SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2018
T HERE ’ S
WMF’s Friday
night Bluegrass
Concert
Review
B Y B URNEY G ARELICK
Crash. Bam. Alakazam! Flo-
rence’s 16th Winter Music
Festival jumped from zero to 99 in
no time flat when blistering banjo,
flying fiddle, rippling mandolin,
galloping guitar and throbbing
bass took the stage at the Florence
Events Center on Jan. 12.
Twenty-six strings inundated
the FEC with a tsunami of sound,
the likes of which Florence had
never seen.
The festival coordinators called
it the “Friday Night Throwdown,”
and the 50 fingers picking those
strings threw down the gauntlet
for a terrific weekend of music.
Bluegrass is an acquired taste,
but it didn’t take long for the
NO DENYING
enthusiastic crowd to catch the fla-
vor, responding on the edge of
their seats with bountiful applause
and
visceral
excitement.
Bluegrass was in charge, and the
night was right for pickin’.
Those festival coordinators
couldn’t have picked a better pair
of bluegrass bands to turn
Florence’s grass blue. “Pick,” by
the way, is part of the bluegrass
vocabulary and doesn’t refer to
your proboscis!
The stellar bands to throw
down the gauntlet were Jeff
Scroggins and Colorado from
Colorado and Laurie Lewis and
The Right Hands from the San
Francisco Bay area. Both bands
are known throughout the country
and beyond, in faraway places
with strange-sounding names and
a drive to pick bluegrass.
Colorado burst into the night
with the raw energy of the music’s
progenitors almost a century ago.
Drawing on the sounds of old time
string bands, blues, ragtime and
swing, bluegrass appropriated
songs by Jimmy Rodgers, Hank
— F LORENCE ’ S ‘ GRASS ’
Williams, Johnny Cash and Irving
Berlin and repackaged them in
intricate arrangements with inno-
vative improvisation.
Five acoustic string instruments
played their parts individually and
together. Bluegrass pickers are
also songwriters and singers.
Vocal harmony and solos are inte-
gral to the high and lonesome
sound.
Bluegrass got its name from the
State of Kentucky, where Bill
Monroe, the music’s patriarch,
resided.
Colorado delivered without a
hitch. Band patriarch and banjo
player Jeff Scroggins was reticent
to speak, and his countenance was
obscured by his hirsute flowing
mane. But his fingers ruled the
strings, climbing the neck with
speed and the inventive adventure
of alpine climbers in the bluegrass
chestnut, “Matterhorn.”
Scroggins’ son Tristan, sporting
a bright blue jacket, picked the fire
out of the mandolin and kept the
flame flaming. Tristan received
the 2017 Momentum Award from
the International Bluegrass Music
Association, and momentum
defines him.
As with everything else, it has
taken time for women to break the
bluegrass glass ceiling, but
Colorado fiddler Ellie Hakanson
had all the confidence in the
world. Adorned in a summer frock
and heels, she not only bowed and
plucked with expertise, she sang
with definition and grace, and she
kept tabs on Tristan who had a
penchant for telling awful groan-
ing jokes.
Flatpicking guitarist Greg
Blake was flat out fabulous, and
his rich and powerful baritone lin-
gered in our hearts. Like
Hakanson and both Scroggins,
Blake is a multiple bluegrass
award winner.
A gentleman from Tacoma,
Wash., manned the big bass fiddle,
keeping the bluegrass train on
time.
During intermission, the theater
buzzed with jubilation until the
seats refilled with great expecta-
tions for the second bluegrass
band.
Everyone needs a good right
hand, and Laurie Lewis has eight,
all ambidextrous. Lewis, who has
broken the bluegrass glass ceiling,
sported gorgeous red boots and
Deadwood man killed in
officer-involved shooting
EUGENE—On Tuesday, the
Lane County Sheriff’s Office
responded to a report of a
stolen vehicle at the 500 block
of Clairmont Drive in north
Eugene.
A deputy approached the
vehicle and the male suspect,
later identified as Robert
Martinez Jr., 42, of Deadwood,
exited the car from the driver’s
side and was uncooperative
with the deputy.
Martinez, who was in pos-
session of a firearm, was shot
by the deputy and subsequently
transported to the hospital for
medical attention.
Martinez was later pro-
nounced deceased.
The incident is being inves-
tigated by the Lane County
Interagency Deadly Force
Investigation Team (IDFIT)
and is ongoing.
The passenger of the vehi-
cle is cooperating with
authorities and has not been
charged with any criminal
offense.
Due to the ongoing nature
of the investigation, the pas-
senger is not being identified
at this time.
There are no outstanding
suspects in this case and there
is no indication that there is
an ongoing threat to the pub-
lic in connection with this
case.
According to LCSO, an
update will be issued after the
District Attorney’s Office has
reviewed the case.
ing arm!
Restrained and reserved Patrick
Sauber played elegant banjo —
clear, pure and flawless — and he
sang sweet harmony with Lewis
and Rozum. This was not Sauber’s
first appearance at the FEC; he
played winter festivals years ago
with the iconic Limeliters.
