The focus on this year’s String Summit would obviously be onJeff Austin. He was a crucial part of the festival’s history and his recentpassing cast shadows over the event. However with 4 stages and music going 17hours a day, there was room for many highlights. Presented in chronologicalorder only, here are the 10 moments at the Strummit that blew me away.
Yonder MountainString Band – Elevation Set Friday Night
While bands playing their old albums have long since been astandard thing, Yonder has had an unofficial policy of not playing Jeff Austinsongs since he left the band. The first large gathering of Yonder’s fanbasewould be the perfect time to end that. Also factor in that their first album Elevation was 20 years old, and this wasa great setting to reflect on their history.
Ben Kauffman was in storyteller mode in this night. He alternated betweenself-deprecation (“[Elevation is] apretty good record. I personally can’t stand the way that I sound on it becauseyou can tell that I’m from Massachusetts. No one should ever pronounce the word‘half’ like that.” “[‘40 Miles From Denver’ was] basically the first song thatI ever wrote. And everybody tells me that’s it’s their favorite. Twenty-oneyears latter I can’t beat ’40 Miles from Denver.’”) and expressing remorse overJeff’s passing.
Two moments really stood out during this tribute. After the “we’ll meet you inthe valley after one more Jagermeister shot” line in “If There’s Still Ramblin’in the Rambler,” shots were indeed brought on stage. While the band mockedabout how they were too old to drink Jager anymore, and said, “We drink this.Let’s hurt our livers one more time for Jeff Austin; let’s do it!” there was asurprising poignancy. Somehow there was a reflection of aging and loss mixed inwith the repetition of an old ritual.
Towards the end of the set, Kaufmann admitted that whateveryone hoped for was what they wanted too, “For me, I always thought there’dbe a little more time. And at some point there’d be this great Yonder reunificationof some kind. If not professionally and touring around or whatever, justpersonally. And all of a sudden, damnit, you realize you don’t have that kindof time.”
One of the things you learn as you age is that even if whenrelationships get weird and end in bad places, when you give yourself to one,it still becomes part of you. Few things are more frustrating than the death ofsomeone with whom things got so bad that you were required to part ways. Justknowing how to react to it can become complicated. It’s never something I’dwish on anyone, let alone people who have to publicly react to thousands ofobservers, many who have their own competing beliefs about how things shouldhave gone down. Yonder gave us a brief window into that, and that itself was atouching moment making the festival worth attending.
Shook Twins – Latenight set, Friday night
In most of the past few years, the Shook Twins have had alate night set at the String Summit. Each night they have used it to stretchout from their usual territory, via guests or – as in the case of last year –doing a one time remix of some of their songs to hear how they’d sound withdifferent arrangements. While their technique has changed, one thing has beentrue in the two late sets that I’ve been lucky enough to see: both times therehave been multiple young girls, somewhere in the 8 to 10 year old range if Ihad to estimate, looking at the stage in awe.
Here’s the thing about Shook Twins. In a world filled withtrolling and the raising of animosity in every forum in every way possible, theShookies are a force of sheer positivity. While they understand that where weare isn’t necessarily the best headspace, their entire raison d’etre seems tobe to tell us that this isn’t all that’s out there. Everyone else took disgustand frustration from 2016 and its election; the Shookies came back and wrote“What Have We Done” for Bernie Sanders, with the motto, “We can all do better.We can all do a little bit better.”
They live in a world with good people who are trying to do the right thing.Even when characters in their songs do bad things, they can be shamed. “Shake” hasthem ask, “What are you going to say when they ask you why you chose to livethis way in your short, short time here on Earth?”
Both of those songs were played in the late night set. Beyond that, it wasincredibly fun. They invited guests on stage, and made a point of letting themall know that they were cherished. It was silly and playful while stillmanaging to be intelligent, two hours of good people playing good music and acrowd completely receptive to that. That’s why the girls in the crowd wereallowed to stay up way past any sane concept of a bedtime. There’s somethingamazing about seeing women just take an attitude of “This is who we are. We’renot going to change. We’re just going to take what we are and push it as far aswe can and see what happens,” and have things work out. Invite Jay CobbAnderson on stage on the spur of the minute because you just like playing withhim? Of course he’ll fit in perfectly and take a great solo.
