We decided to drive up to Brandon, VT to spend Saturday at the Basin Bluegrass Festival and to see our friends from Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road. We'd be told that this was a very nice festival with lots of good regional bands, jamming, and a friendly atmosphere, and we found it to be exactly as advertised. Despite the late afternoon thunder storm, which blew hard and closed the festivities down for an hour or so, the event provided a good opportunity for us to visit with friends, hear some bands we hadn't heard before, and renew acquaintances with some others. Only one element threw a sour note into the mix, and that was the sound. More about that later.
Located just south of Brandon, Vt up a narrow country lane that turns into a dirt road soon after turning off Rt 7, the major north-south road in western, Vt, we drove onto the festival grounds to find RV rigs and tents of all kinds spread across the grounds in tight formation. The stage was conveniently set more or less in the middle, with three large shade/rain tents and a large vending area. An extensive range of food and craft vendors surrounded the area providing plenty of diversion. We wandered through the campping area until we found Mike and Mary Robinson, whose bluegrass ministry and Sunday Gospel Jam are a fixture at any number of festivals in both New England and Florida. Mike is also an able emcee, who keeps the festivities moving along.Mike Robinson
Mary Robinson
As we enjoyed our chat with Mike and Mary, the mellow sounds of Smokey Greene found their way into the Robinson RV so we wandered over to spend a little time listening to Smokey and his small band deliver his special combination of classic country and novelty songs so well known and like by people up and down the east coast. Smokey, well into his seventies, delivers a reliable performance. Accompanied on Saturday by his son Scott on bass and Chad Darou on resonator guitar, Smokey presented his usual reliable performance with a special bow to his venerable guitar, Ben A. Martin.
Smokey Greene
Scott Greene
Chad Darou
Cabin Fever is based in Norwich, NY where they also host an annual bluegrass festival of their own. The band provides melodic covers of familiar and not so well-known tunes and features an able group of musicians. Mike Tirella has a resonant baritone voice and Brian Jiguerre, a long-time fixture in regional bluegrass, provides the high lonesome tenor. Their rendition of the Chris Kristofferson song "Darby's Castle" was particularly effective as was their very strong gospel acapella quartet. Harry Ralph plays a very sweet fiddle and Bill Lewis fills out the band on bass.
Mike Tirella
Brian Jiguerre
Harry Ralph
Bill Lewis
Blue Horizon - Nova Scotia
Jessie Haley
Mary Frances Haley
Larry Rushton
Michael Allain
Joe Doucette
The Pine Hill Ramblers
The Pine Hill Ramblers come from Massachusetts and New Hampshire and are well known throughout New England. Their sound is gentle and enthusiastic, reflecting the nature of the delightful people in the band. They play a pleasing mixture of lesser known covers and their own compositions. Their rendition of the late Bill Harrell's "Cold November Rain" was particularly touching, as Harrell died only a couple of weeks ago. Banjo player Doug Downey has contributed a number of songs to the group. Claudia Landell, playing bass and singing both lead and harmony vocals, is a standout. Her yodelling deserves special notice, especially since so many singers try in vain to manage a good yodel. Ben Silver and Larry Simonson are the founding members and provide solid leadership. They all can be found around the grounds in jams when not on stage or at their merchandise table.
Ben Silver
Larry Simonson
Claudia Landell
Doug Downey
Richie Chaisson
Blistered Fingers
Blistered Fingers performed two sets and provided the completely inadequate sound for the festival. Throughout the day, it was clear that the four small speakers, more appropriate for an indoor event, were creating a serious problem for the bands, who appeared to have to fight the sound system all day long. The mix was uneven, sometimes over emphasizing instrumentals to the detriment of sound and at other times boosting vocals to a level that made the lyrics difficult or impossible to understand. The space that needed to be reached forced the sound man to push the speakers way beyond their capacity. While it is conventional for bands to thank the sound man for providing first rate reproduction, in this case the gratitude was either unwarranted or unspoken.
