YeeHaw Junction - Preview

YeeHaw Junction kicks of  on Thursday, January 20th and runs through Sunday, January 23rd.  Last year Keith and Darlene Bass along with then partners the Hall family took over ownership of the festival, inheriting most of the lineup Steve Dittman had established.  This year, after assuming full control of the event, the Bass's have strengthened the lineup by increasing the proportion of national bands and bands from outside Florida.  The festival's lineup has taken on a shape and nature reflecting the Bass's preferences, no longer looking like the familiar Steve Dittman lineup.  They're taking some risks by bringing more bands from outside the state with more bands reflecting their own taste and direction.

Opening Barbecue

The Big Tent

  

YeeHaw Junction lies about thirty-five miles due west of Vero Beach, just off an exit of the Florida Turnpike. If you had driven past the "World Famous" Desert Inn at YeeHaw Junction two weeks before the festival is scheduled to begin you might look to your right and see cattle grazing in a large pasture.  On January 19th, you'd see a large tent in the middle of that field, a gate with a sign saying "Bluegrass Festival" and RV rigs of varying sizes being set up surrounding the tent.  The Florida bluegrass community is beginning to assemble for the first large event of the New Year.  2011 marks the 17th year of YeeHaw Junction. 

The Boxcars

Adam Steffey

 

Darin & Brooke Aldridge

Darin & Brooke with Rachel Renee Johnson

v Junior Sisk

YeeHaw Junction Lineup and Schedule

Thursday, Jan 20, 2011 The Untold Riches - 4pm Ken Scoggins & Miller’s Creek - 5pm Hard Ryde - 6pm Hagar’s Mountain Boys - 7pm Florida Bluegrass Express - 8pm
Friday, Jan 21, 2011 Ken Scoggins & Miller’s Creek - 11am Hard Ryde - 12 noon David Davis and the Warrior River Boys - 1pm Hagar’s Mountain Boys - 2pm Junior Sisk and Rambler’s Choice - 3pm Hard Ryde - 4pm David Davis and the Warrior River Boys - 5pm Hagar’s Mountain Boys - 6pm Junior Sisk and Rambler’s Choice - 7pm Florida Bluegrass Express - 8pm
Saturday, Jan 22, 2011 Constant Change - 11am James King - 12 noon The Boxcars - 1pm Darin & Brooke Aldridge - 2pm Gary Waldrep - 3pm Constant Change - 4pm James King - 5pm Darin & Brooke Aldridge - 6pm Gary Waldrep - 7pm The Boxcars - 8pm
Sunday, Jan 23, 2011 Gospel Hour - 9am Palms Bluegrass - 10am Constant Change - 11am James King - 12 noon Darin & Brooke Aldridge - 1pm Palms Bluegrass - 2pm (Note: this will be their last performance at Yee Haw) Gary Waldrep - 3pm

David Davis

 
James King

 

Music begins at 4:00 PM on Thursday and continues all weekend.  The traditional Sunday fiddle contest has been laid to rest.  Following Mike and Mary Robinson's Gospel Bluegrass Jam, a day of bluegrass music will follow, with Gary Waldrep closing at 3:00 PM. 

Mike & Mary Robinson

 Gary Waldrep

 

The official opening of the festivities begins on Wednesday evening when Keith and Darlene serve up the most tasty barbecued whole hog barbecue you've ever experienced while also reducing the population of  local feral hogs.  This covered dish supper sets the tone for the rest of the event - informal, friendly, relaxed - filled with good fun and fine music.  Afterwards, the jamming continues late into the night.  As this is written, Darlene is not certain precisely what workshops will be offered, but there'll be plenty of learning experiences for people who play or want to learn to play bluegrass instruments.  Food vendors will be varied, offering a range of traditional festival foods as well as healthy alternatives. 

Jamming

Inside the Tent

 

 Advance ticket sales for YeeHaw Junction end on January 12th.  As of the eleventh, only eight electric hookups remain, but the YeeHaw site provides nearly unlimited rough camping.  Fresh water is available, and pumpouts are provided for a price.  Generators are permitted except during quiet hours and campers are requested to refrain from using commercial (loud) generators.  The size of the site permits groups to create compounds, where jamming and partying often continues late into the night. 

