Bush, Yoakam ready to WOW Utah crowd

By Linda East Brady, Standard-Examiner staff

Fri, 08/06/2010 - 10:59am

Sam Bush, bluegrass singer and maestro of the mandolin and fiddle, is sometimes called the King of Telluride. Heaven knows, the man has earned the title, appearing at nearly every festival the Colorado city has hosted in 37 years.

Perhaps one day he will also be known as the King of Snowbasin.

The resort nestled on the hills above Huntsville is presenting the first-ever Way Out West Festival (aka WOWFest) this weekend, and Bush is one of the main attractions.

"Hey man, we are glad to get back to Utah," said Bush, calling from home in Nashville. "We've been in and around Utah for years, and I just love that community. The rest of the world might have preconceived notions about the place ... but I think it is by far one of the most open-minded audiences we've ever played for."

It is not only the audience Bush looks forward to. He's also eagerly anticipating meeting up with an old friend, honky-tonk heartthrob Dwight Yoakam. Bush's breakthrough band, New Grass Revival, and Yoakam shared a manager back in the '80s.

Said Bush: "It'll be great to see Dwight at the festival. I think it was about a year ago, (my wife) Lynn and I were walking down a street in Hollywood, and we passed by this shop that has really crazy stuff, funny gifts and all, and out comes Dwight! It cracked us up, and we had a really nice talk there on Sunset Boulevard. Ol' Dwight's done quite well for himself, of course."

Bush is slated to perform at 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Circle back

Bush has longed been enamored of bluegrass music, the fast-picking country style that Bill Monroe was instrumental in developing and making a musical powerhouse. The young Bush got started on his own bluegrass road by listening to his father's record collection.

Sam started playing fiddle and mandolin while still a boy, taking first place three times as a teen in the junior division of the National Oldtime Fiddler's Contest in Weiser, Idaho.

In 1971, Bush was a founding member of New Grass Revival, an important musical link between the past and the present in bluegrass. Newgrass, as the updated style has since been dubbed, kept true to the traditional instruments, but occasionally added electrical instrumentation and drumming, as well as jazz-flavored jams.

Revival members have included vocalist John Cowan, banjo ace Bela Fleck and acoustic guitarist Pat Flynn.

Bush has also delved into other styles, with bands like Duckbutter Blues Band and Emmylou Harris' Nash Ramblers. He has at times worked as a sideman for Lyle Lovett and Garth Brooks, and has appeared on albums by such varied artists as Steve Earle, Neil Diamond and Shania Twain.

But though he has wandered wide through the musical world, Bush's heart belongs to the newgrass style he helped develop. The Kentucky Legislature recognized that earlier this year, naming Bush the Father of Newgrass.

Bush embraces his roots in his latest album, "Circles Around Me," released by Sugar Hill in 2009.

Bush said he did not start with a grand plan for the album. But in the end, when the songs started to come together, he realized he wanted to keep this one all-acoustic.

"I wish I could say there was some genius plan, but no," he said. "I have used electric instruments many times. But this one seemed appropriate to keep acoustic, just in how the songs fit together. It just felt right. It kept me centered. And I wanted to play mostly mandolin on this -- again, because it just felt right."

Songs, new and old

"Circles Around Me" includes 14 songs -- old, new and blue. Guest artists include such heavy-hitters as Del McCoury, Jerry Douglas and even a posthumous turn by the co-founder of the New Grass Revival, Courtney Johnson.

Garth Fundis, who owns Sound Emporium recording studio, where Bush was working on the record, was an engineer for the same studio in 1974. They met when New Grass Revival was recording its album "Memories."

"I was recording, and he said, 'Man, I found these three tunes from 1976, and I think there was Courtney on them, on fiddle and banjo.' "

The old tapes the music was captured on needed to be baked in something resembling a convection oven, allowing them to rescue the music before the tapes turned to dust.

" 'Apple Blossom' sounded really good -- old Courtney playing again, after all these years. He's been dead 14 years now, I guess. So it was sad, yet joyful, to discover this."

Another album highlight is the spooky, true-life murder ballad "The Ballad of Stringbean and Estelle." It was a song Bush co-wrote with Guy Clark and his guitarist Verlon Thompson, about the 1973 home burglary/murder of Grand Ole Opry star David "Stringbean" Akeman and his wife.

"Guy Clark is a genius," Bush said of the journeyman Americana songwriter. "Guy is the master of saying it simply, not overdoing. I really look up to him."

Bush said Clark called him up, and said they needed the help of a "real hillbilly" to complete the song about the Akemans. Bush affirmed that he was their man.

"We had a song within three hours of getting together. ... You rarely hear such songs anymore, but they were once quite popular. We wanted the music to sound like it had been written long ago -- like a folk song. I think it works well."

Whether playing lightning-fast licks or using his notes with tasteful spareness, Bush is one-of-a-kind. And his kind seems to fit well in the lineup of just about any festival -- and certainly one as diverse as the WOWFest promises to be.

Said Bush: "What's fun about us is, to a bluegrass audience, we sound like a rock 'n' roll band. But to a rock audience, we sound like bluegrass. Doesn't much matter in the end. From the way most audiences respond to us, we seem to pretty much please most of them."

WOWFest schedule

Gates open at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday at Snowbasin Resort, 3925 E. Snowbasin Road, on the slopes above Huntsville.

Saturday

Main Stage

Noon -- Trevor Green

1 p.m. -- Red Rock Hot Club

2:15 p.m. -- Cow Bop

3:30 p.m. -- Jonathan McEuen

5 p.m. -- Dave Mason

8 p.m. -- Robben Ford

10 p.m. -- Martin Sexton

Second Stage