For the last few years, I have aspired to write about every show I see. In reality, I have not even come close to doing so, I have barely written anything, which is a shame… for me, at least. So, I’ve tried to recalibrate my expectations of myself and am going to try and summarize each month of livemusic’n, hit some of the high points and try to wrap it up in a single theme that captures both the music and my thoughts on music and whatever. We’ll see how it goes!
ICYMI: October 2023: Nostalgia Acts
ICYMI: December 2023: Holiday’d
ICYMI: January 2024: Winter Jazzqueens
ICYMI: February 2024: Lil’ somethin’ extra
ICYMI: March/April 2024: Multiplicity
ICYMI: May 2024: Festival Season
ICYMI: June 2024: Community Centers
ICYMI: July 2024: Newport Folk Festival
ICYMI: August 2024: Six-string summer
I started off the summer writing about festival season and devoted one monthly write-up to Newport Folk, so now that the summer is over, I may as well do one more fest-centric piece. In September I saw a ton of shows, some of ’em pretty darn good (of course!), but the best things I saw in September were two festivals, two perfect weekends, one after the other, in the same general area out of town, but just a little ways “upstate.”
The two festivals were the Meadowlark Festival and Woodsist, both in the general New Paltz area. They had a bit in common besides the geography and also some things that were very different. I have been to all four east coast incarnations of Woodsist, it’s one of my favorite festivals, due to its excellent for-my-tastes booking and its extremely chill vibe. In fact, it was, in my mind, the absolute chillest festival I could imagine. That is, until I went to Meadowlark, which was like Woodsist after a glass or two of red wine to wind down. I had intended to go to both days of Meadowlark, but then Oneida announced their annual free show in Forest Park and I decided I couldn’t skip that. After heading up on Sunday, I wasn’t sure I made the right choice (although Oneida was awesome!).
Meadowlark takes place at the Stone Ridge Orchard which is, as the name suggests, your standard upstate apple orchard…. this one being a hundred years old or so. You park your car and walk up a hill through the orchard to this clearing that has this gigantic elm tree in the middle of it and a few food vendors set up in the back, all in front of a small stage. So, having been at Woodsist, I recognized the stage — basically someone has built a mobile performance space into a trailer which can be brought here or there. I recognized it because it’s used as the “second stage” at Woodsist, which gives you an idea of the size and laidbackness of Meadowlark — the biggest stage is the second stage at the previous recordholder for chillest-festival-around. It was a sunny afternoon and the entire population of the festival was able to comfortably fit in the shade of this single, wonderfully large tree. Later we were told the tree is over 300 years old. I think when I got there there were maybe 25ish people there and at maximum, there were maybe 125? There was easily room for several hundred, so the space was wonderfully sparse, like a lazy picnic in a large park, the fragrance of ripe apples in the air. Sound idyllic? It absolutely was! The crowd was quite young with a sizable bunch apparently making from the not-far-away Bard and Vassar Colleges. All around great scene.
The music was great, one awesome set after the other. My day went Laura Stevenson > Daddy Long Legs > Jeffrey Lewis & the Voltage > Joan Shelley/Nathan Salsburg > Slaughter Beach, Dog > Blonde Redhead. They were all good-to-great, but the last four were each exceptional sets. I have seen Lewis before, but this felt much better than the other times, a perfect amalgam of humor, songwriting, and his rocking band letting loose. Joan Shelley is a personal favorite and hearing her songs in that setting was blissful, a match made in upstate New York heaven. I had only listened to Slaughter Beach, Dog, but live they were pretty fucking great and they were clearly the draw for the collegians who were singing joyously to every single song. Hadn’t seen Blonde Redhead in a few years, but it was awesome to hear them live again. Oh, and the festival exists to support local farmers in conjunction with Farm Aid. What’s not to love? I will absolutely return to Meadowlark next year.
