July 16, 2009

Last weekend, the 8th Annual Forecastle Festival brought about 17,000 people from around the country to downtown Louisville. This year’s fest has garnered rave reviews and went off with only a single hitch – 16 felony drug arrests, which the media picked up on instead of the fantastic music goin’ down. Matt Speck shot the festival and returned these photos…

READ ON for a full gallery of Matt’s Forecastle Festival photos…

We at Hidden Track have grown rather fond of Cornmeal, the Chicago jam-grass quintet that doesn’t seem to have a problem being called “jamgrass” or “jamband bluegrass” even though the terms are useful only as loose groupers. Fact is, though, if you dig a little deeper with Cornmeal, you hear plenty of bluegrass, roots and old-time, sure, but also a mischievous streak that recalls forebears like New Grass Revival in the way that they draw in everything from country and jazz to funk and blues without quite embracing any one of those idioms. There’s a lot to grab onto.

The band’s actually been around for nine years, but it took at least half that time to reach a stabilized lineup, and it’s only in the past two or three, since word got out from their Midwest fan strongholds and swept the festival circuit, that Cornmeal has attracted national attention. They’re still an unknown quantity in much of the country, although bassist Chris Gangi says the band does a little better every time it returns to developing pockets of fans in the northeast, southeast and west coast.

Hidden Track caught up with Gangi to hear about what’s on Cornmeal’s radar and how he, fiddle player Allie Kral, guitarist Kris Nowak, drummer JP Nowak and banjoist Dave Burlingame plan to keep striking while they have the momentum.

HIDDEN TRACK: So where am I finding you today?

CHRIS GANGI: I’m actually home at the moment, for about a day or two before we go back out again. It’s easy in Chicago to catch a day at home, and a lot of times we’ll bypass extended tours when we’re in the Midwest so we can make sure we get a few days off. When the band started out, that’s just what made sense expense-wise — we could go out for stretches and then come back home and save our jobs.

READ ON for more of Chad’s interview with Chris from Cornmeal…

Words and Videos by Benji Feldheim

It started with two stages. Bands played on one large stage at the bottom of a hill and under a tent out in the woods over two days. A red barn with room for no more than a thousand was used for musician clinics during the day and late shows going into the early morning. Tents dotted only the wooded area east of a main road that snaked all the way from the barn to the main stage, with nothing but empty west and north. You could lie in your tent between five and 10 in the morning and just scream. People also lying in their tents would hear you and join in.

Summer Camp Festival 2001

The organizers then stretched it a day, making Summer Camp three days before Memorial Day weekend. And they added the third “Sunshine” stage. It stood west of the main dirt road, nearly as big as the main stage – which was then dubbed the Moonshine Stage. The extra day on Fridays was followed by a Thursday “pre-party” and two more stages called Starshine and Campfire. The barn became too tiny for access to all attendees, as numbers swelled from just over 1,000 when the fest was first thrown in 2001, to 10,000 this year.

Not only the numbers grew. The grass area north of the road is filled nearly as far as one can see with tents, booth spots for various breeds of non-profits and a full bar. There’s a tent that alters its roles from yoga class to coffee house-like stage for acoustic sets to a DJ tent real late for those “too excited to sleep” (in the immortal words of Trey Anastasio). But somehow it never feels cramped. One can still get to their campsite from near the soundboard at the Moonshine stage during a set break and get back without missing a thing. READ ON to check out the videos Benji put together…