The Stockwell Brothers on the Newfane Common

 Windham County Courthouse, Newfane, Vermont

Sunday of Labor Day weekend was one of those clear crisp late summer days that serve as a harbinger for the impending arrival of New England's beautiful autumn and a whisper of the long winter to come.  Warm and sunny in the sunlight turns to chilly as soon as one gets into the shade since there's almost no humidity.  In New Hampshire and Vermont, days like this are deeply appreciated in the brief break between the time the summer people head home and the leaf peepers arrive.  We got into our Tacoma truck and, by habit, headed north on route12, soon realizing we were not taking the most direct path to Newfane.  We asked the GPS for the shortest route and then I cheerfully ignored its ideas until I found one I liked.  We headed up a likely road past the Putney School, but the road turned into a winding, narrow dirt road over Putney Mountain.  Irene sat in the driver's seat muttering, "This is completely ridiculous!" as I persisted across the mountain along a mostly single lane, seasonal road that in a few months will be covered with snow for the duration.  Up was nervous making; Down was truly scary.  I hid my concerns as Irene approached hysteria. (Do be kind to my slight use of hyperbole. After all, I'm in the midst of reading a biography of Mark Twain.) The woods were "lovely, dark, and deep" and we still had several miles to go in order to get to Newfane on time. (Frost always gets it right.) We came down the mountain, crossed the West River and finally knew more-or-less where we were.

Union Soldier Guards the Common

 

Folks Gather on the Common 

The tiny village of Newfane offers a classic picture of a New England town.  Composed of three or four lovely, white clapboard buildings around a town common with red brick stores and a country inn nearby, Newfane provides a perfect site for a Sunday afternoon barbecue and free bluegrass concert.  In other parts of the country, a common might be called the town square. In colonial times the common provided common grazing ground for local farmers, a practice looking back many hundreds of years to old England.  This afternoon, attendees were claiming spaces on the ground or at tables set up on the lawn, a charcoal grill was producing large numbers of hand formed hamburgers as well as hot dogs, while children and dogs romped on the grass.  After a while, three slender balding men took their place behind a sound system on the porch of the Town Hall and the music began.

The Stockwell Brothers

 

Bruce Stockwell

 

Barry Stockwell

Al Stockwell

Bruce Stockwell is a shy, almost reclusive man, who grew up near Putney, VT with his two brothers Barry and Al playing bluegrass music.  He went off to Yale where he seems to have successfully resisted Ivy League cool and irony.  I'm told he majored in English, but insofar as I know him, it's pretty clear he majored in banjo and minored in rock and roll, both of which he has played throughout New England for more than thirty years.  (Department of full disclosure: Bruce has been my banjo teacher off and on for five years. He always seems glad to see me, even though I'm at best an indifferent student.)  The Stockwell Brothers play events like the barbecue on the village common in Newfane or the crafts fair in Troy, NH, and are well-known an welcome throughout the region.  Their sound is bluegrass/folk leavened by a delightful funky sound on Bruce's banjo.  Bruce, who won the prestigious Merlefest banjo contest in 2005, professes to be a pure Scruggs style guy, and that's what he teaches, but his play is inventively jazz and rock informed and his work along the entire neck of his new Neat banjo is expressive, fast, accurate, and inventive.  Brother Barry, on guitar,  has a fine folk voice. Brother Al, on electric bass and bluegrass mandolin, provides musical variety and strong harmonies.  An afternoon with the Stockwell Brothers is always an enjoyable musical experience.

Wading Pool on a Chilly Afternoon

Recently, Bruce has joined with Phil Rosenthal, Phil Zimmerman, Stacy Phillip, Dave Howard, and his wife Kelly Stockwell to form a band calling itself North by Northeast, as Yankee a name as a bunch of New Englanders could possibly conjure up.  So far, they have had few bookings, but the personnel is strong and they should be a welcome addition to the thriving New England bluegrass scene as a hard core traditional band.  Samples of their sound can be found on their MySpace page.

Bruce Stockwell

As the sun sank behind the hill, a cool chill settled on the common.  Despite the warm spirit generated by the Stockwell Brothers, we headed for home, this time managing to miss the Putney Mountain Road, but crossing the covered bridge and taking the East-West road through Dummerston Center and the Middle Road to Brattleboro and then home to Keene. (New Englanders, famous for their thrift with words as well as money,  don't waste complex naming on minor roads.)  It was a really nice afternoon and evening.  The Stockwell Brothers are worth your effort to hear.  Bruce performed on a couple of records (they had records then) back in the seventies.  I have no idea where you might find one of them, but they'd be worth the effort.

