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Parkfield Bluegrass
2019
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Yep,
another Parkfield Bluegrass Festival. This is the 21st annual, and
the 18th one I have attended. It will probably be my last one, but
more about that later.
The
event is always on Mother's Day weekend, and for the last ten years
or so, the stage performances have started on Thursday. This seems
always to be the second Thursday of the month, and that is also the day that my
retirement association board meets at 9 a.m. So just like the last
few years, I got up at a horrible hour, had breakfast, put
refrigerated items in the motor home, and drove it to the meeting
location.
The
meeting ended around 10:30, and I had to drive through heavy traffic
and wait for a VERY SLOW train before I got on the Highway 99
freeway. This was only a slight improvement over the city streets,
but after a few miles I took the Highway 41 south exit and was soon
rolling through farm land.
I've
described this route in detail in the
past, so I'll just say it goes
through Kettleman City on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley,
over the Kettleman Hills and across Pleasant Valley, over some more
hills and across Sunflower Valley, over STILL more hills and into
the Cholame Valley. Where Highway 41 meets Highway 46, I turned north
on Cholame Road for the final 15-mile stretch into Parkfield,
population 18.
I've
been there when there were no events going on, and it is not unusual
to see no one except the workers in the cafe. On Mother's Day weekend
however, the population expands to around 1,000, with several
hundred RVs, dozens of tents and smaller camping vehicles, and a
respectable number of day visitors. This year, for the first
time, all camping space sold out, and additional parking overflowed
into a newly mowed hay field.
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Boondocks
camping area next to the rodeo grounds |
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Camping overflow in the hay
fields |
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I
had reserved an electrical site only 50 feet from the stage, the same
spot I had last year, so I was
able to quickly find my place and get set up. When I took my chair to
the stage area, there were already so many chairs that I was not able to get a decent spot on the
grass. I
put my chair in the dirt to one side, where my view was partially blocked by
a lamp post. Fortunately a spot on the grass opened up by the time of the evening
show, and I had a good view the rest of the time. It
was partly cloudy, and there was a 50% chance of rain for Friday. When
I heard raindrops on the motor home roof during breakfast, I thought, "here we
go again." A big storm a few years ago knocked out electrical
power and caused the show to move into the cafe. This is not an
acceptable solution at all, since only about 20 people can be in
position to see and hear well, and the total capacity is probably well
under 100, most of whom are basically standing in a noisy bar. Luckily,
this year's "storm" lasted only 30 seconds, although the
first act performed in the cafe, unnecessarily in my opinion. The
weather forecast turned positive, and the rest of the show was on the
outdoor stage where it belongs. As a bonus, the clouds hung around all
day and kept the temperature very comfortable. Friday
I had a chance to talk with Rad and Tele, a couple we met at the very
first Parkfield festival we attended (we being my daughter Teri,
grandson Mikie and myself). Last year Tele had just started treatment
for cancer, so it was wonderful news to learn that she is now in complete
remission. As
far as the music goes, as usual the groups ranged from average to great.
There is nothing negative in being called average - members of any
group that gets hired to perform are very good on their instruments,
and at least competent vocally. There were groups that played very traditional bluegrass, those
who took the genre way beyond the borders laid down by Bill Monroe,
and one that played old time (pre-bluegrass) music. The
best of the best was a group I first saw on the Nashville Network show
Fire on the Mountain in the
mid 1980s. Banjo player Greg
Cahill started Special Consensus 44 years ago, and has kept it going
continuously ever since. The other band members have changed over the
years, and the band has been kind of a finishing school for artists
who often go on to lead their own groups. They appeared at Parkfield
in 2006, 2009 and 2012 and I've seen them at four other festivals and
in a concert in Fresno. They play mostly traditional bluegrass and
were a big hit with the crowd. In
2009 I wrote about an 11-year old girl I saw at the Brown Barn Festival
in San Martin, performing with three teenage boys as OMGG. She was
very good then, and I speculated on what she would be like at 18. I
saw her a few times back then with that group and with the Tuttles,
and have checked out her You Tube videos from time to time. She made
her first appearance at Parkfield in 2016, and was back in 2017 and
2018 as leader of AJ Lee & Blue Summit. As expected, her voice had
matured, but this last year seems to have put her into another level,
and she is amazing (as I expected ten years ago). Her band lineup is
unusual, AJ on mandolin, plus bass and two guitars (a fiddler joined
them for one set). One of the guitar
players is Sullivan Tuttle, who was spectacular at age 15, and whose
abilities now are beyond my capability to describe. I bought their
latest CD, and it is great from start to finish. There is very
little bluegrass on it, but they showed at Parkfield that they can
still ramp up a hot bluegrass song.
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Special
Consensus (Greg Cahill on the right) |
AJ
Lee and Blue Summit (Aissa Joelle with hat) |
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Bluegrass
has spread around the world, and there are
musicians, festivals, and pockets of fans in many
countries. Amber Cross just returned from Ireland, and AJ is touring
the British Isles soon. However, I have seen only one group, the The Krüger Brothers,
that was
100% from another country until this year, when the Slocan Ramblers
from Canada appeared (the Jaybirds, whom I've seen a couple of
times, are about 60% Canadian). The Ramblers played hard-driving
traditional music with a four-piece band.
Last
year brought a "blast from the past" when Phil Salazar
& the Kinfolk returned, after having appeared at the first two
or three Parkfield festivals. This group from southern California is
another traditional band, and they got the crowd roused up again
this year.