Walking the dog was acoustic
doghouse bass player Sam
Grisman, son of world famous
mandolin master David Grisman,
known for his Dawg music. It was
Sam’s birthday, and the band sang
him the ubiquitous song. But the
highlight was the ensemble’s ren-
dition of Irving Berlin’s “My
Walking Stick” with Grisman’s
sterling break, walking the dog
center stage.
Even after the encore, everyone
wanted more, and we gathered
outside the theater entrance for the
promised jam session, a bluegrass
tradition for picking, singing and
sharing the music we love.
There’s no denying Florence’s
Grass is Blue. Let’s do it again
next winter.
Meanwhile, keep on pickin’.
Region
kids that didn’t have any other
direction to go in,” she said.
“It’s kind of how theater is in the
first place — totally intriguing
for people who feel like theater
may have been their only outlet.
But the group that’s in the the-
ater in this town… I mean, my
kids are in two of the plays. And
that group is just so hilarious.
They’re all amazing, intelligent
people that just want to express
themselves in some way.”
As for the area, she finds the
people friendly and engaging.
“It’s a small community, so it
is a community. I can’t go
through Safeway without saying
hello to half the people in there.
And there are lots of great eater-
ies and we’ve got a new young
scene coming on, it feels like,
with newer professionals. That’s
kind of exciting to see. In addi-
tion, I do like the city mayor and
the city management right now.
They’re really making great
strides to broaden what they’re
doing with town. They helped a
lot with soccer and that’s not the
only thing.”
According to Lacer, “People
are coming out of this time gal-
vanized. When people are pas-
sionate, they make change.”
Campbell concluded, “In the
end, after all is said and done, I
really love this town. The peo-
ple, the scenery, the general
small-town vibe. It’s open-
minded and beautiful, very
beautiful. I forget that because
I’m too like, work, work, work-
ing. But Florence definitely has
its own heartbeat.”
from 8A
“People forget to look at the
bigger picture and that we’re a
community,” she said. “They
who were once young and had
their own children don’t realize
we’re trying to form young, pro-
ductive adults. If youth had
more opportunity, that would be
an option. … I’m on the board
of the soccer program in town
that Erin Linton, one of my
good friends, started. She kind
of went on her own to see who
wanted to see soccer grow. So
she individually went around
and found people, and that’s
been awesome.”
She wishes that a community
or recreation center could bring
more activities for youth, possi-
bly housing athletics and the
arts in one place for all ages.
“CROW is a really great
group that’s captured tons of
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IS BLUE
was clearly in charge, speaking for
the band, playing guitar and doing
most of the lead singing, but her
Right Hands were always on the
mark to lend support and wit.
Whether the songs were rous-
ing, comic or poignant, it was
clear they were all having a won-
derful time, and their joy was con-
tagious.
If Colorado was a rough and
rocky stagecoach ride, Lewis and
Her Hands cruised on stage in a
Cadillac with seamless vocal and
instrumental harmony and person-
al poise.
Tom Rozum’s dry wit, soaring
vocals and tasty, never hurried
mandolin picking was always on
the money, swinging on a blue-
grass star.
Brandon Godman, a strapping
young man from Kentucky, made
the fiddle sing at every speed with
tenderness and zest. In the previ-
ous set, he and Hakanson played
double fiddles on a barnburner,
“Roanoke,” and during this set,
Lewis, also a fiddle champion,
joined him for a fiddle duet.
After the show, Godman with a
shy grin revealed his Krypton: a
tattoo of a fiddle bow on his bow-
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© 2017 Starkey. All Rights Reserved. 10/17 180199033
Editor’s note:
This is the final installment in
what has been a nine-part series
running each Wednesday since
Nov. 15. Over the course of the
past two months, the series has
explored a different topic each
week related to the challenges we
face as a small coastal community
to meet the changing economy;
the impacts of the West Coast’s
affordable housing crisis and its
ripple effect on the Siuslaw
region; and identifying the issues
related creating living-wage jobs
to assure the region’s future.
In outlining what we deter-
mined would be a long-arcing
series that would help us under-
stand the issues, how they came to
be and, ultimately, their solutions,
Siuslaw News decided to focus on
each of the following areas:
Community and Social Services
(Nov. 15); The State of Housing
(Nov. 29); Community Involve-
ment (Dec. 6); The “Volunteer
Economy” (Dec. 13); Jobs and the
Workforce (Dec. 27); Economic
Development (Jan. 3); Education
(Jan. 10); and The Future of Life
in the Siuslaw Region (Jan. 17).
We’d like to thank everyone
who contributed their personal
stories, expertise and perspectives
— both on and off the record —
as well as community organiza-
tions, city officials, educators,
business owners and area leaders.
If you missed any part of the
series and would like to read
more, each segment is available
under the “Special Series” section
on the Siuslaw News website at
www.thesiuslawnews.com.
— Ned Hickson, editor