Few bands have as a deep a connection with Gathering of the Vibes as Strangefolk. The Vermont-bred band played the festivals original incarnation Deadhead Heaven: A Gathering of the Tribe-in 1996 and has stayed with the festival as it has moved throughout the Northeast, from Croton-on-Hudson to Plattsburg to Bridgeport to Red Hook to Mariaville and finally back to its current home in Bridgeport. In fact, the only year the group missed the festival was in 2005 when lead guitarist Jon Trafton cancer.
Looking back, one can trace the Strangefolk’s own evolution through the festival, as the group make its way through the jam-circuit, split with original lead singer Reid Genauer, recruited new frontman Luke Patchen Montgomery, battled sickness and, now, looks toward a new studio project. Strangefolk will return with the Gathering of the Vibes to Bridgeport, this weekend for the four-day event that will include performances by the likes of Crosby, Stills & Nash, Buddy Guy, Bob Weir & RatDog, moe., Guster, State Radio and George Clinton. The festival will also welcome back fellow Vibes veterans Deep Banana Blackout, Max Creek, Assembly of Dust, Klyph Black and Donna Jean Godchaux featuring Jeff Mattson (Black and Mattson’s band the Zen Tricksters have also been with the Gathering of the Vibes since the festival’s inception). This year the festival will also host late night sets from the likes of The Machine, Lettuce and Perpetual Groove (a first for the festival’s Bridgeport location) and see the return of the event’s eco-friendly Green Stage.
On the eve of the 2009 Gathering of the Vibes, Jambands.com sat down with Trafton to discuss his own Vibes memories, his recent writing sessions with Montgomery and the night he had dinner with Michael Jackson.
You and Patchen recently got together to write and record for a few days. On your blog you described these sessions as “an attempt to rewrite the rules of long distance interaction and creativity.” Can you begin by telling us a bit about those recent sessions?
Yeah, we’ve been – I don’t know if struggling is the right word – but working on a way to improve communications. I live in California and that’s like a 3,000 mile gap. I’ve been out here since 2001, so I’ve had some time to adjust to it and kind of work on getting ideas and using technology to get ideas across to each other and we’ve gotten pretty good at it. We’ll choose covers or write songs—covers are the easiest thing to work with just because it’s a song that’s out there and you kind of listen to it, work on it, get together, maybe run through it during sound check and then pull it off.
But writing tunes is a little different because everybody has got to contribute a part and all that. Patch, our lead singer, and I get together, and he’ll come out here to California and I’ve got a basic ad-hoc little home studio. It is a little Pro Tools rig. He came out last September and then this past April and we just have this ongoing project. We’ll get that stuff together and send out MP3s to the other guys. We are trying to step that up to the next level. We are getting files over to Russ to throw drums on and then pass it around and let everybody stew on the ideas a little bit and then make a contribution, hoping that we’ll be able to get together. Actually, it’s almost like a pre-production. So, for either doing a show or hopefully going into the studio at some point, these tunes will turn into glorified demos.
Around how many new song ideas do you have at this point?
We have quite a few. The two of us start from a writing base and then we have everybody contribute. But, between the two of us, we have six or seven songs that I think could actually make the cut. We have so much older stuff too that I’d like to catch up on. A couple older gems from over the years that I would love to record—take a chance in the studio and see how we can set them afloat.
With the band spread out around the country, how often do you try to play together as Strangefolk?
It seems like our going rate is six to eight weeks. Every six to eight weeks we’ll get together for a round of shows—other than when I was sick. I can’t remember how long exactly I was laid out from playing but we try to keep it pretty regular since then.
Every six to eight weeks is still pretty frequent in the world of touring.
Yeah it is, especially to get in a plane. I usually take a red eye flight to wherever we are going. It’s a pretty big undertaking but I love doing it. We’ve being talking about trying to improve or increase the amount we play but we’re trying to work out a plan where we can spread out over different markets and what will actually work and be viable because obviously this is a little more expensive than all jumping in a van like we used to.
Right, right. Plus everyone is a little bit older and you don’t have the desire to spend weeks going to small shows that aren’t as fun.
Totally.
Can you describe the sound of these songs for some of our new readers who have not heard them before? Would you say they are in line with Strangefolk’s more recent work or something different?
It’s a little bit of both things. I was remarking to Patch recently that it is a hallmark of a new sound a bit. For me, it happened organically. But guitar-wise, I have been approaching these songs a little differently, and I think it’s because you get tired of your same old ideas and you have your book or playbook that you pull from. For some reason, these latest songs pulled something different out of me which was really fun. It’s almost like a Keith Richards, rhythm guitar thing. It has a groove but if you asked me what key a song was in then I might not be able to tell you.
