Bob Weir and Grace Potter singing “I Know You Rider” as the sun sets behind the stage… lounging on a grassy field… dancing with thousands of people truly happy to be exactly where they were at that moment – moments, plentiful at last weekend’s Peach Music Festival at Scranton, PA.
Now in its second year, the Peach Music Festival, hosted by perennial southern rockers The Allman Brothers Band, wholeheartedly demonstrated its staying power as a top-notch summer music festival. With performances spanning numerous genres (bluegrass, jam, New Orleans jazz, and whatever genre Lotus falls into), Peachfest delivered, and the fans could not have been happier.
Despite being a native-New Yorker, there is an undeniable part of my being that thrives in nature, and my anticipation only grew as my friends and I weaved through the Pennsylvania countryside and up the slopes of Montage Mountain. From the parking lot, we rode a festival-provided-tractor-pulled cart (they called it a “shuttle,” but I know a tractor when I see one) farther up the mountain, up, up, up to the campgrounds.
The campgrounds were divided into two main sections: general and family. Peachfest is a family-friendly environment; aside from the family campgrounds (with noise curfew from 2-7AM), the festival contains a water park and zip-line rides for those more adventurous. While the venue is family-friendly, I never found this to detract from my own experience, as families are seemingly conscientious of any indulgences in which this particular festival-goer may have participated.
After unloading our bags, we made our way down the mountain, to the main stage. The festival contained two stages, the Peach Stage and the Mushroom Stage. The Mushroom Stage was smaller, situated in the middle of the water park. There is definitely something to be said for listening to live music while coasting along a lazy river, however, the real treat of the music accommodations was at the main Peach Stage. We arrived for the tail-end of the Railroad Earth set; an upbeat bluegrass sound that kept everyone dancing.
The following performance on the Peach Stage was Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Potter fueled the musical energy of the late afternoon, dazzling the audience with her non-stop rock and roll enthusiasm. Potter was thoroughly happy to be included in the festival lineup, admitting, at one point, her desire to join the crowd for the rest of the night. Potter showcased her musical talents: vocals, with a particularly-moving rendition Neil Young’s “Down by the River,” guitar playing, during a particularly-jam-filled “Sugar,” piano playing for “Stars,” and even some drumming, as Grace Potter and all of her Nocturnals had drum sticks in-hand for a full-band drum solo during “Medicine.” Very cool!
Bob Weir & RatDog were on afterwards, providing a mellow, somewhat-jazz-influenced performance. The set was an honest mixture of Grateful Dead and post-Dead solo Weir compositions, with some sprinklings of recognizable covers – including a rendition of The Beatles’ “Dear Prudence” featuring Grace Potter on vocals. I found myself sprawled on the lawn, gazing at the stars, lost amongst cosmic guitar melodies. The set closed with “China Cat Sunflower” segueing into “I Know You Rider,” a common offering from the Grateful Dead.
Grace Potter rejoined RatDog for the final song, with Weir and Potter ad-libbing a verse that poked fun at Winona Ryder (in lieu of the typical “I know you rider” lyrics). In the wake of his collapse at a Furthur show in April, Weir looked healthy, and very eager to perform. He even joined the Allman Brothers later that evening, for “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl.”
And speaking of the Allman Brothers Band, their performance, after RatDog’s, was electric. Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks are two elite guitarists in the peak of their extraordinary careers. With Haynes’s soulful blues licks and Trucks’s haunting slide guitar melodies, the duo has revitalized the Allman Brothers Band for a younger generation of avid music-lovers. Gregg Allman was in great form, hammering away at the organs and belting the blues with his gritty southern charm. The band played familiar tracks that spanned their 40-plus years of music, including “One Way Out,” “Trouble No More,” and “Statesboro Blues.” A particularly lengthy “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” featuring Bill Evans on the saxophone and inspired jamming by the entire band, ended the concert.
For fans not-yet exhausted from the previous hours of musical bliss, the New Orleans-based jazz band Galactic took to the Mushroom Stage for a midnight set. The feel-good band boasted Mardi Gras vibrations throughout the entire mountain, with grooving guitar lines and boasting horn sections that kept people on their feet in the wee hours of the night. Their performance featured vocals from Corey Glover, the frontman for Living Colour.