Darlene & Keith Bass

 

Keith and Darlene Bass have spent the last two years learning how to promote bluegrass festivals (they also are promoters of the Bluegrass Family Gathering at Craig's RV north of Arcadia in March) and are learning fast.  Irene and I regret we won't be attending either of the Bass events this year, but we'll make every effort to resume our Florida visits next year.  Meanwhile, YeeHaw Junction looks like it will provide a fine weekend of great bluegrass music selected from first rate national bands and strong regional bands from outside Florida.

 How to Get to YeeHaw Junction

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Hot Mustard at Fritz Fries, Keene, NH - Bluegrass Roots of Today

Hot Mustard

 

While we often think of bluegrass music as a niche music associated with the Appalachian chain and Scotts/Irish traditions in America, it quietly, yet persistently, pervades much of our culture.  Listen to the background music in many advertisements; watch classic films like Bonnie & Clyde; see if there's a place near you where there's a bluegrass jam; visit your local music store to see whether they sell acoustic instruments and help promote bluegrass events near you.  This blog, largely devoted to bluegrass, is read in every state of the union and in over 140 countries, with regular and careful readers in all of Europe, Australia, and Japan.  Bluegrass is everywhere...if you look for it.  

While much of this blog focuses on top rank performers at relatively large events (and reader response suggests that's what they really want to see and hear about), the heart and soul of bluegrass lies in local jams, local and regional bands, and a grass roots support unlike any other in music.  Many, although certainly not all, bluegrass fans are also people who make bluegrass music.  They form bands, and many begin performing, donating their efforts at senior residences, weddings, church services, street fairs, elementary school music programs, and on and on.  Some of these groups never work for pay or work for tips alone.  Others begin to perform for pay at small venues, little festivals, bars and clubs, everywhere.  They record a CD and do their best to get their music heard.  And bluegrass music spreads to new audiences wherever people hear it, because it appeals to something elemental and clean and good in us.

The members of Hot Mustard come out of this tradition.  Bruce Stockwell has been a music professional for his entire life.  While his first and enduring love has always been bluegrass music, he has often supported himself, performing along with his brothers and others, by playing rock guitar or whatever people wanted to hear.  He recorded a still well-regarded, among knowledgeable musicians and fans, bluegrass album back in the seventies.  He won the prestigious Merlefest banjo contest in 2005, raising his visibility in the banjo world. For the past several years he has been serving on the faculty of Banjo Camp North, as well as other banjo events.  Bruce is recognized as a banjo player's banjo player by some of the leading pickers in the genre. Bruce is an English graduate of Yale University.  He lives and teaches in E. Putney, VT.

Bruce Stockwell

 

Bill Jubett, a banjo player and multi-instrumentalist from Ringe, NH came to Bruce for banjo lessons several years ago.  According to Kelly Stockwell, they met Bill and his partner April Hobart back in 2006.  "Bill came over for lessons, and then he and Bruce applied for the NH Arts grant which they won which lasted [during] 2008-2009." Bill teaches banjo and fiddle in Peterborough, VT while, as Kelly says, "filling in the holes" doing odd jobs.  His singing has a rough-edged high lonesome sound completely consistent with traditional bluegrass. 

Bill Jubett

April Hobart has long-standing bluegrass credentials. Her father played in bluegrass bands as she was growing up, and her some of her earliest memories involve attending bluegrass festivals with her family and singing harmony with her Dad.  She has a strong bluegrass voice and an engaging on-stage personality.  Her lead singing is excellent, as is her harmony work.  She plays strong rhythm guitar and is working on guitar breaks to add to the mix.  April works for the Chandra X-ray Observatory at Harvard as an illustrator/animator.  Here's one of her productions.  

April Hobart

 Bill & April

Kelly Stockwell, a physics graduate of Marlboro College works for a manufacturer of optical equipment making filters for laser applications.  She came to Bruce as a banjo student on the recommendation of a local luthier and music shop owner and stayed to marry him as well as to bring her energy and enthusiasm to building his career.  Kelly has moved to the bass from her initial efforts at the banjo and has become a fine bass player.  Her playing features complex bass licks not usually associated with traditional bluegrass bands and complementing her extremely solid bass beat. People often comment on the relationship between musical ability and math/physics.  Kelly's rapid development as a bluegrass picker attests to this tendency.

