Folk festival gets new name, broadens its offerings.Byline: Serena Markstrom The Register-Guard The outdoor music season traditionally begins when the Cuthbert Amphitheater amphitheater (ăm`fəthē'ətər, ăm`pə–), open structure used for the exhibition of gladiatorial contests, struggles of wild beasts, sham sea battles, and similar spectacles. opens its gates, and in recent years the honor of the first event of the season has gone to the Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley (pronounced [wɪˈlæ.mɪt], with the accent on the second syllable) is the region in northwest Oregon in the United States that surrounds the Willamette River as it proceeds northward from its Folk Festival A Folk festival celebrates traditional folk crafts and folk music. Regional Denmark
Not this year. There's no such thing as the Folk Festival. It's now the Willamette Valley Music Fest. It's still run by students out of the University of Oregon's Cultural Forum, and it still boasts a free lineup of some of the finest acoustic music Acoustic music refers to music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electronic means. Given that electronic instruments are a very recent invention in the history of music, almost all musical instruments are in the region. "The name change reflects the change that (already) has been happening," student co-coordinator Sandy Innes said. A new approach to marketing the off-campus but student fee-funded event aims to get more students to make the trek across the river with folded blankets and open ears. Those who do will be rewarded with two days of music on two stages. Originally, Innes said she and her co-coordinator, fellow graduate student Ann Talbott, wanted to reserve Sunday for folk acts and have Saturday's theme be "music through the years." But some scheduling conflicts made that impractical. The Midnight Serenaders were going to fill in the 1920s and '30s jazz era for "through the years," but they couldn't perform Saturday. So they are playing at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Doug Sammons, a member of Midnight Serenaders who has played the festival with other bands, said he likes the name change because his group would not have fit into the old format. "(B)esides my own self-serving interests, I think the change in format is good and better reflects the more diverse musical tastes of not only college students, but of the surrounding community," Sammons wrote in an e-mail. "College campus folk festivals are a vestige vestige /ves·tige/ (ves´tij) the remnant of a structure that functioned in a previous stage of species or individual development.vestig´ial ves·tige n. of the 1960s folk revival." He notes that they were "very important in celebrating and preserving this country's folk music folk music: see folk song. folk music Music held to be typical of a nation or ethnic group, known to all segments of its society, and preserved usually by oral tradition. Knowledge of the history and development of folk music is largely conjectural. tradition," but the times, they have changed. Festival veteran Misty River will headline Sunday's mainly folk lineup. Carol Harley - who sings and plays guitar, banjo banjo, stringed musical instrument, with a body resembling a tambourine. The banjo consists of a hoop over which a skin membrane is stretched; it has a long, often fretted neck and four to nine strings, which are plucked with a pick or the fingers. , ukulele ukulele (y  kəlā`lē), Hawaiian musical instrument developed from the Portuguese guitar. It has a fretted fingerboard and four strings that are plucked or strummed. and 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. for that group - said the Midnight Serenaders are one of
the reasons she enjoys the wider net the festival organizers cast this
year.
"I think that was just a brilliant play to get that band in," said Harley, who is a little biased; her daughter and Misty River member Laura Quigley once played bass and was the first female lead for the Serenaders. "It reaches a wider audience. Some of the older folks are going to want to come see that band. "The younger people are taking this older music and just loving it and representing it with a new spin," Harley said. Innes said much of the motivation to change came from the fact that today's students don't exactly get jazzed at hearing the word "folk." But they might get excited by such artists as Skyler Stonestreet, Debra Arlyn, David Jacobs-Strain and Andrew Heringer, some of the names on Saturday's schedule. Each of these artists owes something to folk traditions, but their music mixes and rebrands the tradition to create something original. Jacobs-Strain is the local blues prodigy who's now "Who's Now" was a daily series aired during SportsCenter throughout July 2007, in which viewers helped ESPN determine the ultimate sports star by considering both on-field success and off-field buzz. a nationally touring technician of music so unclassifiable Adj. 1. unclassifiable - not possible to classify unidentifiable - impossible to identify that a great deal of effort went into finding the right way to release "Liar's Day." His official CD release party is May 23 at Sam Bond's, but he is one of the headlining performers Saturday, and the independent recording will be available then. Stonestreet is an exciting songwriter from Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, with a unique voice and lots of throwback throwback see atavism. brass in her material. She's like Amy Winehouse's healthy older sister. "The folk community that we are going for will still appreciate the festival," Innes said. "Students are definitely responsive to" the change. A student working in marketing at the UO's Erb Memorial Union revamped the festival's Web site - http:?//musicfest.uoregon.edu/ - to reflect the new approach. Another change in 2008, Innes noted, was that the festival's singer-songwriter competition was held at the EMU's Buzz Coffeehouse rather than in the union's outdoor amphitheater. Four artists earned their way to short main stage appearances through the competition, which was held in April. Tim Trautman will perform at 2:45 p.m. Saturday and Valeri Lopez will play at 4:45 p.m. Saturday. On Sunday, Johnny Laser will start the day at 11:45 a.m. and the Traceys will perform at 4:15 p.m., right before Misty River. Innes said there was no official attendance number last year, but organizers plan to count heads this year "I'm excited to meet all the bands and hear them live," Innes said. Event preview Willamette Valley Music Fest What: Music from 37 acts on two stages When: From 11:45 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturday and from 10:45 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday Where: Cuthbert Amphitheater, 555 Day Island Road Admission: Free Schedule: http://musicfest.uoregon.edu/ |
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