The following afternoon, Bill Evans’ SoulGrass began the festivities at the smaller Mushroom Stage. Bill Evans, a master saxophonist who has played with the likes of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and countless jazz icons, treated fans with his unique jazz-bluegrass fusion style. The mood continued throughout the afternoon with Cabinet and Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band on the Mushroom Stage. Cabinet is a six-piece musically-adept bluegrass band that played on two separate occasions at the festival. Their performance defies preconceptions about bluegrass, delivering a powerful-yet-down-home sonic force within each composition. This band is no joke, but all fun.
Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band performed next, bringing a relaxed, jazzy perspective to well-known Allman Brothers Band songs, as well as other blues standards and original compositions. Their dreamy arrangements of “Jessica” and “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” brought fans to their feet, and smiles to their faces.
After Jaimoe’s show, we hurried over to the Peach Stage to catch Gov’t Mule. This band is a powerhouse of rock music, led by the ever-soulful presence of Warren Haynes. Mule is promoting their first new album in four years, entitled Shout!, which includes eleven original tracks on the first disc, and those same tracks interpreted by a vast array of respected musicians (Grace Potter, Dr. John, Elvis Costello, Steve Winwood to name a few) on the second disc. The band played two songs from the new album, “Funny Little Tragedy” and “Scared to Live.” Judging from these songs, and the incredible talent that Mule has brought to the studio, Shout! will definitely be on my Amazon.com wish list.
Similar to the prior evening, Bob Weir & RatDog and the Allman Brothers were the final two performances on the Peach Stage. Weir delighted the audience with servings of “Birdsong,” a slowed-down “Jack Straw,” “The Other One,” and a second helping of “Dark Star” (which was started the night before, but left unfinished). He finished his set with the fan-favorite “Not Fade Away,” a Buddy Holly cover that left fans chanting “love is love, not fade away” for minutes, even after the concert had ended.
The Allman Brothers Band appeared shortly thereafter, and hit the ground running with their version of the standard “You Don’t Love Me.” The band rolled through countless blues songs, grinding deeply-soulful guitar jams into every song. Halfway through the performance, to provide a slight respite from the fast paced selections, Gregg Allman strummed the opening melody of “Melissa” on an acoustic guitar. With Gregg, Derek, and Warren playing guitar together, in the context of such a heartfelt song… this was the most sincerely-beautiful moment of the entire performance (and arguably, of the entire festival).
Afterwards, the band featured some special guests: Steve Kimock on guitar for “Dreams,” and Jeff Chimenti on keyboards and Ron Holloway on saxophone for “The Same Thing.” The set closed with a Jimi Hendrix cover, “1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be),” which segued into the classic “Mountain Jam.” With a cheering crowd on their feet, the band returned for an encore performance of the high-octane “Whipping Post.” Laden with delightful-dueling guitar solos from Haynes and Trucks, this song was the icing on the cake- or, more appropriately, the peach cobbler.
The band Lotus, with its unique brand of electronically-influenced funk music, initially seemed a bit out of place for a bluesy-folky festival like Peachfest. However, good music is good music, and Lotus drew a sizeable crowd for its midnight set on the Mushroom Stage. With bright lights and creatively catchy melodies, Lotus brought their A-game to the Peachfest.
With a particularly long two days of music, what could be more relaxing than a Sunday Brunch with Bobby? Bob Weir’s solo acoustic appearance was a folk-music masterpiece, as Weir played “Walkin’ Blues” and “Me & My Uncle” to start the show. Later, Weir introduced Steve Kimock for the second half of the set, which only enhanced the magic of the performance. The duo played “Peggy-O,” “Playin’ In the Band,” and “Standin’ on Shaky Ground.”
At this point, the sky greyed, and my group decided it would be best to head back to the city. While I did not get to see Sunday night’s headliners, The Black Crowes, I have watched most of the videos. They, too, were joined by Bob Weir, for a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues.” The band put on a tremendous rock and roll concert, playing “She Talks to Angels” and closing with “Hard to Handle,” an Otis Redding cover that frequently appears on classic rock radio playlists.
Between the natural beauty of Montage Mountain, the welcoming friendliness of the tens of thousands of fans in attendance, the water park and zip-line access, and the brightly optimistic musical offerings of each and every band in attendance, the Peach Music Festival was a resounding success. Without a doubt, I will be there next year.
[All Photos by Vernon Webb. To check out a full gallery of pictures, check out Photography by Vernon Webb]
