Observations from the advice booth

A Review of the 2007 Beaver Island Music Festival

Well my friends, summertime has come and gone, my oh my. This year’s Beaver Island Music Festival was a huge success on many levels; artistically and culturally, this was the most diverse of all the festivals. The music was as usual excellent and as usual there was something for everyone. There were bands from all over the great Midwest, including Beaver Island, participating in this year’s event.

Sometimes the sounds were electric, sometimes more of an acoustic rhythm filled the air. But the entire time was marked by high-level talent. Starting out on Friday was a cool group from the Kalamazoo area, Blue Dahlia, who played an eclectic mix of flutes and strummed acoustics, melded with hard-pounding percussion for an overall blend that was pretty tasty. The Goldmine Pickers who have traveled all over the US of A and Europe next played an awesome traditional Bluegrass-and-Folk set that had folks kicking up some dust in front of the stage. So far so good. When you are a Prisoner of Paradise you are trapped not by four walls but by the prisoners of paradise themselves, Beaver Island’s own super-talented super group, headed by the Croswhites, Joddy and Stryder, and Denny Richards, who played an infectious genre-busting stuff like there was no tomorrow–and year after year they have always left it all on the stage; this year was no different. Now it's becoming nighttime, the perfect time for the low-down bluesy rock of PAUL and the Harper Woods' Heroes. These guys and gals are tight like a machine that bounces from funky to blues to funky to rock again and then back to funkier funky.

The crowd is very enthused at this time. The Ragbirds are coming, the Ragbirds are coming! The darlings of last year’s festival showed off all the bells and whistles and fiddles and drums and guitars and mandolins and more drums, drums for everyone. This is as fun as a band you can see in Michigan, tight and loose at the same time. Rootstand, on the Island recording a new record for the week leading up to the Fest at Joddy’s studio, took the stage and made it their own. Roots music is what they like to call it, but again this was a another genre- bending band of super-talented players. This is the Theme this year: all the bands can shift from one style to another on a dime and leave you with six cents change feeling like you got your money’s worth and then some.

Saturday James Ellsworth and the Dynasorrows all the way from Indiana opened up the festivities with some great original Americana-styled sounds. The first true garage band to play at the festival played this year, L. S. Banjo. You can imagine driving down a twisting and turning lane and pulling into a driveway then running over a bicycle and seeing these kids rocking it out. After a year’s hiatus in Hiatusville the boys from D’carlo came back to flaunt their musical riches in the ears of everyone in attendance. Here is another example of genre-twisting: rock, jazz, improv, tight fun music, played by nice, nice guys. I hear yelling, I see dancing, that’s hand clapping and whistling, wait a second, where are hoops and hollers...there they are...it's the Doghouse Boodlers all the way from Beaver Island. Boom! Good-time Island music from the next generation of Island musicians, aided by the current generation to be sure but these Kids have got the torch that was passed to them and are in no hurry to pass it on. Simplicity on the heels of their bust-out new recording ego straight showed off their grooves with solid succinct songs. These founding BIMF performers brought a new twist once again and everyone dug it, dancing, yelling, smiling ear to ear; wait that was me, but trust me they were great. Defying everything but logic was the terrific Dirt Road Logic, this is as down and dirty as you can get, maybe not as down and dirty as they can get, but close. This is a rock-and-roll band playing rock-and-roll at a high level of enthusiasm to a crowd equally enthused, that is Dirt Road Logic. The Goldmine Pickers closed out the festival with a full set of about 40 songs from a kitbag that seemed to be overflowing. They must know a million songs, maybe a zillion, and seemed ready to play them all if bedtime didn't show its sleepy head, so they tucked in the festival and pulled up the blankets and said goodnight. goodnight, goldmine pickers, goodnight.

That was the music, it was great but it couldn't happen without a ton of hard work by people who pitch in. The volunteers this year drove the Shuttles into town and back from 8 in the morning until 2 am—if you wanted a safe ride to town you had it, no questions asked, get in. This year’s charity, the Beaver Island Music Fund, will receive 500 dollars to buy instruments for young musicians on Beaver Island so that in a few years we can have a new crop of Island Born and Bred musicians; that is cool.

A safe time for everyone with Doctors and Nurses and EMTs volunteering their time for everyone. A clean safe environment where kids can play and their parents can have a good time at the same time; how often does that happen? Dan and Carol Burton put so much into this event, this festival for Beaver Island, for the people of Beaver Island. The message is simple, you can do anything you put your mind to if you are willing to put the work into it. Amen.

