Festival Express: Summer of '08 Edition

R&R breakouts Donna the
Buffalo (top); jazz greats
John Coates and Phil
Woods at DWGCA; blues
legend Little Freddie King
at Crawfish Festival

The DF&C and I are hopeless music heads, especially when it comes to American roots music -- folk, blues, jazz, bluegrass, soul, Cajun, zydeco, swing, and so on and so forth. But we long ago tired of arena- and stadium-sized concerts. We catch the occasional gig at a theater or club, but in recent years have mostly gotten our fix from summer music festivals.

We've had four festivals in our May-September rotation for several years now. They are Michael Arnone's Crawfish Festival in Sussex County in northwestern New Jersey, the Knowlton Riverfest in Warren County to the south, the Rhythm & Roots Festival at Ninigret Park hard by the Rhode Island seacoast, and the Delaware Water Gap Celebration of the Arts in Pennsylvania.

As the chart following this post shows, there is something to quibble about regarding most of these festivals. But all have one thing in common: They showcase an incredible variety of roots music, most of it top flight whether the musicians be national headliners or local ensembles. Alas, you can hear damned little of these women and men -- even on the left side of the FM radio dial -- which makes these festivals even more important

Here's a summary of each festival:

MICHAEL ARNONE'S CRAWFISH FESTIVAL

This late-May festival shares many of the same terrific Louisiana-centric acts with the Rhythm & Roots, but that is where the similarities pretty much end.

While the R&R has a wonderfully mellow vibe thanks to its buccolic setting and a helpful and unobtrusive volunteer staff, the Crawfish Festival is situated at a charm-free county fairground where concrete and aluminum siding predominate, there is a certain pushiness, and the smell of cow manure competes with Louisiana hot sauce. (Okay by me as a farm boy, but others go "whew!")

Then there are the posses of jackbooted, Glock-carrying state troopers whose glowering demeanors are more appropriate for a riot and not the well behaved crowds, while traffic backs up for miles on surrounding police-free roads, meaning that too many ticketholders make it through the gates well after showtime.

The food is mediocre and overpriced. If Budweiser's famous family of watered down beers, Bacardi Gold and Jägermeister are your idea of terrific libations, by all means drink up. But don't dare leave the fairground to take a break or fetch something from your car, because you'll be spit out of luck if you try to get back in.

All of this adds up to the lowest overall score in the rating chart below.

This year's highlights: The Funky Meters, Alan Toussaint and Little Freddie King, and a Toussaint jam with fiddler Tim Carbone of Railroad Earth, a bluegrass band that was otherwise overmatched.

KNOWLTON RIVERFEST

Knowlton is a no-stoplight town on New Jersey Route 46 where late-summer mists from the Delaware River overrun the banks and roll dreamily onto the grasslands. Riverfest, held toward the end of August, benefits the local volunteer fire company and this festival has the feel of a small-town fair.

There is a modest but nice range of food, drink and crafts and a crowd that includes many grandfolks, parents and children. Then there is the music.

Of this year's 16 musician/band roster, six hailed from nearby communities, six were relatively unknown national acts and four were better known national acts.

For sheer bang for the buck, Riverfest can't be beat and earns the best Cost/Enjoyment Ratio in the ratings chart below.

This year's highlights: The Ian Parker Band, Del Castillo and Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience.

RHYTHM & ROOTS FESTIVAL

The R&R is the standard by which we have come to judge all other festivals. This is because the organizers get almost everything exactly right, earning it the top overall score in the rating chart below.

Almost everything is a wonderful array of kid-friendly venues to free up mom and dad to boogie woogie in one of the two huge dance tents with sprung wood floors. These folks, some of them expert Cajun and zydeco dancers, are an eclectic lot: The Boston brahman and the little old lady in the halter top, the Indian brahmin and the striking woman in dreadlocks, the tall, elderly gent dressed all in black and the tiny teenie bopper in sequined tights, the thirtysomething pony-tailed hippie and the soccer mom in purple cowboy boots.

And there are dance workshops for the faint of heart like myself who honed his dancing "skills" at Grateful Dead concerts in the 1960's and 70s. (The DF&C, on the other hand, is an accomplished classical ballet and modern dancer, and a tall blonde to boot, so she is mobbed whenever she steps onto a dance floor.)

The R&R, held on Labor Day weekend, draws the largest crowds of the four festivals, and even though the Saturday performances this year went off in intermittent heavy rain, there were still a thousand or so diehards, many of them from the small city of tents, pop-up campers and RVs that springs to life each year a short walk or bicycle ride from the main event.

The crowd swelled to 3,000 or so sun-drenched souls on a gloriously beautiful Sunday, but no matter the size it is no big deal to see the headliners and their families mingling with fans out on the grounds.

About a quarter of the 20 musicians and bands on this year's rosters were making encore appearances from previous festivals, and it's obvious they adore the R&R from the quality of the performances, each act pushing the next to a higher plane. Donna the Buffalo put in a tepid show at the Crawfish Festival this year, but they brought the house down at the R&R, while Cajun accordian maestro Steve Riley appeared as usual with his own band and in cameos with several others.

The one disappointment was the David Bromberg Quartet. Alas, the Big Bearded One seems to be frozen in time and his performance, including most of the songs, was identical to the last time I saw him. That was over 30 years ago.

This year's highlights: Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, Marcia Ball & the Texas Louisiana Revue, Curley Taylor and Zydeco Trouble, Donna the Buffalo, and Robert Cray.

DWG CELEBRATION OF THE ARTS

The arts in this case are jazz and the Celebration of the Arts has a decidedly small-town feel like Riverfest.

The small town in this case is Delaware Water Gap, so named because it is situated next to the gap in the Kittatinny Ridge (with the Appalachian Trail atop it) where the eponymously named river flows, a landscape so stunning that not even the Interstate 80 toll bridge connecting New Jersey and Pennsylvania can spoil it.

This festival, held the second weekend in September, began way back in 1987 to raise money to upgrade DWG's antiquated sewer system and scratch the itch of local jazz artists, many of whom live in the Gap where houses once went for bargain-basement prices and the commute to New York City clubs and concert halls on I-80 is a snap.

These artists include festival co-founder Phil Woods, one of the best alto sax players ever, and Bob Dorough, one of the best jazz and scat singers ever and familiar to youngsters of a certain age as the delightfully eccentric voice of the Schoolhouse Rock TV show and recordings.

Unfortunately, this small-town feel-goodness is undercut by the most uncomfortable seating area this side of hanging to the cliff face over the Red Rocks ampitheater near Denver: An unforgivingly steep, vertigo-inducing slope that rises from a street-level stage.

Organizers have made it clear that they have no interest in growing the festival and like things just like they are. Fine by me. But that includes pretty much the same artist lineup year in and year out, and while a yearly dose of Woods and Dorough is peachy, some of the returnees just don't have the chops.

Each year's festival includes a not-to-be-missed performance by the COTA Cats, a big band jazz orchestra made up of outstanding area high school musicians.

DWGCA has had an amazing run of luck weather-wise, as in rain on something like only two weekends in 31 years, but the vestiges of Tropical Storm Hannah pounded the region last Saturday. The show went on anyway after the stage was reversed and musicians played to a jam-packed tent usually used for musician equipment set-ups. Sunday was more typicalof DWGCA weather -- gorgeous.

This year's highlights: The usual suspects.