mvyradio @ Rhythm & Roots Festival 2007
We're taking mvyradio on the road for The Rhythm & Roots Festival 2007! We'll be there at Ninigret Park in Charlestown, Rhode Island on August 31st, September 1st and 2nd, bringing all the excitement of this amazing event, to our listeners. Watch this page for more info and stay tuned to mvyradio!
To most people Labor Day weekend signals that the summer is over, but to quite a few people in New England, it means that it’s time for an annual Mardi Gras style celebration, where thousands of people from all over the United States gather in Rhode Island every year to listen to a wide spectrum of roots music, dance to a variety of rhythms, and savor gourmet food and drink in a truly festive setting with four stages of music.
Held each year at beautiful Ninigret Park in the oceanside community of Charlestown, RI, the Rhythm & Roots Festival draws approximately 10,000 people over the course of the weekend with the largest percentage of attendees coming from New England and the east coast corridor between Boston and New York, and about one third of the festival attendees from other parts of the country. An attraction for the whole family, the festival also has a state of the art playground, swimming pond and four stages which offer plenty to do for everyone.
Scheduled to appear at this year's festival are: Donna The Buffalo, Susan Tedeschi, and Natalie MacMaster and more. For a complete list of acts and performance times, please visit the Rhythm & Roots site.
Sunday, September 2 9:30 p.m.
Bela Fleck's band is setting up for the last set of the festival and there is still a huge crowd here ready for more. It's going to hard for everybody to jump off this train, so we will all stay on for one more ride! Big thanks to Chuck and Mary, the festival organizers, Klon, Darren, Alison and Terry of Klondike Sound Company, and everyone at Rhythm & Roots. Thanks also to the musicians who allowed us to step into their worlds and record, stream and broadcast their music. Kudos to the entire On The Road crew, both on site here in Rhode Island and back at the station on the Vineyard. Thanks to Todd and Gary. Long live LIVE MUSIC!!!
Sunday, September 2 8 p.m.
Rhythm & Roots has become a way of life for the past several days and now as things are winding down it seems kind of weird that we'll be packing up and leaving in a little bit. Marty Stuart is on stage telling stories about singing and playing with Johny Cash and Lester Flatts. He was hired by Lester when he was 14, so from a very young age he was playing in the big leagues. His comfort level on stage is incrediblly high --you can tell it's his home. He played a bluegrass version of The Bee Gees "Staying Alive" that was absolutely over the top. Another high point of Rhythm & Roots!
The surprise hit for today was Gandalf Murphy and The Slambovian Circus Of Dreams. They sounded like a mix between Neil Diamond and Jethro Tull. I talked with Tony the drummer and he was listening to the festival on mvyradio.com yesterday, and he told me about one of the first gigs they had was on Martha's Vineyard at The Wintertide Coffeehouse.
Saturday, September 1 11:17 p. m.
|
|
There seems to be certain sweet spots during festivals and Saturday night at Rhythm & Roots is one of them. Susan Tedeschi [website][performance] played for an hour and a half, right up to curfew and it was very clear that she could have kept going for hours. There was a huge audience for her set and we could see the bobbing heads from our backstage trailer. What a show! She played with some members of her husband Derek Trucks' band, and they were all in top form. The combination of Susan's sweet demeanor, gritty voice and passionate and precise guitar playing is stunning. She was absolutely radiant on stage and connected in such an easy way to her fans in the audience.
Donna The Buffalo [website][performance] played before Susan, and they, too sounded fantastic as the energy of the nightime came into play and Rhythm & Roots got it's groove on. Another great day of music with one more on the way...
Saturday, September 1 5:00 p.m.
PJ just introduced Los Straiitjackets [website][performance] and they've just ripped into the theme from The Magnificent Seven. We have entered a whole new world of roots music as the sun starts it's descent over Ninigret Park! They just keep rolling out the tunes and now they're introducing Big Sandy, the lead singer of the band. They're all in black suits, and Sandy is too, but he has shorts on instead pants and sungalsses instead of the Mexican Wrestling masks that the other guys are wearing. What a great look. The timing is just right for this --they have the crowd in a frenzy!!
