Time for the Green River Festival again! It was another fun weekend and the Festival is now seemingly very settled into its new digs at the Franklin County Fairgrounds. They’ve adjusted the placement of the stages, vendors, and activity/cool-down tents and have gotten everything pretty much exactly right, minimizing the sound bleed from one stage to another and maximizing crowd flow and comfort. Here’s an article from the local paper.
One thing we didn’t like but that is understandable is that they keep moving back the line where you can set up chairs in front of the Main Stage, for the sake of expanding the standing room area. The line is now well behind the sound tent, but we were still able to see ok, and the standing room area still wasn’t big enough for the crowds wanting to see the major acts.
But speaking of acts, the quality of the lineup continues to go down IMO. They had a couple of great bands this year and several very good ones, but it’s still nothing like the past, when the lineup featured many acts I was excited to see. And they actually had *no* bluegrass bands this year and only a few alternative acts, most bands played some flavor of rock.
Dave drove up on that Friday, the 19th, and we threw everything in the car and headed West on a beautiful late Spring day. Made it to Greenfield and had lunch in an over-air-conditioned People’s Pint, and then cruised out to Shelburne and checked into our room at the Red Rose. Unpacked and got geared up for the Festival, and then back to the Fairgrounds, where we got a parking space in the middle of the field, but still close to the entrance.
Though I complain about the quality, they did have a large number of acts this year and actually started at 1:00 on Friday, but we showed up at our normal time (about 2:00) and missed the first few.
After setting up, I hurried right over to the Back Porch Stage (BPS) and caught some of Luke Tyler Shelton’s set. He played some good folk/rock tunes with just a drummer and a bassist. One thing the GRF has always done well is sound, and I was surprised to see only a couple of dinky speakers up on stage, though the band had sounded great. After the set I talked to the sound guy and he pointed out that they also had large stacks of speakers behind the curtains flanking the stage. He told me there would be no problems with sound at that stage, and for some later acts they even had it cranked up too loud!
A live radio show had taken over the Main Stage (MS), but what I really wanted to see was Southern Avenue over at the Dean’s Beans Stage (DBS) next. Got up pretty close for them. They’re a blues rock, family band consisting of three sisters who got their start singing in church, a husband on guitar, and a brother-in-law on bass. Two of the sisters were up front singing, while the third played drums. Their energy was very high, their mix was great, and their songs were infectious … a great opening act.
Over to the MS for some Southern rock from Kashus Culpepper after that. Though his bass player dominated the sound too much, Kashus has an excellent voice and a mellow guitar, and was very enjoyable. I moved up front for a few songs and then was about to peel off when they started on the intro to Whipping Post. They kind of flubbed this classic, but at least they tried!
But what I really wanted to see was Sunny War back over on the BPS. Got there in time to stand up front and was joined by Dave. I had seen some videos of her and was amazed, and live she was just incredible. She plays a punk folk blues on her acoustic and was accompanied by a drummer. She picked with her thumb and occasionally forefinger, and her left hand was mesmerizing, moving all over the fretboard like an octopus. Part of her talent was that she could quickly pick and then damp each string with her right forefinger or her left thumb, coming over the neck. And her voice was remarkable too, she sang with such dedication that her face distorted, forming each note perfectly. Besides her technical talent, her tone and volume were just so impressive. She gets an A+.
That was a gem, then back over to the MS for one of the big acts, The War and Treaty. They’re a husband and wife who croon R&B/soul tunes to each other, backed up with a great band that included a small horn section. Very good range of sound from some ballads to some stompers.
Caught a few tunes from Swamp Dogg over on the BPS on the way out to the car for a break. The crowd had really filled in by then and the BPS area was packed tightly. He had a good band, but I didn’t find him that focused.
So I walked over to the DBS for Lila Iké, who plays textbook reggae, and I was very impressed by this band. She has a wonderful voice that she controlled well. She had a strong guitarist, bassist, and drummer whipping up the reggae sound, and a keys player with a whole array of keyboards/switches who was filling in the background with a pleasing variety of riffs in a wide range of tones.
OK, it was starting to get dark, but we were still in the gloaming when Charley Crockett came on at the MS with a full, big league, Nashville presentation, including his name up in flashing lights and big hats. The Friday crowd was maxed out for this, and the standing room area was full. Charley played his hits, including $10 Cowboy, and the crowd ate it up. I did too, nothing to complain about here, they had their act together and their sound was mixed very well. He was accompanied by an acoustic lead guitar, bassist, drummer, and dobro/keyboard player who also picked up a trumpet, sometimes playing the keys with his left hand while he played the trumpet with his right, very well done!
We screwed out of there to beat traffic before his set was over. Back at the Red Rose the usual suspects assembled around the fire pit. There was a group already there who were in the area for an annual Tai Chi event, but they were about to go to bed as we started arriving. What fun to see friends who were just kids when we started going to GRF 17 years ago, and are now grown up.
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