Kelly Stockwell

Hot Mustard Plays "In the Pines"

 

While maintaining fidelity to classic performances, Hot Mustard establishes its individuality through the frequent use of a double banjo format and Bruce Stockwell's unique phrasings and chord selections, often choosing to find a funky blues sound in places where others would find themselves  directly mimicking on the traditional sound.  Hot Mustard's sound is made particularly distinctive through their use of a double banjo format on many songs.  Their performances are characterized by creating new approaches to old and familiar bluegrass songs while never straying so far away from their antecedents as to become separated or alienated from the roots of the music.  Hot Mustard has a very pleasant stage personality created by having two couples who like each other working together comfortably from the stage.  They have been working hard to broaden their outreach and will be appearing at local and regional locations as well as several New England bluegrass festivals this summer which have national impact.  They will be appearing at Joe Val in Framingham, MA next month as well as Strawberry Park, Jenny Brook, Mineral Springs, Pemi Valley, and North Branch bluegrass festivals during the summer.  Other dates can be found on their web site including upcoming dates in Chester, VT, New Boston, NH, and Hartford, CT.  This is a band on the move and deserves watching.

Fritz Fries

Fritz Fries, located at 7 Main Street in Keene, NH, offers a tasty combination of hand cut french fries (its specialty) served up with a variety of tasty and pungent dipping sauces, to accompany a range of made to order sandwiches and tasty salads.  As much as possible, owner Jessica Graveline seeks to use locally grown produce in season to complement the hand cut potatoes used for the fries.  Fritz fries features live music every Friday with a range of music including indie rock, folk, jazz, and, of course, bluegrass.

Hot Mustard Performs "Hold Whatcha Got"

 

Gibson Brothers & Spinney Brothers - The Brothers Concerts

The Gibson Brothers and The Spinney Brothers will be presenting a pair of concerts in New England on January 15th and 16th.  The Brothers Concerts will kick off at 7:30 PM in the auditorium of the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, MA for an event sponsored by the Boston Bluegrass Union.  The second concert will be held at 12:00 noon at the Bellows Falls Opera House in Bellows Falls, VT.  Tickets are still available for both events. 

The Bands

 The Gibson Brothers

The Gibson Brothers found "instant" success this year after working to hone their song writing and performance skills for twenty hard working years on the road. The most evident symbol of this hard won success was their two IBMA awards for Song of the Year and Gospel Song of the Year.  Along with that, their song "Ring the Bell" topped the Bluegrass Unlimited charts for most of the year as did their  album of the same name for Compass Records .  Long favorites in the northeast, this year was a breakout for Eric and Leigh Gibson along with their deeply experienced, highly skilled band. Mandolinist Joe Walsh, the newest member of the band, will have copies of his wonderful new CD available at both concerts.  The brothers' newest CD Help My Brother will be released later this winter. The Gibson Brothers' work is highlighted by some of the best song writing to be found anywhere.  Both Eric and Leigh are fine writers in their own right.  They select a few fine covers from classic bluegrass and the occasional rock song from writers like Tom Petty and select songs perfectly fitted to their singing and the band's sound from other contemporary song writers.  Their stage personality and the power of their commitment to their work shines through in every performance of every song.  The only problem with a Gibson Brothers performance for their fans lies in there never being enough time for them to showcase their more recent work while responding to the requests for well-loved songs from their catalog.  What a problem to have!

Eric & Leigh Gibson

Mike Barber

Clayton Campbell

Joe Walsh

How to Get to the National Heritage Museum

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The Spinney Brothers

 Spinney Brothers Photo from their Web Page

I haven't had the opportunity to hear or see the Spinney Brothers.  Eric Gibson says this about them: "Leigh and I met and heard the Spinney Brothers in the early 90s, and we took an instant liking to them and their music. They work hard at their craft -- singing, playing, writing, and entertaining -- and I've always felt that we've all been on a similar mission. We are proud to be paired with them."  That's enough for me.  The Spinney Brothers come from Nova Scotia, but their music is most heavily influenced by the first generation of bluegrass players.  They, too, have been touring for nearly twenty years, giving them plenty of time to develop and refine their own style and sound.  Here's a sample of their work from last year's Joe Val Festival in Boston.