Saturday, September 1 10:30 a.m.
Bright, beautiful sunshine! Clear, blue skies! And an easy breeze rolling over Ninigret Park. The gates just opened and happy roots music fans are sauntering in and claiming a bit of Rhythm & Roots territory. I took a tour around the festival grounds this morning and chatted with some of the food vendors, security staff, and Chuck, Rhythm & Roots chief, who was on his way to fix a Port-O-Potty. "Important work for a real professional," I said. I could hear him laughing as he drove across the field with his grandson in tow.
All the little details. And the way every one of them is taken care of is the sign of a well-run festival. There is a really relaxed, friendly vibe that comes from most everybody here and the way that that mixes in with the music is unique. Every festival that we have been at has it's own feeling and style, and the match between mvy and R&R is perfect!
Friday, August 31 11:55 p.m.
In the last minutes of August, before we pass over into September, the crowd at Rhythm and Roots is making a shift, too. The "official" music of the first day of the festival is finished, but the after hour jams have just begun. What a night! Warm and mellow, sweet and sure. We're wrapping things up in the recording trailer and about to call it quits for the night. We'll be back and ready for some more tomorrow!
Friday, August 31 4 p.m.
|
|
Natalie MacMaster just finished her soundcheck with her new band and man, she sounds great! We have perfect audio from Klondike's soundman extrodinaire, Darren. And PJ checked the stream back at the station --we are good to go! Natalie's two young children were backstage with their nanny. They are so sweet and very well behaved.
Natalie visited the station a few years back for an interview and she reminded me that I had played Eva Cassidy for her and had given her a copy of Eva's Songbird cd. She had never heard her music and it made a big impression on her. I thought as we were talking about the amazing artistry of these two musicians (Natalie and Eva) and the high standard of excellence they both pursue(d). Very impressive and inspiring!
We're getting closer to showtime. Ray Bonneville did his check and ...okay, bring it on!
Friday, August 31 10 a.m.
|
|
The Labor Day weekend has begun and mvyradio On The Road has pulled in to Charlestown Rhode Island for the 10th Anniversay of Rhythm & Roots!! Our window on the world this morning looks out on the Rhythm & Roots mainstage and over to Ninigret Park. We're in a trailer backstage making preparations to record, broadcast and stream three days of the best roots music in North America. Cajun, Zydeco, Blues, and all sorts of hybrids of all of the above.
The festival starts tonight at 5 p.m. with Ray Bonneville [website][performance] a blues/folk/rock singer and guitar player we met in Austin at SXSW. Then it's The Buddhahood [website][performance], Paul Cebar [website][performance], Racines [website][performance], and Natalie MacMaster [website]. Chuck Wentworth [interview] is the festival founder and director and before he started Rhythm and Roots ten years ago, he ran a festival in Escoheg for over 15 years. We sat in his golf cart, his home away from home this weekend, and talked about the festival. His love of great music, food and dance sets the tone for the festival.
Audio:
Attention Mac users! The "Flip4Mac" player streams these on-demand files. More help is here.
The Buddhahood
- Performance, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007 
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
Chuck Wentworth
- Interview, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Corey Ledet
- Performance, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
Creole Cowboys
- Performance 1, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
- Performance 2, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
Donna the Buffalo
- Performance, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Band’s engineer
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
Gandalf Murphy
- Performance, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
James McMurtry
- Performance, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
- Interview, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
Johnny Nicholas
- Performance, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
Los Straightjackets
- Performance, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
Marty Stuart
- Performance, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
Paul Cebar and The Milwaukeeans
- Performance 1, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
- Performance 2, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
- Interview, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Pine Leaf Boys
- Performance 1, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
- Performance 2, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
Racines
- Performance, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
Ray Bonneville
- Performance, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
Red Stick Ramblers
- Performance 1, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
- Performance 2, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
- Performance 2, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
Steve Riley
- Performance, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company
Susan Tedeschi
- Performance, Rhythm and Roots Festival, 2007
Mixed by: Darin Pawlus
Sound by: Klondike Sound Company