Ern’s Yonder Mountain String Band’s Harvest Music Festival Wrap-Up…The Continuing Saga of Defining Americana/Roots Music

                                                                        Paddle Faster! I hear banjo music!

  Banjo jokes are everywhere for some reason or another, sort of like bagpipe jokes. How do you get a banjo player off of your front porch?  Pay him for the pizza. I think there’s website devoted just to banjo jokes. I have a correction about the banjo contest, the winner was Jon Gamache from Wichita, KS, who performed using a six string banjo. I mis-spelled Jon’s name. That wrapped up the first ever Fiddlin’ and Pickin’ contests at this festival. Having been around instrument contests now for over twenty five years, large and small, this particular venue was fun and entertaining.

The contest will be back next year and will be a little bigger and even better! Contest entries will still be limited to ten per event, but some entertaining changes may be forthcoming so keep checking this blog and ck out the Mulberry Mountain Harvest Music Festival page on Facebook and the website for updates and festival info as well as lots of  fun pics.     

One of the highlights of this festival came on Friday evening when Darol Anger and Bill Kreutzman joined Yonder Mountain String Band on  stage for a stellar jam! I could go on and on about the line-up. I suggest going to the website, www.yonderharvestfestival.com, and peruse the artists to get an idea. This festival had nearly 7000 in attendance, just enough for the venue to feel laid back and just right for an acoustic Americana/Roots head like me, to feel right at home. Again, the music was mostly acoustic, ranging from bluegrass like the namesake band, to Larry Keel, Greensky Bluegrass, Sara Watkins to old time country/songwriters Big Smith and the Wilders, to head banging psycho-thrash-punk-grass like Split Lip Rayfield, Dirtfoot, to name a few. All in all, this festival, put on by Pipeline Productions, Lawrence KS.,(who just got their Wakarusa Festival, same venue, nominated for Best Music Festival of the Year by Pollstar Concert Industry Awards in LA!) is the perfect example of what I’m trying to relate in these “Defining Americana/Roots Music” blogs, so keep checking these blogs for more philosophical BS about this (genre?), including upcoming interviews and stories about many of the bands who performed here at the Mulberry Mountain Harvest Music Festival. Next week, I’ll  be covering an exciting Austin band whose music will take you in, all the way, Sons of Fathers, Beck Cauther and Chris Durst!