Northwest String Summit
Oregon
July 13-17, 2016
My friend’s son is the road manger for Yoder Mountain String
Band, a bluegrass band of some prominence around the USA. They host a bluegrass festival every year in
a forest in Oregon. Lot of people show up for four days of music and
happiness. This year, I went,
compliments of Mark. I made it on the
guest list with an all-access pass. I never
had an all access pass before. I must
say, it’s a nice little perk.
With my pass, I had access to the back stage area where food
and beverages were served all day. As I
was waiting for my beer to be poured, Valerie, the bartender asked me, “Would
you like a joint with that?” She used
the same tone the wait staff at McDonald’s uses when they ask, “Would you like
fries with that.”
Startled, I asked, “Did you say joint?”
“Yea”, she laughs and hold up a jar filled with neatly
rolled joints. I took my joint as I never pass up anything that is free and
went on to see what else was included in my all access pass. I found kumbucha,
sandwiches, candy, chips, water and all sort of things to sample. There was sunscreen and lip balm and antacid
tablets. I popped a few tablets just for
good measure.
I wandered up to the ramp to the stage. A band was playing and the crowd was with
them. I wanted to see how far I could
get to the band. I showed the security
guard my wrist band and he stepped aside so I could get a closer view. Yup,
this all access pass was really working for me.
To add to my good fortune with this pass, KT has a
handicapped parking tag. So we go to
bring our car right in to the festival grounds and camp right in the heart of
the festival. Everyone else had to park
in a distant parking lot and lug all of their things to offsite camping. But not me, I am one lucky bitch. To add to this good fortune, we were now
eligible to sit on the ADA ramp, close to the stage. So when I wasn’t back stage, hawking the band
members, I sat comfortably in the crowd.
This was a fun crowd to watch. I saw one black man, one Asia man and a woman
who could have been Latino or Native American.
Every one else was white, pale white.
It was mostly a young crowd.
There were lots of families. Kids
were everywhere. Lots of woman had dreadlocks.
Man-buns were popular. Lots of bearded men had their beards in ponytails
or braids. Tattoo sleeves were in
abundance. I think I was the only adult
without a tattoo.
The vendors pushed merchandise that was tie-dyed. Lots of things for sale had Grateful Dead
symbols all over them. Much of the food was organic, gluten free or vegan.
While the food choices were good, they were expensive. I, of course had a better option. I had a food pass so I got to eat for free in
the artists’ tent where all of our food was catered. And delicious.
There was a main stage and three secondary stages. My
favorite secondary stage was the Further Bus, a psychedelic school bus that
served as a tweener stage. As one group
broke down on the main stage and the next group set up, a musician or two
climbed up on to of the school bus and played a set to help keep the momentum
up during this transitional time. While these musicians may be less known than
the main stage performers, they played with no less enthusiasm. They were
always a crowd pleaser.
I didn't know any of the bands on the rooster. I know of Yonder Mountain and I’ve heard a
few songs from Left Over Salmon. But
every other band was to be a new experience to me. And I wasn’t disappointed.
One band after another came out on stage and brought down the house. The crowd loved them all and seemed to know
every single damn song performed.
With my all access pass, I got a better sense of how much it
takes to keep a band going. I watched
everything. All of that set up and break down looked so tedious. All of those sound checks were not
distinguishable in quality for me. All
those different mics seemed overkill to me. But to a trained ear, it makes all the
difference in producing an outstanding sound verse a mediocre performance. When
everything came together, it all sounded pretty damn good.
To read more stories, check out: bkmemoirs.blogspot.com
or bkmemoirs.wordpress.com
