-David "Zzyzx" Steinberg
When you repeatedly return to a place to see music, it can become part of you. You learn its secrets - there's a lesser known bathroom over there, there's a back way to getting to that section, you should never try to camp in that spot again - and in exchange it implants itself into you. Your memories get populated with stories and inside jokes from there. Much like the dust from the lower music bowl does to my lungs, over the past few decades Horning's Hideout has slowly invaded my thoughts. Since I can't just cough it out, the only choice is to expel via writing.
Flashback 1: NWSS 2008 aka My Northwest String Summit Origin Story
While I had been to three String Cheese Incident festivals at Horning's Hideout prior, the String Summit was a bit of a black box to us. We almost went in 2005 but a previously scheduled Alaska trip conflicted. There was a real chance that this might have been the local festival that got away. Instead, we decided to go to High Sierra that year.
As I documented at the time, we were having a great festival in California until Bob Weir's arrangement of a few Jerry songs offended my Jerry purism. We quickly escaped to another stage, only to discover that someone had raided our tent and stole $1000 worth of camera equipment. Feeling violated, we immediately left and drove home, skipping the WMDS Keller project.
A few days later I came home to an announcement. Mel wasn't going to let us be scared of festivals, she wanted to see the WMDS, so she had bought us 2 day passes to the Strummit. That might have been that if it were not for one thing. The String Cheese festivals were known for having these Peak Experience production numbers that were filled with fire dancing and all sorts of eye candy. This was something that they advertised extensively as part of the experience and was expected.
What was not expected was to have glowing objects on sticks parading through the crowd on Saturday night of what was supposed to be a bluegrass festival. "They have these things!" we exclaimed, and in that moment the event presented itself as our new home. The imagery was abstract and let us project our own stories onto them; over the years, there were scary robots and whales and one year there was even an epic battle for the soul of Horning's Hideout between a peacock - the spirit of Horning's Hideout - and some terrifying aliens... where the aliens won. It was fun in a way that seemed aimed directly at us, and immediately we knew we would be returning.
Prelude to Fest aka the Northwest String Struggle
One of the ways that getting old (especially after the years of Covid) has affected me when it comes to music is that the weeks leading up to an event are filled with dread instead of excitement. I focus on the travel, the downsides, the ways that things could go wrong instead of what could be cool. It feels like every trip has me trying to figure out a way to back out. Once I get there, I'm fine but that lead up is rough.
What didn't help this time is that the first few hours of a Horning's festival are always bad. There are many wrong places to camp - as implied above, we have discovered many of them - and only one right one for that year. There are long walks to your car to load in and out and there's always the chance that you'll end up next to someone who has different ideas about how 4 AM should be spent. It always does end up working out somehow (well as long as we all agree to forget the year where we camped behind the Honey Buckets in Neverland only to discover how horrid the smell would become much later), but the fear was there.
It turned out that that was a bad call to stress about. Upon arrival, we quickly found a good spot with great neighbors and were set for the weekend. It turned out the issue would be camping gear. Pretty much any way that could have failed us, it did. Amazon was late with the delivery of our new cooler. I left the bag with all of our chargers at home, requiring a mad dash across the Beaverton at 9 PM to find replacements. Our friend Annette had her car broken into in Portland and had to spend most of Thursday getting new clothes. Our brand new cart that we purchased to schlep our supplies over the hilly, uneven terrain immediately lost a wheel on its first load; by its second trip it was down to 1 and was actively unhelpful. Our brand new air mattress, the one that I figured would just work and I didn't have to test it at home, turned out to be the kind that only inflated or deflated when plugged into an outlet. Our possessions were failing us!
...but was the Strummit ever really about things anyway?
Flashback 2: NWSS 2012 aka The true possessions were the bands we met along the way.
By 2012, we were String Summit old hands. We knew exactly what we were doing and what to expect. So when a band named Fruition was scheduled for a mid afternoon set, we were thinking that it would be a fun way to spend an hour or two. Lie in the sun and enjoy in a mostly empty bowl. Instead though, there was a roar and hundreds of people in costumes and signs came flooding into the pit area. I had no idea who this band was but if it inspired that much passion, I had to find out.
