Mountaingrass

Mountaingrass 2024 review

by Lindsay Mar 

TN168 Jan 25

Mountaingrass Nov 15-17, 2024, relocated to the Vic. Alpine town of Bright, a much larger town than the previous venues of Harrietville and Beechworth.

The Bright festival was held in the downtown which contains numerous hotels, motels, ski lodges, B&Bs and short term rental houses to accommodate musicians, volunteers and audience.

Cafes and restaurants catered for the hungry, and we believe there was a pizza shop serving until very very late.

There was a choice of supermarkets, various bakers, a real butcher, lolly shop, boutique stores, walking trails, scenic drives and a regional information centre.

As far as Mountaingrass music was concerned, there were three concert venues.

The Bright Community Centre on Railway Avenue was the main concert venue and hub of jamming, catering for an audience of several hundred.

The food truck located here, served ham and salad rolls, chicken salads, and wagyu beef rolls, while a local brewery provided liquid refreshments to jammers located between the community centre and car park.

The second concert venue was the nearby Senior Citizens Centre on Cobden St which provided for another audience of approximately a hundred, plus a pair of breakout rooms for workshops.

The third venue was the Courthouse Theatre on Park St, located behind the Senior Citizen Centre, which, originally designed as a courthouse, provided superb acoustics and no electric amplification was necessary, albeit for a modest audience of forty or so.

Weather was varied, with Friday being a hot 31C, whilst scattered storms throughout the weekend necessitated umbrellas between venues.

The main hall was packed on the first night, but there was a bit of room for the audience to grow into the Saturday and Sunday shows.

Three US bands, High Fidelity, the Nokosee Fields Trio and the Alum Ridge Boys & Ashlee were present, plus numerous Australian groups.

Previously in Trad&Now we spoke long and loud about High Fidelity being the best representatives of the Reno & Smiley tradition that we are aware of, and they didn’t disappoint in any of their three daily sets.

In fact it was quite amusing to listen to Jeremy Stephens’ long confirmation of their commitment to Reno banjo and then immediately sing “Since Wedding Bells Have Rung” in the crooning style of Red Smiley.

Banjo figured highly with Reno’s “Follow The Leader” and “Yes Sir, She’s My Baby” and twin banjos on Buddy Holly’s “I Got To Get You Near Me Blues”.

Corrina Rose Logston was a live wire on stage, sharing husband wife antics with Jeremy and duoing with him on “Matterhorn”.

North Carolinian James McDowell showed he was adept with a guitar as well as banjo on “Turkey in the Straw” and “Black Mountain Rag” and “Old Spinning Wheel”.

Fellow North Carolinian (NC) and bassist Ross Sermons on occasion laid down bass and picked a guitar tribute to fellow NC Doc Watson with “Deep River Blues”.

High Fidelity stayed true to the Gospel, singing “Music in My Soul”, “Kneel At The Cross” and the apocalyptic “We’re Living in the Last Days Now”.

Nokosee Fields Duo were billed as “Old-Time”, but as a guitar-fiddle combination, in addition to fiddle tunes, sang a lot of songs including “Diamond Joe” and “I’ll Rise When The Rooster Crows”.

As far as songs are concerned, we are most often accustomed to seeing guitar paired with mandolin, but the Nokosee Duo might give us food for thought to see more pairing of fiddle with guitar to back up the “singing songs”.

The Alum Ridge Boys & Ashlee in past visits have often been billed as Old-Time, singing Carter Family numbers such as “Home Among The Hills”, “Beautiful Brown Eyes” or Ashlee’s rendition of “John Henry”.

But at Mountaingrass 2024, they came straight out with Flatt & Scruggs’ “Come Back To Me Little Darling” and then Reno & Smiley’s “We’ll Be Sweethearts Together” and “Dear Old Dixie” and then Larry Richardson’s “Lonesome Day” complete with falsetto in the appropriate spots.

They also contributed a twin fiddle Buck Owens’ “Country Girl Leaving Dirty Tracks” and David McLoughlin’s (of the Johnson Mountain Boys) “Going Back To Old Virginia”.

