Sunday at Green River Festival 2021 (Gallery) Festivals Music Features by Brian Carroll - August 30, 2021August 30, 20210 My live music experiences for the past year (or ~3 months since things started somewhat opening back up again) have been limited to small gatherings, local farm dinners, distanced outdoor events under giant tents. Heading to a music festival again certainly came with its reservations, but after being within the gates of Green River Fest for a few moments it was clear that the majority of festival goers, vendors and staff alike were doing their best to press forward with cautious optimism. Masks were aplenty. The staff and volunteers, in particular, from those at the gate to the folks carting artists around donning masks and maintaining safe distances. The new location at the Franklin County Fairgrounds allowing ample space to spread
Folk On! 2021 Festivals Music Features Reviews by Ken Templeton - August 19, 20210 Remember in March of 2020 when we thought we might have to adjust our lives significantly for two whole weeks? And then those two weeks became a month, and two months, and on and on. Seeing the announcements of artists for the 2020 Newport Folk Festival, and imagining the joyful noise from the Fort, was a relatively small loss, compared to the lives and livelihoods claimed by this pandemic. But when plans for a version of the Festival, called “Folk On!” emerged over the winter, I started to feel some hope. The usual three-day event was stretched to six days. In what is now becoming an industry standard, Folk On! Required proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test. I
FreshGrass Announces Finalists for FreshGrass Awards Festivals Music Features by Brian Carroll - August 6, 20210 Each and every year I attend FreshGrass Festival one thing is for certain, I am going to walk away seeing/hearing great music and much of that great music is coming from artists that I have just discovered that very weekend. Whether its during the actual competitions, catching the band who took home the prize the previous year on their main stage debut, the court yard stage or deep in the cavernous halls of Mass MoCa for pop up sets, there is no shortage of new and exciting talent reverberating off of the walls of the festival. A big part of that is because of the very nature and core values that the promoters hold dear. That being to present the
Big News and Updates From the Freshgrass Fam! Festivals Music Features by Brian Carroll - April 22, 20210 Freshgrass has been a pilgrimage for me personally for the last 6 or 7 years. There is something incredibly magical about the drive up and over the hill country and the descent down into North Adams. Some of the town almost frozen in time, while the seemingly never-ending brick labyrinthian halls of Mass MoCa play home to some truly beautiful and inspiring contemporary visual arts. It wasn't even until a couple years into my annual trek that I realized you could actually go into the museum halls...and then at that point there was the constant push and pull of wanting to wander about while also being able to catch everything that was happening on the stages of the fest. This week
Green River Festival 2021 Announces Initial Lineup… Festivals Music Features by Brian Carroll - April 21, 20210 "The Green River Festival is pleased to announce that 2021's festival will include Jon Batiste, Ani DiFranco, Drive-By Truckers, Shakey Graves, Valerie June, and Mandolin Orange. More bands will be announced in the coming weeks. Earlier, the festival announced a new site location at The Franklin County Fairgrounds and new dates- August 27, 28, and 29, in order to provide an abundance of caution for the health and safety of the festival's patrons, artists, vendors, and staff." It's still a bit unpredictably chilly here in the hills of central Vermont. Two weeks ago my wife and I were outside on a picnic blanket in the year, basking in the mid-afternoon sun and today we woke to hail and freezing rain. But, all that said, the horizon looks a lot brighter and sunnier. As
Festivals May Be Cancelled…But Music is Not Festivals Music Features by Brian Carroll - April 30, 20200 This has been a rough week for New England summer time festival lovers. In the span of just a few short days, Newport Folk, Green River Festival and Otis Mountain Get Down has all made announcements about their cancellation. The messages may differ slightly. The size of the three above mentioned fests may also differ in size, but the message is clear. Be it groups of a few hundred or a few thousand, the intelligent and responsible decision to make is to put off the events for this year and come back twice as strong in 2021. All that said, festivals typically mark a very important time for artists. In general, they come with a higher pay opportunity for artists, between the
GMBR 2019 Revisited…in Black & White Festivals Music Features by Brian Carroll - January 31, 20200 With the initial line up announcement from Green Mountain Bluegrass & Roots festival being rolled out earlier this week I felt that urge to revisit the ole Lightroom folder from 2019's festival. Truth be told, this year there was a robust photography team to capture moments on stage and around the main festival grounds. The majority of my own time was spent away from the main stages and festival grounds, down the hill filming artist sessions with as many GMBR musicians I could tackle. It was a give and take for sure, and while I missed what was inevitably hundreds of special moments on stage, I was able to capture some other types of moments to share with folks. Moments most attendees
First Round Knock Out: Green Mountain Bluegrass & Roots’ Initial Line Up Announcement… Festivals Music Features by Brian Carroll - January 28, 20200 Well, here we are folks. The initial line up of the best little fest with the biggest heart was just announced and already they are off to a great start. An "add some new blood, and keep some old favorites" approach to booking is sure to appease both those festivarians who have attended and loved the fest the past two years and newbies to GMBR that may be attending for some of those 'top line in the announcement' acts. Adding some heavy hitters in the way of Yonder Mountain String Band, having Sierra Hull back after a year off and seeing a Joy Kills Sorrow reunion of sorts already guilding a beautiful line up with a whole lot more to come.
Green River Fest Announces a Killer Initial Line Up… Festivals Music Features by Brian Carroll - January 24, 20200 I'll leave all the details you need to know in the way of the press release from the folks at GRF below the break...but I will just say this. Mandolin Orange and Billy Strings alone are worth the price of admission and with the two acts selling out nearly every show on their recent tours, festivals like Green River may be the only logical chance we get to see such incredible artists live (until we beat the robots and scalpers, somehow). The past years I have spent at Green River have always been wonderful. There is a friendly, inviting atmosphere. Its far less of a "lets get out and camp and pick around our tents" type fest as the campground is
Revel In the Meadow: June 1, 2019 Festivals Music Features by Ken Templeton - May 31, 20190 Last summer, I got the chance to drive a little north on a beautiful June day and bask in sunshine, great music, and positivity all for an incredibly good cause. Revel in the Meadow is a small scale music fest with a big heart, all for the benefit of Continuum Arts Collective, a non-profit that delivers instruments, arts supplies, and mentorship to kids in need. It’s an amazing organization headed by Martin and Jen England. If you are hankering for something to do this weekend, it’s going to be a beaut and you could do a heckuva lot worse than this stacked lineup: Ward Hayden & The Outliers Gerard / Truffle Gretchen Klempa The Reconstructed These Wild Plains Copilot River Sister The tickets are just $20 (!) and