Photo journalist Robert Fischer recently made it up to Empire, MI for the 15th annual Dunegrass Music Festival. Arists on the bill included Dark Star Orchestra, Particle, Yonder Mountain String Band, Keller Williams, David Grisman Quintet, Railroad Earth, Peter Rowan Crucial Reggae, Todd Snider, Martin Sexton, Great American Taxi, Greensky Bluegrass, Cornmeal, Daisy May & Seth Bernard, and more… Here are some of the highlights:
1. Particle’s golf cart heist and Lake Michigan tour along with their crowd reeling set.
2. Larry McCray’s opening day music on Friday along with him playing "Soul Shine" which Warren Haynes wrote and Larry recorded first. Larry Mc Cray will be up at Boyne Mountain Resort in Michigan with the Allman Brothers on Aug. 25th, 2007.
3. Vince Herman, Keller Williams and Jeff Austin (Yonder Mountain String Band) jammin’ out in true Colorado mountain fashion. Tom Ledermann (JamCam) captured Dunegrass all weekend through his camera, while filming the pilot for his new musical TV series .
4. Leelenau Cellars and their Raspberry Port Wine, which to tell you the truth is much closer to brandy than any wine I can think of on the market today. I am sure this will start a torrid brother/big sister vineyard war as "Big sis’" owns Black Star Farms. Battle nice or Mom will have to get in on this one. Try sipping Raspberry Port & some Blueberry while watching Dark Star do some 1970’s gems as you sit in the dark – priceless.
5. Shout Sister Shout and voice extraordinaire singing for two as Rachel Davis fills Dunegrass with a 1920’s to 1940’s flare all while counting the minutes to the arrival of her new baby – who by all accounts has been up dancing all the way to a new world the whole weekend
6. Cornmeal bringing fire and trick fuel’ed supercharged blue "Flamed" newgrass hotter than a skillet at a Sunday night fish fry. Oh yeah, what’s a fish fry without a couple of friends like Tim Carbone (Railroad Earth) & Vince Herman (Great American Taxi/Leftover Salmon) sitting inand rockin’ strings and thousands of happy faces?
7. Seeing Peter Rowan, Martin Sexton, & Railroad Earth for the first time. This first will not be a last, as both bands have a wonderful musical sensibility and easy going community openness.
8. Backstage Photo Pass shots with EVERYONE and their new best friend. The most fun is catching old friends in these photos from years past, and then pulling in new ones.
9. A special thanks to Grassroots Productions for bringing great music, wonderful people, and a kind community spirit up to Michigan for four days. I hope that next year we find a film festival, a couple of side stages along with a Summer and Fall version of Dunegrass. Thank you Stephen, Jeremiah, Josh, Mike, and Family for hosting a musical Gypsy’s summer camp next to Lake Michigan and telling me "Welcome home".
10. And number ten is having photos to show a friend what they’ll want to be doing this time next year.