Local Australian bands included Pete Denahy and Wide Island who, with Pete’s humour, opened the weekend, making jokes on everything from choosing his own burial plot at the Yackandandah Cemetery to his own ethnic background.

His mother is Asian and father from Cork, making him Cork-Asian.

Meridian, the band from the NSW south coast, opened with “The Gospel Plow” and then the Louvin Bros’ “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby”, before going on to other songs such as “Deep Elum Blues” and Monroe’s “Walk Softly On This Heart of Mine” and a Meridian original, “Travelling Shoes”.

High Street Drifters are the latest Australian Bluegrass powerhouse and obliged with Gage singing Jim and Jesse’s “Diesel On My Tail” complete with Justin providing the McReynolds cross picking.

Their repertoire was highly varied with Mae fiddling “Garfield’s Blackberry Blossom” to Dan singing “Cold On The Shoulder” to Justin writing his own instrumental “Merri Creek”.

Rhiz, Pete & The Taggin’ Along Band were one of the groups we saw at the Senior Citizens Centre which, fully packed out, necessitated the hall’s rear doors being opened to the standing crowd gathered in the foyer.

The band featured Rhys McCarthy guitar, Peter Daffy guitar, Ross Sermons bass, Donal Baylor fiddle and clawhammer banjo and Pete Fidler mandolin and Dobro, who worked their way through country songs of the 40s, 50s and 60s such as Patsy Cline’s “(Remember Me) I’m The One Who Loves You” to fiddle tunes such as “Fire on the Mountain” and “East Tennessee Blues” to an original “Sleep Walking Back To You”.

The Courthouse Theatre was built with an integral sound reinforcement system and all concerts here were entirely acoustic.

Gary Crocket presented an hour of songs of home, The My-T-Fine Trio dedicated their set to late band member, Len Newland, while John Boothroyd has grown into the ultimate recursive Old-Time banjo player explaining that he learnt one of his numbers “Banjo Bounce” from an old recording of himself.

Peter Sholtz’s Saturday morning 9:00am banjo workshop was one we attended with five beginners where Peter taught basic forward and backward rolls, encouraging novices to play loud and explained how metronomes can influence your playing especially in regards to swinging the beat, citing Ben Eldridge on one extreme and Ron Block on the other.

Trevor Holder of the Alum Ridge Boys, backed by Andrew Small on guitar, continued a second hour of banjo workshop demonstrating how Reno developed techniques such as brush strokes to separate his sound from that of Earl Scruggs with “When You and I were Young Maggie” as an example.

Trevor also spoke of Reno’s approach to left hand pressure on the strings for tonal affect while audience questions included how much pressure is allowed to the right hand on the head and bridge.

Corrina Rose Logston’s fiddle workshop, with Jeremy on guitar, taught “Faded Love” embellishments such as double stops, D string droning, and hammer-ons involving thirds rather than seconds.

Pete Denahy asked for bowing exercises and Corrina quoted her mentor Jim Buchanan’s isolation exercises, bowing first with fingers only, then wrist and fingers, then elbow wrist fingers, holding a CD under her arm while doing so, then shoulder elbow wrist fingers.

She also added a staccato exercise on each string at the frog, centre and tip of the bow.

Workshops were not restricted to instruments only and High Fidelity provided a gospel singing workshop to a church sized crowd of approximately 60-80 people.

They discussed the development of Bluegrass harmony singing from Church services, then describing their own arrangements as a “duo” with the third part filling in the duo arrangement, and where harmonic gaps appearing between the lead and tenor might be filled by the baritone crossing from below to above the lead.

We congratulate and thank the committee on the move to Bright and a wonderful event in 2024 and acknowledge the passing of the committee presidential baton from Mick O’Neil to Jacinta Connery.

Looking forward to 2025.

Mountaingrass was a charming way to spend a weekend

by Jim Jacob and Rob Dickens, Listening Through the Lense

TN167 Dec 24

A new location, an energising vibe, bigger crowds and a refreshed line-up, that was Mountaingrass 2024.

