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The first Hudson Valley Green Festival came to Staatsburg, just south of Rhinebeck, last Saturday, September 4. Set in the beautiful State Park grounds of a former stately home (hello Knebworth), the line-up was steered very much towards the audience that makes such a success of Hunter’s annual Mountain Jam, though with an additional focus on family. (Under-12s were admitted free.) I had to offer myself a wry smile at the fact that I found myself there, at a festival headlined by Blues Traveler, rather than Electric Zoo down at Randall’s Island in New York City headlined by the Chemical Brothers, but that was a reflection not of any change in musical taste, rather a change in attitude and desire. As in, I really didn’t fancy the prospect of a day surrounded by tens of thousands of young, possibly out-of-it New York ravers when I could hang out with friends, and especially, my five-year old Noel, at a relaxed event that much closer to home. Am I getting older? Damn right I am.

Beautiful location, shame about the turn-out.

I missed Mike and Ruthy, the Brian Goss Band, Lindsay Raker’s Band, and Voodelic up front. I didn’t stick around for Amos Lee and Blues Traveler at the end. In between all that, I got to enjoy a stellar performance by the Duke and the King, who move further away from the gentle sounds of last year’s wonderful Nothing Gold Can Stay (reviewed here) and closer to the jam band format with every show; was greatly impressed by John Brown’s Body, a mostly white reggae band with a reassuringly rootsy sound (you can download an album’s worth of music from the web site, for free); endured the amiable down-home noodling of Donna the Buffalo; as ever, loved watching my friend Robert Warren a.k.a. Uncle Rock work his magic with the kids; and wished I could have stayed longer for the BeauSoleil Quartet from New Orleans. Love Eat Sleep and Nina Violet both played the second stage and I found it hard to focus on them.

Uncle Rock and friends enjoy a shared moment.

It was especially pleasing to see real effort put into supplying an Arts and Crafts tent for the young-uns, though much like kids at Christmas playing with the empty boxes, my 5-year old Noel had just as much of a blast in the VIP area where a bunch of little ones took a couple of reclining camp beds, a couple of bean bags, and created a runway with a soft landing that entertained them for hours. There were multiple stalls from local green businesses, and Rhinebeck’s wonderful Terrapin Restaurant, which co-promoted the Festival, alongside Mountain Jam co-founder Paul Schiavo, provided the food and drink. Food seemed well-enough priced, but I was appalled that beer was priced at $8 and wine at $10. If you don’t want people to drink too much, give ‘em hand-stamps and a cut-off – but don’t rip them off. Please.

The Duke and the King playing Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage.”

That complaint would appear to be the least of the promoters’ worries. (Besides, I drank and ate for free in the VIP tent.) The event was sparsely attended, and that’s being generous. This was true also of the Truck Festival that came to the Catskills’ own Full Moon Resort earlier this year (reviewed here) and in each case, while it’s tempting, especially in this endless recession, to blame the $50 ticket price for what were each solid line-ups that nonetheless lacked a crowd-drawing headliner, I’m more liable to pin the lack of crowd on a lack of promotion. Much like Truck, I didn’t hear about the Hudson Valley Green Festival until just a week before the event, and I like to think I have my ear relatively close to the ground. If a festival like this is to become an annual event – and I do dearly hope it does, because it was a gorgeous location with a wonderful vibe, good music and a professional production – then word has to get out months in advance. We are spoiled rotten for weekend activities in the Hudson Valley, many of them for free, and people need to feel that this is something they can’t miss, and get the date in their diaries suitably far in advance – as has clearly become the case with Mountain Jam.

The BeauSoleil Quartet enjoyed a BonNuit.

On that note, we’re still not done with new festivals in the region for the year. This coming weekend sees another jam band/world music style line-up at Catskill Chill, way way way off to the west from here. And October 8-10, much closer to (my) home, the city of Kingston plays host to O Positive, an intruguing attempt to combine music and art with “a weekend health care clinic for uninsured participating artists” and a “public health resource expo.” I trust this won’t be just a sales conference for the health insurance companies that have brought so many American families to their knees, but rather an opportunity to learn about alternative health options and connect directly with health providers who care more about people than pure profit. O Positive appears to have got off the ground good and early: the web-site is up and running with a playlist featuring all the participating acts, ads have already appeared in the local media, as have advance features, and a three-day weekend pass costs all of $25. Confirmed performers include Phosphorescent, Mike & Ruthy, Tracy Bonham, Nina Violet, Hopewell, Common Prayer, Gail Ann Dorsey, Alexander Turnquist, my good friend Paul Dillon (the former bartender at our Step On party back in Brooklyn!), the Percussion Orchestra of Kingston (POOK) and nightly DJ Sets from Mercury Rev and friends. What’s not to like?

The inaugural Phoenicia Festival of the Voice took place in our local Catskills village this past weekend, August 13-15, and by all standards, was a runaway hit. Envisaged by local opera singers Kerry Henderson, Louis Otey and Maria Todaro after a successful fund-raiser last summer for children’s playground equipment in the Parish park, the Festival leaned towards the classical and the classics, with the main events in the Park including a vocal recital, a performance of Verdi’s opera “Falstaff,” and a Sunday afternoon finale featuring several local choirs. Still, the organizers were keen to embrace as many different elements of the human voice as initially possible. To that extent, the Festival also included a “gospel” recital in the local Protestant church, a “sacred” music recital in the local Catholic church, a cautious foray into world music, a piano recital by the renowned Justin Kolb featuring the powerful spoken word of local resident Jay Braman (see picture below), the opening of the new musical Closer Than Ever at the Shandaken Theatrical Society (which is ongoing through this coming weekend) and a performance by the village’s own children’s favorite Uncle Rock at the Phoenicia Railway Museum.