But I think, in terms of the songwriting, Patch has been coming into his own with these songs, and I’m excited to see where he is going with this because he has made some great contributions over the last couple of years. I have been encouraging him to continue writing and pushing him to put more songs into the repertoire, and he really delivered this last time around. So I think the vibe of his songs is very much in keeping with his recent contributions. There is a song he wrote called “Entitled,” which is a great song with a big lift off at the end. A lot of these also loosely follow that same idea. Like if it were Rubber Soul, you know? These songs all have that vibe to them so that’s pretty fun and it’s cool.
The songs that I’ve got, they range from a couple years ago, right before I got sick to brand new. I have this little MP3 player that eMusic gave us years ago, before the iPod or anything, and this thing is a great little device that also records. So whenever I get an idea or whatever I’ll just flip it on and strum through it or sing a little part and then hit stop and just forget about it and then at the end of the year I’ll go grab this thing and pull off all the files and make a CD of all of it and then listen to it and incubate on it. So there are some ideas that I’ve been really digging back into from over the years that have just sort of been overlooked or forgotten that hearing them again, I’m like, “wow, light bulb went off, these guys actually deserve to see the light of day.” It’s been fun to revisit those songs and putting a new spin on older ideas.
Would you say your fight with cancer has influenced your lyrics at all?
Its funny, people have definitely asked me that question because obviously something like cancer is so serious, it’s a pretty life changing experience. But, now I’m getting back to being stressed out with the little things again which I think is a good sign. You know, finally the massive stress is abated and I can worry about the little details again and get all bent out of shape about stupid stuff like everybody else. There was this one song I started working on right before I got sick and the riff was left sitting there forever while I recovered. Finally, I thought, “I think I am going to use this experience and write something about that” and it comes out twisted from a side perspective. I’m not even sure really what the song is saying, but it does pull from that experience of blood sweat and tears and going through major stuff and coming out the other side and being thankful for your friends and loved ones for being around you to kind of carry you through. So that one is the latest one that’s definitely kind of a vibe of that.
It must be a surreal experience to revisit the older songs in the Strangefolk catalogue. You have been with this band since college and now you have all gone through so much growing as people.
To me, it’s astonishing really to look back at all the years of Strangefolk to when it was me and Reid as an acoustic duo back in Vermont. Just thinking that the name Strangefolk has been in my mind since 1991. It blows my mind that this thing is still breathing and really fun and it’s amazing. You realize, as we were going through it, and especially in the early days when we were really trying to succeed and get out there and tour the country and do 10-week tours and stuff and how hard that was and then kind of back-lashing from that a little bit. And then, to arrive now at this space of “well, here we are and we’re still doing it, who would have every figured that.” It’s so much fun and it’s so rewarding and we’re all kind of far apart from each other physically but we’re all really close and talk everyday on email. It’s like a family, it’s a like a community family thing that we have going on that’s so special, and so I feel really lucky to have it.
I think that’s how it is for any band that has clocked in a bunch of years—that things do change around you and the music changes within you. But it’s cool, I still enjoy playing our oldest stuff and it is really fun playing the new stuff. But you do add new twists to it and it evolves along with you. I think it’s really cool how it is an organic thing: the changes are not set in stone.
What would you say is the oldest song in the Strangefolk repertoire at this point?
I think the oldest one is that we still do might be the song “Come on Down.” I think that’s on our demo. That’s one that Erik and I wrote back in ‘93 or something.
And “Whatever” is another one that has stayed in the rotation and grown to become a nice moment in shows. It’s a moment to play a more mellow song and it breathes so that’s cool too.
Earlier this summer Strangefolk co-hosted the StrangeCreek festival with Max Creek. Can you talk for a minute about how that collaborative event came about?
For us, it came from looking for a place for us to do our Garden of Eden show. We had a traditional festival that we did every Labor Day. I think the first year we did it was Jerry Garcia’s birthday. It just happened to fall on it and it moved around. We finally found a home for it on Labor Day. But then as the years went on and after Reid left, we did a little soul searching and tried to figure out, “Do we keep doing it like that?” Things changed enough and then it became a huge gamble. We tried to do it a few times, I think we did it one or two years after that.
Ultimately, it got to be so much stress that I found myself not looking forward to it. So then we sidled up with Wormtown Productions and talked to them about it. They offered to host Eden for us to take the weight off us and let us play music. They would handle the promoting part of it and it was a blast, really fun. The relationship started there and they were great friends with Max Creek. We have known them from over the years as well and so it emerged into, “Hey, why don’t we do this with you two guys?” The name StrangeCreek evolved naturally, and we went from there. I don’t know how many years we have been doing it but someone was saying five years or something. It’s really become this great, great time. The campground there is awesome. It’s probably the only time each year that I go out there and hang out fully. The whole band will be out there in the woods with everyone else. It’s pretty cool, we have always had a good time with that and I look forward to it every year.
Another festival you have been with since the beginning is Gathering of the Vibes. I believe Strangefolk has played the festival every year since its inception.