Mountaingrass was organised by ABOTMA (Australasian Bluegrass and Old-time Music Association) in the picturesque alpine village of Bright in north-east Victoria.

Despite the changed site, the event retained its charm, with intimate, friendly and engaging bluegrass and old-time music over three days.

The new locale included concerts in three community halls within a stone’s throw of each other.

There were also jam sessions, workshops, a raffle and plenty of opportunities to meet and play with fellow music lovers.

Weather-wise, we had a variety of sun, heavy rain and clearing skies, none of which dampened the spirits of the punters attending.

Here are some personal highlights:

High Fidelity from Nashville draws inspiration from bluegrass music of the 1950s and early 1960s (eg The Louvin Brothers and The Stanley Brothers) and provide fresh interpretations through mighty power rhythms and masterful playing.

As well as one of their sets, we sat in on their fascinating harmony vocals workshop, not that we will be taking much away personally with our foghorn voices!

In almost their 30th year, Australia’s most respected bluegrass outfit is The Davidson Brothers.

Oscar Neyland joined them on bass and the all-instruments-maestro Paddy Montgomery on guitar.

Terrific craftsmanship, boundless energy, earthy humour and an engaging set list pointed to just about our favourite act of the weekend.

First timers at Mountaingrass were The Borough from Brisbane.

Shrewd song selections, high and lonesome takes on classic tunes and a fitting rendition of Watchhouse‘s quirky, but compelling “The Hawk Is A Mule” allowed the foursome to showcase their harmonies and tight playing, adorned by pretty funny banter between songs.

This was a surprising delight.

The Dempsey Brothers are a five-piece progressive string band headlined by the dulcet voice of Jim Dempsey and replete with terrific players.

The engaging set list included some wonderfully diverse songs covered beautifully, material by Chris Stapleton, Don Gibson, The Stanley Brothers and Bob Dylan.

The highlight was the band’s take on Vika and Linda‘s overwhelmingly tender “You Touch Me Down In My Soul”.

The duos Cat & Clint and The Cartwheels happen to live pretty close together in Victoria’s Central Highlands.

The idea of combining their talents into The Watershed Stringband was an inspired one.

Cat Moser (fiddle), Clint O’Gradey (guitar and banjo), Wendy Phypers (guitars and vocals) and Dave Patterson (bass) seem to have played together for a long time, with four-part harmonies layered over noteworthy bluegrass, old-time, vintage country and western swing tunes.

The High Street Drifters, a four-piece that has been together since 2021, captured some classic covers and striking originals, but overlayed with a fresh Australian flavour.

Very collaborative on stage with all members taking turns on lead vocals, sharing the spotlight and microphone.

Highly entertaining.

A quick shout to the Young Performer Of The Year winner, Holly Dunn, a very talented guitarist who did not look out of place while being backed by The Davidson Brothers.

All in all, a charming way to spend a weekend with friends and fellow music lovers!

Mountaingrass 2024 has a Bright future

by Jacinta Connery

TN166 Oct 24

The full lineup for Mountaingrass 2024 is now complete.

Committee members are busy working on bringing our audience, jammers and artists the best possible festival in our new location of Bright, Victoria.

Everyone loves Bright and we’re sure it’s going to make Mountaingrass feel even better than before!

That mountain air is why Mountaingrass, and it’s previous incarnation, The Harrietville Convention, have been going for over 30 years.

For those that still hanker for that ol’ Harrietville feeling, Bright has it in droves, with more restaurants, distilleries, breweries and shops.

We’re incorporating local flavours into our festival and will be doing more of that every year in the future.

We’re trying out some new things too, like our first ABOTMA song-writing competition.

We are engaging with local businesses as much as we can, which can be a little challenging for a committee spread across Australia!

We’re incredibly grateful to see that our loyal audience, those bluegrass and old-time addicts, are showing their love and getting in early and buying tickets.

If you’re just thinking about it or are planning on coming, you better book now!

The Committee is proud to present a program of top-quality Bluegrass and Old-Time acts from the US and across Australia.

The concert program showcases the broad spectrum of Bluegrass and Appalachian old-time music.