All the indoor events was sold out or standing room only, while the Saturday night performance of Falstaff drew as many as a thousand people to the Park, the biggest crowd to congregate there in memory. (See pictures below.) Even a torrential rain storm on Sunday afternoon failed to fully dampen the spirits of those who came to hear the choirs, of children and adults alike, perform everything from “Amazing Grace” to “Rock Around The Clock.” Thankfully, the organizers had thought ahead to erect a large covered tent.

According to Jay Braman’s report in the Daily Freeman, the Festival was such a success that planning for next year (and beyond) has already begun. While I freely admit that not every aspect of the Festival appealed to my own musical tastes, I was as delighted as the next resident to see the event prove such a triumph. Congratulations are due not only to the trio of Henderson, Otey and Todaro for imagining it, but to all the many local residents who began the hard work of physical organization so many months ago, to the dozens of volunteers who pitched in over the weekend (including my wife and older son), and to all the local businesses and individuals who welcomed it, recognizing that such an event could only make Phoenicia that much more phenomenal.

Two years ago, Hudson Valley radio DJ Raissa St. Pierre traveled all the way to Timbuktu to experience its annual Festival Au-Desert. There she fell in love with the music of Mali’s own Khaira Arby. This past Thursday, August 12, the honor was returned when Arby and her 7-piece band played their first ever American concert at Bard College in Red Hook, Dutchess County, where St. Pierre promotes a Thursday night series in the amazing Spiegeltent for Bard’s SummerScape series.

Adey Cisse, Khaira Arby and Diara Inne line the Spiegeltent stage, August 12, guitarist Barke Dembele in the background.

Arby’s music is a mix of tradition and modernity, with the stringed ngoni and calabash drum joined by trap drums, electric bass, and two electric guitarists, of which Abdrahman Toure’s lead work was particularly vibrant at the Spigeltent, his taut solo riffs based on the West African highlife music of neighboring Ghana yet distinct in its own right. All the group wore traditional clothing, two of the band in full desert garb (though this didn’t stop ngoni player Ebelaw Yattara from acknowledging my enthusiasm as I took pictures of him); a male dancer and occasional singer Adey Cisse, and backing vocalist/percussionist Diara Inna, each helped work the audience of all ages and many colors into an almost instant dancing frenzy. Center stage throughout was the effervescent and energetic Khaira Arby herself, singing what is widely referred to as “desert blues,” a music that is at times both secular and sacred, music that tells elaborate stories of family and folklore, but that also sings the praises of the prophets.

Arby’s own story is one of relentless determination in the face of frequent adversity. A native of the Timbuktu area, and a cousin of Mali’s heralded Ali Farke Toure, Arby was widely recognized as a talented singer in childhood, but rather than encourage this gift, her disapproving father married her off at the age of just 14. Eight years later, she successfully filed for divorce and resumed her singing career, embarking on a two-decade long journey to the forefront of her nation’s musical reputation. Indeed, in Mali she is regarded, and for all the word’s positive connotations, as a “diva.” (She is also, we learned on Thursday night, a newly proud grandmother of twins.) But though Arby has also carved out a strong following in African music’s European homeland of France (she spoke French to the audience at the Spiegeltent), until now her fame has spread no further. That should hopefully change with the international release of her fourth album, Timbuktu Tarab, by Clermont Music; you can hear some of it at Arby’s MySpace page, where her American tour dates are also listed, and where there are links to some enticing YouTube videos of her and her band in performance.

The set at the Spiegeltent was captivating but brief, certainly by African standards. I suspect that the gig was viewed as an informal warm-up of sorts for what will presumably be longer sets at venues that include both City Winery and Joe’s Pub in Manhattan, the Lotus and Global Roots Festivals in Bloomington and Minneapolis respectively, and a host of clubs, festivals and cultural centers in-between. Rest assured, should you take up the chance to see her and her group, that every minute is a thrill.

Click on any of these images from the show at Bard to see them full size. (You may need to click through a second time.) Special thanks to SummerScape for keeping the ticket prices to an almost comically low $10, and for serving $4 glasses of Millbrook wine and $5 Magic Hat beers.

On Sunday August 8, rising singer-songwriter Holly Miranda performed at Laura Levine’s Mystery Spot in Phoenicia as part of the store’s annual summer Music for Front Porch series. She decided NOT to play songs from her debut XL album The Magician’s Private Library but rather to use the unusual location – literally, a deck porch on the middle of a bustling Sunday village Main Street – to perform a series of covers, which ranged from “Fulsom Prison Blues” to a delightful rendition of the Smiths’ “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want.” (And, for a finale, one of her own songs anyway; I missed the title.) This Sunday August 15, in the midst of Phoenicia’s first-ever Festival of the Voice, the Mystery Spot will be playing host to Jonathan and Grasshopper from Mercury Rev, AND Dean (Wareham) and Britta (Phillips).

Tracy Bonham, who divides her time between Brooklyn (my old home) and Woodstock (my new one), launched her lovely new album Masts of Manhatta, with a concert at Woodstock’s Bearvsille Theater on Friday August 6. The show was all the better for cross-generational pollination with old-time Greenwich Village folkie and long-term Woodstock resident Happy Traum (who makes several appearances in my book All Hopped Up and Ready To Go: Music from the Streets of New York 1927-77). You can read about how Tracy balances City and Country in the New York Times and our wonderful local monthly magazine, Chronogram.