2008 Writing D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
September
2008
Pickin' and Grinnin'
Building on the success of its Blues Fest, the Mimbres Region Arts Council brings a new riff to Silver City with Pickamania, a folk-roots-bluegrass music festival, Sept. 13-14.
By Donna Clayton Lawder
Yes, you may catch the sound of live music and the smell of grilled corn and roasting turkey legs wafting through the air this month, emanating from Gough Park in Silver City.
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Bill Bussmann, founder of the informal
predecessor to Pickamania, pretends to take a bite out of a whimsical
instrument he made. |
But don't be fooled! It ain't the Blues Fest!
Pickamania, the Mimbres Region Arts Council (MRAC)'s new festival, was spawned from a homegrown event begun in the 1980s. "Pickers" from across the state would gather informally at a local strummer's house, enjoying the camaraderie of other musicians and dishing up some of the hottest Americana and bluegrass music around. Responding to the legion of fans and supporters crying for more, the MRAC has taken that informal music happening and ratcheted it up a considerable notch, turning it into a full-blown outdoor festival, Sept. 13-14, celebrating folk, bluegrass and Americana acoustic musical traditions.
Taking a page from its older cousin — the MRAC's Blues Fest, now in its 14th year and drawing thousands of music fans each Memorial Day weekend — Pickamania will be another nearly non-stop free concert, with food vendors and artisans selling their wares throughout bucolic Gough Park.
MRAC's executive director, Faye McCalmont, feels confident the arts council will have another hit on its hands. Pickamania planners have signed the renowned band Chatham County Line and Robin and Linda Williams, regular performers on the popular radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," as the new event's headliners.
The musical smorgasbord running all day, both days, will feature both local talent and national acts.
Musician and mandolin maker Bill Bussmann (see "Strings Attached," July 2006) played host to the informal festival in its formative first seven years, inviting musicians to his home. Bussmann recounts one colorful tale after another of the festival's early years, punctuating his storytelling with his characteristic dry wit and belly laughs.
"How it started, well, we had a Halloween party and we passed the hat for all the musicians who were there. I think everybody got about 20, maybe 25 dollars out of it," Bussmann says with a good-natured laugh. "So, I was telling Wayne Shrubsall [then] of the Big River Boys about it, and he said, 'Wow, for that kind of money I could bring down the best bluegrass musicians in Albuquerque!' So, we were just trying to have a picking party here and it took on a life of its own."
Bussmann adds with another deep laugh, "I mean, you can't fight these things!"
The first year there were about 150 to 200 people at the event, at least half of them musicians, he recalls. As word got out, though, the numbers quickly climbed.
"We had about 300 people for years. We called it a private party so we didn't have to invite the world," Bussmann explains. "It was always such an appreciative audience, so the musicians just kept coming back. You know, people who normally play in restaurants and such and the diners and the, shall we say, 'bar patrons' are asking them to keep it down. Here they had people who wanted to hear them, and I'll tell you, that feels good to a musician!"
If You Go:
Pickamania Sept. 13-14
Ana Egge Steve Smith and Hard Road Red Molly Robin & Linda Williams and their Fine Group |
Bussmann recalls the simple stage set-up: "Basically an area with some stage lights strung around and a PA system, that was it." Musicians also came together and played and sang in informal jam sessions along the creek where attendees camped out. Meals were colorful and ample potlucks.
"The 'show' was from noon on Saturday until midnight, a lot like Jim Coates' Glenwoodstock thing," Bussmann says, referring to the annual small, "private party" festival in Glenwood. "We'd do a real gospel hour on Sunday, then we'd have equal time for the pagan-goddess crowd with other stuff. That's when some of my neighbors would round up their kids and hide 'em away," he recalls with a laugh.
Music genres at the original pick-fest ranged from bluegrass to acoustic blues, Celtic-Irish to old-timey string band music, Bussmann recounts. There was even one Cajun musician who added that genre to the mix.
"People played games during the day. They played music together informally. It was a big old picnic," Bussmann says. "But it had to stop. It was getting too big." He chuckles and adds, "Well, you just can't have a potluck with 700 people!"
The original, home-grown Pickamania ran for seven glorious years, Bussmann says, and memories of the event linger in the minds of many.
"It was good fun and then it disappeared, so it's taken on something of a downright mythological quality," he says, snickering with a bit of mock seriousness. "Every now and then, years later, I still run into a musician in Colorado or something and they say, 'Hey, I had such a good time at that Pickamania thing!' I just say, 'Okay,' and smile, 'cause sometimes I don't remember who they are. I mean, it was a lot of people!"
Bussmann is impressed with the MRAC's program for its first "official" Pickamania, the festival that will debut in Gough Park this month. "Hey, this is a first class line-up!" he says. "I go to a lot of fests, in Utah, Telluride, the Wildlife West (Music and Bluegrass Festival in Edgewood, NM). This is as good a line-up as you'll see anywhere for $100 to $200 ticket prices, I'm not kidding!"
Pickamania, of course, like its informal predecessors but unlike such pricey festivals, will be free.
"I hope it establishes a precedent and builds just like the Blues Festival has," Bussmann adds.
But will Bussmann be part of Pickamania's new Gough Park incarnation? "Allegedly, I'm playing with Bayou Seco," he says, referring to the Silver City "chilegumbo" duo of Jeanie McLerie and Ken Keppeler, which expands with local musicians wherever it performs. "I'm their on-call southern New Mexico bass player, so I play with them when they play pretty much anywhere around here — and, yes," he adds, again taking on that mock-serious tone, "I've gotten the call for Pickamania."
A number of musicians who performed at Bussmann's "back porch" Pickamania played on instruments he made. Steve Smith, who played at the original pick-fest and is on the MRAC's Pickamania bill with his band Hard Road, used to perform with one of Bussmann's "Old Wave" mandolins, but has recently retired it and now plays an Ellis brand instrument.
"But people at this new festival have a chance to go home with an Old Wave," Bussmann says, adopting a carnival pitchman-like tone. "For just five dollars they can buy a raffle ticket for a really nice mandolin. Of course, I might be biased. It's got turquoise inlay and stuff, made of local native wood, suitable as an instant family heirloom."
Asked if the instrument is "cheap and made to stay that way," as he's joked of his mandolins in the past, Bussmann puts on his mock-serious tone. "No, I have a new motto. It's one I stole from the High Desert Brewing Company in Las Cruces and modified to fit my needs: 'Old Wave Mandolins: None of our mandolins suck.'" He lets out a hearty laugh. "Oh, that's a good one," he says of the brewpub's humorous motto about its beers. "I just wish I'd thought of it first!"
Steve Smith, Bussmann adds, "is the only original Pickamania Hall of Famer on this bill. He still has his trophy! Yes, I used to give out trophies at that thing."
The nationally touring Ana Egge, a longtime Silver City resident who essentially grew up playing the original Pickamania, will return to town for the new festival's birth.
"I used to play it [Pickamania] when it was just a little bluegrass festival in Hillsboro, at the Gopher Broke Farm that Bill Bussmann and his family had," Egge says. "I'm so glad that Faye McCalmont and the MRAC are bringing it back, so to speak, in Silver City."
Egge could be called a "local girl made good" — okay, very good, in fact. Just barely into her 30s now, the folk singer-songwriter released her first album, "River Under the Road" when she was just 20, to critical accolades. "A debut masterpiece worthy of a songwriter decades worldlier than this mere 20-year-old soul," raved the Austin Chronicle. Her songs have since been recorded by Slaid Cleaves (Rounder Records) and Laurie Lewis (Hightone) and licensed to MTV.