When they’re on and letting things happen, Shook Twins are amassively life affirming act, the complete antidote to everything else in theworld. I don’t know if Laurie and Katelyn Shook have detailed policies abouttaxes or if Niko Slice has mastered the art of diplomacy, but in that moment,it felt like there could be far worse fates than just putting Shook Twins incharge of things and seeing just how far good intentions from smart people cantake us.
Trout Steak Revival,Kitchen Dwellers, and Handmade Moments – throughout the weekend
If the Northwest String Summit has a potential problem in its future, it’s agood one to have in some ways. There was an incredible crop of bands that wentfrom new and obscure to being staples of the scene. Fruition, Shook Twins, TheLil Smokies all rose from this scene at the same time as Greensky Bluegrass andElephant Revival made names for themselves in other forums. For a few yearsthere, it was like being a fan of a football team where every single playerthat they drafted was about to become a hall of famer.
The problem with that is that you can’t keep up that streakforever. As bands grow, they want to be able to make enough money to actuallyafford to continue to be touring musicians. For a festival to keep thriving,you need newer bands to keep coming in at the same time. While none of thesebands are completely new to the scene – Handmade Moments toured with Yonderearlier this year and both Kitchen Dwellers and Trout Steak have played thefestival before – this felt like a year where they all took a big jump.
Even though they were newcomers to the String Summit, you couldn’t avoid HandmadeMoments this year. Whether it was Joel Ludford playing sousaphone with ShookTwins in the aforementioned late night followed by him leading a one man paradeout of the second stage and out to the campground beyond, sousaphoning away orAnna Moss providing vocals for pretty much any band that needed them, includingsome of the centerpiece sets of the festival, they immediately fit right intothe spirit of the event. Sure it seems weird to have a band that regularly hasabsolutely no strings performing be a fit for a string summit, but it’s aboutthe vibe of Horning’s Hideout, and that they seem to have.
Trout Steak Revival also received some choice sit in slots.Bevin Foley was a frequent guest, including forming a two woman fiddle sectionwith Allie Kral during Yonder Saturday night; the two of them spent the songlaughing over jokes that only female violinists would ever be able toappreciate. It’s not just Bevin. The band as a whole managed to make a hugejump. In 2015 they played one of the worst time slots available at a festival:second stage on Sunday morning at 9:15 AM. No, seriously, they actually had a9:15 AM slot, playing to insomniacs and extreme morning people. 2019 gave thema mainstage slot and an early afternoon performance for their second stage set.
While Kitchen Dwellers were mainly there to play tweenersets while the mainstage switched acts, the crowd for them is also expanding.Despite their conflict with Trampled by Turtles, a crowd started gatheringduring their sound check. By the time their set started, it was filled withfans who were singing along to the originals.
While Kitchen Dwellers were an extreme example, in generalthe second stage was more crowded this year than it had been in the past.Sometimes walking up the steep hill to get from the main bowl to the other act,can feel like a daunting task. Right now the attendees seem excited about theconcept of finding the next series of bands they will love. Trout Steak Revivaland Kitchen Dwellers are string centric, Handmade Moments are more varied withtheir instrumentation. All three though are writing interesting, melodic songs –Trout Steak focuses on harmonies and great hooks, Kitchen Dwellers have complexsongs with many parts, and Handmade Moments go for weirder tunes as befitting aband that sells a t-shirt that simply says “Stop the Wars” and a sticker thatdepicts adult behavior; they’re playing their own game – which in a different erawould be the rock and pop songs that get radio play. In 2019 finding that soundmeans attending specialty festivals.
The Dead South –mainstage, Saturday afternoon
Speaking of bands that operate under the umbrella ofbluegrass but don’t have any interest in a traditional sound, The Dead Southhad a fascinating midday set on Saturday. Before the festival started, whenfans were asking what band they should make an effort to see, The Dead Southwere a frequent answer.
