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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If the 11th Annual Porcupine Mountain Music Festival was scored like a baseball game, the box score would read: \u00a0A lot of runs, hundreds of walks, one error, and no weather delays. \u00a0Some weather was evident on the radar Friday evening, but the two storms passed north and south of the festival grounds. \u00a0The early morning shower Saturday made the grounds much less dusty and crunchy than they have been some years. \u00a0From my vantage point up the hill at the Singing Hills stage, it was a tad muggy on Friday but a persistent breeze made Saturday perfect for performers and audience alike. \u00a0As has become my custom, I will run down some of the highlights of the festival but because I do all four of my shifts at the Singing Hills stage, I only hear echoes of and some rumors about what transpires at the Peace Hill stage located down by the chalet.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I was making an inspection tour of the newly relocated WOAS-FM West Coast Bureau in Eugene, Oregon the week before the festival. \u00a0I had let folks know that I was coming in at midday Wednesday on a red eye from Eugene so I would not be able to get to the Monday training session. \u00a0Somehow this became \u201che isn\u2019t coming\u201d and the first three people I encountered on my way to the Singing Hills stage gave me some version of \u201cWhat are you doing here? \u00a0They said you weren\u2019t coming this year!\u201d \u00a0With that little rumor scuttled, I got reaquainted with the Armadillo Sound crew of Marty and Mary as we prepped the stage for Friday\u2019s opener, Steve Jones and the Garden City Hot Club. \u00a0With some areas of the festival needing more attention than our little corner of the world, Jackie, Marty, Mary and I were the whole stage crew this year but we were able to make this arrangement work just fine owing to the professionalism and efficiency of the Armadillo Sound crew.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Steve Jones and the Garden City Hot Club are not unknown in these parts as they have played several times at the Ontonagon Theater for the Performing Arts. \u00a0As luck would have it, I have been on the road somewhere for all of them so I was looking forward to hearing them. \u00a0I got to talk drums with Bob Hiltunen who is a drummer but also plays guitar with GCHC. \u00a0They played a variety of music in the spirit of Django Reinhardt and were not afraid to stretch their arrangements. \u00a0Jones has been known to play solo or with combos of various sizes. \u00a0For this date, the quartet was rounded out by Scott McIntosh on bass and <\/span>John Peiffer on F horn, harmonica, and a type of flute I couldn\u2019t see very well from my little corner backstage. \u00a0Peiffer\u2019s ability to play the valveless F horn added much to their musical soundscape. \u00a0GCHC drew one of the best opening slot crowds we have seen on the Singing Hills stage so it was a great way to start the day.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Vox Vidorra was up next and it was apparent from their two keyboard, drums, guitar and bass set up that they would produce a full sound. \u00a0The only question we had during set up was, \u201cwhat part of this sound would be produced by Scott?\u201d \u00a0as his right arm was trussed up in a cast and sling. \u00a0It turns out that each of the four members moved between instruments very fluidly and Scott managed to play not only keyboard bass, but drums as well with his one good wing. \u00a0This is a band with a lot of soul and lead singer Molly possesses a set of pipes to be envied. \u00a0I was really impressed with the nimble cymbal work Theo displayed behind the drum kit. \u00a0A lot of folks in the crowd made it a point to check out when they would be playing on the lower stage on Saturday because they impressed everyone with their Friday set on the Singing Hills stage.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Scottie Miller Band was up next giving us two larger band set ups out of three groups. \u00a0Scottie brought along drummer Mark O\u2019Day who played on Miller\u2019s <\/span>Rise Up!<\/span><\/i> CD (2012) that WOAS had previewed before PMMF #11. \u00a0The bass player and guitar player were new to me and judging by the three ring binder of chord charts the guitarist kept referencing, I figured that Miller must have a roster of musicians he uses when he isn\u2019t touring with Saturday\u2019s headliner Ruthie Foster. \u00a0The bio provided by the festival had Miller\u2019s band leaning toward the blues end of the spectrum, but they played such a variety of music that I can\u2019t say that the Scottie Miller Band is a blues band per se. \u00a0As a keyboard player, there were elements of old and contemporary blues in Miller\u2019s repertoire. \u00a0He also proved to be a skillful mandolin player and those tunes leaned further toward the Americana\/country side of the ledger. \u00a0They also threw in a little island flavor ala Jimmy Buffett. