Bluegrass Festival Brings Fans, Musicians Together
Local bluegrass enthusiasts will have ample opportunity to overindulge at “The Third Annual San Diego Bluegrass Festival,” to be held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Lake Henshaw Resort, in Santa Ysabel. Headliners include the Bluegrass Cardinals and the Lonesome River Band (both from Virginia), the Good Ol’ Persons (San Francisco) and the California Band, which features bluegrass luminaries Byron Berline, John Hickman, Steve Spurgin and John Moore.
However, as at the two previous festivals, attendees are not expected merely to passively sit and be entertained; there will be an almost equal emphasis on participation of a sort unique to bluegrass aficionados.
In a sense, the featured performers at these events are big-name primers for after-sundown pickathons at which the fans are the stars. Bluegrassers are a self-sufficient lot, and they bring their own instruments for extemporaneous jamming that can last into the wee hours of the morning. First-timers are encouraged to join in.
As before, the festival is being held at a location that offers more in the way of diversion than the usual concert venue. There is fishing and boating on Lake Henshaw, as well as bird-watching throughout the immediate area. The nearby Mount Palomar Observatory makes for a worthwhile side trip. Cabins are available for those who plan to stay for more than a day, and there is a camping area for tents, trailers and RVs.
Other acts scheduled to perform are the Circuit Riders, the High Window Boys, Ol’ Train, the Piney Creek Weasels, Traditional Bluegrass, High Strung, Sweetwater, Hickory Ridge, Shy Persons and the Bustin’ Loose Cloggers.
The actual festival will be run from 4:30 to 10 p.m. Friday; 9:30 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. Saturday; and 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. For information or directions, call 740- 2419 or 479-2046.
A festival of an entirely different stripe will take place Saturday on the beach at the Oceanside Bandshell. “The Neon Seville Rock Festival” is an effort to raise money for a costly bone marrow transplant for the local rocker for whom the event is named. Seville, who released the independent album “Flick the Switch” in 1989, has been diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia, a disease that could claim his life within three years without the transplant.
Appearing at the festival are local bands Insanity Rains, Left Coast, Black and White, Burning Bridges, the Standard, the Voices and Robert Vaughn and the Shadows. Health permitting, Seville will perform with his new group, Touchy Subjects.
Tickets for the event are on sale at all TicketMaster locations. Proceeds will help defray Seville’s medical expenses, but also will be divided among the Leukemia Society of America, the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation’s Cancer Unit, and the San Diego Blood Bank’s Bone Marrow Unit. The festival begins at noon.
It might be too early to predict the health of San Diego’s summer concert schedule, at least in terms of drawing power. But if sales for two musical extravaganzas are any indication, this could be a season of big crowds and big bucks. “The X-Fest-Lollapalooza Caravan,” featuring Jane’s Addiction, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Living Colour, Nine Inch Nails, Ice T, the Rollins Band and the BH Surfers, won’t take place at Southwestern College’s Devore Stadium for another three weeks. But the show lived up to its name, by selling out in one week. More than 13,000 tickets were grabbed up by June 17. This is the fourth X-Fest, but the first to sell out.
Meanwhile, the Miramar Naval Air Station show featuring country stars Garth Brooks, the Judds and Pirates of the Mississippi had sold 20,000 of possible 30,000 seats by last Friday.
If you missed the Beat Farmers in their recent appearance on the David Letterman show, shame on you. San Diego’s musicians and fans alike can be proud of the performance. Guitarists-vocalists Joey Harris and Jerry Raney never looked or sounded better as they whipped through a charged reading of Harris’ “Hideaway.”
Because the show’s musical director, Paul Shaffer, insists that his World’s Most Dangerous Band participate in the show’s musical performances, Farmers drummer Country Dick Montana and bassist Rolle Love were relegated to playing (unamplified?) accordion and acoustic guitar, respectively, while standing behind Harris and Raney. For the occasion, Montana wore a trench coat, a pair of aviator or painter goggles wrapped around his trademark black cowboy hat. The goateed Love wore his Bodie’s-issue faded jeans, tank top and shades.
An obviously delighted Letterman, who had personally requested the band’s appearance, continued to make references to them throughout the remainder of the program. At one point, he told Shaffer he’d like to join the Beat Farmers, adding, “I get the feeling--looking at those guys, travelin’, workin’ on that bus--there may be some states they can’t go to.”
GRACE NOTES: South African reggae star Lucky Dube will perform at SOMA, downtown, June 30. . . .
Carlene Carter will perform two shows at Leo’s Little Bit O’ Country in San Marcos on July 14 (on sale now at the club). . . .
The concert bill bringing country superstars Alabama and Ray Kennedy to the 32nd Street Naval Station has increased by two acts--the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Showdown. Tickets for the noon July 21 show go on sale Friday at all TicketMaster and military outlets. . . .
The Reba McEntire concert mentioned here a couple weeks back is confirmed for Aug. 2 at the San Diego Convention Center. Tickets already are on sale at TicketMaster locations for the 8 p.m. show, which is a benefit for the St. Vincent de Paul Center. . . .
Two shows to be presented Aug. 6 have been confirmed: George Thorogood and the Destroyers will perform at SDSU’s Open Air Theatre (on sale Saturday), while EMF appears at Iguanas in Tijuana (on sale Friday). On Aug. 7, the Gipsy Kings play the OAT (on sale Saturday), followed Aug. 8 by Joe Jackson and Jill Sobule (on sale Friday). On Aug. 19, the Buzzcocks perform at Iguanas (on sale Friday).
CRITIC’S CHOICE: COUNTRY-FOLK DUO INDIGO GIRLS AT SDSU
Indigo Girls--a duo composed of guitarists-vocalists Amy Ray and Emily Saliers--has become a staple in a lot of musical diets. Bracing melodies and harmonies and a knack for sculpting country-folk forms into fresh shapes are hallmarks of the women’s three albums for the Epic label, but they are especially engaging in concert. A new live EP captures much of the charm of the Indigos’ shows, but not as much as fans will enjoy when they perform with the Ellen James Society Sunday at SDSU’s Open Air Theatre.