RiceGrass: Fischer, TX: March 27-28, 2010
Behind the farmhouse. Photo by Grubbs.
Sunday, March 28th
Sunday was about as perfect a day as you could ask for, without a cloud in the azure sky. With the ashes still smoldering from the previous nights’ campfire jam, coffee, breakfast tacos and a sweet little solo set by The Stairwell Sister’s banjo player/clogger Evie Ladin were on the menu. She played us some twinkly-eyed love songs mixed in with some old time numbers. She also shared a story about an older gentleman who decided to take up the banjo in his twilight years, and credited his new hobby with adding five years to his life. This was surely some sweet Sunday morning elixir.
Jenkins by Grubbs
Jake Jenkins & Friends set left my face sore from grinning. For one, I’m not going to argue with any set that contains “Big Spike Hammer,” “Walls of Time” and “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke.” But it was Jenkin’s strong-as-a-triple-espresso Scruggs-style banjo, and his commanding stage presence, that won me over. Whether tingling spines with the classics or breaking hearts with his original “Daddy Don’t Drink,” about a drunken car wreck and a family left devastated, it was some moving bluegrass therapy. His band (Dennis McDaniel on mando, Jeff Robertson on guitar, Chojo Jacques on fiddle and Tom Ellis on bass) was smooth as top shelf whiskey, offering soul-stirring gospel and brimstone picking in equal measure. Things got especially fiery when Jenkins and Jacques dug in on a blazing banjo and fiddle duel. He called an excited Janice Rogers (Ranch Road 12), who had been bustling at the CBTA booth all weekend, on stage for a couple songs, including country classic “Nobody’s Darlin’ But Mine.” Although Jenkins may be an underappreciated artist, it was easy to see why his presence here had many fired up. Plus the man apparently flew his own plane to a nearby airport to get here – talk about commitment!
This day of the festival was programmed by CTBA, and besides the main acts, they had a stocked bill of tweener sets, who played on a makeshift plywood stage in the back of the cantina. The first tweener, Sidemen for Hire threw down on some tried-and-true numbers including “Forty Years of Trouble,” having a ball as they picked. I sat out in the sunshine and enjoyed a tasty (and vegan) black bean burger. To keep us fed, the Fischer Haus owners Jan Parrish and the afore-mentioned Hubbard, along with their hard-working volunteers, slung a simple but hearty menu of hot dogs and burgers all weekend. So while your ears were filled with smoking grass, your nostrils were filled with enticing grill smoke, and by Sunday afternoon I finally had to cave.
I lounged near the farmhouse, wanting to digest and absorb the scenery a bit. Resting my toes in the grass, a red tailed hawk sailed through the sky above my head as The Lone Star Bluegrass Band played “Miles and Miles of Texas.” It was an apt soundtrack. As my friends’ kids ran under foot through the yodels of “In the Jailhouse Now” and a swinging “Great Big Woman and a Little Bitty Bottle of Wine,” I was thinking I could just as easily have stumbled upon this band in Broken Spoke or up at Willie’s Place. They wear that Lone Star pride that bright on their sleeves, with a proud Texas twang.
Unfamous String Bustas by Grubbs
Cheekily-named Unfamous String Bustas were a crack collection of Austin musicians (Silas Lowe on guitar and mandolin, Jerry Hagins on banjo, Daniel Zeh on bass, and Ben Hodges on mandolin and guitar, joined by Jacques on fiddle for a few tunes). Lowe’s a talent to watch (check out our recent feature on Mark Rubin and Fat Man & Little Boy), with a bite to match. “This is a Bill Monroe song, but we do it all wrong so any purists give us the stink eye now,” he declared before “Live and Let Live.” A glowing “Lazy John” and Dolly Parton’s “All the Pain of Loving You,” rounded out a set with a lot of heart, a touch of mess, and a boatload of acerbic wit.
Bright wisely advised us, while introducing “Groundspeed”: “If you see groundspeed, don’t pick it up.” It was Sunday afternoon, but there could have been those sorts of midnight fireworks. If Two High String Band are a looser outfit that nods more towards newgrass influences, Hays County Burn BanD are old school barn stormers, hitting that stage ready to rage. The common threads between the two groups are Bright and Montgomery. It’s always enlightening to see your favorite musicians in a new context, especially when no matter what clothes they are wearing, it’s always distinguishably them. Few players can slip between delicate and unapologetically loud on mando with as much ease as Bright (and even when he gets wicked, he never loses the fine details). Montgomery is also a versatile talent when he draws that bow. With the soaring three part harmonies of Elliott Rogers (guitar), the ubiquitous Ellis (bass), and Matt Downing (banjo), who all leaned into a single mic while they sang, HCBB positively soared. After diving into Rogers work (as Bright noted, “Elliott’s songs just sound like classics”), they tore it down with a blistering “Kentucky Mandolin,” stretching it out to the amped up breaking point, all balls-to-the-wall adrenalin.
Picking circle by Roads
The protagonist of “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke,” didn’t understand his gal with her “honky tonk heart,” but if she got fed up of his complaining and started a band it might sound like The Carper Family. One of my favorite discoveries of the festival, their tweener set thoroughly won me over with their rich harmonies and gritty breakup songs.
Another show
Another drink
Whatever it takes
So I don’t think
About you
With Melissa Carper’s driving bass, Beth Crisman’s fiddle, Jenn Miori’s guitar, and Brennen Leigh’s stand-out mandolin, this is a quartet I’ll be keeping an eye on.
Berline & Munde by Roads
Closing down the festival was a truly special set by Byron Berline & Alan Munde. It was a real honor to watch thesetwo masters at work, with an effortless natural chemistry derived from decades of friendship. It was a very casual affair, with Berline or Munde just throwing out a song and the other picking it up without hesitation. Munde’s fingers would jitterbug, notes falling in a spiral, as Berline would slide over the top of his lines and back again, shining luminous on his fiddle. Swapping stories between songs, it felt like you had been invited to chill on their front porch for some tea and a chat. Their nimble senses of humor were perhaps the highlight of this set. As Munde listed Scruggs banjo tunes, he said, “I tell you this not only so Byron knows what we’re playing, but also because a lot of people think the only difference between banjo tunes is the title.” As Byron quipped later, “We fiddlers, we never fret. We’re too high strung.” From the amusing (“Fiddle Faddle”) to the timeless (“Kentucky Waltz”), this set contained everything we love about these two musicians. They were joined on stage by Bret Graham, armed with his leathery voice and guitar, for a few songs towards the end, including Woody Guthrie’s “Oklahoma Hills,” and (“Honkin’ Out To Some Hank”). Finally, the two capped it off with a loudly-cheered encore that was a roundtable pick-a-thon on some old fiddle tunes.
We’re having to make tough economic choices these days, and our entertainment budgets are often the first things we cut. In a marketplace glutted with an astonishing array of festival options, there is concern that these smaller, homespun operations may be overlooked. They are surely the first to suffer. But I would urge readers to seek these festivals out though. Stripped away of the trappings of overpriced multi-stage affairs, these types of events get down to the basics of what a festival should be – a sense of community based around genuine music. RiceGrass held that spirit absolutely foremost with its lack of artist/fan barriers, intimate size, and generosity at every turn. Here’s already looking forward to another one next year, while I hope that you all may seek out similar treasures that exist in your own backyard.
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