From traditional old-time tunes, home-spun tunes, beautifully home-crafted songs, pre-war country blues, harmonised country, vintage country, swing, old school bluegrass duets, western swing with a touch of alt country, straight up hard driving bluegrass, traditional bluegrass, dynamic bluegrass and new grass, Mountaingrass has it all.

We’re maintaining the new, old tradition, of acoustic only sessions.

Were really chuffed to add a dash of Japanese infused Bluegrass with Pete Denahy’s ‘Wide Island’ too and that’s before we add the workshops and jamming.

Mountaingrass in Bright 2024 will surely fill your cup to the brim.

We’re pleased that the US acts, High Fidelity, Nokosee Fields Trio and Ash & Andy will also appear at the Dorrigo Folk & Bluegrass Festival and acknowledge, with gratitude, the willingness of the Dorrigo Festival Committee to collaborate in 2024.

Both festivals believe in finding synergies and sharing effort with the aim of sustainability for festivals and artists.

Our fund-raising raffle has gone on sale on-line, another first for us, and features a beautiful Grundy Shawnee Bow Tie Resonator banjo valued at $5,400 as first prize.

You don’t have to be at the festival to buy a ticket or win.

Check out the raffle link on our website for our other great prizes and a link to enter.

We’ll have some additional products at our merchandise and ticket desk this year thanks to our new sponsor, D’Addario Australia.

We plan on offering a special Mountaingrass Festival price on strings and associated instrument accessories!

Mountaingrass reviewed

Courtesy Listening Through The Lens (LTTL)

by Jim Jacob

and by Rob Dickens, LTTL

TN160 Dec 23

Mountaingrass 2023, was held in Beechworth, Victoria from 10 to 12 November and it was presented by the Australasian Bluegrass and Old Time Music Association (ABOTMA).

Friday

Hailing from the seminal town of Galax, Virginia, Erryn Marshall and Carl Jones are a couple in real life and in music.

Old-time music specialists, they breeze between fiddle, guitar, mandolin and banjo doing what they call ‘new-sounding old-time tunes’.

Jones is a talented songwriter and his wistful ballad “Last Time On The Road” was an absolute feature.

The wry humour between songs was evident and they played with both speed and precision, easily manoeuvring sudden tempo changes.

Erynn Marshall & Carl Jones – Photo: LTTL

From the ACT, the Black Mountain String Band is an intergenerational outfit founded in the 1970s.

It is a five-piece jamming outfit certainly not lacking in musical diversity, as members segue between bluegrass, jigs, old-time, western swing and even a touch of instrumental mariachi.

Donal Baylor, Jacqueline Bradley, Matt Nightingale, Kevin Bradley and Pablo Shopen put on an entertaining show and their joy playing on stage together is palpable.

Speaking of putting on an exhibition, it’s pretty hard to top The Kody Norris Show, both musically, visually and stylistically.

With multiple award nominations including by the International Bluegrass and Music Association (IBMA), the band recently debuted at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.

Their Australian tour has the slogan ‘g’day y’all’ and their unabashed home-spun and dazzling stage presence, with dollops of goofy humour, was met with a rousing response from the audience at the Golden Oak Room.

All four members (Kody Norris, Josiah Tyree, Mary Rachel Nailey-Norris and Charlie Lowman) took turns at the single vocal microphone with plenty of bluegrass hollering and their blended harmonies a treat.

Able to play at a thunderous pace and in an ever-so-tight formation, they glided off the stage in an orange and purple triumph.

Not to be missed.

The Kody Norris Show – Photo: LTTL

This was the third time I had seen Portland’s Caleb Klauder on stage, but the first as the Foghorn Stringband.

In 2014 and 2015, he appeared at AmericanaFest in Nashville under the banner of the Kaleb Klauder Country Band, which later morphed into the Caleb Klauder and Reeb Willms Country Band, putting in impressive sets.

Tonight’s show, as part of the band’s third Australian tour, was a demonstration of the versatility of Klauder and affirmation of his exemplary mandolin playing.

