Merle, Mountain Heart and More

“THE FUNNIEST THING ABOUT THIS FESTIVAL is that you come out and there are about ten people and then you play ten notes and it feels like thousands of people are suddenly here, dancing and ready to party” Mountain Heart’s Josh Shilling said from the Grandstand Stage Thursday afternoon, the first day of a long weekend for the GrassRoots Festival of Music in dance.

And he was right. Thousands flocked to the Trumansburg Fairgrounds Thursday for wonderful weather and a broad diversity of music, ranging from country to hip-hop, Zydeco to rock and roll. The Georgia-based bluegrass band took the stage only a few hours into the official opening, with Bubba George Stringband performing just before 2:00pm. By 6:30, when Mountain Heart took the stage, thousands had already streamed through the gate, hundreds lined up in anticipation of headlining acts Merle Haggard and Arrested Development.

Even before Haggard was set to perform, the Festival had accumulated some blistering sets for which it has become famous. Mac Benford christened the Dance Tent to a loyal following early in the afternoon, and later the retro country act Kelley and the Cowboys got a crowd line-stepping and dancing in pairs. Kevin Kinsella introduced a relatively new group featuring Dana Billings on drums; Billings’ principal group New Neighbors played pop at the Grandstand Stage earlier.

But by 8:00pm an overflow crowd had gathered at the Grandstand stage to catch country legend Merle Haggard.

Beginning his set with something of a Merle Haggard variety-show, two bands warmed up the crowd, before a man with sunglasses and a swagger stepped to the stage. Performing with a band that included his own son on guitar, and a group of session men that included a fantastic fiddle player, Haggard moved through an hour and a half of his greatest hits.

(Three notable acts that performed during Haggard’s set at other stages all drew crowds, and played with a furious energy: Thousands of One in the Dance Tent; Gunpoets on the Infield Stage; and Jimkata in the Cabaret Hall. Tragically only Thousands of One are playing again, at 6:30pm again in the Dance Tent on Saturday).

But the real revelation Thursday night was the Atlanta-based hip hop group Arrested Development. Perhaps because of the high of their recently released “Strong,” or perhaps because, as emcee Speech said late in the show, “17 years of positive hip hop!” the group performed a set that was joyful, glorious and mesmerizing.

Racing through a set that drew heavily from the first two albums but also included a host of new songs, Arrested Development kept a vast Infield Stage crowd dancing late into the night. As the show ended, the frontman asked that all the lights be turned out, and spoke meaningfully to the crowd: “You all are the lights out there. I’ll remember this night for the rest of my life.”

For thousands who descended on the first day of the four day festival, it was a sentiment that will likely be shared by all in attendance.

Tagged as: Arrested Development, Donna the Buffalo, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, johnny dowd, Kelly and the Cowboys, Merle Haggard, Trumansburg Fair Grounds