It was back up thataway the following weekend for Woodsist and this time I would not be skipping a day, both day’s lineups being incredibly solid. Woodsist is a festival run by the band Woods/their label Woodsist and typically consists of their friends and friends of friends. The music at the festival exists in a very identifiable range. It’s not like a particular genre, more like a particular vibe. I call it “New Dad Rock.” Dad Rock is a term that came about largely to describe Wilco a decade or more ago and it did a good job kind of coalescing a certain mix of bands/sounds with Wilco and others being the nucleation point. The kids of those dads are probably in college or looking for employment now and so when you go to Woodsist and you see a new crop of dads, a crop of dads living in the age of infinite beer options and legal weed and the entirety of recorded music at their fingertips… these dads might listen to Wilco, but they listen to so much more. And when I’m at Woodsist, the crowd averaging more in the mid/late 30’s range, with babies and elementary kids in tow, and I see these dads/moms digging this music there, this certain sound, a chill sound, for sure, but also an eclectic genre-free sound, it’s crunchy and it’s psychedelic, at times as quiet as a cool breeze and others as loud and terrifying as a tornado, and most of all, it’s a sound that’s not afraid to get weird… I see all that and I say, this is like the New Dad Rock. And if I had to choose an epicenter of NDR, I’d probably put it somewhere between New York City and Woodstock, NY. So Arrowhead Brewery in Accord, NY is probably the ideal location for Woodsist Festival.
Of course, that’s all said with love because I fucking adore the artists they book at Woodsist. And this year, it was so in my wheelhouse, I don’t think I could have done better myself. Saturday was especially strong. Perfect even. The only downside to the Saturday lineup was I had actually seen every band that played before, so I was robbed of the chance to discover something new. The day went Sylvie > Rosali > 75 Dollar Bill Little Big Band> Jeff Parker > Woods > Hailu Mergia > Yo La Tengo… Yo La Tengo probably the patron saints of NDR. Genrewise, that was a Laurel Canyon style country rock > Crazy Horse energy rock band > hypnotic drone jams > jazz guitar > jammy psych folk > laid back groover > the titans of indie rock. Every band killed it and if you don’t recognize any of those artists, you should absolutely get acquainted. Rosali being the one you may not know that you definitely should, especially live. She played at Union Pool earlier this summer and knocked my socks off, and the Woodsist set might have been even better. The YLT set was almost like a mini-Hanukkah showing, as they brought out members of 75 Dollar Bill and opened things up as only they can. One of the best start-to-finish days of music I’ve had this year on a gorgeous day in the second-most-chill festival of the week.
Sunday wasn’t quite as strong, but still kicked ass and I did get to discover a couple bands. Florry opened the day, a country rock band from Philly that had an amazing don’t-fuck-with-me energy and more musicians than they knew what to do with. I loved their set. Next was Mystic 100’s who had a jammy spirit almost in the Aquarium Rescue Unit vibe, super impressive and a little bit different, while still firmly in the NDR zone. The rest of the day was Etran De L’Air > Messthetics > Jessica Pratt > Bonnie Prince Billy > Real Estate, playing out like the 6 steps towards a better New Dad Rock. Pratt was a bit of a disappointment because technical difficulties kind of killed the momentum, although she sounded great. Of all the “desert blues” bands out there, I find Etran De L’Air to be the most interesting, although I’m a sucker for it all. By the time Real Estate got going, we decided to hit the road, my NDR meter completely pinned to “FULL.”
Usually there’s rain or a nighttime chilliness up in Accord, but this year the weather could not have been better and with the most excellent music and most excellent vibes from everyone around, even the food is pretty fantastic, it proved itself worthy of being my favorite festival. I attended part or all of 10 different music festivals this year! Kind of crazy, but like I said back in May, there are many reasons to love the fest, and weekends upstate in the easygoing atmosphere of festivals like Meadowlark and Woodsist are the best of all worlds. Can’t wait until next year’s festin’. Hope to see you there!
September Roundup:
31 shows = $62 donated as part of the #livemusicchallenge to BelovedAsheville.
Five Star Shows seen in September:
! Meadowlark Festival @ Stone Ridge Orchard
! Visitors Trio @ Barbes
! Woodsist Festival @ Arrowhead Brewery
! John Craigie @ Bowery Ballroom