They opened their set with the insanely catchy "Mountain Annie" and that was it for me. Between that, their cover of "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" with my previous year's NWSS discovery (Shook Twins), and the energy and fun they were pouring out, I immediately went to buy all of their CDs at the merch tent. They have become one of my go to bands, a core listen. Along with Shook Twins and Elephant Revival, I owe so much of my modern listening to these early teens String Summits.
Fruition 7/21/22
While I talk about how Fruition is a large part of the reason why I love the String Summit, the reverse is also true. The festival is an obvious influence on the band. They have a story about how before they were able to play a stage, they plugged in their instruments one night and jammed until security shut them down; ironically for how much I love them now, I remember that event, but from my tent where I couldn't really make out the music, my reaction was, "WHY WON'T THESE JERKS JUST STOP ALREADY?" Even before I knew them, Fruition was part of of my pile of Horning's stories. And before they played the main stage, the Strummit was part of Fruition, specifically in the form of "Wasting Away."
The Mimi Naja penned song about trying to abandon an unrequited love is written around a fun conceit. Every verse starts with a different "Some" word. First it's that "something is coming over" her, mainly the revelation that this is unhealthy. Then we find that "someone came to [her] side" to give her a speech that she was wasting her time here and had to stop. However it's the third verse that is relevant here, and the reason why it was featured early in their final Northwest String Summit set:
Somewhere out by North Plains
I pushed my limits to let go, I did not worry about the pain
And I'm finally getting over you, I'll get you out of my brain
It's one thing for us to know how important these festivals are, but it's another to have the bands acknowledge it. Between this, Jay and Mimi having a moment in the music break of "The Meaning" where they were almost snuggling to console each other as they played, and getting to hear "Mountain Annie" on the same stage 10 years later, only this time with a crowd that knew every word, it really was apparent. The Strummit made Fruition better. Fruition gave power to the festival. Both of them worked together to create an experience for us, one that could let us break out of negative head spaces and redirect our energy to healthier places. This was the first cathartic moment of the festival, one that reminded us that chasing music is anything but wasting away.
Flashback 3: NWSS 2010 aka Fear and more fear in North Plains
So by 2010 we had been to a few of these and we felt like we got the way this works, but this was the year where we had a bit of a disaster. It was Saturday night and Mel had a migraine. We blew off Yonder's first set where Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann sat in with Yonder, but a decision was made for set 2. To paraphrase Mimi in "Wasting Away", Mel was not going to worry about the pain, but rather we were going to go to the field and see the blowout set. And we were rewarded. Not only were the glow objects that year especially freaky - robots with glowing eyes that wouldn't look out of place in an episode of Doctor Who - but things got weird at the end. As a long, intense "Follow Me Down to the Riverside" (a song from the perspective of a man who gives a very threatening proposal to a woman with chilling lyrics like, "Woman! Why you got to do me wrong. I mean all I did was love you with all my heart and you did me wrong.") was winding down, Jeff suddenly said in a police style voice, "Reports are that the man was last seen roaming the hills of North Plains, OR. Campers at Horning's Hideout are to be aware for a large man - about 6 foot 4 - carrying a bloody pick axe and a shovel over his shoulder." I didn't yet understand the horrific plot of the song, so that seemed to come out of nowhere and terrify me. It's still one of the go to moments of NWSS history to me - we listened to it on our drive into the venue this year - and taught us the lesson of the event. No matter what happens, try to press on. The music is usually worth it.
Greensky Bluegrass 7/21/22
One of the great things about the Jamgrass scene in general and Northwest String Summit in particular, is how much the musicians love to play with each other. We frequently get interesting collaborative efforts, some of which will never be experienced again. And sometimes it's just that the right artist is there at the right time. Both Holly Bowling and Greensky Bluegrass were at this festival, so we'd get 2022's hottest sensation 6reensky.
Adding Holly as a 6th member gives the band extra textures which seems to inspire them. Also, like Fruition, Greensky has always been a mainstay of the event. One final chance to play seemed to give them a bit more energy. They broke out some of their more classic jam vehicles ("Kerosene" and "Leap Year") which are rarer these days. The novelty of having Holly, the freshness of these songs, and the need to pay homage to the spirit of the festival led to an exceedingly strong show.
