The 2008 Oyster Ridge Music Festival

Free Festival: Priceless Music

 

Kemmerer, Wyoming, July 27 – There was not another spot left for a lawn chair at the historic Triangle Park in downtown Kemmerer this weekend.  If there’s a recession about, these revelers weren’t aware of it.  This award-winning festival served up some of the finest talent in the business, and the show went smoothly under perfect skies.  Performance Audio from Salt Lake provided and ran all sound systems and it was top-rate professional.  Sets ran two hours, which included setup and tear down.


 

Traveling to Kemmerer is a wonder in itself because of the geologic landscape along the way.  And once you arrive, there is so much to learn about this tiny little town tucked away from the outside world.  The festival name comes from the existence of thick layers of fossilized oysters and other fossils in the surrounding rocks, which have long attracted paleontologists and geologists from around the world.  But Kemmerer and the adjacent town Diamondville were mining towns from the 1860s onward.  The original J.C. Penney Company store opened by James Cash Penney in 1902 is still in operation on the main street, and Mr. Penney’s home is a museum.  Kemmerer gained a reputation of a different sort in the Roaring Twenties, when it became one of the bootleg centers of the country.  Today, the area’s main industry is mineral based, including coal, gas, sulfur and helium.  But tourism is also a component of daily life in these parts.

 

 

 

Wyoming Governor David Freudenthal (D) and Mrs. Freudenthal made a surprise appearance on Friday evening and welcomed festival goers. 

 

 

The show began at 3:00 p.m. with longtime festival regular and legendary Flatpicking Champion Robin Kessinger.  Guitarist Kim Tomsic from the Crescent Moon band also played with Robin. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soon the 1989 International biofuel conversion school bus carrying the Elephant Revival group lumbered into town, and the neo-acoustic with Celtic and Dead overtones group’s five members and dog arrived for their fascinating set. 

 

 

 

 

Next Terri Hendrix with Lloyd Maines tore through her thoughtful and provocative songs with their usual voracity and veracity.  [Read my interview with Terri under Musician Interviews.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking somewhat like a Wild West dance hall act, The Stairwell Sisters played their unusual style of female Old-Time Teardown.

 

And finally, L’Angelus got folks on their feet with their blend of Cajun fiddle tunes, Zydeco, saxophone swamp pop and New Orleans R&B. 

 

A well-timed fireworks display closed out the official evening activities as festivarians went back to campgrounds to party on.

 

 

 

Saturday began with a Pancake Breakfast put on by the local Rotary, and then Music Workshops continued until 3:00 p.m.  They included: Flatpick Guitar with Robin Kessinger; Clogging with The Stairwell Sisters; Songwriting with Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines; Cajun Cooking with L’Angelus and Paige & Katie Rees.  Robin Kessinger again opened the stage show.  I attended the Songwriting workshop and heard a lot of music business questions being asked and answered in a professional and helpful manner.

 

At noon The Biscuit Burners foursome brought their special blend of Traditional, Bluegrass and Classic Country that is called Fiery Mountain Music to the Park.  The Stairwell Sisters and L’Angelus then made reappearances in the late afternoon.  It was dinner when The Paperboys delivered on time the evening edition of their Big Band Celtic brass-string extravaganza, and by the time they were finished the dance area had turned to dust and was being watered down.  Opening with a solo acoustic rendition of “Satisfied Man,” Stephen Kellogg had the audience quietly crowded at the front of the stage to hang on every word, well delivered; and then The Sixers swung into action behind him.  And just when everybody was beginning to think about those inviting RVs and motel rooms, The Clumsy Lovers took the stage to mix it all up.

 

After another Rotary Pancake Breakfast Sunday morning, it was time to get down to some serious music business with the Wyoming State Guitar Championships.  Competition winners for 2008, who will represent the state in the nationals at the legendary Winfield, Kansas, Walnut Valley Festival are:

 

Wyoming State Flatpick Guitar Contest

1st Place           Al Shipley, Rock Springs, WY

2nd Place          James Nations, Rock Springs, WY

3rd Place           Jeremy Cohen, Jackson, WY

 

Wyoming State Fingerpick Guitar Contest

1st Place           Austin Weyand, Brigham City, UT

2nd Place          Guy Benson, Salt Lake, UT

3rd Place           Brad Tew, Springville, UT

 

After all that wonderful pickin’ there was more from the maestro and his buddy, Robin and Kim, as they opened the afternoon show.  A regional favorite on its way to becoming a national act, the BLUEROOT group picked up the pace with southern blues rock.  And finally, the one and only Mike Mangione and his Band closed out the festival with their varied and eclectic sound.

 

This is an extremely well run small-getting-bigger festival and everyone I spoke with who works at it is nicer than the one before.  Not only is the caliber of musician very high, but there are also groups who are really up and coming making it their business to get to Oyster Ridge and perform, and they don’t mind coming back to play again either.  The vendors that set up all around the festival park are well chosen and provide quality food and wares.  All of the vendor tents are matching with white spires, complementing the already picturesque look that includes old-time lampposts and gorgeous hanging baskets of petunias.  There are ample Porta Potties of the modern variety and they are clean.  The town is blessed with many small motels to accommodate those who don’t care to camp.  Clearly the town folk are behind this festival and happy to participate in advancing it, and area businesses have really stepped up with the sponsorship dollars.  National Public Radio is always within range.  The perfect weather features high 80s-low 90s at day and low 50s at night, with almost no insects!

 

This festival could easily break out into a national event if it took on one more day, provided No Smoking sections in the concert and stage areas, and added makeshift showers to the campgrounds.  I’d like to thank Oyster Ridge MF Chairman Mike Clark, the good people at the Diamondville Chevron for allowing me to use their way cool facility to work at...

 

...and the fine humans I met at our special campground, Ray and Carrie, and their friends. There’s nothing like wading into a Wyoming river in late July!

 

 

Photos & Text Copyright 2008

Joy H. Hance