Saturday, June 21
Woke up to a fine first-full-day-of-Summer Saturday morning and had a nice iced tea and bagel breakfast on the veranda. One of our friends had been down to the river, practicing his fly-casting. Dave and I realized we’d never been down to the Deerfield by the hotel. Across route 2, we found a path cut through the Japanese knotweed to the very full and swift river, all rivers in New England are still running pretty high. The water was clear and bitter cold! Later that day I picked up a flyer for the Deerfield River Watershed Association at the Festival. I went swimming in that river many times in high school.
Everyone started waking up, congregating, and discussing plans for the day. We were the first to take off, as usual, leaving about 10:20 for the 11:00 gates. We got a great parking space in the shade again, waited in line a bit, and then set up our chairs at the Main Stage area almost exactly where we had on Friday, perhaps a few feet closer to the stage. I immediately got an iced coffee.
It was a hard choice which band to see for the opening noon set, but I started off by going over to the Back Stage porch to see Olive Klug. Olive alternated between a guitar, a tenor guitar, and a banjo, and did the vocals for their (preferred pronoun) trio, along with a keyboardist who sang some great harmonies, and a fiddler who was standing on a board and filled in on percussion with tap shoes. Klug was able to work a bass drum and a license-plate-clanger with their heels. What had attracted me to Olive’s music was that it all sounded so happy and upbeat … even the sad songs were happy and the trio was smiling through all of it. It didn’t hurt that they got quite a good reception from the Back Porch stage too.
But I left about two thirds of the way through Klug’s set to hurry over to the Dean’s Beans stage to catch the Funky Dawgz Brass Band. They were at GRF a few years ago and I loved them, and they were doing it again! They have a drummer, but no strings or keyboards, just two trumpet/trombone players, two sax players, and a melodic tuba player who sounds almost like a bass guitar. You have to see these guys when you get a chance, they have such energy and a clean, loud sound.
Time for some food and to settle down at our seats in the hot sun for Thee Sinseers, by far the biggest band of the weekend at 10 people. From their website: “Straight out of East L.A. and led by multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer-songwriter Joseph Quiñones, Thee Sinseers feature a full brass section led by Eric Johnson (Tenor sax), Steve Surman (Bari sax) and Joseluis Jimenez (trombone). The line up also includes sweet harmonies and a tight rhythm section consisting of Christopher Manjarrez (Bass), Francisco Flores (Guitar), Bryan Ponce (Guitar/vox), Luis Carpio (Drums/vox) and Adriana Flores (Vox).” They have a great soul/R&B sound, often dominated by a low, growling trombone, and the sax players on one song both played flutes. I was afraid the band would be too gooey for a hot afternoon, but they’re all such quality musicians they were a lot of fun to listen to.
Next up was a short break at the car, and then I swung by the Dean’s Beans stage to see young garage rock quartet, Thus Love. Not much to see there, again a full sound for a basic band but mostly formulaic punk music.
It was 2:30 and it had already been a long afternoon, but now back to the Main Stage for the Illuminati Hotties, another indie rock band and yet another band from Los Angeles. I had heard some interesting tracks from them and was looking forward to a fun set, but was a little disappointed. They’re fronted by Sarah Tudzin on guitar and vocals, and were another small group (with matching outfits and pastel sneakers). They played with a lot of energy but their songs were not that memorable and their sound was not distinctive. Oh well, still fun and good band name!
BUT, up next was one of the acts I most wanted to see, Leyla McCalla, a Carolina Chocolate Drops alumna who’s recently been concentrating on Haitian music. I got over to the Back Porch stage in time to get a great place to stand and caught the end of her sound check. Leyla played guitar, banjo, and of course cello, and was accompanied by an electric bass and guitar, and trap drums. Again, the whole area was filled wall to wall by the end of her set, and she made everyone happy with some very mellow but at the same time complex music. She did some traditional folk and blues, but slowly changed over to her Haitian sound, ending with her latest song, Sun Without the Heat. This was a great set and several of my friends were there and we all gushed about it afterwards.