In terms of image, they looked like they were going to be the most traditionalband of the day. They came out in dress shirts and suspenders. They didn’t havedrums or keyboards or weird pedals to create their sound. However, they seemedborderline incapable of writing a normal song. Songs would suddenly shift on adime. At one point there were two random screams in the middle of an unrelatedsong. They promised a 15 minute song –at which point a few people looked at me and demanded a timing; it was only 9,which still was reasonably impressive for the genre – which both showed thatthey understand the normal boundaries of what the bluegrass world is about, andtry to explore as they can while still staying strongly in the world. Breakingthe rules, while respecting them. In that way, they managed to be one of themost traditional bands playing the festival even as they ventured out in theirown path.
Yonder MountainString Band – mainstage, Saturday night
The Saturday night Yonder show at String Summit is one of their definingsets of their year. There is always a visual spectacle provided by Tyler FuquaCreations. In recent years, they’ve been doing an album cover on electricinstruments: two years of Pink Floyd followed by a more divisive cover of SteveMiller’s Greatest Hits. This year they moved away from the album idea and justdecided to invite their friends on stage and play songs that they love; it wasa mix tape set.
Due to a soundboard mishap, the first few songs ended upbeing the soundcheck. As the set progressed though, it started to get reallyinteresting. After performing a He’s Gone (for Jeff obviously), they broughtBrad Parsons on stage to play Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta.” As the artworkcame into play – some weird theme about giant glowing flowers with women in beecostumes dancing on them, but it’s also outer space, perhaps because ScienceFiction is known to have a lot of B movies? This year the theme was a tadforeshadowed by a request for us to dance as bees or flowers (or astronauts)but everyone forgot. I guess the post didn’t have enough buzz to it. – AllieKral played the most euphoric fiddle solo. It may be people in costume dancingon LED lit flowers as a post-grunge song from the late 90s played, but thatdoesn’t mean that it won’t be one of those moments that stick with me forever.Horning’s Saturday nights are known for that.
While the “Flagpole Sitta” was the peak, there are two other songs that need tobe mentioned. Following that, Handmade Moments came out and helped Yonder playa 15 minute version of Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” Outside of the “Echoes” from theMeddle set a few years ago, this is the weirdest I’ve ever seen Yonder get. Ifsomeone wants Northwest String Summit explained in a minute, the video clip Ihave of Yonder Mountain String Band playing a surreal jam as giant flowers spinaround might be the perfect summary. Yeah, technically a “string summit,” but…
The cool down after this had the three singers of Fruition take verses of DobieGray’s 1969 hit “Drift Away.” Fruition like to bring some songs that arethought of as cheesy to the String Summit, going as far as to perform“Afternoon Delight” with the Shook Twins in 2014. Like that version, this justworked, reminding people that there’s a reason these songs became hits.
Before moving on, there’s one more thing about “Fencepole Sitta” that helps toexplain the Strummit experience. One of the best aspects about Horning’sHideout is that it somehow is in a cell phone dead zone. No matter whatprovider you use, your phone stops working when you get to the box office nearthe top of the hill. It’s a mile long, steep walk to get to a place where youcan post photos to Instagram.
Without phones, if you want to know something, you have to ask people. In thiscase, I wanted to know what the title of “Fencepole Sitta” was for my notes. Iasked maybe two dozen people on Saturday night and Sunday morning. The mostcommon result – other than arguing if it was by Green Day or a one hit wonderthat kind of reminded people of Green Day – was to just sing the chorus. Ifinally got the correct answer from a woman named Ripley (and she did indeedsay that the answer was so random, that just this once I could make a believeit or not joke), but before that I was wondering if the name of the song was tosing the chorus. If I were a musician, that would be my prank. If you want towrite down the song title, you need to include the sheet music. Good luck withthat Spotify!
