Jenny Brook 2009 - Sunday and Assessment

The Jenny Brook Family Bluegrass Festival closed its ninth edition in a new venue, but with the same warmth and enthusiasm that has always characterized it. Fine weather continued with sun and clouds alternating to create a warm, but not excessively hot day in the beautiful valley formed by the First Branch of the White River. Cows dotted a hillside across route 110 as well as a lovely small cemetary. The spire of the First Congregational Church rises above the fairgrounds. On the other side of the rive, a beautiful red barn looks down on the rustic fairgrounds. The ground fog generated by the river quickly dissipated as the sun warmed the ground and people assembled for the traditional gospel sing and jam, this year hosted by Ben Silver from the Pine Hill Ramblers and emcee Clyde Prach.

Ben Silver

Clyde Prach

The Gospel Jam always emphasizes the good fellowship of singing and playing long familiar hyms together usually accompanied by a few words. A good group showed up and the singing was sprited and enthusiastic. Interest was increased by the case of the mysterious misplaced bass.

The Pine Hill Ramblers followed with a mostly gospel set characterized by a somewhat more ecumenical selection of songs than one sometimes finds at these affairs. The singing was melodious and appropriate to the time and place.

Pine Hill Ramblers

Doug Downey

Claudia Landell

Larry Simonson

Ben Silver

The Jenny Brook Kids followed with their brief set, creating a transition to a more grassy afternoon. Tony Watt, with the assistance of several other musicians, brought a small group of musicians to the stage, includng more vocalists than instrumentalsts. With the support of the more mature adults on stage, the kids sang and played with several bluegrass standards.

Jenny Brook Kids

The Katahadin Valley Boys brought a change of pace with their good mix of bluegrass covers. Banjo player Jeff Folger has a pure and clear high tenor which sets the band's sound off. The band performed ably through four sets at Jenny Brook, a lot for any band.

Katahadin Valley Boys

Wayne Burtt

Ken Brooks

Kip Yattaw

Steve Bixby

Jeff Folger

Dave Shaw and Dave Orlamoski are Bear Minimum. As band members, each has been around the new England Scene for years and is a talented multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. Together, they perform a mix of classic country, Americana, folk, and bluegrass material that entertains and pleases in a quiet yet solid fashion. They provide a perfect interlude for a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon.

Bear Minimum

Dave Shaw

Dave Orlomoski

Sunday afternoon poses a difficult problem for promoters. People who attend bluegrass festivals are ready, by Sunday, to get home and prepare for their regular lives. They have jobs, family obligations, the lawn to mow. It's hard to keep an audience at a festival well into Sunday afternoon, especially if it's any distance away from home for many people. Many promoters use the time to showcase lesser known bands. Others seek to entice attendees by bringing in a first rate band to hold the audience. Audie Blaylock & Redline fit this criterion and the ploy worked moderately well. A significant audience stayed to check out Blaylock's show and were glad they did. Audie Blaylock & Redline with a new CD out and in the midst of a national tour hit the stage with greater energy, drive, and commitment than I have ever seen of them. The band, which has been touring together for a couple of years now, shows that it has developed road savvy and the ability to energize its audience. Working a single microphone with nimble assurance, the band sounded and looked good. Blaylock is a veteran performer who has done extended stints with Jimmy Martin and Rhonda Vincent & the Rage. Fronting his own band, he has matured in the role and the band has grown, too.

Audie Blaylock & Redline

Audie Balylock

Evan Ward

Patrick McAvinue

Jason Johnson

Matt Wallace

In moving to Tunbridge, the Sawyers took quite a risk. They moved from the comfortable confines of the town park in Weston, VT, which they had outgrown, but was a known quantity familiar to them and to festival goers, to a vastly larger and more elaborate and flexible site on the World’s Fair grounds in Tunbridge. While seeming somewhat to be remote, the site turns out to be much more convenient for people seeking to come from a broad radius. Southern New England, including Boston, Hartford, Providence, and more population centers are easily accessible via I-89 as are Burlington, Concord, NH and other places in northern New England. As people discover the convenience and beauty of the site, Jenny Brook should grow and, hopefully, prosper. It is important, though, that New England and nearby New York festivals meet to discuss seeking to eliminate conflicts over festival dates to insure that all can share in the available regional audience.

The Tunbridge World's Fair grounds are spacious and appealing. Provisions for water and electric, flush toilets, hot showers, and plenty of space for rough camping make it an almost ideal site to hold a festival. The fairgrounds itself charges for access to water and electric, which became something of an issue for some campers, however the charge seems reasonable and none of it goes to the Sawyers. The Fair staff and administration, however, provided tremendous support to Jenny Brook, keeping the grounds clean, the rest rooms nearly spotless, and providing significant help to a festival short of sufficient volunteers. Meanwhile, the buildings and grounds provided wonderful spaces for campers and jammers to congregate. A building used for the Shriner's to sponsor bingo during the weekend as well as for a pre-festival covered dish and barn dance was an added feature.

Sound by Harry Grant was up to his usual standard, although the size of the site may require additional power and subtlety to allow Harry's very good feel for how bluegrass instruments should sound. Clyde Proch did a fine job as emcee, keeping the focus on the bands and the festival.

Jenny Brook will celebrate its tenth anniversary next year in a new site with a new sense of its own potential. Each year, after the crowd has gone home on Sunday afternoon, the Sawyers host an informal barbecue where the tired staff gathers for some fellowship and a thoughtful assessment of the event just finished. There were plenty of good ideas about the nitty gritty details that effect the festival experience. People attending next year's festival in Tunbridge can expect the experienced staff to be able to meet their needs more easily. Meanwhile, the Jenny Brook tradition has made a successful transition to Tunbridge, Vermont, where it is poised to become one of the "Must Attend" events of the New England bluegrass season.

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Tired and Happy