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Thursday, March 24, 2005
We set up camp Thursday morning after arriving in Suwannee. Here's a picture of our campsite.
Thursday morning, Susan and I got up and finished getting the site ready for the weekend. We then met up with my parents in town, and we ate at the local Huddle House and made a run to Wal-Mart for some various items. My parents, who stayed in a hotel at night, headed to the festival site with us to start enjoying the music which started in the early afternoon.
New Traditionals - They play country western with a touch of bluegrass. I wasn't real impressed with this band, but I understand why they get some set lists. The singer in the band is Randy Judy, and he and his wife are the festival directors for Springfest. In addition, Steve Pruett plays mandolin, guitar and banjo for the band, and he is extremely talented. He is in another league from the rest of the band, and it'd be interesting to see what he could do with more interesting and challenging material.
Biscuit Burners - This quartet
played music that interwove many different genres. They went from bluegrass
to honky tonk to a nice waltz. Yes, they do mainly center their sound upon
bluegrass, but have shown they are willing to experiment. All were very
well done, and this band turned out to be the first pleasant discovery of
the weekend at Springfest. The dobro player and guitar player were both
extremely talented. They both flew around their instruments with great flare.
This band will be one to watch in the coming years, because they could be
yet another young band willing to expand the boundaries of bluegrass (much
like Nickel Creek and the Duhks are doing). Finally, the great reaction
to this band from the crowd tells me they'll be invited back, and if they
accept they'll be getting better time slots.
After eating supper, we went to the music hall to see the Song Content Finals. All six acts got the chance to perform three songs. They had three regional entertainment writers as the judges. I'll talk about them in the order they performed that night:
Roy Schneider - Roy is from Fort
Myers, FL. His three songs were rather subdued. He finger picked most of
his songs, and played the harmonica some to boot. Two of the songs reminded
me of John Prine or Bob Dylan, while the last one about Hurricane Ivan was
more ragtime and reminded me of Jake Speed. His song about Hurricane Ivan
was the strongest, but it was sometimes hard to make out his lyrics because
he damn near whispered them in the vein of the band Iron & Wine. Final quick
note, this guy is the same artist that produces the soon-to-be syndicated
comic strip The Humble
Stumble. Pretty cool.
Al Scortino - Al is from Sebastian, FL. His folk music sounded like John Denver or James Taylor, but his vocal delivery was more nasal than the two mentioned artists. He too had a song about a hurricane, which he mentioned he wrote sitting at his house waiting for the power to be turned back on. He was right that everyone was happy when last December rolled around because it signaled the end of that nasty hurricane season last year. Since your lyrical content was a third of the criteria being judged, it was noticed that he clearly projected his lyrics.
Robyn Landis - Robyn is from Vashon, WA. Her voice was reminiscent of Emmylou Harris, but her voice was very nasally and hard for me to enjoy. Her manner of singing made it hard to understand her lyrics too, which I think went against her. Finally, her simple strumming patterns paled when compared to the two musicians who played before her. The musical composition was another third of the judging criteria. Finally, the one positive I did notice with Robyn though, was that she knows the importance of networking. While I understand that the other artists might not have been able to stay, she was the only artist I saw all weekend. The bands and artists that get to know as many people in the business do improve their chances in the future of being a success. Networking is a huge aspect of the music business. Finally, after doing some research about Robyn, I came to find out she's a health and fitness author of a couple books.
Kathy Hussey - Kathy is from Nashville, TN. Kathy was one artist that I checked out online, and I wasn't real impressed. Yes, she had a strong voice, but the lyrical aspect did little for me. The only samples though were from her two older albums, and I'm assuming that the material she sang that night was from her new album, "Moments of Wonder." She was very good the night of the contest, and she was my wife's favorite for the contest. She was another who sang her lyrics clearly, and her lyrics were solid. She was definitely much better in person that evening.