The schedule had a big hole in it now, a sequence of acts I was not excited about, but this meant it was time to head out to the car for an extended break. I tried to nap but it was very hot and I could hear every note from Danielle Ponder’s band on the Main Stage (she was actually a lot better than I’d anticipated). But I got some good dozing in at least and was just beginning to wake up when I got a text from Dave that I should head right over to the Back Porch stage to see Jeremie Albino. And was I glad that I did!
This was maybe the set of the weekend, at least the most unexpectedly good one. Albino plays a big, resonating guitar, and is accompanied by a drummer, a bassist, and the fantastic Ian James Bain on lead electric guitar, all from Ontario. They play heart-on-the-sleeve originals, a mix of early rock and roll, country, R&B, swamp music, and whatever feels good. Albino was wearing brown polyester bellbottoms, loafers, and white socks, and looked like a rockabilly shouter with his sneer and sudden dance steps. He’d croon the lyrics, the band would rock together for a bit, and then Bain would take over, what a great sound he got. These guys were really good, and I told Ian so while he was gathering his stuff.
But it was a very hot and sweaty afternoon, and the forecast wind was nowhere near enough. I headed for one of their real bathrooms to wash my face thoroughly with cold water, then got a Greek bowl with chicken from The Roadhouse food truck and sat down in the shade to try to cool off. Kevin Morby was on the Main Stage and I caught a glimpse of him when I went back to our seats to change into my regular glasses, as the first day of Summer began to think about ending. I was told he was pretty good, but didn’t stop to listen.
Cruised by the Back Porch stage to check it out and it was already very packed for Kathleen Edwards, a veteran edgy folk artist whom I’d seen and would have liked to see again, but … instead it was time to head over to the Dean’s Beans stage for La Lom, who had hooked me when I saw a few of their videos.
This trio is yet another band from LA (their name stands for “Los Angeles League of Musicians”), and they play mainly Central and South American songs, but with a style and energy that gives them a unique sound. I’d called them “cumbia rockabilly” on my spreadsheet, and as much as they do fast, rhythmic, complicated music they also do ballads, like their amazing cover of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You.
They’re led by Zac Sokolow on guitar, Jake Faulkner alternated between Fender bass and a huge, blonde double-bass (and yelled at the crowd between each song to rile us up), and Nicholas Baker played a funky trap set in which nothing matched. He usually played with a stick in his right hand and his bare left hand on the conga drum and tom-toms. As good as the rhythm section was, it’s hard to take your eyes off Sokolow. He plays with such speed, dexterity, and precision but also with a feeling, a musical quality that can’t be bottled. I was reminded of seeing Mdou Moctar on that stage last year at about this point of the Festival, though the two play very different styles. And both Sokolow and Faulkner wear pointy-toed boots to look slick, and also to enable them to constantly fiddle with all their effects and filters.
They stick to the instrumentals, they’re concentrating too hard to sing I guess, but they actually had Jeremie Albino out to croon one song, a great matchup. I was at the rail for the whole, loud set, being bumped into by dancing fools on three sides while the hillside behind us was covered by excited music fans. For most of their set, the little area for photographers right in front of the stage was even more packed, as serious people with huge lenses elbowed each other out of the way. It was a lot of fun, and lots of people hung around to chant for more when the band finally left the stage.
Woah! Ok, time to head up to our seats at the Main Stage where Courtney Barnett, Saturday’s headliner, had already started. This rocker from Australia has been around for a long time, but still seems like a youngster. Maybe I’m getting old. I’ve really liked some of her songs (like Depreston, which she did towards the end of her set) and really not liked some others, but even at that you have to admire her musicianship. She’s got a rambling style that sometimes can be fascinating and other times boring, and one thing I like about her videos and was eager to see live was her comfortability with her guitar and her finger picking. Though she just had a trio (bass and drums), she was able to get multiple guitar sounds from her one instrument, and sometimes played rhythm and lead tracks at once.
Great way to end a day of wildly different styles, and we took off just before the end of her set to beat the traffic. Back at the Red Rose and all of our crew showed up out at the picnic/party area. Aldo supplied a wheelbarrow full of split wood for the fire pit, the rain held off (though we felt a few drops late at night), and we all talked and talked about what we’d seen and heard. Oh, and a few bombs were dropped on Iran that night in the perhaps-more-real world.
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