By Derek & Jean Brandon

| Saturday concerts | Sat night party |

Off to a great start with Blewgrass Band
Jimbo Trout & the Fish People

New this year, the small Porch Stage was situated on a smallish clearing near the main entrance. It provided a venue for lesser-known bands to show off a bit, but that didn't stop local well-known local San Francisco band Jimbo Trout & the Fish People (for whom the term "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass" is really apt) from doing their Atlas Cafe thing (a great café, music most nights, in an insalubrious part of San Francisco's Mission District). But to be fair, HSB is less appropriate to Jimbo's band than it is to the likes of Joan Baez and Split Lip Rayfield.

This is is a very raucous but highly entertaining, foot-stompin' group featuring that most amazing East Bay sax/clarinet every-style player Greg Laakso. (Does that mean they play Blewgrass music?) We do know that Greg can play one of the best breaks to Foggy Mt. Breakdown we've ever heard, on clarinet.

Percussion is provided by one Jimmy Sweetwater, who can seemingly make any type of noise on the most amazing gizmo we've ever seen. Young lady fiddler Anni Staninec dazzled  with the bow. (Top-of-the-class fiddler Chad Manning also plays with Jimbo but not today). Steve Neil played stand-up bass (normally played by Tom Drohan, ACU).

Few know that Danny is Jimbo's real name and Trout isn't his real surname, but everyone calls him that; so much so that his mother introduces herself in music circles thus: "Hello, I'm Mrs. Trout!" Whatever, Jimbo actually makes a living playing banjo in and around San Francisco, so that must be some kind of record.
Click for more info | Jimbo Trout & Fish People gig

Other NWBN articles covering Chad include: David Grisman concert | Concert w/ Pam Brandon, Peter Rowan & Tony Rice | CD Review: Old Gnarly Oak | CD Review In Tte Midst | Annie Staninec is covered in: | Hotel Utah article | Gilroy Bluegrass Festival 2005

The Wranglers

A lesser-known band, The Wranglers, included even lesser known first-time bluegrass performer Warren Hellman on Banjo! Warren is deeply into horse riding and had met up with the group at their equestrian ranch in Canada where, after picking together some, decided to play at HSB 2005. Well, I guess that when you're paying for the show you have the right to decide whether or not you're performing in it! Warren acquitted himself really well. Derek said that Warren had more nerve than he did at that stage. He was solid on the tune and carried it off pretty well.

Warren later confessed that he was terrified and didn't know how the big band performers did it. "Before the show, in the tent, I lost my play list, so I didn't know what keys the songs were in. After the first tune, I needed to retune. I'd lost my capo. So I have some idea what they go through now," he said. Well, when Warren finds a banjo that doesn't need retuning I hope he lets Derek know! We really liked the guitar player - he sounded like a cross between Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson.

The Waybacks with Darel Anger

Next we went straight to the Banjo Stage where we just in time for the last part of the Bay Area quartet The Way Backs, joined this time by phenomenal, apparently play-with-anybody, fiddler Darel Anger. You'll see what we mean by that as you peruse the photos in these articles...

They played a mixed set of set of their own numbers before ending the set with a wierd version of Cumberland Blues (a song by another onetime local band The Grateful Dead) in which guitarist James Nash played a long, hot break.

We wish I'd seen more and not even time for a photo - maybe next time?

Hazel Dickens

Hazel looked good today. She wore her hair shorter, which made her look much younger. She was introduced by Warren as "the heart and soul" of the festival. Hazel was fundamental to it's existence and has played at all five so far. That led to some light-hearted banter, him being the "rich man" and her the "poor girl."

Her backing band included Marshall Wilbourne (bass) and Dudley Connell (guitar and harmony vocals) and her own songs provided much of her material. Lost Patterns was written about hard times - being a coal miner's daughter from the bad days she knows what it's all about. My Heart's Own Love was written after a conversation with Lynn Morris about relationships and true love. Her songs are well observed comments on life, love and every day occurrences set to melodies which linger in one's mind long after they are finished, which to my mind is the essence of a great song.