Mark Leadon - Mark is from Tallahassee, FL. Mark was one of two artists that weekend that I was looking forward to during this contest. The samples on his website were promising and showcased some great music. I'm now left wondering if his music is better appreciated with a full band instead of doing it all by himself. I was let down by Mark's performance this night. His voice still sounds like a less high-pitched Peter Rowan in my opinion. It works great for his bluegrass/folk music. My guess is that it just wasn't a good night for Mark.
Michael Troy - Michael is from
Somerset, MA. Apparently Michael almost didn't make it in time. We had just
sat down when Roy started his set, and apparently we missed the announcement
that one performer hadn't shown up yet. Michael was the late arrival. He
didn't show any effects though from getting out of the car and jumping up
on stage. Michael was amazing in my opinion, because his lyrics were leaps
and bounds better than everyone else in the contest. They were very dense
at times, and he reminded me of Dylan in this aspect. His vocal delivery
though was similar to Bob's as well, and while I personally liked the gruff
vocal style, I knew it probably wasn't going to help him all that much in
the contest. His finger picking was great too, and it helped elevate his
music. He was the best one in my opinion, and I have already played his
CD a few times through since the festival. It is a great one.
After the contest was finished I looked at my wife and predicted the order of the winners. I thought Michael would be first, Kathy second and Roy third, but I did say that I would have no problem if Kathy beat out Michael. They were the two strongest with Roy a close third. I thought we would find out pretty quickly, because I wanted to get over to the meadow stage and check out The Waybacks since I missed them last year. Instead, we got to hear a short set of last year's winner before finding out who the winner was.
Lizza Connor - Lizza was the winner from last year's contest, and the winner is always guaranteed a slot in the following year's fest. She played about a twenty minute set, and I was left wondering whether she was having a bad night or she had something special happen for her last year. In my opinion, she wouldn't even have been in the top three in this year's contest. While she did resemble Patty Griffin vocally, nothing she did that set was all that impressive to me. Maybe I was also annoyed that I was sitting there watching her versus hearing a nice set by The Waybacks like I had planned.
Finally, they announced the top three winners from the Song Contest after Lizza's set, and I'll be damned if I didn't nail 1, 2, and 3. I heard afterwards that Michael was the consensus first place vote between all three judges. Outstanding! Anyway, due to the delays in getting over to the meadow stage, I missed The Waybacks' set. Oh well.
The Duhks - Well, if you spoke with me
prior to Springfest, you knew I was most looking forward to finally seeing
a full set of these youngsters. I saw a brief set of theirs at last year's
fest, but I really regretted not hearing more after listening to their first
full-length album after Springfest. This time I was primed, because their
new album came out in February of 2005, and I had been playing it non-stop.
They stuck almost exclusively to their new material, and the ladies and
gents came ready to go. The crowd was dancing and having a good time, and
the band was feeding off that. The Duhks sound like an odd mixture of bluegrass
and Celtic music with a rock attitude. They were awesome, and I knew I'd
still get to see them some more throughout the weekend.
Donna the Buffalo - This band wasn't a favorite of mine last year. While my opinion of them improved this year, I'm still not crazy about them. Susan and I grabbed something to snack on so we sat and listened to them play. I definitely prefer the faster and more upbeat songs by this band. The slower songs seem to drag on forever. Of course, there were tons of people dancing to the music (or "noodling" as it is often called). During this set, it was the first time Susan and I have ever seen the "Dancing Ninja." He became quite the topic of conversation over the weekend. Apparently he's a repeat character from past fests. Basically, he's a very weird dancer, and his moves seem to have no relation to the music. Finally, he's often up in some form of the "Crane Technique" we all remember from the "Karate Kid." Thus, we thought the name "Dancing Ninja" was quite appropriate.
Thursday night was over, and we went back to the campsite to play, sing
and enjoy the rest of the evening. It was rather subdued, but there was
time to really get things going in the coming nights.