Two things about this show stand out to me, one in each set. In the first set, during the end of "Courage For the Road," the band got into a really intense space and then started chanting a very familiar set of words, one that I couldn't place until I got home. "Follow me down." "Follow me down." "Follow me down. Follow me down. Follow me down." I don't know if they also listened to that 7/17/10 show from the previous section or not, but they channeled an all time NWSS moment. It wouldn't be the last time this would happen.
The second amazing moment happened at the end when they brought out Lindsay Lou to end the show for a spirited arrangement of "(I've Had) The Time of My Life"; she split the vocals with with Paul Hoffman. At the end she even jumped into Anders' arms but he did not lift her over his head. It was a perfect way to sum up their time here. I do want to make one thing perfectly clear though. While this was an emotional weekend, I did not completely choke up during a novelty cover. The story is a lie and if it is true it's about someone else and if it's about me, you have no video and therefore you can't prove it! If it did happen though, I blame the jellyfish!
Flashback 4: SCI 2007 aka The Trip Trap and the Jellyfish
When they played Horning's String Cheese Incident had these elaborate campground installations. One year they had something that was a Trip Trap. It was a large sheet of LED lights - rarer in 2007 - that would constantly change in mesmerizing patterns. If you were in an altered state of mind, you might get stuck there. We were wandering over on Saturday night to see what the big deal was, and our friend LTJ stopped us. No, he wasn't warning us about the dangers of the trap; rather he was trying to sell us on it. But there we were, some 30 feet away from being able to see it, and he wouldn't let us because he was so busy explaining how amazing it would be if only we could get around him to check it out.
We eventually did escape that and tried to get back to our tent. Why "tried?" Because there was another trap. There were people holding up some glowing jellyfish umbrellas and it just kind of made sense to follow them through the stage area and then around the large pond. It was around the time that they started entering the pond that I feared they were trying to lead us to our watery grave, so I gathered the will to leave the second attempt at beguiling.
It became one of our running jokes, the Trip Trap and the Jellyfish and LTJ demanding that we let him thoroughly give the details of what the installation did before being allowed to see it all merged into one combined story. LTJ has since passed, so when someone came out with a jellyfish umbrella during "(I've Had) The Time of My Life," it just brought home just how much of my life has been spent on this land and how many times of my life I had indeed had there.
The Reality of 2022: Greensky and Mama Magnolia and Rainbow Girls and Pixie & the Partygrass Boys
This summer isn't just my summer of seeing music. It's a summer of frustration and anger, especially in a festival with many female performers. The first notice was subtle: Greensky changed the lyric in "Windshield" from "And there's nothing for a woman left to take from a man" to "And there's nothing for the woman left to give to the man," turning the frustration of the line around. Others were far more obvious. At various times from the Tweener Stage, Mama Magnolia had a song with the theme of "My body, my choice" that even contained a verse with a great summation of trans rights, Rainbow Girls went on a rant about just how much they appreciated Kavanaugh, and Pixie & the Partygrass Boys, living up to their name, had an infectious dance number of "Go vaginas/Go go vaginas." Some rage, some try to make it fun, some sneak in a lesson like parents blending the vegetables in mac and cheese, but the times had a-changed enough to bring this into the festival. Hopefully this will have the dual effect of both recharging our will to fight while reminding us that we can't stop now.
Friday Morning: Never Come Down at the River Side
One of the great things about the String Summit is the Cascadia Stage. While it isn't the biggest space ever - later this morning The Traveling McCourys would play there and it got so crowded that I was forced to blow it off - it's located down at the base of a hill in the woods by a stream. It's a very peaceful location and gives music some extra emphasis. Music is only there in the morning hours, be it as people are waking up or as they're falling asleep, and it's always the best way to start or end a day. On Saturday I saw Never Come Down and they were determined to keep it real. Now one of the defining characteristics of bluegrass is to have depressing lyrics over happy dance music. You know you're in for an extreme example of that though when the band gives a PSA before a song telling you that it's OK to leave a bad relationship. Festival Friday! Wooooo!
They had another funny piece of banter later in the set. Setting up a song about a last date, they asked if anyone was at the String Summit on a first. That would be an interesting invitation. "Hey, want to get to know me? I have a great idea. Let's go to a 4 day camping festival where we'll get all gross and dusty. Oh, and if you hate me or decide that I'm creepy, guess what? There's no cell phone service here so you can't call a friend or order an Uber! Sounds like a plan, right?"