Sunday's concert will begin at Noon in the Bellows Falls Opera House in downtown Bellows Falls, VT.  This is the first time that Jenny Brook promoter Candi Sawyer has produced an event at the Opera House, but judging by the information on its web site, it looks and sounds like a fine venue, recently renovated to provide facilities for both live and filmed events. The Bellows Falls Opera House is located on the first floor of Rockingham Town Hall in the center of downtown Bellows Falls, Vermont.  Town Hall was constructed in 1926 in the Classical Revival Style and has a distinctive six-story clock tower. The building is a Bellows Falls landmark and serves as the cultural and civic heart of the community.   The Rockingham Town Hall underwent a $3.7 million renovation from 2004~2006 that restored the Bellows Falls Opera House to accommodate both movies and live performances.  Tickets for this event can still be ordered on line from the Opera House or directly from the Candi Sawyer at (802) 380 - 4106.  

Here's a map showing how to get to the Opera House:

View Larger Map

These two concerts represent a rare opportunity to hear two contrasting brother duos whose commitment to the sound and style of brother harmony singing characterizes their work.  See you there.

How To Make IBMA Attendance Pay Off For You - An Essay

A couple of weeks ago, a piece was posted on the Banjo Hangout (a major online forum for banjo players) under the provocative heading “Would your band pay $925 to play at IBMA?” I posted on the topic on BHO, but thought I'd like to expand on what I said there in this blog entry. I'm retitling it “How Can the Value of IBMA Attendance Be Quantified?” I've corresponded with Dan Hays, Executive Director of IBMA, consulted the IBMA web site for details about the costs, and sought to assess the effect, both short term and long term, of showcasing as well as making the World of Bluegrass Convention work for you to help build a career. Here's the result of my current thinking, which I hope to evolve still further as responses to it accumulate. With application packets for Official Showcases due on January 14^th, now seems to be a good time to write about this topic.

The International Bluegrass Music Association is a professional trade association focused on supporting all elements of what might be called (or derided by some, depending on their perspective) the bluegrass industry. Although Knecht's post focused primarily on the $925 cost that would be incurred by each band chosen to participate in “Official Showcases,” I'll try to revise and extend my remarks to include broader participation in the entire week of the IBMA, including both the trade conference and the annual Fan Fest.

Perhaps the highest profile events for bands at the World of Bluegrass are the Official Showcases. In 2010 these were held in the large space made more intimate by the use of round tables placed in what would later in the week be expanded for the Fan Fest audience into a festival setting. The large stage, excellent sound, and (to me) annoying lighting, provided the nineteen bands selected from 100 – 150 applications for showcasing with a fine opportunity to present twenty-five minutes of their very best for the people who buy, report on, and promote bluegrass talent. During the time periods set aside for Official Showcases, no other official convention activity competed. IBMA claims, with justification, that the actual benefits of being selected for an official showcase are significant, not including whatever future business might accrue to selected bands. Here's a link to the application process, which details the costs and the benefits provided to bands which showcase. Used properly, the opportunity to showcase at IBMA can be a springboard to increased bookings and expanded sales of recordings. A more important question than whether the costs are worthwhile is to examine how to use the showcase to expand a bluegrass career.

The question of whether IBMA is "worth" the cost depends very much on what you wish to obtain from attending this event. If you, as a performer, expect that appearing in an official showcase or an after hours event will automatically turn into improved bookings, then you have another think coming. Appearing at IBMA does not provide a magic carpet to bluegrass success. On the other hand, if you do your homework, you can both learn to become more professional, increase your visibility in the bluegrass world, and increase the amount of work you get as a performer. There's one problem. It takes hard work. As long as performers compare a week at IBMA with the fun of jamming at SPGBMA, they just don't get it. Performers who show up for their showcase or Fan Fest performance without spending quality time "working" the event and availing themselves of every opportunity to learn are wasting their money. What does this mean?