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t help but notice that drummer O\u2019Day had sufficient chops for all these styles and the crowd couldn\u2019t help getting caught up in the infectious enthusiasm emanating from the stage. \u00a0SMB was fun to watch and great to hear.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I got my third chance to talk drums, this time with O\u2019Day as we cleared the stage. \u00a0I was about to ask him about the make of his drums when he said, \u201cA buddy of mine in Minneapolis made these.\u201d \u00a0No wonder I didn\u2019t recognize the brand! \u00a0\u00a0Like The Garden City Hot Club and Vox Vidorra before them, the members of the Scottie Miller Band made sure they thanked everyone on the crew for doing their thing. \u00a0We are there to make the band\u2019s day go smoothly and knowing that they enjoyed their set is always nice to hear. \u00a0We had a little breathing room after the Miller set because our next act was a single.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Brianna Lane has been around the country but currently works out of the Minneapolis area where she teaches guitar and ukulele when she isn\u2019t playing solo or band gigs. \u00a0We got to talk about her career and she had some fun stories to tell about opening for artists like Colin Hay (who first came to fame with the Australian band Men at Work). \u00a0We were kidding her that with the 15 minute overlap in her set and the band on the main stage that we would seat the entire crowd on the stage with her until more people wandered in. \u00a0She started her set with only about 20 souls on hand but was pleasantly surprised how the audience continued to grow as her set progressed. \u00a0She played a mixture of her own songs and songs by other artists she likes while keeping up an easy conversation with her audience. \u00a0I really liked the little big of \u201ccountry cry\u201d she used in her vocals; \u00a0many artists overuse this device but for Brianna, it added just the right touch to many of her songs. \u00a0We also got on the subject of Peter Mulvey (Peter played at PMMF #9) and she mentioned opening for him on his yearly bicycle tour around southern Wisconsin. \u00a0It would be fun to see them both again at a future PMMF. \u00a0Brianna also talked about attending a song writer\u2019s workshop with one of our Saturday artists, Ana Egge. \u00a0According to Lane, Egge was the one act she didn\u2019t want to miss. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The last act of the day gets a 45 minute turn around instead of the normal 30. \u00a0\u00a0The Wild Ponies \u00a0work out of Nashville but have roots in Virginia. \u00a0I asked about the backstory of their band name and was told that it comes from the wild ponies that roam the hills back home in Virginia. \u00a0<\/span>Doug and Telisha Williams play guitar and upright bass and share vocal duties. \u00a0Their regular drummer was not available for PMMF so this was their first gig with a stand in (whose name I never did catch) who normally works as a music producer more than a touring musician. \u00a0Doug informed me that they had worked out most of the arrangements on the drive up. \u00a0Telisha played and sang well but the highlight of their set was watching her disassemble her traveling upright base. \u00a0If there is a version of the Rubik’s Cube that looks like an upright bass, I have now seen it in person. \u00a0Like Brianna Lane, Telisha Williams also praised Ana Egge which made us even more anxious to hear her closing set on our stage Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With the Wild Ponies heading down the hill and the sounds of the Grand Slambovians echoing through the woods, we set about the nightly task of rolling cords and storing everything securely under the stage canopy in case of overnight rain. \u00a0As the top of the 11th inning closed, the bands had scored five home runs and Mary the stage manager had at least 8 walks between the Peace Hill stage and the Singing Hills stage. \u00a0I keep telling her she needs to hold out for her own golf cart, but so far she has resisted that suggestion. \u00a0If we continue our \u2018if PMMF #11 was scored like a baseball game\u2019 analogy, we escaped the top half of the inning without a rain delay (even though we could see lightning over the lake for a bit) and no errors. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In Part 2 of the 11th Inning Stretch, we will examine the Saturday doings on the Singing Hills Stage.<\/span><\/p>\n Tune in to WOAS-FM \u00a088.5 on Friday evenings as we will be running down all of the Porcupine Mountain Music Festival CD compilations we have on hand. \u00a0Join us at 6 and 9 pm to revisit the music of PMMF #1 through #11.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece video – Scottie Miller Band performing ‘On My Way’ in 2013. \u00a0The album\u00a0Rise Up!<\/em> was funded via Kickstarter in 2012.<\/p>\n