Bill Evans appreciates Hazel

Some other offerings included These Old Callused Hands (written about her mother) and a new song about white-collar corruption, America's Poor. Brown Haired Betty gave us a chance to hear Dudley Connell's superb voice while Hazel took a break to squeeze herself a glass of real lemon juice (that's a new twist!) Hazel then continued with West Virginia My Home.

All the previous songs were Hazels own but a Louvin Brothers song, Here Today and Gone Tomorrow followed, in good old Bluegrass style.

Hazel was on great form. In good voice she introduced all her material with style and poignancy underlining her humble mountain beginnings.

The Tim O'Brien Band

The Tim O'Brien Band comprised Danny Barnes (Bad Livers; banjo); Kenny Malone (drums); Dennis Crouch (bass); Casey Driesen (fiddle); Tim O'Brien (guitar, mandolin, fiddle and incredible vocals!) He gives the hairs on the back of your neck such a great workout; they were up and down like the proverbial 'fiddler's elbow'.

Photo, right - Casey Driesen

Their great presentation included The Foreign Lander - a song with a lovely Celtic feel and Californian overtones - lovely stuff! Some great reels and jigs featuring twin fiddle by Tim and Casey followed this and Tim's young son danced his socks off and was a delight to watch! Corn Bread Line included the warning "You don't use sugar in cornbread, or God will strike you dead". Next some funky, chunky music with Tim's son on hambone percussion included the "My dog's better than your dog" song, Let's Go Huntin' and another in the same idiom was Moses in Some Old Graveyard. It was a super set of real, soul-stirring stuff!

J.D.Crowe and The New South

Over at the Arrow Stage we saw J.D.Crowe and The New South, made up of Ronnie Stewart (fiddle); Dwight Mc.Call (vocals & mandolin); Harold Nixon (bass); Ricky Watson (vocals & rhythm guitar) and the man himself J.D.Crowe (banjo). J.D. looked a lot older than when we saw him at the Barbican Centre in London a few years back (well, it was 8 years ago...) but he still has the old magic, that marvellous head of white hair and a good crowd of musicians. The band was tight and very professional.

They kicked off with She's The Devil In Disguise followed by a varied set that included Share My Blanket, When I Needed You and East Virginia Blues What cracking, quality Bluegrass! Ricky Watson showed his round, rich voice that he used to great effect, but he also plays a mean lead guitar. Ronnie Stewart and his fiddle featured on Katy Hill and Dwight Mc.Call, who can really sing, did a great job on tenor harmony and a tremendous job on Bill Monroe's Molly And Tenbrooks. Other songs included Ten Degrees, Take Me Back and Gone on Before.

Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder

Back on the Banjo Stage Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder roared in with a warp factor nine version of How Mountain Girls Can Love. Actually, it was faster than that. The band comprised Ricky Skaggs (mandolin and lead vocals); Andy Leftwich (fiddle); Jim Mills (banjo); Mark Fane (bass); Darren Vincent (guitar)

Paul Brewster (rhythm guitar and tenor harmony); Cody Kilby (lead guitar and he's a lean, mean, picking' machine!)

The whole set was high gear. Mother's Not Dead was awesome with full harmony!

Andy Leftwich did an amazing job on Fiddlin' Fool, as did Jim Mills on Bluegrass Signal. He has to be heard and seen to be believed. Next followed Sis Draper, a song about "...an old mountain fiddler gal..." This real cracker was followed by a Bill Monroe song and a Doug Kershaw tune.

By now the fog was vanishing and the weather improving; 'The Sun Is Out, The Sky Is Blue," goes the song, and so is the grass! Bluegrass?? You'd better believe it!

They wound up with Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar, a Stefan Grappelli/Django Reinhardt tune and The New Kentucky Waltz with a high gear, rip-roarer for an encore. All these musicians are top class and played Bluegrass at it's very best; it was a fantastic set!

The band has a new album called Brand New Strings, which won the Grammy for the Best Bluegrass Album. Jim Mills has a new album out which Ted Silverman will review for us.

Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys

This incarnation was Ralph Stanley (MC); Dewey Brown (fiddle); James Shelton (lead guitar); Steve Portman (banjo); Ralph Stanley II (guitar / vocals); Nathan Stanley (mandolin) and original Clinch Mt. Boy, Jack Cook (bass).