1. Attend workshops and meetings during WOB. You might learn something and you certainly will be in contact with industry people who can help spread the word about you as a performer. The workshops and meetings are intended to allow people who have had successful experiences in a variety of areas to share their skills and knowledge. A six member band can, effectively, attend six different events at one time, take notes and ask questions in order to be able to meet later with band mates to try to extract usable ideas from what they've heard and seen.
   
2. Go to the meals you've paid for anyway and sit with people you don't know. Many of the people we meet at IBMA are either media people (radio, print, electronic, film, and more) or talent buyers (festivals, arts centers, concert venues, and more). They need performers and want to meet new people. Establishing yourself as a face, a voice, and a personality may not yield a booking during IBMA week, but, with perseverance on your part, can lead to future bookings and sales. Keep notes of who you've met and follow up by e-mail, FB friendings, and mailings with each one.
   
3. Work the hallways for the same reasons stated above. Chat with people you meet in the Exhibition Hall, the hotel and convention center hallways, at jams (yes, there are plenty of jams), in private suites, and elsewhere. Be available to talk about your work and to take an interest in theirs.
   
   
4. Visit the private suites of talent buyers (Grey Fox, CBA, MACC, Bluegrass Country.org and others) and get to know the people who promote these high visibility events. Not only are they in a position to hire you, other people will see you in their suites and be impressed. If you're asked to perform (audition) in one of these suites, jump at the chance.
   
5. Schedule taping sessions at the DJ Tapings event and make sure you meet as many dj's as possible. These tapings make it possible for you to tape a number of appearances on radio shows around the country and to establish a face-to-face relationship with many radio personalities.
   
6. The Gig Fair, although it may seem like something of a meat market, gives performers an opportunity to create a first impression with dozens of festival bookers from across the country. While it may feel a little “speed dating,” you have a chance then, to follow up on each meeting. It's very bad form to interrupt other people having interviews by coming by the tables and merely dropping a CD and some information.
   
   
   
7. Keep notes and follow up on every conversation and contact you make. I can't emphasize how important this is. As you work through the week, write down the name and function of every person you meet, collect their cards, and spend a few minutes chatting with them. What follows shouldn't be necessary, but shake hands, smile, make eye contact, repeat the other person's name to help cement it in your mind, and don't spend time looking over the person's shoulder for the next person you wish to talk to. Keep a written schedule of your obligations and the events you need to get to. As an aside: If you want to watch a real master of these skills, spend a little time at a festival observing Rhonda Vincent work her merchandise table. She treats every fan as if he or she were the only person in the world, get really excited at what they have to say, seems to remember them from the last time she saw them, and never rushes them off to get to the next person. She stays until the last fan leaves. All of us have a lot to learn from Rhonda's people skills.
   
   
   
8. Stop whining about limited jamming opportunities. You're not at IBMA to jam; you're there to work. Maybe you can get some picking in, but attending seminars in the morning and afternoon, working the exhibits, staffing your own exhibit if you have an Official Showcase, and attending showcases in the afternoons and on into the night is hard work. One of your most important tasks is to network. That's time consuming and requires real concentration. Jam at festivals and around home. You're at IBMA to work to improve your bluegrass career, if that's what you're interested in. If you're attending IBMA because it's a good party, all well and good, but it's a pretty expensive one.
   
   People who say “It's all about the music” are mistaken. While the music may be the reason you've attended IBMA, the conference is about building your musical career. If you imagine yourself expanding beyond your present place in the business to a larger venue, you can accomplish this by doing the work for it at IBMA. The people we've watched over the past three years who've really made the World of Bluegrass work for them have seen the results in increased bookings and improved performance of their CD's. You can't ask more of an industry trade show which will turn into a successful investment in your career rather than a net cost.
   
   Finally, despite the fact that we have developed our love for bluegrass music and its people into a second, and very much unexpected, career, we find this week to be one of the most enjoyable of our bluegrass year.  I look forward to engaging in the discussion and seeing your responses to this piece.
   
