The best of Bliss

July 5, 2006

Blissfest has built its reputation on its diverse lineup. The festival has been a major force in introducing world beat sounds to Northern Michigan. While headliners Poco will give the audience a taste of the country-rock genre, others will offer the flavors of folk, blues, zydeco, Celtic, salsa, bluegrass and other old and new world sounds. Here is a sampling of the weekend’s highlights.
While musical performances are at the center stage of Blissfest, the weekend is loaded with workshops from beginning harmonica to old world fiddle with swing and square dance instruction inbetween it all. There is the FolksCool Craft Workshops with crochet, beading, tie-dye and even soda making. Want to learn a song someone else wrote? Go to the Song Swap (just like a recipe exchange). Bringing the kids? Plenty for them to do as well, as K. Jones and the Benzie Playboyz are offering a teen Cajun dance. There is even a talent show for kids, plus instrument workshops.
Blissfest offers six entertainment areas offering non-stop activity throughout the day and evening. Be sure to get off the main path and check out some of the offerings at the Drum Kiva (West African Drumming is a must), and on Sunday the Didgeridoo Jam will offer some answers to the mysterious aboriginal instrument. On Saturday night in the Song Tree Area there is “Hero Songs,” a sampling of John Prine and Bob Dylan tunes.
All these options present the “kid in the candy store” dilemma. It all looks good but there is no way to take everything in. Some musical weekend highlights include:
 
Vincent Hayes Project
These mid-Michigan blues-rockers perform twice on Friday night. Northern Michiganders got a taste of the talents of the Vincent Hayes Project (VHP) last September when the group took first place at the blues competition hosted by Streeters’ Ground Zero Nightclub. The win meant a trip to Memphis for the annual International Blues Challenge. The blues trio took Memphis by storm; they fell a little short of winning the competition but made a name for themselves on the blues circuit. Last month they were invited to the Kalamazoo Valley Blues Association Blues Challenge and won again, earning another trip to Memphis in 2007. The band is anchored by the blues guitar wizardry of Vincent Hayes who has surrounded himself with a veteran rhythm section. Anyone considering not getting to Bliss until Poco starts at 9:30 p.m. may want to change their plans and arrive to catch VHP as they hit the stage at 5:30 p.m. There is a good chance that next summer this band will be touring the national blues circuit .
 
Bio Ritmo “The Salsa Machine”
This nine-piece ensemble fuses centuries of Afro-Cuban sounds with Brazilian beats and the spicy 1970’s Latin dance melodies with modern elctronica to create “The Salsa Machine.” Bio Ritmo closes the night on Saturday at the main stage and will definitely have the crowd jumping.  They came together in the early 1990s as an experimental “punk salsa” percussion band on the indie circuit in Richmond, Virginia. With backgrounds as varied as punk, jazz, reggae, and classical music, the band soon charted a course into the untamed reaches of salsa, jazz, and world music with an all-original repertoire. Today Bio Ritmo is a sonic laboratory, a testing ground where clichés are burned in the heat of pure experiment. Taking as much from Brian Eno and Willie Colon as from Stereo Lab, they’re redefining salsa in tracks that move both the synapses and the feet. This is music for the thinking dancer. But for all its cerebral experiment, Bio Ritmo never forgets that salsa comes from the heart. Nowhere is this more evident than in Rei Alvarez’s lyrics. Scorning any cardboard corazón sentiments, Alvarez writes about what it is to be human, and all the luminous beauty and black tragedy that entails. Writing with humor and honesty, his unusually introspective lyrics expose vulnerability, something rarely displayed in today’s mainstream culture. Alvarez also gives Bio Ritmo its visual artistry: his paintings are the band’s album covers, posters and gig flyers, rooting the look and sensibility of their music in the avant-garde -- one that is constantly adapting beyond the sphere of conventional salsa thinking to Bio Ritmo’s unique rhythm of life.
 
Harry Manx
Manx has made a couple of appearances in Northern Michigan in recent years. The folk-bluesman blends the sounds of the east with the west. Born on the Isle of Man, Manx spent his childhood in Canada and left in his teens to live in Europe, Japan, India and Brazil. He honed his hypnotic live show on street corners, in cafes and bars, and at festivals. But it was Indian music that captured Manx, and in the mid 80s he began his five-year tutelage with Rajasthani Indian musician Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (Grammy winner with Ry Cooder for “A Meeting by the River”). He also received the gift of Bhatt’s custom-made, self-designed Mohan veena - a 20-stringed sitar/guitar - that was the catalyst for Harry to forge a new path with his now signature east-meets-west style of music. Manx performs a few times throughout the weekend.
 
Gandalf Murphy and The Slambovian Circus of Dreams
Their much-celebrated new release “Flapjacks from the Sky” has garnered high praise from music writers, sparked generous activity at radio, and continues to invoke wave after wave of enthusiastic response from music fans worldwide. The music of Slambovia has been described as “Hillbilly-Floyd, folk-pop”, “alt-country roots-rock, and “surreal Americana”. Yet as earthy as their music seems, The Circus has a spiritual side - “Talkin’ to the Buddha,” “Call to the Mystic,” “Living with God,” “Flapjacks from the Sky.” Dancing freely between existing religious and philosophical mythologies, their music is not only uplifting and empowering but fun, a lot of fun. As Woody Guthrie said: “It’s not enough for a song to be good, it must be good for something.” Catch this entertaining group at 8 pm on Saturday on the main stage.
 
Todd Snider
He is known as the “outlaw” country singer/songwriter. Snider is a musician’s musician. His fans are many, especially among other celebrated singer/ songwriters. Willie Nelson “loves him.” Kris Kristofferson says, “Todd Snider is a true songwriter, with the heart and humor of John Prine, the wild unpredictability of Roger Miller, and a fresh, original spirit and freedom of imagination that’s absolutely his own.”  John Prine agrees, “Todd Snider writes great songs and also is a great performer. He totally connects with every audience. Hardest act to follow since Steve Goodman.” Kristofferson is such a fan that he asked Snider to sing at the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies, and Snider also appears on the Kristofferson tribute album that was released last week. Snider takes the stage before Bio Ritmo.
 
Best of the Rest:
Sometimes the local acts are taken for granted. Blissfest has always been committed to musicians from the region and around the state. Lansing based bluegrass-folksters Steppin’ In It will make an appearance. Northern Michigan’s Mudbugz and the Benzie Playboyz will offer up plenty of Cajun and Zydeco. Be sure to seek out Tyia Schippers and Dave Bunce from Cadillac; they are great musicians, and more importantly, they are good people. Then there is Crazy Richard. Not really sure what Crazy Richard does, but it just is not Blissfest without him.
 
In recent years tickets have sold out for Blissfest. For additional information, performance times or to purchase tickets visit www.blissfest.org.