Willms was pumping out hectic rhythm guitar and the ensemble was rounded out by Nadine Landry on bass and Sammy Lind on fiddle.

Four-strong vocals, lively fiddle tunes, a Carter Family cover, the delightfully frisky “Horseshoe Bend” and “Black Mountain Rag”, a couple of nice country songs, throw in a cajun waltz and some local references to Ned Kelly and Wombats and you had an immensely enjoyable set.

Foghorn Stringband – Photo: LTTL

Saturday

Dave Diprose is a multi-award-winning songwriter with ballads like “Hillbilly Radio” and “Stranger In My Home”.

Stories of his life as he moved from the North West Coast of Tasmania to Stawell in Victoria and to other parts are both colourful and instructive.

His band, Hillbilly Radio, was comprised of Mark Pottenger on mandolin, Andrew Barcham on bass and Peter Somerville on banjo, and they adeptly provided latitude and pattern to these stories.

Dave Diprose – Photo: LTTL

Perhaps the high point of the weekend was a session curated by Colin Weight (The Colvin Brothers, Nine Mile Creek) in the Chapel on Saturday afternoon.

This tiny Chapel of the Resurrection was built in 1868 as the mortuary for the local, now closed, mental asylum and converted into a place of worship in the 1960s.

It is located two hundred metres down the hill from the main buildings, dwarfed by giant gums and not much else than substantial tended grassland.

The former altar works well as a stage, the glass panels on the roof provide glorious light beams and there’s even a curious and ornate phone and stand that may well be a direct line to whatever your supreme being is.

The acoustics are pristine, the audience hushed and there is not a whiff of a microphone for the entire session.

Chapel of the Resurrection built in 1868

The Cartwheels are one of Australia’s best roots music outfits who are in demand at Australia’s best music festivals of their genre and their short set demonstrated that, despite being two members short, their core material and musicianship prevail no matter what the circumstances.

Golden Guitar winners Wendy Phypers (guitar and vocals), Dave Patterson (bass) and noted bluegrass player, Jacob McGuffie (The Davidson Brothers) provided some classy playing around Phypers’ brilliant songs and vocals.

The Cartwheels – Photo: LTTL

Jacob McGuffie stayed on and was joined by Daniel Watkins (High Street Drifters) and we were treated to great bluegrass songs and fiddle tunes, but with just two finger-picking guitars working feverishly in sync.

Seeing two of Australia’s finest bluegrass guitarists together was immensely pleasurable.

The child prodigy founding members of You, Me, Everybody are Laurence and Sam Frangos-Rhodes and the duo performed some delicate material with flair and touch, including The Milk Carton Kids‘ gorgeous “Michigan”.

It was fascinating to see them in the same venue five years on.

Laurence and Sam Frangos-Rhodes – 2018 and 2023 – Photos: LTTL

Peter McLaughlin and Mark Miracle of The Sonoran Dogs provided some of McLaughlin’s originals with guitar and mandolin respectively, including his homage “Raise A Glass to John Prine”, “Rainy in Maleny” and the joyful ode to retirement (I can associate with this one!) “It’s A New Day”.

The Sonoran Dogs – Photo: LTTL

The Colvin Brothers, Weight and Vinny Russell (The Humbuckin’ Pickups) were drawn together by their love of bluegrass and old-time music but also with an eye to broader genres – ballads, country and standards.

Glorious harmonies.

The Colvin Brothers – Photo: LTTL

The closing act for this session was Caleb Klauder and Reeb Willms of The Foghorn Stringband and the audience was treated to some new songs that will be on their six-piece country and honky tonk band record which is close to being finished.

A lonesome cowboy song “Far Away Sky” and the driving “Badger Mountain” resonated.

Caleb Klauder and Reeb Willms – Photo: LTTL

Sunday

The day’s highlights started with a full set from The Sonoran Dogs, with Bruce Packard substituting on bass for this show and the rest of the band’s tour, this is its start.

The extended, captivating opening instrumental was a stunner, allowing each member to demonstrate their prowess, followed by a lovely take on Townes Van Zandt‘s “Snowin’ on Raton”, “Dixie Hoedown”, the classic “Dark Hollow” and Bob Dylan’s lively “Nashville Skyline Rag”.