North Branch BGF - Bridgewater Center, VT

 

The lovely grounds for the 2nd Annual North Branch Bluegrass Festival are located only a few miles up a country lane from Woodstock, that trendiest of trendy Vermont towns, yet is truly set in one of the most beautiful and isolated valleys in the Green Mountains.  The festival grounds are a long narrow meadow along the North branch of the Ottauquechee River.  Surrounded by low hills, the festival grounds themselves are flat and welcoming.  Promoters Randy and Heather Kennedy have begun to make some improvements and have plans in mind for further development as their small festival develops and matures.  While working with limited assets, everything they're doing suggests a wide open imagination about what can happen at a bluegrass festival.  They've invested in a good sound system, bought their own shade tents, and provided opportunities for kids, jammers, and workshops that bode well for the future.  Their lineup for this three day event was modest, but filled with excellent local and regional talent and displayed musical variety unusual and welcome for this small kind of event.

 Spacious Dry Camping Area

 

 Bored Games Tub

Examples of their foresight in offering variety were a stock tank tub full of board games for children to play, a campfire tent near the camping area as a designated jam site (hosted by bands during the day on Saturday and Sunday with a special band to entertain kids), and places around the grounds for variety of entertaining activities. They served a free spaghetti supper on Friday evening for early arrivees.  The pace of the day was leisurely and friendly, supporting the statement in their schedule, "We hope that North Branch will come to be know as a place where a person can "Stop and smell the roses," a place where ones inner child can come back out again and play...for the simple joy of playing."  Martha Sheperd, an inveterate chaser of jamming opportunities commented that there was "...high quality jamming with a high proportion of jammers to campers" on Friday night.  The site will require some minor adjustments to make entrance for large rigs easier, but all-in-all North Branch is off to a very promising start. Labor Day weekend in north/central Vermont seems like an ideal time to attract people to such a delightful sight for an easygoing bluegrass festival experience.  The Kennedy's have retained food vending, which offered a limited menu of quality food at reasonable prices.

The music was selected from a variety of local and regional bands of quite high quality.  Rather than bust the budget on national touring bands, the Kennedys chose to book local bands and to vary the musical choices away from just offering straight ahead traditional bluegrass bands.  Both choices show good judgement and created a musical range that both satisfied and delighted. The day was blessed with nearly perfect weather, an eventuality that has a pretty high probability of being repeated in maintaining an early September date. Since the festival at Thomas Point Beach has retired after a long and successful fun, North Branch is well-positioned to step up and offer excellence at the end of the New England festival season.  

The Bands

Snake Mountain Bluegrass

 

People familiar with this blog know I like to highlight a band that's new to me and that provides a pleasant surprise.  Snake Mountain Bluegrass opened Saturday with a bang, catching my attention in the midst of a  reunion  with our friends Jay and Martha Sheperd.  This band, based in the Middlebury, VT area, offers an unusual, and somewhat risky, blend of covers of more modern bands as well as their own originals.  They sing songs like "Hey, Mr. Spaceman" by Roger McGuin, "Rock Me Momma" by Old Crow Medicine Show (although I think this is Bob Dylan piece at some point), as well as classic bluegrass songs like "Fox on the Run."  Their song "Seldom Seen Band" manages to capture references to perhaps a dozen bluegrass songs while sounding a good deal like the band alluded to in the song title. Earl Provin on slide guitar as well as mandolin helps create the varied and slightly unusual sound. Gregg Humphries' voice is clear and pure.  Promoters would do well to give this band a careful look.

Gregg Humphrey

Mike Connor

 

Earl Provin

Mike Boise

The Bristol Boys

 

Dave Orlomoski and Dave Shaw show up on stage at various festivals in different configurations.  They bring a deep knowledge of bluegrass and classic country to their spare, yet deeply musical performances.  The addition of  Dave Aston on bass provided the beat and percussiveness, and Daryl Smith's guest stint on banjo turned them briefly into a full-fledged bluegrass band.  Both Shaw and Orlamoski has strong tenor voices and their harmonies are always fine.  Each of them plays the full range of bluegrass instruments, allowing them a good deal of variety.  They take pride in providing an historical twist to their sound with few songs they play having been created after, say, 1970.  Their placement in the lineup provided an interesting contrast to Snake Mountain.

Dave Orlomoski

Dave Shaw

Dave Aston

Crossing North

This Plattsburgh, NY based folk duo presents a varied set of sing/songwriter originals as well as a few more recognizable songs.  Their vocal presentation features two well-blended voices that are perfect for coffee house presentations or smaller, more intimate festival settings.  Bruce's baritone voice has plenty of depth to it, while Jen's alto voice fits comfortably together with his.  Her songs tend towards the melancholy, but are easy to listen to. Their two sets were deservedly well received.

