{"id":490,"date":"2016-02-03T19:35:21","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T19:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=490"},"modified":"2016-02-03T19:48:35","modified_gmt":"2016-02-03T19:48:35","slug":"ftv-the-bottom-of-the-11th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=490","title":{"rendered":"FTV: The Bottom of the 11th"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pmmf11045\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Brianna Lane made a rare second day performance on the Singing Hills stage. \u00a0While it is not unusual for an artist to appear on both stages over the PMMF weekend, Lane was the first artist I can remember playing the Singing Hills Stage twice.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0In the top half of the innin<\/span>g (Friday) at the Porcupine Mountains Music Festival #11, every band that played the Singing Hills stage hit a homerun and hundreds of fans made the walk up the hill from the Peace Hill stage set up in front of the chalet. \u00a0By the time I arrived on Saturday, the Armadillo Sound crew had the stage prepped and were waiting for our first act, the DuPont Brothers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sam and Zach DuPont really are brothers and they currently work out of their home base in Burlington, Vermont. \u00a0They were two thirds of the way through a midwest tour and planned to swing through lower Michigan on the way back to Vermont. \u00a0They spent some time tuning and adjusting the capos on their guitars but the short wait between songs was worth it. \u00a0Their guitar parts complimented each other very well and as singing brothers go, they also had a fine vocal chemistry. \u00a0Easy banter with the audience such as, \u201c This is a musical massage to start your day off easy\u201d \u00a0made them a fun opener for Saturday\u2019s schedule. \u00a0They seemed pleased when I described their set as \u2018very Everly Brothers\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The second act of the day was singer\/songwriter Brianna Lane returning for a second go at the Singing Hills stage. \u00a0She mused that, \u201cmaybe I can play the same three songs I started with yesterday until the crowd wanders up from hearing The Ragbirds at the other stage.\u201d \u00a0She ended up with an even larger audience on Saturday and she again reminded everyone that Ana Egge would be up later and no one would want to miss her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Minnesota pipeline next deposited Jack Klatt on the Singing Hills stage. \u00a0I had noticed in his bio that one of his specialties was \u2018hokum blues\u2019 so I had to ask him what that meant. \u00a0He explained that it is a genre that,\u201d\u2018rides the line between country and blues.\u201d \u00a0When I asked him if he had anything particular he would like me to use in his introduction, he said, \u201cuse that \u2018rides the line\u2019 thing\u2019.\u201d \u00a0Having a little too much time to think about it, I also remembered his bio describing him as a \u2018dexterous player\u2019. \u00a0The whole thing morphed together into, \u201cRiding the line between country and blues, the next musician is a dexterous purveyor of the hokum blues\u201d which was met with a few polite nods. \u00a0I made a quick memo to myself for next year: \u00a0\u201cForget the cute and get to the point.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I noticed the bass player from Scottie Miller\u2019s band was on hand for Jack Klatt\u2019s set. \u00a0He confirmed my suspicions about Miller using a rotating stable of musicians in his own band when Jack said, \u201cyeah, he is my bass player but he is playing with Scottie Miller this weekend.\u201d \u00a0Whether he was covering other writer\u2019s songs or his his own compositions, Klatt played, sang and conversed with the crowd in a manner that can only be described as \u2018effortlessly\u2019. \u00a0Even when Vox Vidorra cranked up the volume on the other stage, Klatt kept his audience rooted to the ground until he was done.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The three man group Whistle Stop Revue came up next and we had plenty of time to talk about their home region of Port Huron, MI and their gigging schedule. \u00a0Guitarist Rick mentioned that he had spent time in Trenary, MI as his grandmother had taught school there for 42 years. \u00a0They were a friendly, enthusiastic group and after over doing Jack Klatt\u2019s intro, I had mentally worked up a less wordy introduction for them. \u00a0If you have wondered at all why I started comparing PMMF #11 to a baseball scorecard, it is because I made the Bill Buckner\/Steve Bartman error of all errors when I finally did their introduction: \u00a0\u201cWould you please welcome from the beautiful western shore of Lake Huron, The Ragbirds!\u201d. \u00a0\u00a0I turned around and the three guys in the band resembled three owls suddenly caught in car headlights. \u00a0Rick said, \u201cAh, we are The Whistle Stop Revue – but we are good friends with the Ragbirds.