Keller & the Keels
In case you haven't noticed this by now, one of the defining characteristics of the String Summit for me is that there isn't an inch of the grounds that doesn't have a memory associated with it. While most of my associations are with running jokes and weird things that have happened over the years, when you have seen these bands for this long of a period of time, sometimes outside events are what gets jogged. Take for example a cover that Keller did midway through his set on Friday. It was appropriate enough for a Yonder headlined festival - the Jeff Austin penned "New Horizons." My association with that song was less seeing Yonder playing it live and more a morning ritual I had in the early 2000s.
I used to wake up to a mix CD from my alarm clock. It started out with "Here Comes the Sun," and then I'd doze off for the next 20 minutes or so as I had songs designed to slowly bring me to life. My cat First Cous would take this as a cue to lie next to me and spoon. I usually would wake up to the studio version of "New Horizons," and as a result, I'd sing "I love Cous/Cous loves me," over the main riff of the song. That's one of the things that makes this music so special to us. These songs become less what we listen to and more like a soundtrack. Both our biggest adventures and our day to day lives are intertwined with these bands, and we remix them to make them our own.
The result of this change though was another bizarre moment of sadness. Jeff Austin is dead. First Cous passed a few years ago. The String Summit is passing. Even the CD format is on its last legs. I started to mock myself again for getting sad over a song that thematically didn't fit, but then I remembered that it was about a town that was getting completely destroyed by a flood and the residents were praying for the sun to come out and so maybe they could save some semblance of their former life, so I guess it did fit this tine.
Friday night: there are sets between
One of my favorite things about the String Summit and a feature that I wish more festivals would have is the Tweener set. They put a second stage on top of the hill that leads down to the bowl and smaller bands play there while the main stage changes. It's just far enough of a walk to make it feel like you're making an effort, but a short enough one that it never really is an issue. It gives people something to do between acts, gets us a little extra cardio by walking up the hill, encourages some turnover on the rail as people move up and down the hill and let others take their spot, and - perhaps most importantly - "tweener" is a great neologism. The stage has changed and evolved over the years. At one point they used one of Ken Keesey's Further buses. In 2022 it was an actual constructed setup complete with the capabilities of a rather intense light show. Fireside Collective played up there. Their set was more classic bluegrass than most bands until they went into "Uncle John's Band." This was cool because it reminded us of how timeless the Dead is since none of the members of this band were old enough to have had a shot of seeing Jerry but they still love the song. Moreover, it gave them a chance to morph into a Greensky style jam in the middle. If it's weird of thinking of Greensky Bluegrass as influencing other bands since they're still one of the new bands on the scene in my head, that's just another sign of the ceaseless passing of time as marked in a few paragraphs above.
Later that night we also had tweeners by Kitchen Dwellers - performing the rare trifecta of playing a late night, a tweener, and a main stage set - and the new to me band of Banshee Tree. Here's a festival pro tip: it pays to have a friend and/or partner who has a different sleep schedule or just wants to check out different stages. Many times I've benefitted from Mel's night owl ways, from the time on Jam Cruise when she called the room and ordered me to go to the Jam Room RIGHT NOW, to the days where we would exchange stories; I'd tell her about the early morning sets and she'd inform me about what happened at 4 AM. In this case though, while I was watching the Yonder Mountain late night set, she ventured off to a different stage for a minute only to come back and stagenap me.
While her description of Banshee Tree was that they sounded like Jon Stickey Trio - and Nick Carter's violin definitely was reminiscent of Lyndsay Pruett at times - I heard another influence: the fun Electro Swing songs of High Step Society. Regardless of how you categorize the band, this was a very fun set, one that reminded me again how many bands I love I owe to the String Summit for their discovery. It feels like they have a Bag of Holding that's filled with nothing but new and exciting bands that they can endlessly draw from. Moreover, by scheduling them on these Tweener sets and comfortable side stages, they feel less like an obligation to go through and more like a fun side quest. Finish the bonus content and you get an exciting reward: some new favorite bands!