Jen Carter-Kelly

Bruce Lawson

Big Spike Bluegrass

 Big Spike is one of the better traditional bluegrass bands in New England.  Based in Vermont, they appear throughout the region.  Their music features traditional covers as well as compositions by mandolinist Neil Rossi and instrumentals by Bill Gaston.  Their sound has plenty of drive, and their vocals are strong.  They can also be counted on for jamming around the fire late into the evening.

Neil Rossi

 

Pete Langdell

 Bill Gaston

Freeman Corey

 Mike Santosusson

 

Junior Barber & Beartracks

Also based in Plattsburgh, NY, this bluegrass trio features brother/sister duo Tom Venne and Julie Hogan along with Dobro master Junior Barber.  They sing a very pleasing range of classic country, bluegrass, and country pop that reaches out to all audiences.  Hogans good looks and sprightly presence compliment her good voice.  Tom sings lead and plays good rhythm guitar.  The jocular sibling rivalry between the two supplies good humored fun.  Junior Barber is always tasteful and exceptional on the Dobro.  He's an acknowledged master of the instrument who brings depth to this group.

Junior Barber

 

 Julie Hogan

 Tom Venne

Dave Nichols & Spare Change

 Dave Nichols & Spare Change is a reliabele bluegrass band that also comes from northern New York.  With Brian Jiguerre, a veteran of numerous NY bluegrass bands singing lead in his pure tenor voice, and Nadine's Nichols very solid harmonies, this band was quite strong in this configuration.  

Dave Nichols

 Brian Jiguerre

 Nadine Nichols

 Gary Greenland

 Jim DiSabito

The 2nd Annual North Branch Bluegrass Festival was an artistic success on all levels.  One can only hope its audience will continue to build and it will become a successful event helping encourage bluegrass music in New England.

MACC Performances on Sirius/XM Labor Day Weekend

Kyle Cantrell, Music Director of XM/Sirius radio’s Bluegrass Junction (XM -14, Sirius – 65) tells me that the satellite stations will carry three afternoons of festival feeds recorded live at

Musicians Against Childhood Cancer (MACC) held in late July in Columbus, Ohio. All times are EST.

 Brandon Rickman, Sammy Shelor, Andy Ball (LRB)

Saturday, Sept 5 at 12:00 Noon

Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass

Lonesome River Band

David Parmley & Continental Divide

The Larry Stephenson Band

New Found Road

Kenny and Amanda Smith

Sunday, Sept. 6 at approx. 12:20 PM (following Adam Steffey Track-By-Track)

Blue Highway

Dudley Connell & Friends (Dudley, Sally Love Connell, Don Rigsby, Joe Mullins, Aubrey Haynie, Junior Sisk, Randy Kohrs, and Randy Barnes)

Josh Williams Band

Grascals

Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper

Josh Williams

Monday, Sept. 7 at 12:00 Noon

Rhonda Vincent & The Rage

Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out

Steep Canyon Rangers

Marty Raybon & Full Circle

Junior Sisk & Ramblers Choice

The Grascals

Early in my subscription to XM, Bluegrass Junction regularly carried live (recorded) feeds from bluegrass festivals. This event from as important an event as MACC heralds the return of these much enjoyed radio events. The bands included in these Labor Day weekend broadcasts are a real treat. Of particular interest is the Dudley Connell & Friends program. Promoter Darrel Adkins is widely known for his ability to draw together groups of musicians into super presentations. This set of traditional bluegrass songs featured Connell’s irrepressible energy and good humor, which enlivened everyone else’s performance.

If you’re near your satellite radio this coming weekend, tune in to Bluegrass Junction and listen to these fine sets.

The World in Six Songs by Daniel Levitin - Book Review

Daniel J. Levitin’s first book This is Your Brain on Music detailed how the human brain processes and responds to music. He included lots of brain geography and explained how the way the brain works affects the choices we make in music with particular reference to the relationship of human development to music.  In his new book The World in Six Songs, recently released in trade paperback (Plume Books, a part of the Penguin Group, 2008, $16.00) Levitin is after bigger game.  He seeks to examine how the ability to make and reproduce music in humans evolved side by side with the development of our species and, ultimately, is a crucial element in what makes us human.  I think it was philosopher George Santayana who once noted there were only six plots in all literature. The joke was that Santayana neglected to name them. Later critics have identified major plot types as Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. God, etc.  In the same way, Levitin identifies six basic kinds of songs he claims to encompass the entire body of music throughout human history: friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion, and love songs.  Levitin asks, “How did all these musics make us who we are? (pg. 7) And then he proceeds to answer his own question.

