Head for the (foot)hills. SierraGrass fest brings (more than) string music jams
Plus, Strange Vine drops new music.
Jan Purat remembers the first time AJ Lee and Blue Summit played Sierra Meadows Resort, the 1,300 acre golf-course-turned glamp site and music venue in Ahwahnee.
It was pandemic times, or on the eve of such and everything was going into shut down mode. “It felt like the world was ending,” says Purat, who plays fiddle for the Santa Cruz bluegrass band.
The concert ended up as a livestream, just to make things work, but “afterwards the night evolved into a debaucherous celebration of life and music and a really sweet friendship developed.”
That relationship, between the band and the venue’s owner Reid Spice, is at the heart of SierraGrass, a weekend long bluegrass festival that has its inaugural go this weekend.
“Reid and I both had experience putting on small music events in California,” Purat says. “When he initially reached out with the idea for our band being the host band for a new festival, it was perfect timing.”
In one sense, SierraGrass works on the tradition of the California music festival; the kind that AJ Lee and Blue Summit grew up on and credits for its very existence.
As bandleader Lee recounts in the band’s bio: “We were sitting on a trailer at Grass Valley” at the annual Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival held in the Sierra Nevada foothills, “Someone said, ‘All of us right here, we’re a band now.’ We kind of didn't take it seriously, but we were like, okay, we’ll be a band!”
So, SierraGrass does have onsite camping, and as such, plenty of opportunity for jam sessions. And the bulk of the lineup are California string bands: Two Runner, Crying Uncle, Yoseff Tucker and the Bowties, Hannah Mayree and her Black Banjo Reclamation Project, Ismay and Long Forgotten (representing Fresno’s bluegrass contingent).
Viv & Riley, the Lottie Doddies and the Bushwick Mountain Boys are all coming in from out of state (the later coming all the way from New York).
But Purat says it was important for the festival to go a bit wider in presenting different and more varied types of music.
“This is what we will hear with Mitchum Yacoub’s wonderful afrobeat band that will be tearin it up Friday night,” Purat says.
The late slot Saturday night will feature Lechious Moore, a new project featuring California Honeydrops singer Lech Wierzynski, who produced the last Blue Summit record.
“Lech is one of our favorite musicians and one of the best singers in the state,” Purat says. The new project is more diverse than what you’d hear in the Honeydrops more more soul leaning sets.
“I am really happy our lineup reflects the beautiful diverse community that makes California the wonderful place it is,” Purat says.
“Bluegrass music and jamming is a wonderful thing that belongs to everyone. The more we can foster inclusion and diversity the stronger and better both the music and community becomes.”
Tickets and the full SierraGrass lineup are available here.
You can hear music from SierraGrass on the festival’s Spotify playlist.
Strange Vine takes us ‘Through the Trees’ on new single
Strange Vine came crushing on the scene in the mid 2000s, with a style of psychedelic Americana blues that seemed almost impossible to be made by just two people (at least in a live setting).
The duo (Ian Blesse and Toby Cordova) released an EP (“Ghost”) in 2008 and then went to work on a much-anticipated debut album that never quite materialized (though songs were recorded and the thing has been in some-form of production for years).
So, it was news (big news to fans no doubt) when Strange Vine released a new single (and video) last week with this tidbit, “First full length record out this summer!”
The single, titled “Through the Trees,” is stripped down and quiet, a two-minute guitar-and-vocal tune that plays to the strength of the duo (their ability to pair their voices).
The song (and album) are an homage to Corby Yates, a guitar prodigy who had been a lifelong friend and collaborator before his death in 2012.
Per Strange Vine: “Corby’s guitar playing and musicianship were an absolute force of nature. Corby was so good he could have picked any group of musicians to be in his band, but instead (in typical Corby fashion) he chose two knuckleheads who were lucky enough to grow up with him … and for that we will always be grateful.”
The song was released on what would have been Yates’ 44 birthday.
“We couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate him than by releasing this video,” which was filmed in and around the High Sierra, “where we all grew up listening, playing and living for music together.”
That’s it for this week. Remember you can now hear me on the Homegrown Show Sundays at 8 p.m. on New Rock 104.1 FM. I’m in the studio tonight is Phillip Hernandez of Stoneshiver talking about this year’s Jamboree. Follow my other writing at The Fresno Bee. If you have anything you think I need to be looking at or listening to, feel free to let me know: jtehee@gmail.com