Fruition – mainstage,late Saturday night
Normally the post artwork Yonder set is of a funk band, kindof a palate cleanser. This year that role was to be from Galactic, but someairplane mishaps forced them to swap set times with Fruition who were doing thelate night. While it was fun to see this guest laden set on the big stage (well or to see it at all; the second stageis intimate but it can be hard to get a good spot when a popular band plays alate night) including Daniel Rodriguez singing his Elephant Revival song “TheGarden,” Brad Parsons doing the honor on his tune “Montana,” and Allie Kralcoming out for “Fire,” a song that is always better with her sitting in, thechange had one issue. That stage has a much stricter curfew. Unfortunately the“Sinnerman” which was supposed to be the mid “Fire” song had to be jettisoneddue to time, a serious loss as Mimi does an amazing job singing this. Moreover,they didn’t have time for their final song, “Meet Me on the Mountain.”
Instead of just blowing that one off though, they tried something different.The curfew was only for the sound and the light. There’s no rule saying thatthey couldn’t walk off the stage, go to the front of the photo pit, and playwithout any amplification.
I’ve seen bands play this game before – Phish used to love doing this in early90s in small theatres – but never in an outdoor open space. With easily 1000people there, it would have been so easy for the sound to evaporate or bedrowned out by talkers, especially considering this was happening at 1:30 onSaturday night/Sunday morning, the prime time for people to be maximizing theirfun. Instead what happened was a crowd that was insanely respectful, completelyquiet during Allie’s mid song solo. What it morphed into was a sing-along ofthe chorus, led by Jay, but gladly continued by the rest of us. Especially asthis is a song that touches upon topics of death, this was an incrediblytouching performance, one that still brings chills whenever I listen to therecording. The reason we go to festivals instead of just watching live streamsis in the hope to catch a moment like this. Fruition threw the potential outthere and the rest of us proved worthy of it.
Jeff Austin Service –Cascadia stage, Sunday morning.
There’s probably no better time to honor a fallen musician at a festivalthan early Sunday morning. The service featured speeches by the String Summit’sMC Pastor Tim Christensen (in this case, yes he is an actual pastor), Kristin Trippe – mother ofLilli Trippe, a young girl who got terminal cancer way too young but had Yonder(and Jeff Austin in particular) do everything they could to try to send healingenergy her way - and Yonder’s Dave Johnston.
Kristen talked about how Jeff directly affected Lilli, ““After a dedication toLilli on NYE, I reached out to Jeff and told him that the energy from those songsand from the crowd was transcending the medicine. Then the band started doingsomething magical. Every night, Yonder would stop the show and ask the crowd tosend love to Lilli. To take some of that magical musical energy and put it in abubble. And then they sent that bubble to us. This metaphorical, but palpableenergy kept us going and more importantly, kept Lilli going. In my heart, Iknow it kept her alive.” Dave told astory about how he could never quite figure out how to sing the high notes associatedwithout a struggle and he had never harmonized with anyone before, but when hemet Jeff Austin, Austin started playing “I Know You Rider,” and for the firsttime, he managed to sing in harmony.
Referring back to the “Meet Me on the Mountain” the nightbefore, we then were led in a singing of the first verse of “Amazing Grace.”The power of harmonizing was used for all of us as a group together. Once againwe were reminded that music isn’t just about being entertained. It can serve acommunal purpose. It can help us celebrate and grieve.
Brad Parson’s GospelSet – Cascadia Stage, Sunday morning
Following the memorial service would be difficult, but atleast a gospel set would be thematically appropriate. After a brief… wellalmost brief… sermon by Brad Parson’s father and former pastor Rick, the band wentthrough a series of gospel songs and repurposed rock numbers. Perhaps the peakwas the “My Sweet Lord,” “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” combination. One songis about praise [1] the second about accepting that life will end at somepoint, and that’s something we’re all going to have to deal with. That formed amoving coda to the earlier Amazing Grace and made this an incredibly powerfulSunday.
