At FloydFest, the Party Just Doesn’t End FloydFest, July 26-29, Floyd, Virginia
You know you’re at a great music festival when you are trying to see four artists playing on different stages at the same time.
So it went with the 11th annual FloydFest, the four-day long World Music festival in Floyd, Virginia that brought about 100 musical groups to nine stages. Internationally known performers – including Brandi Carlile, Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Jackson Browne, and Leftover Salmon – killed. No surprise there. What you might not expect is to find out that so did all of the other bands, even ones you might not know. Really, there were just no disappointments at FloydFest.
“I loved how you move from one stage to another and you didn’t feel like you didn’t hear the other music, it wasn’t fighting against each other,” said chain saw artist turned folk singer Amber Rubarth, who rocked crowds in multiple sets. “I loved it all.”
And why not? Although Rubarth, who jus released “A Common Case of Disappearing” that features duets with Jason Reeves and Jason Mraz, isn’t yet well know outside her New York base, the crowd enthusiasm was as warm toward her and other newcomers as it was toward the Punch Brothers, Drive-by Truckers, Leftover Salmon, and the other major artists. And the groovy, Woodstock era vibe – really, it was, there were even massage booths and sessions about green living – meant performers that weren’t on stage had plenty of time to drift around, chat with old and new friends and check out each other’s shows.
For the much-loved bluegrass band Steep Canyon Rangers, who were named Entertainers of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) - it gave the band mates a chance to get back to their original sound.
The group has continued to tour with Steve Martin, who joined them in receiving a Grammy Award
nomination for their album “Red Bird Alert, but played FloydFest without him.
“We are excited because it’s a great festival for us,” said Woody Platt, the band’s guitarist and lead vocalist just before the group arrived at the show. “We haven’t been there for several years. It’s the first show we’ve played without Steve for several weeks and we’re excited to get back to some Steep Canyon Rangers material.”
And play it they did, giving the packed crowd an array of music including songs from the band’s new album “Nobody Knows You,” plus even a gospel number. Despite temperatures soaring over 100 degrees and crowds that topped 12,000 on any given day, the band mates were snappily dressed in suits and seemed as energetic as the young kids that hula hooped behind the audience.
Wylie Gelber, bassist for folk-rock band Dawes, said that the band was coming to FloydFest after a tour of Europe that separated the members from their favorite gear. “Now I can have my bass amp with me,” said Gelber. “I have the same one I always play and it’s modified to my exact playing style. You forget about it and then when you play without it you think ‘Oh, yeah.’”
Gelber said that the California-based group was really jazzed about playing at home in general and at FloydFest in particular.
Clearly, he wasn’t kidding. The band finished their own high-energy set – attended by fans that stretched as far back as the eye could see from the stage – took a breather, and backed up Jackson Browne. Of course the band had played with Browne last December at the Occupy Wall Street rally in New York. Still, their FloydFest collaboration – including a haunting rendition of “Running on Empty” – was enough to send shivers up the spine.
Speaking of collaborations Yarn, whose founder and front man Blake Christiana just finished writing two songs with John Oates couldn’t even choose a high point of the band’s FloydFest set. Yeah, it was that well received.
“It was all great, from beginning to end,” said Christiana, who days after the set was still stunned by the whoops for all the songs including the one that started the set and isn’t even named yet. “The fans are calling it “All Shines Through,” but I’m not really sure what I’m going to call it yet.’
Clearly, it doesn’t matter because whatever Yarn chooses to call their songs is beside the point to
fans, including Brandi Carlile who watched the whole set and a member of her band who joined Yarn on stage, Tom Toms in hand.
“It was all just great, such a party,” said Christiana. “Man, it was crazy with a ton of good people, promoters, club owners, everybody just hanging out and relaxing.
We did the after party for the staff and volunteers and VIPs and everybody was just having a really good time. We had to leave about 12:30 (Monday morning) and they were still going. It was impressive that people who were there since Wednesday were still hanging out, having fun.” Nancy Dunham
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