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road
Lorraine Jordan & The Carolina Road Band were the headliners for Basin. Carolina Road can always be counted on to give a strong and professional performance. My reaction when I see them, particularly at small festivals like this one, often is "here come the grown ups!" The full sound they create, along with their well-crafted sets featuring every member of the band assure that fans will get a strong and enthusiastic performance. When Mike Robinson asked how many people had never seen Carolina Road before, a majority of the audience raised their hands. By the end of their first set, they were captured and called the band back for a well-deserved encore. This band performs too infrequently in this part of the country, so many New Englanders have not had the opportunity to hear them play. Promoters in the region will strengthen their lineups and please their fans by remedying this oversight.
Lorraine Jordan
Jerry Butler
Ben Greene
Josh Goforth
John Wade
Ben Greene & John Wade
Lorraine, Josh, & Jerry
Acoustic Blue can be counted on to cut a tailored and neat look and provide equally tailored and smooth bluegrass music. Offering well honed covers as well as original compositions by Cory Zinc and Shaun Batho, this band's sound and demeanor hearken back to earlier bluegrass days while keeping their sound in the traditional groove with a contemporary lean to it. Their current CD is a solid piece of work, and they have a new one in the works.
Bear Acker
Shaun Batho
Bear Acker & Mike VanAlstyne
Cory Zinc & Shaun Batho
Big Spike
Big Spike was back in form from the somewhat depleted band we saw twice last summer. It was particularly nice to see Neil Rossi returned to form after the losses and health issues of last year. The band was in good form.Pete Langdell
Neil Rossi
Bill Gaston
Freeman Corey
Michael Santosusson
We were disappointed to miss James Reams & the Barnstormers, who only appeared on Friday. Otherwise, we found the Basin Bluegrass Festival to be a friendly and satisfying festival, despite the disappointing sound. The festival features some of New England and nearby New York's better bands and provides a well-rounded experience for festival attendees.
Regarding the Basin Bluegrass Festival held July 9-12:
ReplyDeleteMr. Lehmann:
Needless to say, we are upset with the BASHING of Blistered Fingers and their sound. We are not sure how long you were at the festival, but we must counterdict your statements. With your expert knowledge of speaker systems, you should have recognized that the small speakers, more asppropriate for an indoor event,( your words) were in reality made for large outdoor events by JBL with 1400 watts each. Before the storm hit Saturday afternoon, the air totally changed for about an hour. The speakers were lowered about three feet from their normal heights when the high winds and rain first hit and were left down for the rest of the evening. Following our printed schedule, the music was shut down for an evening supper break. Startup was delayed for only ten minutes due to lightening in the area. For your short stay, you apparently missed the bands that praised the sound all weekend ON and OFF stage, saying it was some of the best sound they had ever had. For the past fifteen years, Blistered Fingers and their Sound System have been and will remain a very important part of the Basin Bluegrass Festival and we support them 100%. If you have an axe to grind with any given band, perhaps you should not be doing reviews at all.
The Promoters of the Basin Bluegrass Festival,
The Wymans and the Berrys
I'm sorry you felt I had an issue with any band at the festival. I do my best to provide fair and, as much as possible, supportive comments on my blog. We spent all day Saturday at Basin Bluegrass, leaving just as Acoustic Blue was taking the stage for their second set. Because I do not consider myself an "expert" on sound, I checked with members of several bands before making my comments about the sound. Each person I talked with reported fighting the sound all day.
ReplyDeleteIt is a tradition at bluegrass festivals to praise the sound. Bands know better than anyone the potential for a sound person to affect for good or ill the way they sound from the stage. It would, indeed, be unusual for a band to complain about the sound. I don't feel any need to reveal who I talked with. Suffice it to say, they had nothing good to say about the sound.
We enjoyed the day at Basin as I think was reflected in my blog, and I look forward to returning in the future. My comments were placed in the center of my commentary, intended to be helpful, and in no way represent an effort to hurt your festival, Blistered Fingers, or any band.