A Sunday Gospel set seems to serve multiple purposes. For a few people it’s away to apologize for their excesses of the night before, for others it’s areturn to traditions they were raised in and some of the first music that theyever loved. For this Jewish reporter, it served as a window into what gospelservices are like for those who celebrate that way. The music was powerful,reminding that at its core Christianity can center around forgiveness andkindness, knowing that when everything is bleak that there is a power that willmake things better. Regardless of personal beliefs, that’s a strong message,especially in an event where we’re all in mourning to some degree.
The Infamous Stringdusters– mainstage, Sunday afternoon
If there’s one thing that the Northwest String Summit is knownfor, it’s collaborative work. What makes this festival so special is the sitins and one time performances that will never happen again. One of thosehappened on Sunday, as Lindsey Lou came out with the Stringdusters and belted“Respect.”
What makes these moments so great is that the energy caninfect the rest of the set. The “Another One Like You” > “Run to Heaven” and“Keep It Coming” were very high energy affairs and covers of both Phish(“Free”) and the Grateful Dead (“Tennessee Jed,” plus another tease of the“Terrapin Station” that they had played at their earlier set), kept everyoneexcited. The Stringdusters are becoming a mainstay at Northwest String Summitand their sets this year showed that there is no threat whatsoever of thattradition being stopped anytime soon.
Sideboob – mainstage,Sunday evening
I can write an entire think piece about Sideboob. What’s so fascinating tome about this band is that they really do show how inclusion can matter. Thebluegrass scene has always been traditionally drawn artists from one gender.Even the early Jamgrass bands – String Cheese Incident, Yonder Mountain StringBand, Railroad Earth, Leftover Salmon – were all male. Part of the result ofthat is the songs that they chose to play.
Yes, they expanded the canon beyond the same old bluegrass songs that everyoneplayed, but they went to the classic rock well. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a malewho grew up in the 70s. I love the classic rock influence. But as much as Ilove hearing Greensky Bluegrass break into a Pink Floyd song, that songbook wasstarting to feel just as much of a cliché as Del McCoury playing a Bill Monroesong.
The third generation of Jamgrass has been much more coed.It’s almost rare to see a band without at least one female member. What thatmeans is that a festival like Northwest String Summit, one that seems to make aconcerted effort to not be an all male event, can have a band like Sideboobhappen that has 25 different women on stage, and not all of the women whoplayed the event were able to perform during this set.
The result of having people from a different musicalbackground on the stage is that they have different influences. At best,artists like TLC and Madonna are largely considered guilty pleasures, somethingto listen to and at least pretend you don’t like as much as you do. Sideboobtreat that catalog much differently. Songs like “Waterfalls” and “Like aPrayer” aren’t performed as a joke or an indulgence. Instead they’re presentedas great tunes. If, like me, you didn’t know them, you’re missing out. Theirannual set is both a celebration of what first made these women want to performmusic and an invitation to everyone who sneered at or ignored this catalog.
Perhaps the quintessential song this year was “No Scrubs.”This is a song that gets pigeonholed in pop culture as being déclassé, such asin a recent episode of Veronica Mars where the titular character is drunk andscreams at a DJ to play it. It would be so easy to play this off for humorvalue, as something that they liked as kids but they have so much better tastenow. Instead it was the flip of the earlier Gospel Hour. Brad Parsons gave awindow into being raised in church and seeing music through those eyes. Theseamazing women let us experience the feeling of turning on the radio, hearing anamazing pop song, and having a whole new world open to them. Sure both of thesecould be seen as really fun sets of music (and they both were indeed that) butin an era that’s becoming defined by meanness and people retreating toself-similar silos, there’s an importance to exposing ourselves to universesthat we don’t immediately understand. If that can be done through a stunning 5piece fiddle section and tight harmonies and women reproducing the dance movesthat they loved when they’re young and a sheer joy and enthusiasm, this taskbecomes something to seek out.