This is a seriously good band with depth and heart.

Don’t miss them on the rest of their tour.

The Sonoran Dogs – Photo: LTTL

Bluegrass Parkway trekked all the way from Western Australia and put on a hell of a show.

With over thirty years’ experience, the men, resplendent in big white hats and sharp suits, and the sole female, Maria Duff, looking gorgeously ready to make headlines on the dance floor, they took us through some classic bluegrass and country tunes.

It was a warm and entertaining set from this accomplished outfit.

Bluegrass Parkway – Photo: LTTL

Other notables were The Quarry Hillbillies (Chris Jacobs and Pete Fidler and are 3/5th of the bluegrass band Bluestone Junction) and the duo from New South Wales, StompKats, who dutifully revisit the rural sounds of the Mississippi Delta and other parts of America with music that never becomes unfashionable.

Another animated and crisp set from The Foghorn Stringband closed for us both the day and this highly successful, warm, community-based event.

Closing

A big thank you to the ABOTMA Committee for putting on such a wonderful event and looking after us.

Actually, we sat in on the AGM on Sunday morning and were exposed first-hand to the group’s achievements and a sample of just how much hard work is required to run an outstanding event like Mountaingrass.

The talented and diverse line-up on show and the smooth event management is a testament to this year’s event and which lays strong roots for successful festivals into the future.

We also heard the compelling rationale for having to relocate the event to Bright, just 50 minutes southeast of Beechworth, in 2024.

Save the dates: November 15 to 17, 2024.

TN158 P40-42

For    over    thirty    years, players   and      lovers   of Bluegrass and Appalachian old-time music have gathered in November in the high country of Victoria.

The beautiful Victorian high country reflects this music’s origins and the spring mountain air inspires folk who come to listen and play Bluegrass and

traditional country music.

People of all ages travel from across Australia and New Zealand to revel in an acoustic, string-band, music filled weekend that is the only solely Bluegrass and Appalachian music event of its kind in Australia.

It’s a not to be missed event for many musicians who attend year after year!

This traditional gathering is so much more than a festival.

There are: concert performances from top US, Australian and NZ performers; workshops to develop, improve and hone skills on guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dobro & bass, performance skills, harmony singing, jamming and more; curated, intimate acoustic concerts; a walk-up stage; a Sunday morning gospel concert; many spontaneous, informal jams; and, a luthier display featuring hand crafted guitars, banjos and mandolins where you can talk to the makers and try out their wares.

There’s something for everyone, beginners to aficionados.

The gathering is held in the stunning, heritage listed, parkland of Mayday Hills, in historic Beechworth, Victoria, from Friday 10th to Sunday 12th November and the festival base is the Grand Oaks Resort (the old George Kerferd Hotel),

The featured headline overseas artists for Mountaingrass 2023 include, The Kody Norris Show (US), The Foghorn Stringband (US / Canada), Erynn Marshall and Carl Jones (US), The Sonoran Dogs (US), The Pipi Pickers (NZ), and, You, Me, Everybody (NZ).

Come and listen to the exciting sounds of bluegrass, gospel and Appalachian old-time music.

Bring your instruments, tunes and songs and join our friendly and welcoming community of music lovers.

Beechworth, is an historic gold mining town full of heritage architecture and local history museums and boutique shopping.

It has two breweries, many wineries close by and great food. Beechworth is also well served by two beautiful caravan parks, one of which sits on the

edge of a lake.

On the same weekend as Mountaingrass, there will be a Beechworth Heritage Festival for those interested in learning more about what shaped the town, its history, heritage trades, forebears and traditional music.

Mountaingrass is presented by the Australasian Bluegrass and Old Time Music Association (ABOTMA), a not-for-profit organization formed in 2013 to support the teaching, performance and promotion of these styles of music in Australia and New Zealand.

Anyone who enjoys bluegrass and old-time music as either a performer, a player or a listener, is very welcome at Mountaingrass.