This was the usual fare from Ralph and the Boys, except that Ralph no longer plays banjo. In fact, the photo (left) is as close as you'll get to Ralph picking banjo now. However, his dry sense of humour and obvious presence on stage assists the performance.

The set was excellent as always, with some sharp mandolin from Ralph's grandson Nathan, who is obviously a chip off the old block performing his self-penned tune for the mandolin, Sandy Ridge. If you didn't make it this year but did in 2004 then you'll already have heard Ralph recount his biography in the 3rd person singular.

We had to leave Ralph and the boys early to make sure we got into the Star Stage crowd early if we were to see Dolly Parton.

Dolly Parton.

We weren't sure where the Star Stage was, so we just followed the march of the lemmings. Eventually we arrived at what looked like a depot full of shiny high-class coaches surrounded by hundreds of people going crazy and guessed we'd made it. The crowds were unbelievable; in fact the Police estimated there were 200,000 people present at HSB that Sunday and we reckon that most of them had gone to see Dolly. Derek didn't reckon it was really his thing but that it was going to be the one-and-only time he'd get chance to see her live and the price was right ($0.00) so, what the heck.

Dolly is onstage there somewhere... (3 photos stitched together)

The stage and performance areas were in a fairly large blind valley and it was packed beyond capacity. The traditional way to stake your claim, which works at all the other stages, is by spreading a blanket or 'tarp' on the grass and latecomers have to do the best they can. They did that here, but as more and more arrived everyone had to abandon their patch until it was sardine-like standing room only. There was some unpleasantness; for example some who had arrived very early to see Dolly late in the afternoon had stayed on station all day, through all the bands, like them or not. By way of example, the very competent Split Lip Rayfield was a band we wouldn't watch at any price, but that's only our taste so we didn't go. We were reliably informed that they were booed and shouted at - "Get off!" - and worse by people who waited all day to see only Dolly. It was a shame; if you don't like a band either don't go or at least put up with it.

Warren & Hazel greet Dolly (right)

We managed eventually to get into the area only by waving our priceless passes. And what a fight to the Friends & Family enclosure! And what a disappointment when that had also been taken over by the crowds and we couldn't get in. We were perched precariously on the steepish slopes of the hollow. We must admit that at times we felt quite nervous, jammed in the crowd unable to move up or down. One girl said she was leaving because the crush was so great that she didn't feel safe! The safest place was the fenced-off area near the stage reserved for people with disabilities.

Dolly enters surrounded by security

Dolly bounced onto the stage to join her 12-piece band as the crowd roared deafeningly - she was an instant hit. She promptly 'sashayed' around on stage in a bright turquoise, short frilly dress covered in bling, to tumultuous applause! Instant magic! Strutting across the stage singing Nine To Five into her radio mike she is every inch a star! She is the epitome of perfection, presentation, personality and star quality. She is the way to do it.

Dolly had just started her second song, Jolene, at full bore, when the power went off! Did it phase her? No, not a bit - she just carried on as though nothing had happened and the audience went absolutely silent. You could still just hear her without mic, but she signalled the crowd to sing along with her as she beat time, and they did. Eventually, when the power came on again, the crowd went wild. What showmanship.

Every small standing space was crammed full. The glen was surrounded by trees and the trees were full of people, even in the branches! And when the sun came out and floodlit the stage, Dolly proclaimed, "There's nothing like being lit up by God's spotlight."

Introducing her next song, the Chandelles' Crimson and Clover, she announced, "That ain't clover I'm smellin' and that's for sure!" as she picked a riff on her turquoise and silver Stratocaster. From up the slope the crowd looked like a sea of polka dots with puffs of blue smoke here and there... Next came Me and Bobby McGee and the crowd went wild! Her new album is full of such songs from the 60's and 70's, which she is very enthusiastic about. Some of Dolly's introductions to her songs were hilarious! She explained that she was one of nine children, saying, "That was the way it was in the old days; Momma had one in her and one on her for as long as I could remember."

