Planet Bluegrass put off its Telluride Bluegrass Festival lineup announcement until after Christmas, but it rolled out an exciting preliminary lineup for RockyGrass 2009, which runs July 24-26 at the Platnet Bluegrass Ranch in Lyons CO.
With about two-thirds of the lineup named, the top headliners so far are Steve Earle & The Bluegrass Dukes, Hot Rize with Red Knuckles & The Trailblazers, Del McCoury Band and Earl Scruggs with Family & Friends. Not at all bad. There are also a bunch of descernable themes running through the program.
Hard-core bluegrass is represented by younger traditional bands like Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper and Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass in addition to Scruggs and McCoury. New grass experimentalism is also well expressed with Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, Three Ring Circle and California.
Claire Lynch, Darrell Scott and Tim O'Brien join Earle in the lineup as distinctive songwriting voices. The Kruger Brothers and Swedish stringband Väsen represent international influences, while Bearfoot, Sarah Jarosz and The High 48s signal that there is a youthful spirit coming up through the ranks. Read more »
The winter months are usually a somber time for the jam band community, seeing as festivals like High Sierra, 10K, and Wakarusa don't roll around until the summer. These next couple months, however, seem to hold a lot more jam rock-centered festivals than in previous winters. It's sometimes nice to vamp on the same chord progression for an extended period of time and let the music build over it. All music is repetition, but this aspect provides equilibrium for many people. Some folks, whether they be Deadheads or not, are still very much rooted in the improv-based 60's rock n' roll scene. Many feel a connection to this type of music for different reasons, be it the counterculture, the drugs, or the peace and love vibe (although this hasn't been present in some of today's concert events). People of all ages are drawn to events like these to both be entertained and to take part in a mutual exchange of musical energy between their favorite bands and thousands of other fans. A common misconception is that a festival of this caliber implies an attempted Woodstock recreation with masses of tye-died flower children, but nowadays, the term jam band encompasses far more than Wah-driven psychedelia. Plus, many aren't held on farms or in parks. If you couldn't make it to Warren Haynes' Christmas Jam or Caribbean Holidaze, here are some upcoming jam band festivals that might catch your fancy... Read more »
The loose alliance of midrange festivals that began taking shape more than a year ago put some meat on its bones with the announcement of a networked sponsorship sales program. The Music Festival Alliance includes seven independent festival brands from around the U.S. By aggregating their audience of more than 300,000 annual attendees, they hope to be better able to compete for national sponsors against big national festival companies like AEG, Live Nation, C3 and Festival Network.
The Alliance named music magazine publisher Zenbu Media as national sponsorship coordinator. Zenbu is the publisher of Relix Magazine, Jambands.com, and a variety of other print and online music media. it is also co-producer of its own festival, Green Apple Music Festival, which is not a part of the alliance.
Zenbu president Steve Bernstein explains the value proposition this way. "By consolidating sponsorship opportunities, it's a great way for brands to coordinate their marketing programs and physical presence while reaching hundreds of thousands of core music fans all summer long." Read more »
With its box office set to open a week later than usual on December 10, Planet Bluegrass dribbled out a few interesting names for its 2009 lineups over Thanksgiving. The headline is an anniversary for Jerry Douglas—his 25th Telluride Bluegrass Festival—and right in time for a strong season by his new band with Luke Bula and Guthrie Trapp. Also named for the 36th TBF: Emmylou Harris, Railroad Earth and The Steeldrivers.
RockyGrass will once more have Del McCoury on the Lyons stage. Two hot traditional bluegrass bands will appear: Danny Paisley & The Southern Grass and Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper. In August, the 19th Folks Festival will feature Brett Dennen and Dougie MacLean.
More lineup announcements for all three festivals will be released before December 10.
For its 2009 season, Jazz Aspen Snowmass will change its locations and change and lengthen the dates of its June Festival, while its Labor Day Festival will be shortened by a day to compensate for the new resources being directed to the June Festival.
The venue change sees the festival's major artists playing in the Benedict Music Tent in Aspen's West End, which was borrowed from the classical Aspen Music Festival when Snowmass's June Festival launched in 1991. The festival has taken place at the Rio Grande Park in Aspen every previous summer going back to 2002.
Also, while it has usually spanned an extended weekend, the festival will expand its run-time from four days to seven, with concerts taking place on June 18-20 and June 25-28. Read more »
Roots festival favorites Uncle Earl, the all-female string band, announced that it won't be touring in 2009 so that members can focus on individual projects. Abigail Washburn's duties with the Sparrow Quartet have complicated the band's scheduling the last two years, but the reasons are probably deeper than that, especially because the email announcing the news suggests that she is also slowing down that band's appearances next year while she pursues more travel in China and a duo album with cellist Ben Sollee.
Each of the other members also has outside projects. Kristin Andreassen performs with Sometimes Why and as a solo performer. Rayna Gellert has a variety of things in the works, including work on a documentary soundtrack and collaborations with Toubab Krewe and Loudon Wainwright. KC Groves has a new solo album and is working with two other bands, The Moody Sisters and Dangerfields, where she'll be join by, among others, former G'Earl Sharon Gilchrist. Read more »
I recently provided answers to some survey questions from a college student about the economics of the live music industry, which gave me a chance to write down some of my thoughts about the underlying appeal of festivals and the likely impacts of the economic downturn on the festival market. It struck me that some of those answers would be interesting to also post to the site. Comments are welcome.
What is it about festivals that intrigues you?I believe that as our lives become more isolated and mediated by technology, we are seeking out immersive experiences that connect us with "live" communities and give us a sense of participation in a technicolor, multi-sensory world. Festivals are uniquely suited to providing this kind of experience in a contained weekend-long break from our otherwise humdrum, cubicled existence. Read more »
Online lotteries for in-demand tickets for Planet Bluegrass 2009 events will open next month, the promoter announced in an email letter. With the online system, patrons can submit requests for the right to purchase passes during a specified period, and then be notified later if they won the lottery.
The system is designed to prevent a mad telephone rush for popular tickets, and assure that everyone gets a fair chance to score the passes. Dates for the lotteries are as follows:
• Town Park camping for Telluride Bluegrass: November 10-18
• RockyGrass Academy: November 10-18.
• Onsite camping for RockyGrass: November 24-December 7.
All other festival tickets go on sale Wednesday, December 10.
Festival Preview does not have a custom description for this festival. The festival owner may contact FP to get access to submit their own festival data.
