRF (they've appeared more times at GRF than any other band) and proceeded to play a long, loud, thrilling set:

• Know That I Know
• Hypotheticals
• Hush Money
• Being a Woman
• Anyone Who Had a Heart (Burt Bacharach)
• Same Old News
• Lackluster Lover
• How Good It Feels
• I Don't Care About You
• Making Do
• I Can Change
• I Want You Back (The Jacksons)
• Feels Like the Last Time
• You're Still the One (Shania Twain)
• Nick of Time (Bonnie Raitt)
• Baby, Don't Leave Me Alone With My Thoughts
• Nobody's Stopping You Now
• Seventeen
• Bad Self Portraits
• Good Kisser

Encore:

• You Go Down Smooth
• My Speed

What can I say?  They were great and the addition of Cornelison is a good one, he played several fine leads but mostly stuck to his role as the new guy.  Akie took a few vocal leads, Calabrese was rocking our world, and Bridget Kearney is nothing less than an amazing musician (she switched to electric bass for a few songs).  But this was Rachael's night and her voice was in as fine shape as I've ever heard it.  A couple of songs she just killed were I Can Change and Bonnie Raitt's Nick Of Time.  And my favorite part of course was when they pulled Seventeen out of the night (talk about early songs!) followed by Bridget's incredible Bad Self Portraits and they capped off with Good Kisser.

Woo!  What a performance and what a long and physically challenging day it had been.  We folded up our chairs and got back to the car covered with dust, still thirsty, exhilarated and exhausted.  Long line out of the parking lot and back to route 2 that night, but soon we had left the crowd and were on our way out West into the silent night.

We washed off our feet and rallied back at the Red Rose.  Most of our group were already out at the fire pit beyond the swimming pool, and we joined them with a couple of beers and bags of chips.  It was a perfect evening and we talked long into the night, waiting for the fire to burn down.  It was almost 1AM by the time we last few stragglers headed back, and we all were soon asleep.  Again, no need for AC, just leave the windows open and the cool night air filled the room.