Levitin persuasively argues that music and movement have been a part of human evolutionary patterns since the very beginning, a genetic predisposition deeply embedded in our DNA. He takes several opportunities in this most readable volume to point out that none of us is descended from ancestors who didn’t live long enough to reproduce (a thought so obvious it knocked me over with its power to support the idea of evolution and inherited characteristics) and that making music must go back to our earliest days of communication.  He cites drums used to evoke terror, pre-language acting out the location of a crocodile by slashing about on the ground and making representative sounds to warn of the danger, or mothers using songs to help their restive children to fall asleep in what have become known as lullabies, and which seem to have a universal form and structure that lead to sleep. He sketches how songs of friendship and solidarity have helped group movements to grow strong.  Using the anti-war movement during the war in Vietnam, he shows how song served as a rallying point for like-minded people to oppose what they saw as an unjust war. He suggests that songs of solidarity helped move the union movement during the first half of the twentieth century. 

Levitin argues that earliest songs were almost always accompanied by movement which may or may not have become formalized into what would look and feel like dance to us.  Dance, he says, is a physiological response to the “feel good” hormones generated by listening to music and says that the dance response may have been bred out of contemporary generations which sit and passively listen to music.  Although even at the most staid classical music event, it’s not unusual to see heads bobbing and feet tapping as people respond to the music. One of Levitin’s more interesting points is that positive outlooks tend to lead towards greater success, while over optimism is more likely to lead to frequent failure. On the other hand, a defeatist will more often forego activities which might have been successful or pleasurable. He concludes a half-full attitude is a worthwhile posture towards life.  He links this to joyful music and the evolutionary benefit to be derived from remaining positive. 

Levitin holds that songs of religion and faith are part of what set us aside as human (192). They are often connected to specific events, rituals, and religious rites.  He talks about how it would seem to be inappropriate to sing a Christmas carol in the middle of summer.  His discussion of religion as it relates to music emphasizes the ability of religious singing to increase fervor and move people to action.  It raised in my mind the issue of the extensive use of gospel music at bluegrass festivals turning the events into (nearly) exclusive Christian gatherings, thereby limiting the potential audience to some extent. 

Songs of love hold a huge place in human development. While Levitin gives relatively little credence to romantic love because it is relatively short lived in the individual experience and relatively new in human experience, he says it has had a very strong influence on popular culture. He also says the songs of love contribute to pair bonding and parenting in humans contributing to our emergence as the kind of humans we have become.  He writes about the four stages of songs of love: I want you, I got you, I miss you, it’s all over and I’m heart-broken. He also points out the different types of love: Romeo & Juliet, mature and looking back, and love of ideals, like country and family. 

Levitin holds that songs of love have the power to release encoded memory.  He says that love songs “imprint themselves on our brains like no others.” (280) Even 55 or so years after my summer camp experiences, the song “Embraceable You” sung by Ella Fitzgerald can raise poignant memories in me of being asked to dance by a pretty girl, and my hurt and embarrassment at having to decline, because I had no idea what to do.  This brings me to one of the features of Levitin’s music which makes it a sheer delight to read. Levitin writes from a deep well of personal experience as well as a solid grounding in science and music theory.  His books are filled with personal tales illustrating points and making sometimes difficult ideas easily accessible. 

Music has, through much of its history, been a participatory activity rather than performance oriented.  Levitin argues that two of the greatest inventions of modern times have been musical notation and recording.  By permitting a standardized way to communicate music and allowing a standard based on professional performance to emerge, these two innovations have changed the way humans experience music. It is probably too soon to say how they may affect our future evolution.  He also points out the importance of the blues in the development of modern American music.  This influence can be seen in jazz, R&B, gospel, rock, metal, bluegrass, and country music. (283) In the end, Levitin concludes “Music makes us human,” but it’s how he reaches this conclusion that makes this fine volume a must read for anyone interested in music.

Levitin deftly roams through the worlds of evolutionary biology, anthropology, sociology, and musicology to mine the ways in which music developed and human development have interacted to make us the people we are. His own background as a neuro-scientist, musician, and record producer have given him access to assessing his own experience and digging into the experience of many of the world’s great musicians.  Two of his more interesting sources for this book were the rocker Sting and folk singer/composer Joni Mitchell, to name only two.  His taste is eclectic and his writing filled with endless examples to support his points.  Interested readers can hear clips of each piece of music mentioned by visiting his web site.  People wishing to experience longer than thirty second clips might have to roam further, but these clips provide flavor to support his points.  The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature by Daniel J. Levitin is available in hard cover, trade paperback, audio book, and as an e-book.  It can be purchased on line of from your local independent book seller or big box chain book outlet.  It is published by Plume Books, a division of the Penguin Group

IBMA Awards Poll at Bluegrass Blog

If you're interested in participating in the fun of predicting the winners of awards in the IBMA Awards, why not go on over and vote in the poll being conducted by the Bluegrass Blog?  To participate you will have to register, and you can only vote once.  Once you're registered, you can go back and keep track of the progress and then compare the finals there with the actual winners.