   
   
   
   

Best Practices for Promoters - An Essay

The essay that follows is a lightly edited version of a column of mine that appeared in my third Tuesday slot at the California Bluegrass Association web site.  I'm always grateful to the CBA for their support and for their providing me a forum to try out ideas I want to explore before I post them here.

Best Practices for Promoters – It's All About the Audience

As a new festival season begins to appear on the horizon, new bands are formed, band members play musical hop-scotch, and fans mostly watch from the sidelines, I've been thinking about what makes a good festival good. During the past several months a number of people have posted or responded to things I've written, and I've been packing them away. What follows are some of the ideas that have grown from these inputs and the experiences Irene and I have had along the trail. I hope they generate some comments, spike readers' interest, and intrigue some promoters enough to encourage them to examine their own practices as they work to make their events ever more successful.

Promoters should know their real audience, not the one they wish it were or think it is. This is particularly difficult as the promoters own taste and preferences take precedence over a more analytical and thoughtful approach to developing a festival or event program and a lineup to support that program. Too often we've seen promoters make a couple of huge mistakes that weaken their appeal and cut their attendance. Perhaps their biggest mistake is to seek to give a party for their friends and call it a festival. The worst example we've ever seen was an event where a (now former) promoter established a series of rules concerning alcohol, tobacco, noise, and such and then preceded to break every one of his own rules as he sat in the front row, a cigarette in one hand, a beer in the other while he bathed in the happy glow of his buddies' adulation. Meanwhile, people who valued listening to great music, breathing clean air, and not being assaulted by drunks exited in droves. They didn't come back.

Promoters should seek to expand their audience to fully use the site available to them for both campers during the full three or four day run and day trippers on Friday evening and all day Saturday. I'm told that while people coming for the entire event and staying on site are the core for good attendance, the key to breaking even or perhaps making a profit lies in people who drive in for Friday night or Saturday’s show. It's a useful idea to balance a program so that several major headliners appear in both these times to boost drive-in attendance. Several events we attend, ones that characterize themselves as traditional, reserve a somewhat edgier and less traditional headliner for closing on Saturday, successfully attracting a drive-in audience for whom a thirty dollar day fee is insignificant compared to attending a stand-alone concert. Bands like the Lonesome River Band, Cadillac Sky, Mountain Heart, and Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives (the wonderful irony of this band's name never ceases to amuse me) are good examples of bands that fulfill this purpose. Putting such groups on late on Saturday allows older and/or more traditional fans to go home to their campers to jam or hit the sack, while those wishing a louder, rockier, more active band can stay to enjoy. This sort of scheduling also raises the issue of the traditional two set model, but I'll leave that for another time.

A Canadian correspondent wrote saying he thought there was a pretty simple formula for success: location, location, location, service, service, service, followed by a great lineup. Simple, isn't it? Well...not so simple when you think about it. The roots of bluegrass music are traditionally rural, but our national population doesn't live in rural America any longer. Our people, including the fans of bluegrass music live in cities or suburbs; many of them are upper-middle class professionals. Last summer, at the Jenny Brook Festival in extremely rural Tunbridge, VT, I was chatting with a fan who had come to see The Gibson Brothers. As we chatted, it soon emerged that he lives in the same apartment building in Manhattan that I lived in as a child in the 1940's. How do we make it possible for this young doctor to get to as many bluegrass events as possible? Finding a location that looks and feels rural but which lies within a reasonable distance of tens of thousands of potential attendees while still being affordable enough to rent can present serious problems. The Podunk Bluegrass Festival, held during the first weekend in August in E. Hartford, CT, has an almost ideal situation. Podunk is held in a lovely city park, sponsored by the city, operates as a non-profit, and has a great lineup. It has taken years, however, for it to overcome the stigma of being located in a city and to attract a large audience. In San Francisco, I understand Hardly Strictly Bluegrass attracts over half a million people annually. Where are the bluegrass festivals in Boston, New York, and Washington? What kind of crowd could a block buster festival attract to Central Park or the Washington Mall? How would it be financed?