Bonus Non-MusicalMoment 1: Late Night Saturday, art area
If there’s one thing that defines Horning’s Hideout from afan perspective, it’s that it tends to draw overeducated crowds. The lack ofInternet means that you have to ask people for information instead of justgoogling on our phones, so that lets interesting conversations happen. Once Igot into a long discussion with my wife about what the difference between afruit and a berry was. I was guessing it had something to do with seeds, butthe strawberry I was eating had seeds on the outside as opposed to a blueberry.As we were sitting there, I asked a random woman passing by. It turned out thatshe was a botanist and explained that I was more or less on the right path butthat strawberries weren’t fruits. Rather they were fleshy receptacles. Anotheryear, we were looking at the Fuqua creation for the festival and arguing if thegloating wooden animal being carried around was a dolphin or a whale. Theperson next to us jumped in with, “While I am not a marine mammalian, I am azoologist. It has flukes. It’s a whale.”
This year, there was a little art area by the second stage. One of the featuredexhibits was a room that had headphones. From the outside, it looked likepeople just making random noises for no apparent reason. Once you put theheadphones on though, any sound echoed through them multiple times, making eventhe most banal clap or whistle sound rather intense.
OK, fun little game for hippies. I put on the headphones, hit a wall rhythmically,and enjoyed the effect. It was a cool palate cleanser between the “Meet Me onthe Mountain,” and going to see Galactic, but nothing too memorable. Then onemore person entered the room. With his beard and carrying a staff that had LEDson the end to make it light up, he had the wizard look down pat. But then he transcendedthe sing/whistle/clap mentality of the room by dramatically reciting“Jabberwocky” from memory, acting out the “Beware the Jabberwock, my son!\Thejaws that bite, the claws that catch!” and later using his staff to be thevorpal blade.
Many events have cool little trippy toys for people to entertain themselvesafter the music ends. It’s at the String Summit where we get a successfulperformance art piece.
Bonus Non-MusicalMoment 2: A Brief Bit of Banter, Mainstage, Friday evening
Towards the tail end of Fruition’s first set, after Kellen Asebroekannounced that Yonder was following them, Mimi Naja made an aside, “I thinkTommy’s gonna take his first steps and walk out to mama Allie [Kral]. I’mcalling it.”
Lots of festivals talk about having family vibes and many of them succeed. DelFest and High Sierra have people coming back for years due as much to the feelof the festival as the music. However the String Summit has family in a muchdeeper way. When you invite a core of bands to the festival for years, when youencourage them to hang out and rehearse and perform fun side projects on secondstages, there can reach a point where they become close. They know each other’skids and where they are in development and want only good things for them.Moreover the crowd seeing Fruition – and Fruition are beloved at the StringSummit and draw a huge crowd – also would largely know that Allie recently hada child.
New songs will be written, some bands will take years off, but unlike any othermusic event I’ve even been to, the Northwest String Summit really feels like afamily reunion more than a concert. We’ve experienced growth and success andtragedy together. This really is less of an event where rock gods play music tous, and more a ritual return to a home where we see how we’ve all changed inthe last year. When things get weird, returning to friends and family andfamiliar places can comfort in ways that few other things can.
[1] I’ll admit that I first found it a bit off to hear asong about Hare Krishna to be repurposed as a gospel song. However, this was atribute to the Nina Simone version which eliminated the chant at the end. Andeven George Harrison recorded an early version – sometimes called the “GospelVersion - that doesn’t have the Krisha chants at the end. As they made a pointto make this set be about respect for everyone no matter what your beliefs are,and did perform the Hare Krishna chant the previous year, this turned out to bea setlist call, not some sort of message.
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David Steinberg got his Masters Degree in mathematics from New Mexico State University in 1994. He first discovered the power of live music at the Capital Centre in 1988 and never has been the same. His Phish stats website is at http://www.ihoz.com/PhishStats.html and he's on the board of directors for The Mockingbird Foundation. He "now tweets":http://twitter.com/zzyzx and has a daily update on " the Phish Stats Facebook page":http://www.facebook.com/pages/PhishStats/117887901583978?ref=ts
His book This Has All Been Wonderful is available on Amazon, the Kindle Store, and “his Create Space store: https://www.createspace.com/4667209.
