Words and Images: Allison Taich
Northwest String Summit @ Horning’s Hideout, July 16-18
The Northwest String Summit (NWSS) celebrated its ninth anniversary July 16-18, 2010 at Horning’s Hideout in North Plains, Oregon. The three day music festival hosted by Yonder Mountain String Band (YMSB) included a cumulative nine hours worth of live YMSB, plus an outstanding roundup of string musicians including: Danny Barnes, Darol Anger and Great American Taxi. The Rhythm Devils and moe. both joined the fun electrifying the otherwise acoustic lineup.
There were several factors that set the NWSS apart from all other music festivals I have attended. For starters the grounds of Horning’s Hideout were immaculate. The layout was full of rolling hills, thick forests of lush browns and greens, a streaming river, pleasant lakes, wooded camp grounds, fearless wild peacocks and the list goes on. Every personality I crossed was more exceptional than the next; fans who attended wanted to be there, they were there for the music. There was no seedy scene, no pushy or undesirable individuals, simply people looking to celebrate acoustic music and have a good time. At nighttime the forests echoed with the plucking of strings from varying campsite jams, followed by the hoots and hollers of excited festival goers.
Music wise there was only one stage meaning one band played at a time. There was no overlapping, no running back and forth, no missing portions of sets and no need to leave sets early in order to catch another band. Each band laid down a winning performance making it hard to select a favorite. It seemed that every performance was charged by audience enthusiasm and energy. Bands reciprocated by churning out some of the wildest sets of acoustic music. READ ON for more from Allison on the NWSS…
