Seth Bernard & May Erlewine began the day's entertainment
on the Peace Hill stage. This duo is one of the favorite acts to
entertain at the Porkies. They a have a smooth sound and are
true folk singers. They will perform once again on Saturday
afternoon on the Peace Hill Stage.
Seth Bernard and May Erlewine (singer-songwriter duo) - Two
Michigan favorites, Seth Bernard and May Erlewine, are
well-known to audiences as single acts. Seth grew up surrounded
by gardens, goats and stringed instruments just outside Lake
City. He traveled around as a storyteller, point guard, sax
player or singer/guitar player in bands with names like "Freesoil",
"King Lear and the Gothic Monks" or "the Pagoda Trees". Seth
recorded his first album at his guitar teacher's home studio.
Born into a family of musicians, May Erlewine has been playing
music all her life. She paid her singer-songwriter dues in her
late teens with several years of hitchhiking back and forth
across the U.S., always writing and playing her music. Now with
four CDs to her name, May works a variety of venues, focusing on
the Midwest and her home state of Michigan. Her inspired lyrics
and powerful voice have a sweetness that delights audiences. In
2006 Seth and May released their first duo album, recorded in
the historic Calumet Theater. April of 2007, the duo placed
third in A Prairie Home Companion People In (their) Twenties
Talent Show, out of 740 entries.
Dale C. & Rory Miller
Florida-based Rory Miller plays an original high energy acoustic
guitar style. Her voice is powerful and emotive, her lyrics
surreal and evocative. Her songs are guaranteed to yank you from
your daydreams and find out who is making that beautiful
exciting sound. Ontonagon-based Dale C. Miller is a prolific
songwriter who plays the guitar as if it were part of him. His
songs range from the wacky to the personal, populated by quirky
characters and images from daily life. Don't miss this rare
opportunity to see this far-flung musical family united on
stage.
Michael “Laughing Fox” Charette
Michael “Laughing Fox” Charette performance is very
unique. It is very enjoyable and interesting. Michael plays
flutes, 10 or 11 of them in fact, all in one performance. Along
with the very beautiful sound of his flutes, Michael introduces
each of the different flutes and provides a great deal of
background for his instruments.
His name is Michael "Scooter"
Charette and his spirit name is Bapa Waagash (Laughing
Fox)Michael comes from the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior
Ojibwa.
When Michael “Laughing Fox” Charette wants to tell someone he
loves them, he doesn't say a word. Instead, he picks up a Native
American flute and fills the air with a reedy melody that evokes
wind rushing across the marshes or the lilting cry of a bird in
flight. In that sound, he says, is all the love and feeling he
can find deep within.
Charette's dedication to the traditional flute recently paid
off in a Native American Music Award nomination as the 2010
“Flutist of the Year” for his CD, “The Tales of Laughing Fox.”
The Nammys, as they are known, were established in 1998 to offer
Native American musicians a place to showcase their work and
raise public awareness of native music.
For Charette, 32, seeing his name listed as a nominee
alongside those of his own music hero, Carlos Nakai, is exciting
and humbling. Nammy winners are determined by online voting from
the general public through the awards website, with public
voting set to begin Sept. 1.
Dave Boutette
Dave Boutette returned to the Porcupine Music Festival
once again. Boutette a Michigan resident and he is crowd
pleaser. Friday was Dave's only performance at the Porkiefest,
so if you missed him Friday that's it until next year.
Boutette has that special intimacy that only comes from sharing
firelight is where Dave Boutette shines. Songs of highway
hijinks and wildcat oil drillers in the Michigan woods are as
likely to be heard as old favorites that have been in your head
and heart for years. For Boutette, it’s the sharing of songs
that holds all the magic. Whether banging out a set of saloon
songs at a Michigan watering hole, or settling back for an
evening of singing at a fire ring afterward, Dave Boutette will
hold his listeners as long as they keep the lights on or until
the rain starts. Stories, advice, observations, or raffles are
as apt to appear during a performance as are his songs. Blending
many schools of American roots and popular music including folk,
blues, swing, and old time country, his songs testify to the
power of true love, rebirth, snow plows, and migrating fish. If
you get the chance, stand next to Dave. Beside feeling taller
than you actually are, you may start to see some things in an
entirely new light.
Hymn For Her
For me, the "Hymn For Her" performance was one of my
favorites Friday. This duo produces a lot of sound. Although a
duo the twosome's music that fills the air as if there were four
times as many talented musicians on the stage.
Lucky for me and the Sunday spectators, Hymn For Her will be
performing again Sunday on the Singing Hill Stage at 11:15 AM.
Hymn For Her - The Ramones of bluegrass meet John Wayne and
travel across the U.S in a 16 foot 1961 Airstream Bambi
playing shows, recording an album in their trailer and filming a
movie about the adventure. Throw in a 2-year-old rugrat and a
10-year-old hound dog, a cigar box guitar, a banjo and
kick drum and you got yerself some stompgrass.
The Everett Smithson Band
The Everett Smithson Band performance provided the
spectators with a really good performance Friday afternoon on
Singing Hills Stage. When the music stopped on the Peace Hill
Stage, the great sound of the ESB was heard down at the Chalet
and it sounded great that far away.
The Band plays an
interesting variety of music as well as standards that have a
unique spin on them and many delightful originals. Come to any
Everett Smithson Band performance and you can count on the band
to create a party atmosphere. New Orleans / French Quarter Music
is what you will see and hear, Zydeco, Blues, Rockin' Roots,
Hillbilly Hoedowns, gospel and more. With the music being very
infectious and the playful stage presence, the audience gets
connected fast.