Sometimes important services are exactly the area where promoters cut back to save money. I'll have more to say about saving money on sound at a later date, but let's look at services people notice during a festival. Providing internal transportation for those attending a festival really makes an impression. Pickin' in the Pasture, in Lodi, NY has a pretty steep uphill grade from the stage to the back of the campground. By providing a tractor-drawn cart, the festival makes friends while it forestalls heart attacks. The Palatka Bluegrass Festival at the Rodehever Boys Ranch in Florida has a very attractive trolley to take campers around the grounds. Other festivals use golf carts leaving from a convenient location to transport people needing assistance.

A quite different and very important service is providing a sufficient number of frequently cleaned porta-johns. For some reason this is an area on which promoters seem to think they can skimp. But to people attending events, the cleanliness and availability of portable toilets makes a huge difference. Merlefest has a fleet of pump-out trucks running all day long. Furthermore, judging from the lines at such facilities, women very much appreciate air-conditioned flush toilet rigs. These certainly constitute a major expense, but keeping a festivals female customers happy is of utmost importance.

Just a few words about festival foods. At most festivals, they're terrible. Hamburgers pre-cooked and dried out, too much deep fried stuff (including my obligatory dose of fried dough), and deep-fried Twinkies lead the list of stuff you can consume and then watch your blood sugar rise while your arteries clog. This isn't necessary. Every festival should seriously consider inviting vendors who sell salads, vegetables, and non-fried meats. YeeHaw Junction often has a vendor called Outback Kate's which sells Cajun and southern style vegetables that are simply delicious and wholesome. Gettysburg has an Asian fast food vendor whose wares are tasty. I'm still looking for a good salad vendor.at a festival Offering healthy, hearty food at a reasonable price is just good service.

I have a long enough list of other matters I want to consider to continue this piece in another post. Suffice it to say, that promoters need constantly to consider their customers as they plan their events. It may be that they perceive much of what I've written to be beyond their current means, but working towards being more customer-centered, seeking feedback, and listening carefully all count towards increasing receipts. I look forward to reading your comments and continuing the conversation.

Holiday Special 2010 - Summer

Continuing the retrospective view of 2010's bluegrass festivals, here are pictures from the Jenny Brook Family Bluegrass Festival and the first two days of Musicians Against Childhood Cancer.  I've chosen pictures because I like them.  Some have been previously posted in this blog, others are new.  The previously posted ones leaped out at me as I scanned the archives, so rather than look for inferior ones, I've taken the liberty of repeating myself.  I hope you enjoy these.

Jenny Brook - Late June

Setting Up the Stage

Jenny Brook is genuinely a family festival, run by a family and very family friendly.  Now moved to the wonderful Tunbridge World's Fair Grounds in Tunbridge, VT, Jenny Brook will be held from June 23 - 26, 2011.  Through hard work and thoughtful programming, Jenny Brook has risen to among the top four New England bluegrass festivals.

Smokey Green

 Leroy Troy

 Candi Sawyer - Promoter

Mack & Herman Magee

  

Dudley Connell

 Lou Reid

  

Ben Eldridge

Don Rigsby

 Bo Isaac

Alan Bibey

Adam Haynes

  

Joe Walsh

  

Mike Barber

Alan Bibey, Justin Jenkins, Steve Gulley

 Audie Blaylock & Redline

 Clayton Campbell

  

Eric Gibson

  

Joe Walsh

 Leigh Gibson

Bruce Stockwell

  

April  Hobart

  

Kelly Stockwell

  

Musicians Against Childhood Cancer - Columbus, OH

Wednesday - Thursday

MACC is one of the most important and enjoyable festivals in the country.  Held each year in the Hoover-Y Park, the next one will be July 20 - 23, 2011.  See you there.

Terry Eldredge and Kristin Scott Benson

  

Terry Eldredge

Kristin Scott Benson

Russell Moore

 Russell Moore

  

Wayne Benson

 Sierra Hull

  

Clay Hess

  

Tom Adams

 Leigh Gibson

J.D. Crowe

  

David McLaughlin

Mike Cleveland

  

Mike Andes

  

Chris Sexton

  

Alan Mills

Randy Graham

  

David Parmley

  

Rhonda Vincent

Rhonda Vincent

More coming.  Probably later in the week.