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Slocan
Ramblers |
Phil
Salazar & the Kinfolk (Phil in green shirt) |
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There
were two bands comprised mostly of young people who I've seen at
festivals since they were little kids. Mission Blue grew out
of a family band that included Dana Frankel and her father
Avram. She has developed into a good vocalist and fiddler. They were
joined by other veteran Bay Area bluegrass musicians, including Dave
Gooding on bass. Dave has also produced three
sons who play in various groups and are outstanding pickers. North
Country Blue features four girls who've developed their skills in
the Kids on Bluegrass program and with family bands. I last saw
Tessa Schwartz when she was seven and playing with Oak
Grove, which included her brothers Max and Nate, who were also
members of OMGG. Ida Winfree is the daughter of Jason Winfree,
long-time member of Red Dog Ash
from Turlock. I'm not familiar with Megan January, who I thought was
the strongest vocalist of the group. Tessa is the main spokesperson
for the band, and handles these duties with professional aplomb.
Joining them on guitar was John, one of the magnificent Gooding
Brothers. |
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Mission
Blue |
North
Country Blue |
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Of
course, I would be remiss if I did not give recognition to Snap
Jackson & the Knock on Wood Players. This is another band I
first encountered at that fateful 2009 Brown Barn Festival, and
they've become one of my favorites. This was their 10th year at
Parkfield, and in honor of that milestone, they performed about ten
songs that they had never before played in public.
There
were numerous other bands that I enjoyed to greater or lesser
degree, and all are pictured below,
but to keep this at a reasonable length, I'll finish up the music
report with Amber Cross. She is more of a folk singer than
bluegrass, and performs with her guitar, accompanied only by her
husband on guitar and mandolin. She writes songs that reflect her
personal life, and we've had several discussions of the San
Joaquin River Gorge Recreation Area, formerly known as Squaw
Leap. She lived for a time in Prather, a short distance from the
Gorge, which is threatened by a proposed dam. We agree on the need
to preserve this unique foothill recreation area, and one of her
songs tells
the story. (It seems to have disappeared from You Tube, but here's
another of her songs.) |
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Snap
Jackson (left) & the Knock on Wood Players |
Amber
Cross and James Moore |
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As
usual, I took a morning walk every day. On Saturday I usually walk
down Oak
Street and into the the "boondocks" camping area next
to the rodeo grounds. In the last two or three years this territory
has been expanded out into the hay fields to the south, to
accommodate the increasing attendance. The total hike is now just
under a mile. On Sunday I follow one of the paved roads out of town.
There are three choices, and this year for the first time I walked
south on the Parkfield-Coalinga Road to the
bridge that crosses the San Andreas Fault (Cholame Creek), then
turned left on Cholame Road, toward highway 41 fifteen miles away. I
did a 1.4 mile round trip, photographing the huge
valley oaks, the hay
fields, and a flock of yellow-throated
birds sitting on a fence. |
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Looking
south on Cholame Road |
Yellow-throated
birds |
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Standing
on the North American Plate,
looking across the San Andreas Fault at the Pacific Plate |
At the
junction of Cholame, Vineyard
Canyon, and Parkfield-Coalinga Roads |
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I
did one other thing that I almost never do -
attended one of the workshops. At virtually every festival, members
of various bands give workshops on their instrument, or singing,
harmony, song writing, and other related subjects. I will never play
the banjo, but it is sometimes interesting to hear the information provided, so I went to the workshop conducted by Greg Cahill, along
with two long-time California banjo pickers - Julio
Boysenberry and Banjer Dan Mazer.
The most interesting thing was information they presented on how a
slight change in how you hold your hand makes a difference in how
good you sound. I could relate this to the instruction I watched my
younger grandson's dad give him on the mechanics of hitting,
throwing and pitching when he played baseball.
Since
this was probably my last Parkfield festival, I bought not only a
t-shirt, but also a nice hoodie. |
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Julio
Boysenberry, Greg Cahill and Banjer Dan Mazer conduct a workshop |
The 2019
Parkfield hoodie |
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I
also thought about staying Sunday night, which I always did in the
early days of the festival. But around noon on Sunday I started
thinking how I could be home before dark, and then start cleaning
out the motor home early Monday. I am tired of driving it, and don't
foresee any long trips. I hate driving over the winding hills
between Kettleman City and Cholame, and have no desire to drive it
over rough dirt roads in the Sierra again. I plan to sell it, and
pickup camping at Parkfield is not really a good option. My
bluegrass trips will have to be to areas that are close to motels.
I
want to finish this report with a salute to all those who made this
festival possible over the years. Pat and Rosie Conway got it
started and ran it for several years. I wish I had thought to ask
them how and why they chose this incredible but remote location. Joe
and Darlene Quealy stepped in and took over when the Conway's were
ready to move on. Then a group of central coast bluegrass fans
formed the Bluegrass Music Society of the Central Coast, and have
been the promoters for around ten years. I don't know everyone
involved, but the festival director is Dave Schwartrz, and Connie
Moxness always makes sure I get a camping space with electrical
power.
Finally,
the Varian Family, owners of the ranch land in the north end of
Cholame Valley, have been big supporters of the event. John and Barb
have made regular improvements to the venue, including a permanent
stage that doesn't wobble like the truck bed used at the earliest
festivals. From a distance, I will support and cheer them on as long
as they continue to present the Parkfield Bluegrass Festival.
--Dick
Estel, May 2019 |
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