Frontier Ruckus
Frontier Ruckus performed on the Peace Stage in the first
of two Festival Performances. This very talented group of young
Michigan musicians will appear again on Saturday when even more
festival goers will be able to hear their exciting music. We
will bring IronwoodInfo more video after that performance.
At a young age, the courses of Matthew Milia and David Jones
somehow converged within the large and vaguely defined world of
Metropolitan Detroit. And from that point on, with merely a
banjo and a guitar, they moved forward towards one common
creation -something that reflected the very world from which
they came with a zeal and vividness afforded only to the young.
The singular vision of Frontier Ruckus that modernly exists,
growing fuller each day, is eternally rattling with a
youthfulness impossible to shed. Unblinking and ferocious in its
expression, it spits out with every gasp dusky images of a
landscape to which it is inextricably bound. And now, infinitely
bolstered by the horns and singing-saw of Zachary Nichols, the
harmony vocals and bass of Anna Burch, and the percussion of
Ryan Etzcorn, Frontier Ruckus is perched in waiting, prepared to
bring to the greater world a new, hollering, unyielding poetry -
the voice of memory, desperate and beautiful; the very face of a
confused and dissolving locality that one can remember as home.
Jen Sygit
Jen Sygit is another wonderful entertainer from Michigan.
Jen will perform again Saturday with Sam Corbin on the Peace
Hill Stage. If you missed her great performance Friday you will
certainly want to hear her on Saturday afternoon.
As a
child, Jen Sygit gravitated toward musical instruments and
within minutes was able to play melodies on them. As early as
Elementary school Jen could be found writing love songs on her
parents beat-up organ in their basement and by middle school she
was composing songs on her acoustic guitar (a gift bought on a
whim by her parents - upon which she has never had a lesson).
This affinity for music led her parents to encourage Jen to
audition for the Interlochen Fine Arts Camp which she attended
for several years studying voice, trombone, piano and visual
art. Born in Port Huron, MI, Jen spent her childhood years in
the nearby town of Marysville, where she lived until 1999 when
she moved to Lansing to attend Michigan State University. Jen
quickly infiltrated the capital city’s music scene via the area
open mics and blues jams. It was at one of these jams that she
picked up her first gig as front woman for a blues-rock band
called Murdawg and the Lowdown, Dirty Strays. Jen now has three
albums under her belt with her latest So Long Pollyanna released
on Earthwork Music in May ‘09. Her last release, Leaving
Marshall St., was nominated for a Detroit Music Award for Best
Acoustic/Folk Album in 2007 and made it to no. 9 on the
independent roots music charts that year. The album also landed
on a number of ‘Best of’ lists as well. Now, besides regionally
touring and playing shows, Jen can also be found hosting the
popular weekly open mic at Dagwood Tavern in Lansing. She has
been host of the thriving scene for almost five years. Jen is
also one fourth of a band called Stella! with Jo Serrapere
(former member of Uncle Earl and award-winning songwriter),
Tahmineh Gueramy and Katie Grace.
Danny Barnes
Danny Barnes gave a terrific performance Friday. His
style and sound of banjo playing iis without a doubt unique and
really enjoyable. Regrettably, Friday was Danny's only Festival
performance. So, if you missed that performance you will have to
wait until...
Barnes is widely regarded as one of the most
innovative and genre-bending artists of his craft, Barnes'
musical interests are both varied and adventurous, and he
incorporates that versatility into a progressive approach to an
instrument that is musically polarizing and steeped in
tradition. Although he demonstrates an appreciation for the
history of the bluegrass, country, and folk music from which the
banjo's reputation was born, his inventive take is what truly
separates him from his contemporaries...using the banjo as his
'weapon of choice' to play non-traditional music like rock,
fusion, and jazz with electronic percussion and loop elements.
He has come to redefine the banjo's perceived image in an
eclectic career for which genre definitions have merely been a
polite suggestion. From his early days as the driving force
behind the impressive Austin-based Bad Livers, a band of
pioneering Americana missionaries, through a prolific solo
career and the development of his trademark 'folkTronics'
project, a startling approach that incorporates digital
technology and various effect pedals to stretch the tonal range
of the instrument, Barnes has always listened to his proudly
offbeat inner voice.
Dangermuffin
Dangermuffin is a great group, they could certainly
satisfy most if not all audiences as a single act concert. They
are great and they are exciting. They were also a big, big crowd
pleaser. Fortunately, they will perform once again on Sunday.
They are scheduled to appear on the Peace Hill Stage at
1:00 PM. You certainly don't want to miss this great group from
Charleston.
Sometimes a band sticks in your mind like good
batter sticks to your ribs. A memorable name helps, and
Dangermuffin is no pushover of a moniker. But it's the
round-the-fire looseness, yet still polished groove, that leaves
the Charleston-based trio's catchy hooks lingering in our ears.
Together just two years, they've toured their raspy Southern
style as far as Colorado's Jazz Aspen festival and become
Carolina public radio favorites. Dangermuffin is delicious from
the first bite, but be certain to give a closer listen to the
depth of songwriter Dan Lotti's lyrics.
Buckwheat Zydeco
2010 Grammy Winner Buckwheat Zydeco was of course the main event
of the day. How do describe an act that followed a day long
marathon of really great entertainment, and then sets itself on
an even higher plane? Well, that's exactly what happened Friday
at the Music Festival. From the time the gates opened until 7:30
PM, one wonderful act after another gave terrific performances
on the two stages. Then, out comes Buckwheat Zydeco who set
themselves apart from all other and let's you know from the
first few bars of their music, why they won a Grammy.
They
were great, they were fantastic they were simply amazing. After
enjoying their performance, we can only hope that they will
return to Great Porcupine Music Festival, in one of America's
Greatest settings, right here in the Porkies.
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