\u201d \u00a0I am sure I looked just as surprised to them as they did to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I thoroughly apologized to the band when their set was done and they were cool about it but I was still mortified. \u00a0Having MCed at PMMF for ten years and dozens of bands, I have no idea where I got the wrong name from. \u00a0The Ragbirds were not scheduled for the Singing Hills stage and the closest I came to them was seeing their name on a bass drum head as I cut through the chalet on the way to the hill on Saturday morning. \u00a0It was just one of those mental lapses that I can\u2019t explain but perhaps it was a little Godsmack \u00a0reminding me to \u201cpay attention, stupid.\u201d \u00a0On the way to my car after my shift, I ran into Rick (Whistle Stop Revue\u2019s guitar player) in the chalet, shook his hand and said, \u201cHey, aren\u2019t you in the Ragbirds?\u201d and he replied with a chuckle, \u201cYeah, I hear we are really good.\u201d \u00a0I take back my comment about it being a Bill Buckner\/Steve Bartman level error (and I won\u2019t even bring up Steve Harvey): \u00a0it wasn\u2019t life altering because my error will eventually be forgotten and I won\u2019t receive any death threats from my faux paus. \u00a0The Whistle Stop Revue did a great set, by the way, and I especially liked their version of the Grateful Dead\u2019s <\/span>Friend of the Devil<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Halfway through the Whistle Stop Revue\u2019s set, the much anticipated Ana Egge arrived with her two backup musicians. \u00a0Hearing that they had an hour and fifteen minutes before showtime, they wandered down hill toward the Peace Hill stage. \u00a0I had assured Ana that there would be time for a sound check and assumed they would keep an eye on the clock. \u00a0With 30 minutes to go before showtime, Marty and Mary started getting a little nervous when the band hadn\u2019t returned for final set up. \u00a0Eventually they did return \u00a0and we got things prepped in time for them to run through several tunes before showtime. \u00a0They then retired behind the stage and I plunked down on a stool at the back of the stage with ten minutes to practice saying \u2018Ana Egge\u2019 in light of my previous goof.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cKen, can you hear me?\u201d \u00a0It was Marty using the mixing board talkback to the stage which can only be heard in the stage monitors and not through the PA. \u00a0\u201cYeah, Marty, I can hear you.\u201d \u00a0\u201cKen, do you know the name of the next act?\u201d \u00a0Marty has a rather dry sense of humor and I laughed out loud for the little tweaking he was giving me. \u00a0I assured him, \u201cYes, I know the next act is \u2018Ana Egge\u2019.\u201d \u00a0\u201cYou mean \u2018Ah-na Egge\u2019?\u201d \u00a0\u201cNo, Marty, it is \u2018Anna Egge\u2019 – I asked.\u201d \u00a0The band was unaware of our this conversation when they took the stage. \u00a0\u00a0During the setup, we had been talking about difficult band names. \u00a0I recalled telling Walt Lindala from the Flat Broke Blues Band that I had to be very intentional because their name was easy to mess up if one ran through it too fast. \u00a0Walt had said at the time, \u201cWe have been called a lot of funny things. \u00a0Shoot, I have even said it wrong.\u201d \u00a0Ana said the last \u2018e\u2019 in \u2018Egge\u2019 seemed to throw people off for some reason so I had this in mind when I asked, \u201cWould you mind if I have a little fun with your intro?\u201d \u00a0She gave me a puzzled look and a slight shrug so I figured that meant \u201cknock yourself out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With her reputation preceding her, I pointed out to the crowd that this was a highly anticipated set, concluding with, \u201cplease welcome to our stage Ana Legge, I mean Egge.\u201d \u00a0I thought Marty was going to fall off of his chair and when I turned, Ana looked a little bewildered until I said, \u201cyes, I did that on purpose for Marty.\u201d \u00a0For the record, I made sure I got her name right for the walk off announcements. \u00a0Brianna Lane and the Wild Ponies were absolutely right about the quality of her songs and performance. \u00a0Backed by cello and violin, her songs were memorable and haunting. \u00a0Her final song, <\/span>Rock On<\/span><\/i> left everyone in kind of a stunned silence until the applause started. \u00a0People checked their schedule to see when she would be appearing on the Peace Hill stage on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0More home runs. \u00a0Hundreds of people walking up the hill to the Singing Stage. \u00a0One error. \u00a0All in all, it was another enjoyable two days spent at the 11th Annual Porcupine Mountain Music Festival. \u00a0I am looking forward to spinning PMMF artist tunes until PMMF #12 next August. \u00a0Tune in to 88.5 FM and you can relieve PMMF #11 on Your Sound Choice, WOAS-FM.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The top piece video features Jack Klatt of Minneapolis, walked the line between country and folk as the first purveyor of ‘hokum blues’ to grace the Singing Hill Stage. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>