There’s a myth that the era of free music and nightlong jams is a thing of the past. But that’s all it is: a myth, its lie proven every time an all-night MC freestyle battle rocks a warehouse or musicians both professional and amateur sit around a campfire at a bluegrass music festival. It’s this communal spirit that show organizer Eric Burman has fostered during the 17 years he has organized bluegrass festivals around Northern California.
Burman’s 2010 Winterfest Bluegrass Festival, held this weekend at the Brookdale Inn & Spa, is an expression of this ethos, bringing together the Bay Area’s leading bluegrass acts and amateur aficionados. In addition to the impressive lineup of acts on the bill, Burman promises music throughout the weekend and late-night jam sessions between the stage musicians and their fans.
In recent years, the Winterfest was orphaned due to the Brookdale’s construction and ongoing transition, but this year it returns to its rightful home. “I kept it alive by having it in my own barn, and then decided to spread it to Boulder Creek,” Burman says. “This year the Brookdale Lodge approached me to do it there again.”
The Winterfest was originally inspired by his own wedding, which featured a number of bluegrass bands, Burman says. “The whole thing started when my wife and I got married in the Brookdale Lodge with bluegrass bands. The people who worked there enjoyed it so much they said we should get married more often.”
Drawing on the contacts he earned organizing the annual Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival in Hollister, Burman has been able to consistently attract top-tier talent to the Brookdale. Some of the most notable this year include the Earl Brothers, a hard-driving amalgam of honky-tonk and bluegrass, and Rainy Escobar, whose music Burman hails as “very poignant—she’s a woman who’s seen the world.” Burman identifies Ben Lomond’s Upcreek Drifters, a group of up-and-comers that dominated his August festival, as the band to watch. “They do about 90 percent traditional music, but they’re spellbinding—they get people jumping and dancing and doing crazy things,” he says. “They had a guy doing handstands in front of them when they played in August.” The Saturday night show will be rounded out with an appearance by Burman’s own outfit, the Common Cents Band.
There will be plenty of other whimsical novelties on hand, most notably the festival’s infamous underwater banjo contest, which kicks off Sunday morning at 11am. “We go into the Mermaid Room and people jump in the water and play the banjo and do tricks. People wear costumes and other strange things—one person jumped in with nothing on.”
It’s a considerable amount of work to pull an event of this size together, but Burman is motivated by the sense of community that a bluegrass festival fosters. “We’ll be playing music all over the place—in the bar, in the lobby, in the log cabin, all over the place,” he says. “We take over the entire place. A bluegrass festival gives everyone the opportunity to play their own music after the bands leave the stage. There’s 150 musicians, and that doesn’t count the people who have brought their own instruments.”
It’s all about the love, says Burman. “I’ll tell you something: nobody talks about what they do for living, they don’t talk about politics, they just are sharing the love. I’m an intensive care nurse [by day], so for me this is just great therapy.”
THE BROOKDALE WINTERFEST BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL
Fri-Sun, Dec. 3-5
Brookdale Inn & Spa, 11570 Hwy 9, Brookdale
Tickets $25 Friday, $40 Saturday, free Sunday.
831.338.1300 or www.brookdalebluegrass.com