They were still having technical problems with the sound system so she said that she would sing like she used to back home sitting on the porch. Sat on a foldback monitor at the edge of the stage, playing her rhinestone-studded dulcimer (photo, right) and sang Coat Of Many Colours solo, unaccompanied and unamplified for the first verse. The band joined her when they could, sound system permitting, as she sang, Apple Jack Marry Me and These Old Bones. Her songs are so singable it wasn't possible to resist joining in. When she sang Little Sparrow you could have heard a pin drop. This huge crowd just stood there, overawed, us included. It was just Dolly with the dobro quietly in the background and a humming harmony behind, just spellbinding! She has to be seen to be believed.

We left before the end of Dolly's show, with great difficulty, to catch Bill Evans then Peter Rowan & Tony Rice on the Arrow stage and to escape safely before the big stampede at the end.

Bill Evans String Summit

Just as Bill's gang took to the stage the infamous San Francisco fog came rolling in, but that wouldn't phase bill - Bill is a well-known and very popular Bay Area banjo picker, but somewhat different from the rest. He specialises in a more precise, technical style of playing and is much less raucus than most. Also Bill is a real 'banjo specialist' having made serious academic studies of the instrument and gives illustrated performance-lectures.

Bill can play slowly, but this didn't seem to be one of those times. Most of the dancers couldn't keep up, which was a shame.

The line up today was Jim Hurst (guitar), Missy Raines (bass), Steve Smith (mandolin), Tashina Clarridge (fiddle), Tristan Clarridge (fiddle / cello) and Bill Evans (banjo). Tashina gets an extra photo as a bonus for the beautiful dress!

You can read more about Bill in our reports: He plays with The Bluegrass Intentions (click to read a report), The David Grisman Band (report). Bill played with Suzanne Thomas & Friends (report). Here he talks about Alan Munde and has provided us with a banjo tab.  Click for Bill's website.

Peter Rowan and Tony Rice

At the Arrow Stage the crowd was less controlled, sitting right up to the front of the stage and making it hard to get photos. The Peter Rowan & Tony Rice ensemble comprised Peter Rowan (rhythm guitar and vocals), Tony Rice (lead guitar), Bryn Bryce (bass), and Sharon Gilchrist (mandolin). Every bit the showman, Peter was resplendent in a long jacket and Stetson. Their varied programme included In The Midnight Moonlight, The Trail Of The Navajo Miss Liberty and Lay my Lonesome Down with some awesome instrumentals from Tony, who can't sing anymore, regrettably. We're sad that we couldn't see more of the performance; there was so much to cover in so short a time.

Emmylou Harris

It was back to the Banjo Stage for the last three-quarters of an hour of Emmylou Harris' set. She was in jeans and a lime green coat embroidered with flowers and sequins, with just Buddy Miller on guitar. Her set included I Miss The Mississippi And You, I Believe (written for June Carter Cash), and Red Dirt Girls. Last year she sang all her hits and lots of Bluegrass related stuff, and it was great - a change for the better, we hoped. But this year she reverted to her unrequited love and related subjects, which are much more pensive and sad. For example, I'll never Get Out Of This World Alive (a quote attributed to Hank Williams). Sorrow In My Soul and Making Believe were typical Emmy Lou offerings, so if you like pretty tunes and slow ballads then you'd have been well pleased by her selection tonight.

After Lost Highway Emmylou said, "That was a happy song, I don't know what came over me," and followed it by I'll Never See You In This World Again.

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings joined her for the rest of the set. Together they sang the Carter Family's Parting Song, The Long Journey (sung whenever one of their family dies) was followed by the final song Green Pastures, with David, Gillian and Buddy on harmony. Even though she sang one of Jean's favourites, Quarter Moon In A 10-Cent Town, for an encore, we thought it to be a bit dirge-ish for a finalé.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2005 has been an amazing feast of Talent, Music and Celebrity. But the true star has to be the music, which has encouraged these amazing performers to work their great talents and evolve into what they have become today. Heartfelt thanks to Warren Hellman for his generosity and willingness to share this with those who want to listen and love the music.

The 2006 HSB festival will be on 7th and 8th October, 2006.

Derek & Jean Brandon, Chester, England. Write to us