“Life Begins at 40” was the theme of the 40th Annual Huck Finn Jubilee Bluegrass Music Festival held this past weekend at Cucamonga-Guasti Regional Park in Ontario, California. In reflecting on three robust days of music, moonshine, workshops, glorious surprises, and wonderful friends, the moment that most encapsulated the entirety of the weekend came Saturday night courtesy of Vince Herman from Leftover Salmon. Before launching into the title track of the band’s 1997 album “Euphoria” to close out their set, Herman gleefully exclaimed, “I think Huck Finn would give up his days on the river and move to California if he knew what kind of fun we’re having out here.”
Indeed. Tucked away in San Bernardino County, the Huck Finn Jubilee is known for being a “low investment and high return” weekend among Southern California music lovers. The festival is almost singular in its ability to deliver a banner weekend of world-class music played by Grammy-winning artists for a value that can’t be beat (three-day General Admission passes were $100 for the “Early Bird Special” and $140 by this weekend). This jaw-dropping value of a festival in such a gorgeous and approachable setting makes for the easiest most enjoyable weekend of any festival of which I’m aware.
Attending any music festival worth it’s salt is always going to be like trying to spend a day at the Louvre. At least in that you have to go in preemptively zen in the knowledge that there’s no way you’ll possibly be able to see, hear, and experience everything. But that didn’t stop me from trying to make the most of my first Jubilee. Over the course of three days I saw fifteen bands, attended a workshop, conducted three interviews, drank some truly kick-ass moonshine, and spent time with a lot of unique, funny, impassioned, brilliant, exuberant people. Although I couldn’t get to ALL of the groovy stuff, I saw, heard, ate, drank, and felt as much of it as I could. Here’s the first of a whole series of pieces, as we look forward to interview pieces and coverage of the rest of the festival being posted in the coming days. In the meantime, here’s my take on Day One of the festivities.
Friday kicked off the weekend with what was effectively “Deadhead Day,” featuring performances by the Peter Rowan Band and headlined by The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience. Although the weekend offered a of plethora of highlights, if pressed to pick a favorite set of the weekend, Peter Rowan’s would take the prize, followed by The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience at a close second. The two sets offered contrasting experiences for audience members, but in tandem with the Jerry Douglas Presents The Earls of Leicester set in between the two, the evening covered about as broad a musical scope as one could hope to see at a bluegrass festival.
I always cringe when I hear any form of the term “Living Legend,” as it’s been far overused and is often unearned. Both Rowan and Grisman have well-earned the distinction, though how they chose to engage with their respective legacies onstage made for the most compelling contrast and some of the most engaging musicianship of the festival.
Rowan’s set heavily featured many of his best-known and most loved original and cover songs from his time as a songwriter, singer, and guitarist for Old and in the Way, the bluegrass super-group that featured Rowan, Grisman, Jerry Garcia, Vassar Clements, and John Kahn. Selections from their songbook that Rowan included in his set included “Midnight Moonlight,” “Land of the Navajo,” “Panama Red,” and his celebrated version of The Rolling Stones “Wild Horses.” It’s a rare thing when someone with this kind of catalogue (including an equally impressive list of songs he wrote but didn’t perform) can begin playing their new material and make it feel as vital and significant as their most classic songs. One of Rowan’s showstoppers was “Doc Watson Morning,” from Rowan’s 2013 album “The Old School,” written in honor of the late flat-picker. At a month before his 74th birthday, Peter Rowan’s vocal ability and delivery was a satisfying and as engaging as it ever has been, and this resonate tribute was arguably the best example of that. And with a couple of spirited renditions of songs written by Rowan’s late mentor Bill Monroe (“Blue Moon of Kentucky,” “Midnight on the Stormy Deep”) added for maximum effect, Rowan’s ninety minutes felt like the set for which the term “living history” was utilized most accurately. On a personal level, the greatest highlight of the festival for me included a one-on-one exclusive interview I got to conduct with Rowan afterwards. Watch for it here in the coming days.
If Peter Rowan’s set was more interested in fan favorites and nostalgia, the ninety-minute headlining set by The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience was more about taking the audience places they might not have expected to go at the outset of the evening. One of the most admirable aspects of Grisman’s career has been his incredible and unwavering dedication to preserving folk songs and the tradition of acoustic music. To that end, he formed The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience. Their latest release, 2013’s “Muddy Roads, ” features “Old-Time Music of Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson.” As much as of the set was derived from that release, there’s an argument to be made that it provided Grisman and bluegrass purists exactly what they wanted, in that it gave Grisman and friends a chance to spend the evening picking their way through well-known standards of the Bluegrass genre. For better or worse, focusing on selections from the new album (“I’ll Rise When the Roster Crows,” “Blue Ridge Mountain Blues”) and other traditional songs, of which “I’m Rollin’ On” was a highlight, left little room in the set for material from Old and in the Way or other collaborations with Jerry Garcia. While the title track from the “Old and in the Way” album was included as an encore and “Dawggy Mountain Breakdown” was indeed a showstopper, the set was billed as a “Bluegrass Experience” and lived up to its name.
My favorite music on stage all weekend was when Rowan and Roland White sat in for “Will You Be Lovin’ Another Man” by Billy Monroe and “White Dove” by Carter Stanley. Rowan sang “White Dove” as the closest thing either set had as a formal tribute to Garcia. With both of the surviving members of Old and in the Way onstage performing together along with one of the noted sidemen for both Monroe and Lester Flatt, it’s important to note that to the best of my discernment Grisman’s set was one of the most universally appreciated of the night, as it might have given the widest array of bluegrass traditionalists and jamband hippies the most to appreciate in equal measure.
In between Rowan and Grisman’s sets was Jerry Douglas Presents The Earls of Leicester. I regrettably had to miss large chunks of their set as I was interviewing Rowan at the time. Though what I heard was everything I would have expected from this Grammy-winning supergroup. Walking the festival while hearing their potent renditions of “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down” and “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms” were still very much among the festival’s musical highlights. Although I’ll talk about this more in my coverage of his performance with The Soggy Bottom Boys, I’ll say here that if anyone has an earnest love of world-class musicianship, bluegrass of all stripes, or simply enjoys life-affirming music, seeing Jerry Douglas at any opportunity is a must. I’ve now seen him play with Union Station as well as an opener for Paul Simon (before he sat in for “The Boxer” at the end of the night), even before multiple performances this weekend. I have a great respect for his work in The Earls of Leicester and their aim to preserve the music of Flatt and Scruggs. But the reason you need to go see him play at the next opportunity and bring everyone you know is that his sets are always educational and feature the highest quality of musicianship, while also being incredibly fun and approachable, regardless of one’s history with or feeling of bluegrass. From what I saw and heard of it, their set seemed be the musically peerless celebration of life I always expect to unfold when Jerry Douglas performs.
Although David Grisman’s set was slotted for two hours, and as far as the audience was concerned he could have played all night, he brought it in at a tight ninety minutes and ended his set promptly at 10:00pm. While the festival had advertised an “80’s Retro Late Night Party featuring Love Canon,” I wanted to make a set at 11:30 the next morning, so opted to be back home in Burbank by midnight.
So Day One of the Huck Finn Jubilee had me stoked to try and do, see, and hear as much as possible on the most jam-packed (pun intended) day of the festival the following day. How did I do? How did it go down? Check back here tomorrow for my Saturday coverage. As Jerry would say, “I’ll meet you at the Jubilee.”
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