Podunk Bluegrass Festival 2019

Slade Rand

Aug. 10, 2019 – The Hartford Courant

GOSHEN — Phyliss Donnelly started playing the mandolin five years ago, the year of her first Podunk. She’s returned to the Connecticut bluegrass festival every year since, improving her picking along the way.

On Friday morning, she stood under a maple tree outside of a cow barn at the Goshen Fair-grounds, and circled up with five other amateur pickers to jam. They played together, practicing something called the Wernick Method, which is meant to help slower, newer pickers get up to speed.

“It’s to build up our speed, and our courage. But mostly our courage,”
Donnelly said.

Around 700 fans, artists and volunteers attended the Podunk Bluegrass Music Festival on Friday, which moved to Goshen this year. As more fans roll into town for the festival, at least 1,000 people are expected on Saturday. Podunk moved to a larger venue this year, and its organizers want the annual bluegrass gathering to keep growing while maintaining its relaxed, family atmosphere.

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The festival has been a summer staple for more than 20 years, but it’s seen its fair share of changes. The first festival hosted two campers, compared to this year’s 300-plus. This is the festival’s first year at Goshen, and organizers hope the hilly spot in Litchfield County will be the festival’s new home for years to come.

When the bluegrass bands aren’t performing, fans, musicians and campers don’t have to look far for bluegrass. All day and all night throughout the campground, people of all ages are making music together.

“There’s such a camaraderie and acceptance,” Donnelly said. “It’s just an honest, down to earth community, with no pretenses.”

Donnelly, 72, came to the festival from Exeter, R.I., with a group of like- minded folks called the Rhode Island Bluegrass Alliance. Groups come from across New England for the Podunk festival every year, just like they do for festivals in Maine, New York and Massachusetts all summer. Hundreds of people pack up their families, dogs and string instruments in RVs each year to hit as many bluegrass gatherings as possible before September comes around.

Sixteen-year-old Clara Guilmette has been playing banjo since she was 6, and her younger brother Evan picked up the guitar around the same age. Clara and 13-year-old Evan played last year’s Podunk together as Bend In The River. Their parents have been coming to Podunk since its early days in East Hartford, and when their kids were old enough, they made it a family affair.

“Most of our summer is bluegrass-ing, and from state to state you run into the same people,” said Meghan Guilmette, their mother.

Clara and Evan sat down at their campsite Friday afternoon to play “Lonesome Angel,” a song they learned last week. Clara said she can learn new songs simply from staying up and jamming with other musicians at festivals.

“As I got older, I was able to stay up past the 1 a.m. mark, and the later it gets, the more fun it gets,” she said.

As the night goes on, the formal shows give way to impromptu jams that can go as late as 5:00 a.m. and can feature anyone from nationally touring acts to kids looking to test their chops.

Thursday night, the main stage act played two hours past their scheduled midnight stop. The campsite was up and picking for much, much later.

A group of traveling fans called “The GrillBillies” parked a horseshoe of six trailers in the middle of the campground. They ring a dinner bell at 8 p.m. and welcome anyone looking for some good food and company.

Matt McBriarty sat under a tent sipping coffee out of a GrillBilly logo mug on Friday morning, bouncing back from a long night of music. He’s from New Providence, N.J., and has been on the bluegrass circuit for 37 years. He said he has hit six or seven bluegrass festivals this summer, or “not that many” in his words.

“It’s all about sitting around with friends, eating, and meeting new people,” McBriarty said.

Last weekend, the GrillBillies were at a festival in Pennsylvania. Around 100 of them show up to the summer festivals. Joe Singleton, a GrillBilly from North- hampton, Mass., said the family aspect of Podunk keeps him coming back.

The festival, which is nonprofit and run by volunteers, costs around $150,000 to produce. To keep attracting newcomers and young music fans, festival president Bob Francks said he pushes to book a handful of “progressive” bluegrass acts to comple- ment the traditional artists on the lineup.

The Travelling McCrourys, Phil Leadbetter and Frank Solivan headline this year’s festival, but Francks said acts like the women-led Red Molly can offer fans something they might not have seen before.

“Because we’re breaking through, the young kids are up there dancing, and the groups feed on that energy,” Francks said.

Abbie Gardner, who plays dobro in Red Molly, said their roots Americana style ties into the bluegrass scene, but allows them to get in front of new audiences.

“I think what brings us to bluegrass festivals is the three-part harmony that’s in every song that we do, so that really ties us into the bluegrass tradition,” she said.

Red Molly played two sets on Friday, switching up lead vocals and the stage set up between sets to make sure the audience gets something new. The trio of leading ladies met during a late-night jam 15 years ago and still swear the best pickers are back in the campgrounds.