Rain didn't stop 15,000 revelers from celebrating GrassRoots 20th anniversary this past weekend. Photo by Prantik Mazumder
THE 20TH ANNUAL FINGER LAKES GRASSROOTS FESTIVAL OF MUSIC AND DANCE more than lived up to its promise of diversity, quality and a “special” anniversary lineup. The bar was set high starting on Thursday, with headliners from country (Merle Haggard) to hip-hop (Arrested Development), and stellar local and national acts including The Gunpoets, Djug Django, host band Donna the Buffalo and Mountain Heart.
Although space (and the space-time continuum) prohibit mentioning all of the performers and festival attractions witnessed by some 15,000-plus revelers, a few GrassRoots mainstays were notably absent. Country singer Jim Lauderdale, who hasn’t missed a Trumansburg appearance since 1998, was on tour in Europe with Elvis Costello & the Sugarcanes. Richie Stearns – in Colorado for the Rockygrass Festival with The Horse Flies – was missed from the start, with the Bubba George Stringband’s traditional Thursday afternoon kickoff to the four-day festival. The Horse Flies being out of town also meant no sets from The Family Knife (with Rick Hansen and Jay Olsa) or Boy With a Fish (Olsa, Jeff Claus and Judy Hyman), and Will Russell’s absence from the Grandstand soundboard.
But older attractions like Keith Secola and Frank, Hank Roberts’ spacey cello, and new twists on familiar acts (the Speckers and the Grady Girls both fiddled in the Dance Tent) gave the festival its familial vibe and continuity. Mainstay guests Blackfire played two shows of incendiary Native American punk rock; and the Galumpha dance troupe drew its usual huge crowd on Saturday.
The memorable highlights were many. Haggard’s Grandstand show was packed – a country revue backed by the Strangers with a few songs from his son Noel, and the young Malpass Brothers, who played a brief traditional country set and introduced Haggard, wearing shades, waving his black hat to the crowd and looking nowhere near his 73 years.
Hag’s hour-plus set started with “Silver Wings,” and featured many of his other hits – “The Bottle Let Me Down,” “Mama Tried,” “If We Make It Through December,” “Are the Good Times Really Over for Good?” and “Okie from Muskogee,” which he stopped and restarted, and actually had to instruct this crowd to “yell at the ‘marijuana’ line.” He followed that with the lesser-known “Rainbow Stew,” his other lampoon of hippie youth culture, performed especially for the GrassRoots setting.
Haggard played acoustic and electric guitar and fiddle during the set, which ended on a classy note with a recent song, “Pretty When It’s New.” Johnny Dowd (with Kim Sherwood-Caso and Michael Stark) followed Merle at the Grandstand with a brief, intense set complete with light show.
Thursday’s other highlights included a late-night farewell show by the All-American Hell Drivers in the Cabaret Hall. Dick Hallett, in his Buddy Holly glasses, led the band through an all-out rock-n-roll set, from “Milk Cow Blues” to Violent Femmes and Talking Heads covers.
Friday began with the first GrassRoots fiddle, banjo and guitar contest. The winners: The Bloody Seamen, fiddle; Aidan O’Brien, guitar; and Landon and his Banjo. The judging was in the capable hands of last year’s Band Contest winners, Driftwood (Claire Byrne, Dan Forsyth and Joe Kollar). The daytime musical feast continued with Ayurveda’s heavy groove in the Infield, The Believers roots-rocking the Grandstand with past and present members of Donna the Buffalo; and Mountain Heart, whose Dance Tent set featured Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.” Hubcap debuted new songs by both Steve Gollnick and Peter Glanville, and covers of Devo and INXS; and the Sim Redmond Band did the first of two extremely well-received shows.
Friday’s headliners were Zimbabwean star Oliver Mtukudzi & Black Spirits, in the Grandstand; and festival favorite Rusted Root in the Infield. All-star Cajun group Bonsoir, Catin entertained all night in the Dance Tent, with guitarist Christine Balfa-Powell, bassist Yvette Landry, accordionist Kristi Guillory and fiddler Anya Burgess taking vocal turns, backed by drummer Jude Veillon and featuring guest Jesse Lege. (The Red Hots’ Kevin Wimmer joined in on fiddle for their Saturday afternoon set.)
It always rains during the festival, and this year that was a good thing. The oppressive heat and humidity at the fairgrounds hit its peak on Friday, and was finally broken by a spectacular late-afternoon rainstorm on Saturday.
Saturday’s Band Contest showcased 18 acts in two hours, and was won by an out-of-town band, the Folkadelics.
As reggae star Burning Spear, sacred steel testifiers The Campbell Brothers, and perennial Cajun-country favorites Walter Mouton & the Scott Playboys held forth on the larger stages Saturday evening, the best local action was in the Cabaret. Mary Brett Lorson & the Soubrettes (who did an idiosyncratically good cover of Nirvana’s “Come As You Are”) and Jennie Lowe & the Fire Choir shared their voices and added Leah Houghtaling and Amelia Sauter for chill-inducing harmonies from all-female vocal lineup that Lowe dubbed “Girl Haggard” (Houghtaling and Sauter had also joined Kathy Ziegler on Friday afternoon). Dowd ruled the Cabaret late on Saturday, ending with Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind.” Not to be bested, the Sutras donned messianic white robes and rock-star confidence to close the Grandstand stage.
Sunday – the traditionally mellow day of the festival – had more than its share of musical highlights, starting with the GrassRoots Chamber Orchestra’s annual performance and the Songwriter’s Circle on the Grandstand. Acoustic roots band Railroad Earth made its festival debut as a midday headliner on the Infield stage. The Chicken Chokers played their only local show of the year, The Thins, The Double E and Toivo brought rock, country and Finnish polkas to the Cabaret; and Hee Haw Nightmare and Driftwood closed out the Dance Tent and Cabaret, respectively, with raucous acoustic sets before joining forces for a jam session that went past 9 p.m.
Even before Donna the Buffalo’s closing concert ended past 1 a.m., with a parade of special guests from the festival talent pool, GrassRoots veterans were saying that this was a great festival, maybe one of the best. Given how Ithacans tend to party when they turn 21, next year could be even better.