West Coast Music Alert - June shows

So all I can say is I've been going to see bluegrass / newgrass / hippy grass for close to 50 years. As long as I've been seeing the Dead (a little longer, in fact). In high school we used go see the infamous The Seldom Scene. Fast forward 5 decades and last week I saw and enjoyed Sam Bush, Peter Rowan, Sierra Ferrill, Sierra Hull, Linsay Lou, Molly Tuttle, Trampled and Stringdusters.  I've seen lots of early Sting Cheese and Leftover (still do) and witnessed the rise of the Yonder, Railroad, etc etc etc --- with all that being said, trust me when I say the Traveling McCourys have something special going on at the moment.

My first bluegrass festival (Jerry was rumored to be helicoptered in for an Old and in the Way reunion, but of course that didn't happen)

^ I had no idea what I was in for. Sure, we had seen Woodstock. We had been to concerts. We knew how to camp. But we were not prepared for no infrastructure (camping on steep wooded hills with roads freshly bulldozed thu the trees to make impromptu campsites), no real facilities, no vending (except for moonshine, barbituates and acid), no authorities of any kind, 100,000 + very fucked up people, and real outlaw motorcycle gangs. Here's some fun info I found on the Stompin website:

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"The music isn’t what a lot of people remember about Stompin’ 76, however. Anyone who lived through it recalls the drugs, beer, mud, nude bathers and the motorcycle gangs that comprised this hippie bazaar in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The promoters for Stompin’ 76 expected about 30,000 people would scoop up the $12 tickets (for all three days!). Instead, upward of 100,000 people jammed the narrow country road that led to the festival site in a community locals call Pot Rock. People broke down fences, parked on the side of the road, walked for miles, camped wherever they could find a patch of open ground and partied hard for three days. The Pagans motorcycle gang took over “security” at the festival site.

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Promoted from February - August 5, 1976 Stompin 76 was put together by Hal's Cactus Productions, Inc. of Las Vegas, founded the year before with the intention of promoting concerts back home in Baltimore, Maryland, with his many contacts. His new step-brother Don Berger agreed to be V.P… both were 19 yrs. old in 1975. Stompin 76 was not on the horizon yet, but after promoting 10 concerts in Baltimore, the concept and name was born in the early winter of 1976. It was the 200th Birthday of the nation, something had to be done! A sense of immediacy took hold as the name and the music and the land all merged in March.

Stompin 76 was started with enough money to place deposits on the Lawson farm, north of Galax, VA (we all know Galax is home to the Old Fiddlers Convention- which Stompin had no affiliation with), we also paid 50% deposits to the bands, start-up marketing and some salaries. Things were simple then, the promotion took over. In the preceding few years, Hal attended J. Pierce Van Hoy’s Old Time Fiddlers Convention in Union Grove, NC, the 1974 August Jam in Charlotte Motor Speedway and all kinds of outdoor concerts like Ten Years After in the Arizona desert or his first concert, the Grateful Dead- Baltimore 1971. These lasting impressions and exciting events from such profound live performances seared a path in Hal’s head literally forcing him to dream up and bring about Stompin 76.

We opened 2 eastern Stompin 76 operations and ticketing offices located in Owings Mills, Maryland and Winston Salem, NC. Ticket buyers responded to exciting widespread major market radio ads, large newspaper ads, aerial banners over the beaches and a ton of youthful energy which steamrolled into the biggest event in the east that bicentennial year! Fans mailed cash into these locations where their ticket orders were filled and mailed back. This rudimentary marketing method and ticket outlets in 6 states is how the 29,000 advance tickets were sold. An estimated 2,000 more were sold at the gate even though over 100,000 attended and it’s estimated many thousands more were backed up on the surrounding roads and interstate and couldn’t get in.

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A bunch of us traveled from Lexington, Va., only several hours down the road. I was 19 at the time and this was the first sizable concert I had attended. Like many others, I remember arriving late Thursday evening and only being able to get as close as several miles from the stage.  We ended up camping in a cow pasture on the side of a hill. I had borrowed an old canvas cabin tent from a co-worker.  Little did I know that after setting up the tent, that was the last time I would see it until Sunday.  Friday became a blur rather quickly.  However, I do remember hanging out by the main road in, on the edge of a creek, for quite a while. 

This was the same location that the double-decker red London bus was parked with the gallon glass jar full of Quaaludes on the dash with a sign that, I believe, said Ludes 25 cents.  I remember the Pagans had pretty much taken over the Port-a-John area, I believe the brand was Here’s Johnny, if my memory is correct.  You had to walk through the Pagans to take a leak, past the big guy sporting the 3 1/2 foot tall, 25 pound adjustable crescent wrench.  I think the rain began sometime Saturday. 

I remember loosing one shoe, spraining an ankle. Although I was very drunk, I saw a Va. State Trooper car approaching and decided to use my remaining charm and pitiful condition to hitch a ride the remaining 2 miles to the stage area. Unbelievable to me, he said “sure, hop in”.  As we traveled down the road I can’t forget the sympathetic looks from those walking along the road thinking I had been arrested. I believe Saturday night I found a dry spot to sleep under the stage along with many others. Great weekend.  I wish I could remember more of the music, but like I said, pretty hazy that weekend. 

