On Sunday, July 17th, the free Music In The Sculpture Garden (MITSG) concert at History House will feature two local folk bands. At 2p, a fairly new act, The Killdeers , will give the audience a taste of ‘high lonesome mountain music’. At 3p, The Boys of Greenwood Glen (a.k.a. BOGG) return to one of the first venues they performed at back when they got started, in 2007.
Playing For The Audience
“I feel blessed about where I am in my life musically,” admitted Ricky Gene Powell, founder of BOGG, who works as a professional musician – and an event producer. Powell performs in several bands, including Tiny Giants, Bando Rio, Camaleón and Acoustic Laboratory. He also has organized shows and workshops at the Wintergrass Festival, the Fremont Arts Council, and the new AfroLatino Festival Seattle – and spoke with me just before wandering off to check out this year’s Oregon Country Fair.
Before starting BOGG, Powell explained that he’d worked primarily in rock bands. His first observation about the lower-tech sound created by The Boys was that “acoustic musicians don’t scare people.” The music is more inviting, he explained. Step inside a bar or club, he observed, and “see a rock band set up, with the Marshall stack, giant bass speakers and an octave drum kit. If you don’t want to hear the music, you’ll leave, but if you see a mandolin and guitar, you can sit down,” even if you have no interest in the music.
Yet, Powell also holds great esteem for audiences like those that attend Music In The Sculpture Garden shows. “The acoustic crowd is very sophisticated,” and have an appreciation for musicianship, he has noticed. “They expect greatness,” Powell explained, “it’s lovely to play for them.”
Only In A Good Cause
Powell likes to play festivals – like Northwest Folklife Festival – where he feels his performance will do some good. Ultimately, “I’m not going to play to pay someone else’s light bill,” he stated, about free performances – for a for-profit business. Fore instance, he performed at the Fremont Oktoberfest last year, on the free, open-to-the-public stage, as a way to draw in audiences for the Texas Chainsaw Pumpkin Carving.
“I know that History House is like that,” Powell explained. The concert series builds community. Besides, Powell said, MITSG producer, John Nordstrand, told The Boys upfront – before their first performance three years ago – that the performers would not get paid. After the show, Powell recalled, “he handed us all kinds of gift certificates and gift cards,” donated by area businesses who want to support the series, and the musicians. “I know John’s not hiding stuff from me,” Powell explained, “he’s upfront and transparent. I like to work for them,” he said, “some people just have to ask.”
A Mandolin Makes ‘The Boys’
The Boys of Greenwood Glen ask for a chance to celebrate through music, with all its many influences. They perform traditional Irish folk songs, with an exciting blending in of country, old-time, bluegrass and American folk. “All folk music has the same basis – themes that run through all music,” and BOGG takes these themes, and the music, to build a “new tradition of American history,” according to Powell. Their first album had a great reception in the United Kingdom, where audiences enjoyed the beloved Irish music filtered by an American sensibility.
Today The Boys consist of Peter Rothbart on guitar and vocals, Jorge Vazquez on bass, Tim Wetmiller on violin, and Ricky Gene Powell on mandolin and banjo, and describe themselves as ‘a drinking band with an Irish problem.’ They’ve built a solid reputation playing Irish shows and holidays, but the band actually began – according to Powell – because of a mandolin.
A few years ago, Powell discovered the instrument and “fell into a mandolin well.” He listened to the musical mandolin greats, and learned to play. “I was making a living playing the mandolin after 1 ½ years,” he admitted, with such a positive response to the music that he built a band around it.
You can hear BOGG on-line – or enjoy their music along with that of The Killdeers on Sunday, July 17th from 2p – 4p, at History House. On-line is free, but so are MITSG shows – plus they offer the chance to be a part of one of those great acoustic audiences Powell find so praiseworthy! What do you have to lose?
Related Articles
- MITSG: A Concert Series to Entertain, and Build Community
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- Sustaining The Solstice
- by Kirby Lindsay, June 13, 2007
©2011 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.