The Fall season in Florida might not have the aesthetic transformation of our Northern counterparts, but the music climate certainly changes and takes a turn for the great. Dedicated patrons flock down to the peninsula for moderate temperatures balanced by choice weather and copious amounts of sunshine. The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park becomes the ideal venue for music spectating and camping for East Coasters hell bent on pushing the congested festival season a few months further.
This past weekend a smaller, more intimate gathering of bluegrass enthusiasts, folk faithful and jam rock addicts invaded Live Oak to witness four full days of power players like moe., Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, The Travelin' McCourys with Keller Williams, Railroad Earth, Cornmeal, Steel Pulse, 7 Walkers, Col. Bruce Hampton and a collaboration between Toubab Krewe and The Infamous String Dusters.
After a stacked day proceeding them, moe. set the pace on Friday night with a standout marathon set pushing close to two and a half hours. When they took the stage the crowd couldn't have been more than 200 people, but an explosive twenty minute "Meat" opener got the ball rolling in the right direction.
A string of segues came from the Wormwood pairing of "Not Coming Down" and "Wormwood" before slipping into the monster twang-rock anthem "32 Things." The temperature dropped significantly during the 47-minute sequence, and bassist Rob Derhak was quick to point out, "damn it's cold, I think my oranges are frozen."
The set coasted to a particular strong "Wind It Up," but the true highlight was a smothered "McBain" sandwich with an extended "Time Ed" serving up the heat that "Meat" had started at the beginning of the set.
The combination of cold and an older crowd didn't provide much in the way of a post-party beyond personal camp fires and RV private sessions. An unusual, yet calming quiet camping experience where I was set up allowed for a good nights rest and an early start on Saturday.
Catching up on my exploring, a wandering mission from each of the four stages to the next provided a better representation of the individuals that comprise MagFest. Most of them are Southern baby boomers using the weekend as a vacation with activities geared towards setting up camp chairs in front of stage and watching some of the most talented musicians in the country show off. Booze were flowing in a moderate fashion and the energy is subdued yet intent on catching each note.
A series of sit-ins and unsuspecting collaborations defined the marathon of foot stomping good sets. Jim Lauderdale welcomed the String Dusters to the Amphitheater Stage for a few true blood bluegrass songs. The Lee Boys brought out the bass master Victor Wooten for an earth shattering guitar duel. The Infamous Krewe, a Toubab Krewe and The Infamous String Dusters super-group, has some sound problems but eventually the combination of the two groups resulted in an interesting melding of the former's psychedelic afrobeat and the latter's string work.
Back in the enchanted forest vibe of the Amphitheater, Cornmeal was setting the stage on fire and took it to fifth gear with an extended sit in by Bela Fleck during "Shady Groove."
When Bela reunited with the Flecktones later that night they would bring out violist extraordinaire Casey Driessen to add some textures and build up to more than one peaking jam during the 90-minute set. Just when the uniqueness of seeing all these musicians creating and improvising with each other couldn't get much better, lap steel guitar prodigy Roosevelt Collier stole the show when he sat in for "St. Augustine" and "Downward Facing Dog."
That would be the highlight of the night, along with a 25-minute "Recreational Chemistry", as the Buffalo jam rockers took a more relaxed approach, and played their all too familiar standard festival set style.
A lazy Sunday brought multiple encore presentations from bands booked the day previous. All in all, MagnoliaFest is an unsuspecting weekend with lots of room for fun and lacks the hectic nature that comes with bigger events boasting taller lineups and higher capacities. Having braved the weekend solo, I managed to make some new friends and for once a festival felt more like a vacation. Suggestions for future attempts would include a prime recreational vehicle, a crew rolling deep and more whiskey.
A big thank you to Marcus Barnett for getting these recordings of moe. up so quickly and letting me post them here.
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
(Original Lineup)
Culture Room, Fort Lauderdale
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
Better Than: Bela Fleck & The Flecktones with Jeff Coffin on saxophone.
Hot off their chart topping new album Rocket Science with the original Flecktones lineup of Victor Wooten (bass), Roy "Future Man" Wooten (Drumitar, percussion) and Howard Levy (piano, harmonica), Bela Fleck (banjo) and the guys proved that after over 20 years they are still pushing the progressive envelope. As masters of their respective instruments and possessing a reputation of defying genre classification, an certain level of expectation proceeds the outfit. They are more about jazzing up world rhythms than sticking to jazz molds, and more inclined to fuse bluegrass and funk than dwell in the fusion spectrum. After an extensive summer tour playing theaters, sheds and festivals all over the U.S. and Canada, the quartet of virtuosos kicked of an early October run through the South that included a stop at the intimate Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale.
The Culture Room brought in numbers and the room was filled to capacity when the guys took up their respective instruments. The start of the set was oddly punctual and kicked off right around the 9 p.m. mark. "Gravity Lane," the opening track of the new album, served as a warm up tune before the band launched into a series of greatest hits, crowd favorites, and choice new selections. A theme of using older tracks as jump off point for segues into fresh material from Rocket Science worked well in maintaining a balance of sound range and the audience's attention.
"Sex In a Pan" from 1992's UFO Tofu was phased into "Life In Eleven," a Levy track that references his use of 11/8 time, something he calls, "really funky, but to me feels totally normal." That is not normal, but this is the same guy that was the first to use overblow and overdraw techniques for chromatic playing on the diatonic harmonica. Another UFO track came with an upbeat version of "The Yee-Haw Factory" before dropping into a smoothly slowed down and jazzed out "Prickly Pair."
Grammy nominated violinist Casey Driessen came out to show off his violin skill set and engaged Levy in multiple duels. The winner of each was debatable, but the competition pushed the entire band into high energy peaks that were rewarded by ovations from the audience. He would return a handful of times through out the night. Things went way back to the self titled record next with "Flipper" and "Sunset Road" sandwiching 1991's "Flying Saucer Dudes" from Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo." Old school fans were elated by the series of throwback cuts and the band rewarded the crowd energy with jaw dropping solo trading. Whether it was Fleck switching between his traditional and rock guitar tone mandolins, Future Man on the drumitar or traditional kit, Levy on harmonica or Steinway baby grand, or Wooten on his yin-yang 4 string or aquamarine 5 string bass, the multidimensional conglomerate held nothing back.
A two hour and forty minute continues set continued with two more new songs before crushing both crowd favorites "Sinister Minister" and "Blu-bop." Fittingly bookending the set where "Gravity Lane" began, the guys extended the bass driven "Bottle Rocket," the final track of Rocket Science, before walking off stage.
The insatiable crowd took the opportunity to release a great deal of pent up energy that brought a smiling band back on stage. The final result can only be called an exposition on how Fleck can capture such a large amount of sound while alone on stage. Lets just say he even tried to play with his teeth. Future Man was also left to his own devices as he put on a drum clinic before the band returned to the stage to round out the encore with an Earth shattering bass solo from Wooten during Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo.
Critics Notebook:
The Crowd: Top heavy mix of an older crowd mixed in with energetic young jazz heads. The room was packed in from wall to wall with little room to move.
Personal bias:First time seeing the original lineup and Levy stole the show with the dynamic and energy he brings to the band. The tracks from Rocket Science bring back the original sound combined with musical evolution and wisdom.
Overheard: "So I got to Fort Lauderdale and went to one of those massage parlors...yeah" - Victor Wooten in between songs. Intermittent bursts of the loudest yelling possible by a particularly excitable member of the audience.
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