I was promised the muddy roots of America, and by God the muddy roots of America is what I got.
I have to say that this was one of the greatest musical happenings of my life. The crowd was small, the vibe was great, and the music was phenomenal.
I’ll start with telling you about the Venue itself. For my tastes, it was a Goldilocks experience. You drove up, paid, got a wristband (5 min), parked, and set up camp wherever you liked on over 40+ acres. Plenty of folks set up little communities, and plenty set up as loners. Space was definitely not an issue, I am a loner by nature, so I really liked being able to escape and be completely alone when I wanted to.
There were three stages on about a quarter mile strip, with all of the vending and booths on the same stretch. It was easy to walk between the two furthest points in 5-10 minutes depending on how straight you could walk at the time. The stages were pretty spartan with the bare minimum in lighting and effects. The sound however was more than adequate; I never had the least complaint about audio on any stage for any band, excepting for the fact that the gent running the board at the ShackShakers show pulled the plug because Col. J. D. dropped the mike one too many times. He was in rare form- more on that later. I ate all of my meals on site from about 6-8 vendors and there was plenty of good stuff to choose from (a decent amount of veggie and vegan) at reasonable prices. There were also some really great booths that I was not expecting. There were several vintage and funky clothing booths including our own Julie Belcher and Pioneer House! (CRUSH you gotta be there next year!) There were also some antique/junk booths that were an awesome surprise; a tarot wagon, a tattoo trailer, and a rockabilly barber shop (see my head for more details). Alcohol was readily available, though most folks brought their own.
The crowd was somewhere between 3 and 4 thousand at any given time. There was enough ink on skin to print the NY times for a year. I’ll call it a pretty mature crowd with most of the folks being in their late 20s- early 30s. The frat crowd was NOT here, though there was a guy who thought it cool to pour a beer on his head then sling it around. After about the third one some of the folks shut him down, Muddy Roots Rule number 9- don’t pour beer on your head and sling it around.
The folks themselves are hard to describe. They were the Muddy Roots- the backbone of America. The mechanics, cooks, and servers. The motorcycle and car clubs. The punkers and skate heads and gear heads, the roofers and truck drivers and underpaid and overworked. The MAN was not welcome, and everyone was having a good time. Here, on a small farm in Cookeville Tennessee was the best of the music of these hard working people. It struck me as odd that I had trouble finding folks from K-town, but I met gobs of people from Finland, England, Sweden and Germany. Europe was much better represented than East Tennessee. What up with that? After talking this around through the weekend, I got the feeling that they don’t advertise a lot because the crowd is pretty much the size that they like it at this point.
On to the music, the first day I saw Knoxville’s own Knox County Jug Stompers who put on an awesome show. It was the first time that I had seen them and my first show of the festival. I should have stayed around and asked them some questions, but I had the fever and moved on to the next sounds that I could hear from down the hill. Next time.
I’m having trouble writing about the music, there was so much so fast, that there’s no way that I can begin to capture all that I think I must convey. So, I’m just going to run down my list of notes and throw out names and random facts, and see if I can make it short enough to print.
…..Then I was off with a rockabilly bang with Hellfire Revival, the Dirt Daubers, and Hillbilly Casino out of Nashville back to back to back. Hillbilly Casino is someone to check out if you’re into the psychobilly groove. Then, The Sonics-wow! How did I not know these guys? Pokey LaFarge. Ya. Vintage jazzy jukey soulful music! But it was The Monsters from Bern, Switzerland that ended the first night with one of the greatest punk shows that I have ever been to. The music was raging, the pit was thrashing, and I was alive. The Monsters are one of the two bands to make my coveted “new favorite band” list.
Day 2: Woke up to ANTISEEN, and that WILL get your blood flowing, then to the Weirdos…OK, let’s pause here for a rainstorm of biblical proportions for about 1-2 hours. So as you read this, picture everything that I write about from this point on, covered in an inch of mud. It caused a change in the line up, putting a major band to the next day, but I really think it worked to their advantage. So … we shake the water off, and I see The Blasters with Phil and Dave. Awesome. Then MudHoney. Awesome. Here I’ve got to mention Rev. Beat Man, a side project of the Monsters with a decidedly anti-religious theme.
Then Th’ Legandary Shackshakers brought the pain. It was their first gig on the new tour after a long hiatus. They rocked. Col. J. D. could have vibrated through walls. The energy put out and thrown back was immense. I am really glad that I was there, and that they are back on the road.
It’s day 3 and I am dragging. Kings of the F*cking Sea is what brings me to life. The Calamity Cubes were some burning bluegrass, then what? Bobby Bare? Is he still alive? Yep, and packing them out, a big crowd, and a lot of older folks that I hadn’t seen yet, or that came for the day. His 70s hit “She’s on Qualuudes Again” got their attention. Lydia Loveless was great, and then…favorite band #2 for me, The Hooten Hollers out of Missouri. Dang, what a good time. I really loved these guys, I think I’ve been recommending and playing them the most since I left. (Thank your for having Vinyl)! Then, to shut it all down, was the band the Godd*mn Gallows. Rained out from the day before, the Gallows were ready to rock, and that they did. This band was the draw to a lot of folks, hardcore fans with T-shirts and patches all around every day, I got several lectures on the band from the last two days, so felt like I was mentally prepared. I was not. This was a first time for me and it was powerful stuff. It’s hard to describe, maybe Judas Priest meets Flogging Molly? A lot of songs were pretty dark, I remember looking around during ” People in League with Satan” and thinking, “Wow, I’m the only person not singing along, is that weird? Or not? There were some hillbilly pyrotechnics which set one of the performers head on fire, but no one seemed to care. The mosh pit here got huge, a hundred corn-fed, moonshine fueled boys and girls going all out. (Remember the mud?) It was beautiful.
Well that’s it for this time. Thanks for fighting through my stream-of-consciousness rendition, Muddy Roots is an important musical scene, and if you love rockabilly, and bluegrass, and rock and roll, and good folks, (and moonshine) then put Labor Day weekend on your calendar now. Use a pen.