Flashback 5: NWSS 2014: The First Rule of String Summit
Every now and then, there are these bizarre entries on the String Summit lineup that are not always obvious what they are. 2015 had one of those with Wicked Messenger, an unknown band playing the main stage on Thursday... that turned out to have members of Yonder reimagined as a pop punk band. While "Left Me in a Hole" worked very well with that arrangement, it was the aggressive "Black Sheep" that really stole the show. I could never again listen to that song without wishing it to be the punk classic that it wanted to be.
The lesson learned from this sparsely attended set was that whenever there is a mysterious name whose description is just musicians that I love, always attend that. Following that is why I made it to the first Sideboob set in 2016, not knowing what to expect other than the musicians playing were ones that I loved; I sure as hell did not expect them to open with TLC's "Waterfalls" and that - along with the Wicked Messenger "Black Sheep" - will be an all time NWSS memory.
Saturday Morning: Let the Sprintathon Begin!
Deep in the woods at 10 AM on Saturday, Rainbow Girls played to a surprisingly large crowd. Their set was fun with tons of harmonies and 50s style doo-wop and surf guitar and the banter was great. Sometimes you can tell when a band gels over their endless travel. They were cracking each other up throughout the set.
As enjoyable as that set was, Saturday was a day about pacing. Not only was there music for most of the day, but this was a day with conflicts. As Holly Bowling's set went from the "Lost Sailor > Terrapin Station Suite" into "Theme From the Bottom," I went to see The Sweet Lillies for a while before wandering back as "Theme" went back into "Terrapin." But I missed the "Saint of Circumstance" final resolution of the complicated sandwich Bowling was playing because it was time for Sierra Hull.
All of the feelings the final Saturday of String Summit was already bringing, started to infect the music some. Sierra Hull performed a melancholy version of "Mad World" and Hartless - an amazing combination of Jennifer Hartwick and Umphrey's Brendan Bayliss alternating between heckling each other and playing covers - broke out "(Sittin' On) the Dock of the Bay."
As though that weren't bittersweet enough, Kitchen Dwellers started their set with "Stand at Ease." While this song about losing someone to addiction was depressing enough, Joe Funk announced before it started, "I wrote this song about Jeff Austin." I always thought this song was about a lover, but it definitely works in that context. Hearing "I still miss your original soul/Saying, 'Keep on going, you gotta keep on,'" being sung about Jeff in the Horning's Hideout bowl was a poignant moment.
Fortunately the rest of the set was much cheerier, including a fun "I'd Probably Kill You" with Paul Hoffman from Greensky joining in. I also had my most String Summit moment of the weekend when they invited Lindsay Lou on stage to sing No Doubt's "Spiderwebs" as someone in a giant inflatable dinosaur costume danced near me. There was a giant spider being swung around by a fan at this set, so I wonder if news of this cover leaked. Aside: Lindsay Lou sat in in many of these sets and somehow - no matter how short of a time there was between her appearances - she had a different outfit on every single time. I'm not sure how she did it but it was a great running joke for the weekend.
Flashback 6: NWSS 2011: The Frog Choir
While I normally camp on one particular side of Horning's, one year I was talked into going to family camp by my friend Karly, so she'd have some extra eyes on her kid Summer - a woman who is now in college, not to make me feel old or anything. We ended up setting up our camp in the very back of the family area by a small pond. Towards the end of Yonder's Friday set, I got tired and went to crash. I could hear the stage pretty well and drifted off to sleep to Yonder covering Talking Heads' "Girlfriend is Better." As I was doing that, I heard the frogs in the pond ribbit perfectly in time to the music. It was something that I talked about for years... and was only slightly disappointed to learn years later when I got the recording that the frog noises were actually happening on the stage and was not the fauna of the Hideout harmonizing along.
Natural or goofiness, I still can never think of that song the same way ever again. Again, this is the String Summit effect. So many running jokes over the years.
One Last Saturday Night
Saturday night is the big blowout for the String Summit. The theme for the night was quickly given by Vince Herman during Leftover Salmon's set. Since it's the last Saturday night, he prompted us to not pace ourselves, but gave everyone the goal of making it to sunrise. I'm not sure that following Vince's advice would lead to the healthiest life, but it would definitely be fun.
