BACK AT THE RANCH; THE THIRSTY EAR FESTIVAL AT 10.Byline: PAUL WEIDEMAN Michael Koster came at the idea of staging a roots-music festival obliquely. The Thirsty Ear Festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary, but 11 years ago he would have considered staging such a festival inconceivable. "Back in 1997, I was assigned to cover the Telluride Bluegrass Festival The Telluride Bluegrass Festival is held annually in Telluride, Colorado by Planet Bluegrass. Although traditionally the festival focuses on bluegrass music, it often features music from a variety of genres. In 1973, its first year, it attracted 1000 participants. , by Pasatiempo, actually," he said. "I was a rock 'n' roll rock 'n' roll: see rock music. guy. I didn't care at all about roots music and certainly not bluegrass bluegrass, any species of the large and widely distributed genus Poa, chiefly range and pasture grasses of economic importance in temperate and cool regions. In general, bluegrasses are perennial with fine-leaved foliage that is bluish green in some species. or country. In fact, the idea of three days of bluegrass music bluegrass music: see country and western music. was really painful to think about, but I wanted to see Telluride Telluride (tĕl`yərīd), town (1990 pop. 1,309), seat of San Miguel co., SW Colo., on the San Miguel River in the San Juan Mts., inc. 1887. . "I saw Johnny Cash Noun 1. Johnny Cash - United States country music singer and songwriter (1932-2003) John Cash, Cash , Gillian Welch, John Prine John Prine (born October 10, 1946, in Maywood, Illinois) is an American country/folk singer-songwriter who has achieved widespread critical (and some commercial) success since the early 1970s. Prine is the son of William Prine and Verna Hamm. , Guy Clark, and a singer-songwriter no one had ever heard of named Patty Griffin. I remember when John Prine was playing looking out at the crowd, and it was this really evenly dispersed group of people in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s -- it was a funky demographic I'd never seen before. And all of these people in their 20s knew every word to every John Prine song, and they were singin' along, and I thought, God, I can't believe I've missed this. This is really great. Guy Clark actually made a huge impression on me." Koster's Telluride epiphany roughly corresponded to a national flowering of interest in the music of R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough Junior Kimbrough (born David Kimbrough in Hudsonville, Mississippi, July 28, 1930; d. Holly Springs, Mississippi, January 17, 1998) was a prominent bluesman from Mississippi. Kimbrough lived in the North Mississippi Hill Country around Holly Springs. , and other blues players represented by the Fat Possum label in the mid-1990s. Their sound, which Koster describes as "fresh and raw and grungy grun·gy adj. grun·gi·er, grun·gi·est Slang In a dirty, rundown, or inferior condition: grungy old jeans. [Origin unknown. ," shifted his feeling about the genre from boredom to passion. The idea behind Thirsty Ear was to marry Americana and hard-core blues. "If you look at festivals, that doesn't happen anymore," he said. "You used to see it at Newport and in the folk revival in the '60s, but now you've got white folk-music over here and black folk-music over there. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. why that split happened, but the whole idea was to get back to that, and I think we're the only festival in the country to be doing that. The first year I thought we had a fabulous lineup, but there were only about 400 people [in the audience], and they were all locals. It's grown to 10 times that size now." The three-day festival is held at the Eaves Movie Ranch A movie ranch is a ranch that is at least partially dedicated to being used as a site for the production of motion pictures. Movie ranches first came into use in southern California in the 1920s when westerns had become increasingly popular. south of Santa Fe Santa Fe, city, Argentina Santa Fe, city (1991 pop. 341,000), capital of Santa Fe prov., NE Argentina, a river port near the Paraná, with which it is connected by canal. . Besides the dozens of performances on various stages, the event features children's activities, zydeco zydeco (zī`dĭkō'), American musical form originating among the African-American Creoles of Louisiana. Drawing on elements of traditional Cajun music as well as jazz, country and western, and blues, it is characterized by French lyrics, dance lessons, healthy food concessions, and camping sites. This year, the festival is presented for the first time as a springtime happening, rather than a late-August one. One of the local stars is Cristen Grey, who plays Thirsty Ear with her hot pop/rock band the Moving Dunes. Grey was performing in Albuquerque, her home town, by the time she was 14. She taught herself to play on six strings as a kid when her father gave her a semi-hollow-body guitar. "The strings were higher than heck off the frets and sometimes I'd play so hard I would cut my fingers on them," she said. Back then, Grey loved the music of Cat Stevens Yusuf Islam[1] (born Steven Demetre Georgiou on 21 July, 1948 in London), who was known as Cat Stevens from 1966 to 1978, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, educator, philanthropist and prominent convert to Islam. , Joni Mitchell, James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, born in Belmont, Massachusetts. , and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Lately the music she listens to is more along the lines of Sheryl Crow, Beck, Alice in Chains, and Corinne Rae Bailey. And in her own music, you can hear a little Garbage, maybe some Aerosmith influences. "Oh, absolutely," she said. "I'm so eclectic with different genres and tastes throughout the years. I've managed to put it all in a melting pot melting pot America as the home of many races and cultures. [Am. Pop. Culture: Misc.] See : America ." During the 1980s, Grey was lead guitarist for the group All Eyes, which