From Kaleta to Fantastic Negrito, various styles of music on display in Blue Ridge Mountains
Article and photos by Bill Foster
Like few other festivals, FloydFest is a festival where the setting is a co-headliner. One gets the impression that, no matter the artists, the same number of people still would be here, dancing, drinking and enjoying the spectacular site. (Although it must be said that the headliners, too, surely helped make this year’s iteration the first-ever sellout in the festival’s history.) While the lineup is somewhat diverse, the crowds at FloydFest want one thing from their music: a dancing-friendly, chill, fun vibe. For the right headliner, these crowds are among the best one can get. And just as they lose themselves in the music, they love to watch musicians who are totally lost in their own music, whether it is the quiet intensity of the Jon Stickley Trio, the ecstatic participation act of The War and Treaty, the staccato garage rock of The Yawpers or the heavy-metal-meets-Prince stylings of Fantastic Negrito.
Part of the joy of FloydFest is having the chance to watch a band again if one didn’t get to see a full set before, so my day started with a repeat performance by Becca Mancari. In the early sunshine and on the supple grass, her quirky, clever pop really resonated with me. Above all else, Mancari writes great songs. Give her a listen. After that, I wandered over to the main stage for Kaleta & Super Yamba Band. Nigerian-born Kaleta played with King Sunny Ade when he was younger, and his music combines the positivity of Ade with some of the groove of Fela Kuti and more than a smidgen of James Brown. This music is made for dancing, and Kaleta for sure had the crowd moving. In an unusual move, Kaleta was scheduled for a set on the other large stage a mere hour and a half after his main-stage set. He may have been conserving himself during the former because the second set was much more fiery and entertaining.
From Kaleta, it was back to the Holler for the Jon Stickley Trio. Featuring Knoxvillian Hunter Deacon on drums, Stickley is one of the finest guitar players on the planet. His trio consists of drums, violin and guitar, but both he and fiddle player Lindsay Pruett play bass lines using octave pedals. (Pruett’s “bass” playing on a plucked violin in particular is amazing to watch.) The trio plays mostly originals, all of which are well-composed and thoughtful. Stickley is a fine writer, too, and one wonders what he could accomplish with a larger ensemble. The show concluded with a blazing run through The Bad Plus’ “Never Stop,” into the standard “Jerusalem Ridge,” which in turn merged into a cover of Bela Fleck’s “Sinister Mister.”
What followed is hard to describe. For some reason, I thought The Yawpers were a Generacana, vests-and-mandolin band. I couldn’t have been more wrong, though, and their show in the Floyd Garden was my favorite of the festival so far. Picture a two-guitar-and-drum, slamming garage-rock noisefest fronted by a dad-bod Iggy Pop with the wry wit of Louis C.K. (appreciated before we knew he was an ass). The Yawpers – the name of the group comes from a Walt Whitman poem – have covered everyone from Motörhead to The Coasters, and that range tells you to expect the unexpected. Do not miss these guys if they come to your town.
After that, it was back to the main stage for Hot Tuna. A side project of Jefferson Airplane that has outlived its originator by decades, Jack Cassady and Jorma Kaukonen play straight-up blues rock in a trio format, spending most of the time facing each other and communicating by gesture and telepathy. As Hot Tuna has been together for 50 years, both members are approaching 80 years of age but seem to be no more than 60.
Back to the Holler, and it was time for The War and Treaty, who earlier in the day had drawn a crowd that far outpaced the stage to the tiny Ferrum Porch. In the Holler, they had a large crowd that grew over the course of their set, backed by a tight, skilled band featuring three Knoxville natives. Married couple Michael and Tanya Trotter begged, pleaded, entreated and captivated the crowd for 90 minutes. In particular, Tanya was a whirling dervish of energy, spinning, headbanging, joking with the crowd and affectionately kissing Michael. Both members spent as much time on the edge of the stage as close to the crowd as they could get. The War and Treaty have written some great new songs for their upcoming album (to be recorded in October), but the songs are almost secondary to their positive motivational stage banter and the sheer spectacle of watching twin forces of nature that never stop moving.
Back to the main stage, Tyler Childers drew the largest crowd of the festival. I just saw the artist two weeks ago, and there isn’t much more to say about this set. It was fun, professional and moving, but it was the same set he played at Forecastle, including the Great Speckled Bird and Charlie Daniels covers. As usual at his shows, the front rows were filled with fans who had waited for hours for the set and knew every word to every song. Childers’ rise has been meteoric, but it is nowhere near done.
Finally, Fantastic Negrito took the Holler stage at 11 p.m. It is hard to describe his music. Raised in Oakland as one of 18 children of a Somali refugee, Negrito turned to drug-dealing as a young man. His life experiences and politics infuse his music, a sort of synthesis of Prince and The White Stripes. Live, he has a guitar, keys, a drum trio in behind and he plays guitar and the occasional keyboard. Negrito addresses the crowd continually and demands their attention. His songs are thought-provoking, intelligent, weird in the right ways and, above all, rocking. This was a great show and a fantastic ending to a wonderful day.
