February 12, 2008
The 2008 San Francisco Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival
By Chuck Poling
They came from near and far, from north and south and east and west, and from every hill (Potrero, Russian, Bernal) and valley (Noe, Cole, Hayes) to the Ninth Annual
San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival. From February 1st through the 9th, the modern metropolis of the Bay Area was awash in the sounds of traditional and contemporary string
band music. The festival drew big crowds to 30 shows at 17 different venues, and included a children's show, jam sessions, film screenings, workshops and a grand ole square dance.
Headliners included such longtime stalwarts as the David Grisman Bluegrass Experience and Peter Rowan along with first-rate old-time acts the Freight Hoppers, the Stairwell Sisters
and the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Performers came from Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado and Oregon, and dozens of local acts participated. The festival is sponsored by the
Northern California Bluegrass Association and was produced and operated by an all-volunteer staff.
"...events like the Alt-Bluegrass and Country Bluegrass
shows at Café DuNord are proof of the porous,
unsecured border between Twangtown and Grassville." The thriving bluegrass and old-time community is an important part of San Francisco's broader Americana scene, and events like the Alt-Bluegrass and Country
Bluegrass shows at Café DuNord are proof of the porous, unsecured border between Twangtown and Grassville. Look, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins were both big Bill Monroe
fans and the licks Big Mon beat out of his mandolin translate pretty well to a Telecaster. A Wide Selection of Americana
To the enthusiastic and generally young crowds who packed many of the SFBOT shows, the
distinctions between various Americana genres didn't seem to be a sticking point. The term "bluegrass" is randomly – and to many purists, incorrectly – assigned to a variety of white, rural roots-based music
involving stringed instruments and most casual fans are happy to leave it at that. Festival performers Town Mountain from North Carolina and local faves the Mighty Crows
both play what most hardcore bluegrassers regard as the real deal – songs by or influenced by Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, Flatt and Scruggs
and other first generation artists with an emphasis on high lonesome harmonies and hot instrumental breaks.Some bands wholeheartedly embrace the bluegrass label but take the strict definition and stretch
it about a bit. Spring Creek Bluegrass Band
from Lyons, Colorado have the traditional trappings of a bluegrass band – the instrumentation and the harmonies, for instance – and can slay a Stanley standard, but they add a little contemporary edge to their music. Their harmonies were a little folkier and their breaks a little jazzier, and the crowd at Noe Valley Ministry ate it up and came back for seconds. SF's
Belle Monroe and Her Brewglass Boys
are another example of a band that's happy in the bluegrass fold yet inject some swing and blues and a little rock 'n roll into their playing to create a unique sound.
Taking the bluegrass concept a step further are bands like Kleptograss,
featuring a local honor roll of veteran pickers who add jazz, classical, and Greek and Middle Eastern influences to demonstrate both their own versatility and the flexibility of the bluegrass genre.
The Cowlicks bring a rocking beat and lot of attitude to the stage, but they play acoustically and totally nail the three-part harmony that is typical of bluegrass. Old Time Music
Old-time is
the string band music of southern hillbillies before the addition of an overdrive gear that made it bluegrass. Because of the isolation of mountain communities in Appalachia, specific styles of fiddle,
guitar and banjo playing developed that were native to certain regions. One small corner of North Carolina, for instance, produced several wagonloads of banjo players who employed a three-finger picking
style that predated bluegrasss – most notably Snuffy Jenkins (a big influence on Earl Scruggs). Certain areas in Georgia begat fiddlers and so on.
"Old-time is the string band music of southern
hillbillies before the addition of an overdrive
gear that made it bluegrass."