The band has, I haven’t. I missed one year when I was sick, but the guys played in my stead so I think technically you could say that we have been a part of it every year.
Yeah, it’s amazing. I remember the first year it was so cool because it was like, “What does everyone do know that Jerry Garcia, the leader of this whole pack, is gone and The Dead has dissipated?” Phish of course took the lead. I think the first year it was called Gathering of the Tribe. It was great and it was such a great feeling. I remember moe. was a headliner and seeing those guys. I met David Gans and became friends with him. I met a lot of people there that I stayed friends with over the years, a lot of bands and stuff, and it got huge. I think they have experimented over the years and it’s nice to see moe. back in the headliner spot.
Do you have a favorite memory of your own performances over the years?
Yeah, there was one, I think it was the year we headlined and we did “Feel Like A Stranger” because we have always tried to do a Dead song every tour. And we did “Feel Like a Stranger.” That’s a pretty random song to pick out of your hat but we figured it had the “Strange” word in it and we are Strangefolk, “stranger.” And I think that year at Eden we had done a theme of songs that had the word “strange” in it and we might have learned it for that. But it was such a great moment, I think we were headlining – or Warren Haynes, maybe we were second to headliners – but it was dark and you couldn’t see the end of the audience, it was gigantic. I don’t know how many people were there but I think it was around 10,000. It was just so much power and energy to get up there and hitting the opening chords to that. It just set the mood. It was the set opener and I remember the energy just waved out over the crowd. That was one of my highlights. That feeling of opening with that really bizarre chord and everyone instantly knew what it was. It was like “All right, it is on, here we go” and we played it really well which is always a plus too.
Finally, I read on your blog that you had dinner with Michael Jackson once in 1999. That must have been a surreal experience.
Yeah, totally. For reference, I printed it up on the Strangefolk website because my mom used to ask me so much. And then he died and I was like, you know, I haven’t really told a ton of people about that story and so I think I’ll write down everything that I can remember and post it up there. It was amazing. It was really, really what you would expect. It was so unreal because it’s MJ, like the most famous person in the world, pretty much walking into the living room. It’s like, “Oh hey.” We are in my girlfriend’s house and he walks in the door and makes quite a wild entrance – unintentional, but hilarious – because he was totally terrified of dogs and, as he’s walking in, I think he saw the dog, this most bumbling friend, big old yellow lab that you could ever imagine.
The dog just wanted to say hi and so it came running up to him trying to sniff his ass which made it funnier. He tore off and did a double back and jumped off the steps behind a bush. I was like, “Oh my God, is this really happening?” I didn’t know it was because of the dog. It didn’t really enter my mind or anyone else’s. Like, how could he be afraid of this dog? But he was petrified. I thought, “Man, this guy is such a freak, weirdest time ever.” But he came in, he kind of crept back in, and he told me, “I’m terrified of the dog, can we get rid of the dog?” And we got the dog out of there and then he was fine. It was a really cool night; we just drank a bunch of wine with him and talked music. He was there for many hours so that feeling of “Holy shit” wore off and then you are just hanging with this guy. It seems so normal except that he has white makeup on his face. And it’s MJ. But other than that, he seemed so at ease and normal and talking about music. I think that he was so used to people peppering him with questions so he kept turning all the questions to me.
It is strange to think of him as “a musician” at this point.
Yeah, exactly. And it was cool because it made me feel like, “Wow, I’m a part of the whole thing.” I felt bad because I was a musician so he definitely attached to that. It was a common thing. Whereas I don’t think he had a common thread with anyone else in the room. Unless it was a business tie, because he was there to talk business with my ex-girlfriend’s dad. But, yeah, it was wild, man. There are so many impressions of that but the one that I left with, which was the strongest one, was that he was this poor, trapped, exotic creature so not like any of us. I felt sorry for him basically in the end. “It was like, man, sure it would be fun to be that rich and that famous.” I guess, but maybe not. Obviously, it had warped him to be what he is – which was this physically crazy-looking specimen. I mean, he looked like he was about to fall apart. His face was all…he had putty, it looked like his nose was filled with spackle, all caved in and he was unsettlingly weird. We took this picture together and he looked like a cardboard cutout.
So he was already kind of on the freak path by then.
Yeah, and this was before the major crap that came up. This was after one case that got swept under. He basically bought one kid’s family out for $20 million just to shut up. My girlfriend at the time was oblivious to that whole story so she was still like, “MJ is my God.” I was being all cynical about it: “I’m going to ask him.” She was like, “You better not say anything.” She was denying it and like, “That’s not even true, where did you hear this?” And I was like, “Where have you been so that you couldn’t hear this?” But, that was only thing that had come out at the time. It was probably within that year that all the other stories came out and he definitely went into hiding afterwards. Made the story a little less cool to tell my friends.
The Gathering of the Vibes will return to Bridgeport, CT from July 23-26. Be sure to look for daily updates throughout the weekend on Jambands.com.