When Jeff Austin died, one of the ways that Greensky paid tribute to his death was to cover The Rolling Stones song "No Expectations" in the style that the Austin led Yonder's arrangement. So it made sense to invite Greensky out during Yonder's set to perform that. This time though it had a second meaning. "I got no expectations/To pass through here again," spoke to the end of the String Summit in addition to bringing back memories of Jeff.
As mentioned above, the String Summit has a glowing artwork by Tyler Fuqua. While the program announced that it would happen during Umphrey's set, tradition stuck and it came out during the end of Yonder. This year it started with a platform on which a person in a caterpillar costume danced. As it handed out the flowers on it, a giant glowing butterfly was wheeled out. On top of that was another caterpillar. They moved to the same platform and did a happy dance of love and joy. It was a very adorable way for this tradition to go out. The butterfly stayed at the side of the stage for the rest of the night and was a fun thing to look at throughout Umphrey's set.
The Saturday post-Yonder no pretense at bluegrass set is another tradition. With two sets, Umphrey's McGee decided to make a concession to the crowd and start with acoustic instruments. Mind you, they wimped out a bit. Joel continued to play keyboards and Stasik somehow refused to learn how to play a stand up bass for the occasion, but otherwise the sound was indeed significantly different. The acoustic material revolved around a long sandwich of "In the Kitchen" after which they abandoned that concept. Long term String Summit attendees might refer to that as "Doing a moe." after that band gave up on their acoustic set in 2010 about 3 songs in and moved to electric. Umphrey's did much better and deserve credit for that.
To close out the evening, I went to where I started the day: The Cascadia Stage. There the String Summit mainstays Shook Twins did their traditional late night show. It was weird and surreal at times [1], with guests and bizarre covers, but the thing that really stuck with me was that for the second time that day I saw a performer cover "Mad World." Between that and the performance of Joni Mitchell's "Blue," the feeling of the end of an era was starting to take hold.
The Shooks wrapped up their final performance in "the hole" (as they call the stage) with a "Window > Mercedes Benz > Window" medley. For one last time the 8-10 year old girls who were allowed to stay up way past their bedtime, rode the rail and had that insanely positive role model. It was well after 3 AM, over 17 hours after I first hit that stage. It was finally time to go to sleep. OK, Vince, I took your challenge!
Watch out: the world's behind you: Sunday and the end of an amazing festival
The final challenge of the String Summit is the camp load out. With one's car likely far away from one's camp, it becomes a game of maximizing music while minimizing time spent moving items from point A to B. As early arrivers, we got lucky to not be in the overflow lot which required shuttle usage - I saw one unfortunate camper begging to be let down to the lower lot for this but there just was nowhere to park her - but it still is a bit of a hassle.
Obeying my rule from earlier, I had circled "We're in Love ft. Mimi Naja, Allie Kral, Lindsay Lou, Kyle Tuttle, & Travis Book" as a must see. Sure enough, this selection of love songs - with a constant mid song reiteration that they were indeed in love with each other - was just pure fun. The set ended with the members coming out in the middle of the crowd and playing a song with no amplification which is always risky. Will the crowd allow it to happen or will it just be a mess? While it didn't work quite as well as the epic "Meet Me on the Mountain" that Fruition pulled off in 2019 without any crowd noise whatsoever, it was one of those String Summit moments that will be missed; a group of musicians playing the songs that they love just out of the joy of it.
While Billy Strings justifiably gets most of the ink for being an up and coming act in the jamgrass scene, there are two others that are starting to build momentum. One is Kitchen Dwellers who seem to always be surprising and impressing people at every festival. The other is Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway. Yes, she has an amazing song catalog and she gets a lot of press, but there's also the effect where, as Mel exclaimed, "I always forget that she's this good!"
In addition to the quality of the music, Molly had an advantage. Due to there still being 2020 tickets that were being honored and everyone wanting to see the final String Summit, this was an oversold event. The bowl was constantly crowded, even for the early afternoon sets. However, by Sunday afternoon it had cleared out a bit. We finally had the room in the back of the floor of the bowl to play. There were hoopers and an elaborate frisbee game going. That sort of play as the background to music releases all of the right endorphins.