Energetic fiddle tunes, mournful ballads and joyful play-party songs make up most of any old-time band's repertoire and typically the
lead instruments – banjo, fiddle and mandolin – play the melody together, in contrast to bluegrass groups where these instruments take individual breaks and usually improvise off the melody. The old canard
about old-time music – "it's better than it sounds" – is probably more of a reflection of the gap between the almost religious fervor of musicians who think nothing of playing the same tune for ten or twelve
minutes and the novice listener who, thinking the music will take him somewhere, doesn't realize that it's the journey rather than the destination that matters most.At its heart, old-time music is family
music. It was and is a diversion played primarily to entertain one's kin and friends and, hey, if someone wants to toss a few bucks in the jar, all the better. It's a hard row to hoe for professional
practicioners, but as I learned from Jackson Cunningham and Martha Spencer of the Whitetop Mountain Band,
it's as much of a calling as it is a livelihood. The young couple made their festival debut at McGrath's in Alameda and also entertained between film screenings at the Red Vic on Haight Street. Martha
comes from a musical family – the band includes both parents and has roots that go back to the 1930s – from Grayson County, Virginia a region close to the homes of the Carter Family and the Stanleys, among
others. Growing up in a small, rural community (there were only seven students her high school graduation class) where traditional music is still a vital form of entertainment, she learned to play a variety
of instruments and is an expert flat-foot dancer. Jackson, from Oregon, cut his teeth in a number of bluegrass and old-time troupes before hooking up with the Whitetop Mountain Band. Prior to their SFBOT
gigs, Jackson and Martha toured Australia in January and flew back to L.A. They zipped up to San Francisco on Thursday to play Friday and Saturday and were back in the air on Sunday on their way to home to
Virginia. A click on their tour schedule reveals that they won't have more than seven days in a row off until at least August and then they are off to the UK in September. It's a living – but ya gotta love
the music more than the money or you couldn't do it. Afrobilly and Barn Dancing
It's easy to look at old-time music as a product of a white, rural, mountain-dwelling populace
who perpetuated the music of their immigrant ancestors. Celtic fiddle melodies, British and Scottish balladry and country dancing are the most frequently cited roots of the style. But as the
Carolina Chocolate Drops demonstrated duing the festival, African-Americans made significant contributions to this chapter of America's musical heritage. "The Carolina Chocolate Drops' freewheeling
performances include not only fiddle and banjo,
but also an expertly played jug and harmonica
along with singing, dancing and general hamming-it-up..." The banjo is, of course, originally from Africa and many slaves adopted and
adapted European instruments such as fiddle and guitar to entertain both white and black audiences. The Carolina Chocolate Drops' freewheeling performances include not only fiddle and banjo, but also an
expertly played jug and harmonica along with singing, dancing and general hamming-it-up to give the audience a glimpse into the rich and diverse world of African-American hillbilly music. The Chocolate
Drops show was the hot ticket for the festival and was sold out several days before the event. Later that week, the square dance at the Swedish American Hall, featuring the music of the Freight
Hoppers with the legendary Bill Martin
calling, was packed and most of the old-time performances drew healthy crowds, demonstrating the enduring appeal of the style among Bay Area audiences, particularly in the East Bay, where many old-time musicians and fans perform and reside.
A Wide Selection of Music
SFBOT's format – a movable feast stretching across two weekends at multiple venues – is unusual for a bluegrass festival, most of which run two to four days long
over a weekend and are held outdoors at fairgrounds or parks and among a city of RVs. Because of its urban setting and citified audience, SFBOT offers an a la carte menu to the musical "diner," as opposed to
the prix fixe deal of an outdoor festival. Theoretically, this gives one an opportunity to pace oneself throughout the nine days of events. Based on my personal experience, and the comments of many others,
this strategy proved practically unworkable. There simply was too much to see and do and despite my best efforts to reserve one night for doing laundry and catching up on housework, I found myself going out
every night for the duration of the fest and more than once had the old burrito-at-the-bar for dinner.
"...the enthusiastic crowds that turned out for SFBOT are proof
that the Bay Area supports a thriving roots-music scene."
While San Francisco remains but a blip on the radar of commercial country music, the enthusiastic crowds that turned out for SFBOT are proof that the
Bay Area supports a thriving roots-music scene. Nashville's hat acts may not attract much attention out here, but the popularity of a broad range of Americana acts speaks to the desire of many city dwellers
to find music which with they can personally connect and in many cases, create themselves, as witnessed by the popularity of local jam sessions. The popularity of bluegrass and old-time and other
Americana music in the Bay Area shouldn't be surprising to anyone familiar with the region's history as a destination of the restless, from the Gold Rush to the Dust Bowl to the dot com boom. When these
newcomers arrive they seek other like-minded souls to create their own communities around their avocations. The San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival shows that the passion for real roots music in an
urban setting is a community affair. -o- |
