Three-day bluegrass event gaining solid reputation among genre's best musicians in ninth year running
By RYAN LANCASTER
Staff Reporter
For many, the Bluewaters Bluegrass Festival is much more than a three-day celebration of American roots music – it's a chance to meet friends and reconnect with family.
The festival's ninth annual lineup features a dozen local, regional and national acts from across the genre's spectrum, performing Aug. 6-8 against the backdrop of Medical Lake's Waterfront Park.
Festival coordinator Steve Meltzer said organizers aim to bring in a blend of traditional and non-traditional bands, more than two thirds of which are new to the festival this year. “What we've found is that the bands who come here talk to others and tell them it's a great venue with a great audience. They pass the word along,” he said.
Ben Winship is vocalist and mandolin player for The Growling Old Men, a southern Idaho band that will play Bluewaters for the first time this year. He said he's heard other musicians speak highly of the festival and looks forward to running into a few of them next weekend.
“There aren't a huge amount of people who play bluegrass and we're scattered all throughout the country, so festivals are an opportunity to see fellow musicians we might not get to see too often,” he said.
“A lot of friends work it so it's close to our hearts,” Dannie Lynn Plummer, rhythm guitarist for Spokane band Molly and Tennebrooks, said of Bluewaters. “It's probably our favorite festival of the year, it feels like a gathering of family.”
Plummer said the Inland Northwest Bluegrass Association, a major festival sponsor, has created a big bluegrass following in the area through concerts and jam sessions. As in the past, the INBA has arranged a series of workshops at this year's Bluewaters, where greenhorn musicians can get pointers on most bluegrass instruments, including vocal harmonies, from renowned performers.
According to Kevin Brown, Bluewaters' music coordinator and host of the KPBX radio show “Front Porch Bluegrass,” a big part of the music's draw is an all-inclusive attitude in the bluegrass community. “It's fun, participatory music to see live,” he said. “You can bring an instrument and sit on the outside of a jam session and just follow along.”
At Bluewaters, many sessions happen after the stage lights go down, Brown said, with hundreds of campers holding impromptu sessions late into the evening. Weekend RV and tent campsites are available on a first-come, first-serve basis for $20 plus the $35 three-day festival pass. Ticket proceeds benefit Medical Lake Dollars for Scholars, Medical Lake Outreach and Friends for Children.
“Festivals like this give people new to bluegrass a chance to see what it's all about,” Brown said. “It's affordable – people can come check it out for a day, then if they like it they can apply the price of a day pass to a full weekend pass.”
Acts this year include long-acclaimed singer-songwriter Martha Scanlan exhibiting her stripped-down bluegrass style and Della Mae, a five piece female-driven band that formed late last year in Boston.
For Della Mae fiddle player and former Spokanite Kimber Ludiker, Bluewaters will be something of a homecoming. “This is my hometown festival so I'm excited to show my friends and family this awesome band,” she said.
Early on Ludiker picked up the fiddle from her father, a five-time national fiddle champion, and her mother, a national ladies fiddle champion. Ludiker has carried on the family mantle, winning multiple fiddle championships and being named the national champion for the past two years.
The Bluewaters act that has her, and many others, humming this year is 13-time Grammy winner Dan Tyminski, who for years has lent his guitar, mandolin and singing skills to popular bluegrass-country star Alison Krauss and Union Station. He was George Clooney's singing voice in the 2000 movie “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” and his second solo album “Wheels” was named the International Bluegrass Music Association's 2009 Album of the Year.
Due to previous engagements most members of Tyminski's band will miss Bluewaters, but Browns said a “super group” of sorts has been arranged for a one-time-only appearance, comprised of Jim Mills on banjo, Shad Cobb on fiddle, Barry Bales on the bass and Lou Reid on mandolin and harmonies.
Tyminski said he's looking forward to the show. “Knowing how loyal the bluegrass fans are in the great state of Washington, Medical Lake seems like the perfect place to reconnect with friends and fans alike. I can't wait,” he said.
For a complete schedule and ticket information visit http://www.bluewatersbluegrass.org.
Ryan Lancaster can be reached at [email protected].
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