One of the annual traditions of the String Summit is a Sunday headshave and fundraiser in honor of Lilli Trippe, a Yonder Mountain fan who developed childhood cancer. This happened right after Molly's set and she acknowledged her own fight with Alopecia Areata. Between the heat of the afternoon - most of the festival had been under very temperate conditions but it got to the 90s on Sunday - and wanting to engage in solidarity, she removed her wig before "Crooked Tree" and played the rest of the set without it. Once again, someone at the String Summit discovered the simple secret to musical success: write great songs, form a band with excellent musicians, and be an amazing and interesting person. It's amazing more people don't try these easy steps.
The day went on. The sun went down. We had reached it: the final moment of music in the Horning's bowl. While Yonder hasn't ended every String Summit, it was only right that they called this part of the festival to a close. While the centerpiece was the extended "Traffic Jam," perhaps the most amusing part of the set was when they wanted to pay homage to their youthful desire to be rock stars, not bluegrass musicians. They rearranged their songs for electric instruments and drums. While some of these made it pretty obvious that they worked better in the bluegrass format, before the final song of this segment, Ben delivered an extended riff about how it was going to be OK, but with each passage of this he sounded less and less likely. The music got angry and it quickly became apparent what we were going to get. The Wicked Messenger punk rock "Black Sheep" lives! Maybe this would be the last time we see music here, but it was appropriate to have that performed once again.
As if that weren't enough, two songs later we had the return of another great String Summit classic. Yonder covered "Girlfriend is Better." I had to spend some time explaining why I was ribitting along with the chorus, but the frogs in the pond appreciated the acknowledgement.
The final song of Yonder's String Summit career was also a cover, this time John Hartford's "Tear Down the Grand Ole Opry." In the same way that Coventry was all about discussing what the future of Phish would be, the rumor mill at the String Summit was a lot about what would be next. The theories largely split among three camps. Either this was ending because Bob Horning no longer wanted this kind of event on his property, Yonder no longer wanted to hold it, or they're just looking for a new promoter. Proponents of the last theory were putting out rumors that it would just be a rebrand and something similar would be happening in the future. As much as I want to believe that (and I know nothing whatsoever), the actions of the lifer bands made that feel less likely. Closing the festival with this much of a tear jerker of a song, with every musician available out to sing along, this felt like an end of an amazing event more than just a year off and a new name. This is definitely a case where I hope that I'm wrong.
We took a moment to sit in the bowl, reflect on the many memories we had there, and just soak in the spot. I don't know if we'll ever be there again, so I wanted to be there with the hill and the trees one more time. But then it was time for a final walk up the hill and over to the Kinfolk Stage because we still had Sideboob! Due to the delay, we missed the beginning but by the time we settled in, the first full song we were to hear was most apropos: "Waterfalls." In the space of an hour, three of my favorite String Summit moments were referenced. If this festival is indeed ending, it's going out like a sitcom replaying all of the clips from its classic episodes.
Sideboob: a band born of the festival, raised there, and existing largely because of the intentional plan of the String Summit to book as many women as possible was the perfect way for it to go out. Moreover, what better ending to a beloved festival than a high energy dance party with tons of guests. In addition to the usual suspects, it was really fun to see Jennifer Hartwick joining the party for "Proud Mary." Trey's just one remove from Shook Twins now! I'd love to see the Shookies providing background vocals for a Halloween album one year.
As the clock rolled toward midnight, the all female superfun supergroup ended it all with 4 Non Blonde's "What's Up?" As much as the Coventry metaphor applied, this was the very opposite of "The Curtain With." Sure we were crying, but we were also singing and pumping our fists and celebrating the moment and the festival that brought so many to us. I have no idea what might replace this. Maybe Sawtooth will get bigger, maybe some other festival will take over, or maybe this will be it. I'm going to miss this. I'll miss the peacocks screaming, and the peacock inspired clothing; I think we singlehandedly kept the peacock clothing industry in business. I'll miss the hill and the Saturday glow and knowing every inch of the property and the forced lack of connectivity. But if we had to go out, we went out with a joyous singalong.
[1] I didn't have a good place to put this earlier without wrecking the flow, but while finding my spot for this set, I saw a man dressed in a white suit, channeling his internal James Bond. Before the Shookies came on, he told us in a serious voice, "If at any point tonight you have need of tear gas, let me know." Fortunately it did not come to that. Along with hearing the sentence fragment of, "Now that I'm cottage core..." this was the quotable moment of the festival.
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