opened for lots of "hair bands" like Cinderella and Missing Persons. The guitarist and songwriter has performed solo at the Durango Songwriters Expo in Colorado. In late 2006, she formed the Moving Dunes with guitarist Brian Widger. Among her band's recent accolades are two top New Mexico New Mexico, state in the SW United States. At its northwestern corner are the so-called Four Corners, where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah meet at right angles; New Mexico is also bordered by Oklahoma (NE), Texas (E, S), and Mexico (S). Music Association awards, both in the best rock-adult contemporary category, for the songs "Absolute" in 2007 and "So Much Better" in 2008. For the Thirsty Ear Festival, Grey and Widger are joined by drummer Mark Clark, keyboardist Kevin Zoernig, and bassist Jose Romero. (The same group plays at a party celebrating the release of the band's new CD Ten Thousand Things on July 31 at Santa Fe Brewing Company.) Cristen Grey and the Moving Dunes play at the festival on Saturday afternoon, June 13. The last gig of that day will be a jam led by Sharon Gilchrist and Friends. Gilchrist, playing mandolin mandolin (măn'dəlĭn`, măn`dəlĭn'), musical instrument of the lute family, with a half-pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and a variable number of strings, plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum. and upright bass, will share the stage of the Grand Hotel with Susan Hyde Holmes, bass guitar and vocals; Margaret Burke, bass guitar and vocals; Josh Martin, guitar, dobro, lap steel, and vocals; Jono Manson, guitar and vocals; and Arne Bay, drums. "Everyone will sing two or three songs," Gilchrist said. "I'm trying to make a house band, but it rotates around between who's playing and who's singing." Gilchrist grew up in Southlake, Texas, when it was a small town outside of Dallas, but her roots are in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. A Santa Fe resident for almost eight years, she will head to traditional bluegrass country blue·grass n. 1. also blue grass Any of various grasses of the genus Poa, including many valuable lawn and pasture plants, such as Kentucky bluegrass, and also some weeds. 2. for two weeks in the summer, when she teaches mandolin and bass at the Augusta Heritage Center in West Virginia. "This camp has been around since I was a little kid, and I never got to go to it, so it's so great that I've been asked to teach last year and this year," said Gilchrist, who is also a mandolin instructor at the College of Santa Fe History The oldest chartered college in the State of New Mexico, the College of Santa Fe was founded in the Lasallian tradition of education, a Roman Catholic teaching order in which the schools are run by laymen. The institution's first incarnation opened in 1859, as St. and privately at Santa Fe String Studios. Over the years, Gilchrist has performed with Peter Rowan, the Bill Hearne Trio, and Uncle Earl. If you want to get a taste of her singing and mandolin work before Thirsty Ear, check out the 2007 album Quartet by Peter Rowan and Tony Rice. The mandolin magician is currently studying a new instrument. "I've been learning old-time fiddle with David Margolin in Albuquerque," Gilchrist said. "That's through a National Endowment of the Arts grant I got from New Mexico Arts' Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. I love it so much. It has kind of taken over my world." She said that she doesn't feel ready to play the violin in public yet. She'll stick to the mandolin and bass for the Thirsty Ear Festival, which she loves because of the chance to hear local, national, and international talent. "It's a great venue for any band, but the local musicians really appreciate that nice stage and good sound. And I love the setting of Thirsty Ear, where you can hear music on a dusty, old Western-movie set. It's really cool, especially at night." details Thirsty Ear Festival Friday-Sunday, June 12-14 Eaves Movie Ranch, 105 Rancho Alegre Road Friday & Saturday, June 12 & 13: $42 & $52 each day in advance; $47 & 57 each day at the gate; Sunday (local bands day) $10 or $5 with two cans of food; three-day passes $75 & $84 in advance, $80 & $89 at the gate Tickets available from thirstyearfestival.com or the Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. SAN FRANCISCO St., 988-1234 Friday, June 12 4:00 p.m. Gates open 5:00 p.m. Indigenous; main stage 6:00 p.m. Melanie Zipin and the Z Factor; Grand Hotel 6:30 p.m. Richie Havens; main stage 8:00 p.m. Mezklah; Grand Hotel 8:30 p.m. Steel Pulse; main stage 10:00 p.M. KENNY BROWN; Grand Hotel Saturday, June 13 1:00 p.m. Gates open 1:30 p.m. Mary. Cristen Grey and the Moving Dunes; Grand Hotel 3:00 p.m. Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers; main stage 4:00 p.m. African Drum Trio; Grand Hotel 4:30 p.m. Bela Fleck and Toumani Diabate; main stage 6:00 p.m. Mary Gauthier; Grand Hotel 6:00 p.m. Children's African-drumming workshop; Kids Corral corral a small fenced-in enclosure with high, wooden fences, suitable for holding cattle or horses. corral system a management system in which range cattle are put into corrals and fed hay for a period when the environment is most 6:30 p.m. Keb' Mo'; main stage 8:00 p.m. Alex Maryol Band; Grand Hotel 8:00 p.m. Zydeco dance lessons with Michelle Hoffman; Saloon 8:30 p.m. Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas; main stage 10:00 p.m. Late-night jam with Sharon Gilchrist and Friends; Grand Hotel SUNDAY, JUNE 14 Noon Zydeco brunch with Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas; Grand Hotel (separately ticketed) 1:00 p.m. Gates open 1:30 p.m. Round Mountain; main stage 2:30 p.m. Michael Kott and Victor Avila, Mexican folk songs and storytelling; Kids Corral 2:30 p.m. Bootleg Prophets; Grand Hotel 3:00 p.m. Soulman Sam and Soul Explosion; main stage 4:00 p.m. Children's African-drumming workshop; Kids Corral 4:00 p.m. Tone and Company; Grand Hotel 4:30 p.m. Felix y Los Gatos; main stage |
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