Good work. Thank you. See you next year.

–Bayard Kurth

The 2007 Beaver Island Musical Festival Programme

A Review of the 2006 Beaver Island Music Festival

    Looking around at the Beaver Island Music Festival this year I was struck by the shear amount of ear to ear grins on kids from six to much, much older than sixty.

    Has it really been four years since the Burtons first opened their property to a bunch of mirth makers and earth quakers?

     Man, has the Beaver Island Music Festival grown up. From one band and a flatbed trailer to fourteen acts on two stages filling the air with sweet music over two days.

    It’s funny what you can get accomplished with 363 days of hard work, Hats off to Dan, Carol, and all the volunteers who made this years festival a reality.

    Friday evening kicked off with a little island flavor courtesy of What Four, dipping into a sampler platter of pop-rock that had the crowd tapping their feet and singing along with tunes they knew and humming to the ones they didn’t.

    Beans followed along in full swashbuckling fashion, playfully reciting the pirate alphabet as the faithful flock shook their gourds off and answered his calls with hearty arrghs of their own.

    Simplicity’s Friday night set was Bob Dylan acoustic tribute with all the bells, whistles, and brand new leopard skin pillbox hats. Dance was the call and dance was the response.

    The Ragbirds flat-out stole the festival,and while no charges have been formally pressed, they are being considered at the highest levels. Their world-beat meets celtic-fused poly-rhythms had everyone and i mean everyone in a festive spirit.

    The night was out when P-a-u-l and the Harper Woods Heroes took the stage for some blistering blues rock, and blister it did, there were  calls for lidocaine and beta dyne all over the festival grounds.

    Back Forty Gave everyone who remained a real  foot-stomping, hand-clapping, yodel-yelling good time.

    The Whoops and hollers were put to bed and the stars made a blanket for everyone to sleep under. I, myself saw more than one vision of sugarplum fairies but dismissed it as a firefly.

    Saturday kicked off with The Sowa Brothers Band  making their second appearance on the BIMF stage, what a difference a year makes, these guys have an excellent blend of energy and skill, and the throng of Island kids who came out to support them were anything but disappointed.

    Hogan Says rollicked through a set of original rock and jazz that heated up an already hot afternoon.

    Next up was Eric Glatz for some sweet guitar. He tore thru a set of originals and standards like the adopted son of Chet Atkins balancing honey on a wire.

    Beans took the stage for an encore performance joined by old pals Fin and the Whistler, once again he had everyone eating out of his hook/hand.

    The Ragbirds showed their strengths once again filling the stage with music that seemed to flow through everyone in attendance.

    Ernie Douglas who split his time as performer, master of ceremonies, raffle arbiter, and all around nice guy took the stage for an hour plus of tasty covers and tastier originals drawing audience members to participate in his tragic/comedic mini opera the coyote suite.

    The evening was met by long time Island favorite and native son Ed Palmer as he and his friends rolled through a set of traditional Island favorites, though impeded by some technical difficulties, was enjoyed by young and old.

    Changing gears, BIMF returnees L.L.E. jammed out on their cool form of modern classic rock, referencing the sixties as filtered through the youth of today into an amalgam that blended into the festival grounds like it was there all along.

    Things really got going when Joddy Croswhite and the Prisoners of Paradise took up right where they left off last year. Backed with a tight rhythm section the Prisoners showed what Island music is all about, “hey I know that song but i never thought about it that way before, but now i will always think of it that way now”. Luminescence, promise, glory for the road that took you to where you are right now.

    Chops, Simplicity’s got ‘em, and these festival originals returned for an electric set of all original material that showed intelligence in complete harmony with the absurd, songs of all night stands and a life on the lamb had the crowd demanding more, and in a true show of democracy in action, the voters of Beaver Island chose the Baby Jesus to lead the way into the night.

    So the only question that remained was “so what’s up with the Natives of the New Dawn”? Everyone who stayed for the end were treated to a show by a band on the brink of something bigger. Hip-hop elements and seventies soul classics jumbled into a tribute to growing up in Michigan. “You will sing along” they shouted from the stage more as an observation than a demand, and it was summertime.

    A success, a blast, a time to say we can do this, together, and together the like-minded souls of the BIMF raised One Thousand Dollars for the Beaver Island Volunteer Fire Department.

Good work folks, See ya next year.

– Cheers. Bayard Kurth III

The 2006 Beaver Island Musical Festival Programme (4 MB PDF)