Laurel Wilson
The Independent
FLATWOODS —
Sunday’s music festival at B.F. Crager Community Park may have been called a Blues Jam, but much more than just the blues was played.
Nine local bands performed over the course of the day, ranging in style from jazz to bluegrass to punk. At 9 p.m., all the musicians got onstage for a jam session, or “free for all,” as organizer Gloria Smith put it.
The festival was a benefit for River Cities Harvest and the Ashland Animal Rescue Fund, Smith said. It was free to attend, but a food barrel and cash donation center were set up to benefit RCH and a concession stand helped raise money for AARF.
“To think that all these people are coming together for this is wonderful,” Smith said. “It has touched me that people are still digging into their pockets to donate during these hard economic times.”
The festival came together at the last minute, so the park in Flatwoods was the only venue available, but Smith said she plans to make it an annual event and have it in Ashland next year.
Playing music to benefit a good cause is always “something good to be involved in,” said Michael Moore, guitarist for the progressive jazz band Randel.
“It’s an opportunity to turn a boring Sunday into something to do,” Moore said.
It’s also a great way for bands in the area to meet each other and combine their styles to play a few songs together, said Dave Knipp, Randel’s drummer.
“That doesn’t happen often around here,” Knipp said. “You’re seeing different circles of people together that wouldn’t normally come together.”
The festival was the debut of Cat Cirner’s band, which is so new it doesn’t even have a name yet.
She formed the band from musicians she’d played with before, but who hadn’t played with each other until now.
Cirner said she can’t pinpoint their sound, because they play an eclectic mix of everything.
“There is not a band in the Tri-State area that sounds like us,” she said. “We play Top 20 songs next to my original stuff next to folk.”
Her original songs are influenced by blues, jazz, soul and bluegrass, she said.
“We play bluegrass instruments, but the things we can do with them will blow your mind,” she said.
Cirner said she’s happy to be part of such a talented local music scene, and a community festival like this is a great place to introduce her band to the area.
“We’re excited to get out there and take the Tri-State area by storm,” she said.
LAUREL WILSON can be reached at lwilson@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2657.