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Like an idiot I deleted my camera card before it fully downloaded and lost 4 days of festival photos. Oh well. As you can see it is a serene scene.​

Sierra Ferrell  (cowboy hat) backing up Lindsay Lou at DelFest 2023. First time I've seen her. She's got some pipes. A little too country for me sometimes but a nice addition to the festival.

​Sierra Ferrell - Don't Let Me Down video

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6de94fIELo

Sierra Ferrell  - Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-vA-o44SgE

Dave have fun at that Joni show. We recently watched some tribute or award show about her and she sang a tune or two. Glad she's hanging in there. Please report back.

Also, if Del played it was the Del McCoury Band. He's about 83 now and sometimes wanders a bit, but still delivers the goods.

His "backup band", the Traveling McCourys, include his two sons Ronnie McCoury (Mandolin, Vocals) and Rob McCoury (Banjo, Vocals)and 3 other award winning bluegrassers: Jason Carter (Fiddle, Vocals), Alan Bartram (Bass, Vocals), Cody Kilby (Guitar, Vocals). "They still serve as the Del McCoury Band, but now split their time between both bands. While there are many similarities on stage between the two, the Travelin' McCourys have moved slightly away from the more traditional sound of the Del McCoury Band and incorporated a wider range of musical styles creating a more progressive bluegrass sound. Ronnie says, "We like to go in and play traditional bluegrass music the way we do it with Dad, but we also like to be able to step into situations where we can really stretch out. If we need to plug in, we’ll plug in. We’re open to anything."

Also from Wikapedia:"The Grateful Ball, is a bluegrassified tribute to the Grateful Dead, created by the Travelin' McCourys. It has its roots in a one-off performance in the summer of 2016 with the Travelin' McCourys and the Jeff Austin Band at Urban Chestnut Brewing in St. Louis. The show was so popular that a tour was scheduled with both bands where each played a set on their own, followed by a joint set of modern bluegrass arrangements of Grateful Dead material.[8] Since then the Travelin's McCourys have combined with a variety of artists on a number of Grateful Ball tours reinterpreting the music of the Grateful Dead every night."

^ my one time seeing Joni was a disaster.

I was in high school and had a rare big date with a hot younger neighbor girl I had a crush on -- and got tickets to the Joni show at College Park, MD (Feb 76) to impress her. Driving down there into the unknown was a big deal and I was nervous about the whole thing.

If you are old enough to remember, Prell shampoo used to come in thick glass bottles. Well, when I was getting ready for the big date I flipped my towel behind me and it caught the Prell bottle perched on the window ledge in the shower and the bottle came crashing down and shattered -- cutting a deep gash in my calf. It probably required some stiches but I wasn't going to let that stop me and taped it shut with some Band-Aids. Worse yet, we got down to the show and after half of the first song Joni walked off stage and canceled the show. In a fight with her boyfriend or something.

"After striking the opening chord of "Help Me" she leapt into the tune with a vigor mirrored in her recordings. Suddenly, there seemed to be a problem. She had turned her back to the buoyant audience and was shaking her head at the LA Express, who were backing her up. One noticed it was impossible to hear her guitar. She was irritated, pissed off. There was no mistaking her feeling. She was being drowned out. At the last note, she threw down her guitar and stalked off. Her manager appeared and said "due to technical problems" she'd be back in five. Twenty minutes later he returned. Joni had "stomach cramps, a touch of the flu and was troubled keeping her dinner down."

Life might have been quite different if that date had turned out better. I can still see the scar on my leg.

Thanks Slick. The impressive part is that the TMs seem to be hitting on all cylinders at the moment. Especially with the non-traditional bluegrass.

Here's something fun I just found on the web from a couple years ago (with Del's grandson Heaven also playing guitar)

The Travelin’ McCourys w/Billy Strings - Midnight Moonlight (Nashville, TN 7/2/21)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAN4i2SG2hs&list=RDXAN4i2SG2hs&start_rad...

I'd like to party with Flashback Tim but I think I'd end up throwing up and embarrassing myself. Probably be a good time before that, though.

^ remember those lawn chairs? My wife does, she just bought a version from REI or someplace cause she gets hot sitting in the common one piece foldouts. I'm waiting for them to sunbleach and tear by the end of the summer.

Oh and a Jerry / McCoury link - When Jerry went East to hear and record bluegrass in 63 or so he went to a PA fest and saw Bill Monroe with Del McCoury in the band. The two were introduced years later.

Ronnie McCoury Cap Center 1990/91? -  ... [asked him] about the time he sold Jerry Garcia a couple banjos in the early 90's; a deal apparently brokered by the great David Grisman. When Jerry invited Del (who had met Garcia in 1972, but hadn't seen him since), Ronnie, and Robbie McCoury to the Capital Centre in Washington, DC to close the sale, they ended up hanging out with Garcia for about an hour and a half after their sound check. Ronnie remembered fondly Jerry Garcia looking over to Robbie and him saying, "You know, your dad was a big inspiration to me when I started." 

"...He said that since they came from the world of requests (common in bluegrass music), he didn't think twice about asking Jerry if the band would play "Rain & Snow," an old mountain song, which Del had played in the early 1970's  and which the Grateful Dead recorded (as "Cold Rain & Snow") on their 1967 studio album "The Grateful Dead"... Ronnie said that it was the first song they played when they went on stage that night, but thanks to a little help from his wife, Allison, I was able to figure out that it was actually the 2nd song they played. They opened up the show that night (3/20/1991) with "Feel Like a Stranger" before going into "Cold Rain & Snow."'