The Ossipee Valley Music Festival gets into swing Thursday, July 28 in Hiram. The four-day music jamboree features more than 20 bands from local lore to national renown, including the Ghost of Paul Revere, Mandolin Orange, Sarah Jarosz, The California Honeydrops and the John Jorgenson Gypsy Jazz Quintet.
I was able to catch up with three of the acts and ask them about what brings them to Maine, life on the road, and balancing live shows with studio work.
Practitioners of “holler-folk,” a term they created to describe their distinct music, the Ghost of Paul Revere has come along way from their upbringing along the banks of the Saco River.
“When we started out, we invented our own genre,” says Griffin Sherry, lead guitar. “We didn’t know how to describe our sound. It’s a mix of bluegrass and folk, harmonies of field songs, and old school hollers – all with roots in the American folk tradition.”
Built around three-part harmonies, the band has risen steadily from local heroes to a national status that draws fans from remote corners of the country.
Childhood friends Max Davis (banjo), Sean McCarthy (bass), Matt Young (harmonica and mandolin), and Sherry each bring unique sounds, but their songs only come together when all four are working on them. Young is the only member from away, moving from New Jersey to attend the College of the Atlantic, but he’d vacationed in Maine each summer with his family The college experience solidified the vibe he had found here.
All four band members sing; Davis and Sherry write the lyrics. They have shared the stage with Brown Bird, Spirit Family Reunion, and the Mama Bear, and have sold out Port City Music Hall, Stone Mountain Arts Center, and the Strand Theater several times. Winners of Best In Maine at the 2014 New England Music Awards, the Ghost was an official showcase artist at Folk Alliance International 2015 and made their Newport Folk Festival debut in 2015.
They’d won a contest to get into Newport and also landed a couple of days in a studio.
“We had a few live tracks we didn’t know what to do with,” Davis recalled. “When we started assembling them, it didn’t feel like they had a cohesive element. We were traveling so much, it seemed like a good way to bring these songs together.” The collective result is their fourth album, Field Notes Vol. 1.
The Newport appearance was “mind blowing, to be a peer of the artists there, spending time with them and trying not to freak out,” Sherry says, “with Roger Waters and Jim James (from My Morning Jacket) walking around and eating the same hummus as we were.” That starstruck showing made a lasting impression, but the band longs to return to more intimate festivals like Ossipee, where there is seemingly no separation between them and the bigger stars.
“Griffin and I were just looking back over the website for Ossipee,” Davis said. “We didn’t realize they had changed it from bluegrass to a (more general) festival, similar to Newport, which went from folk to encompass all music.”
Davis prefers the live shows, but is starting to enjoy the studio experience. “A lot of people say we’re a live band, since the first couple albums were live cuts in the studio,” he says. “Now we’re taking more risks on stage, having played some bigger venues.”
“We’re more comfortable with the instruments,” Sherry adds, “and getting to know each other’s sound so much better.”
Mandolin Orange, comprised of North Carolinians Emily Frantz and Andrew Marlin, have been busy. Most of their time is spent on tour, with days off in the studio where they’ve cranked out three highly-acclaimed albums - Quiet Little Room, Haste Make/Hard Hearted Stranger, and This Side of Jordan over the past few years They hit the Ossipee Valley Music Festival hot off the heels of their new work, Such Jubilee. Mandolin Orange has played with Rosanne Cash, Chatham County Line, and the Steep Canyon Rangers. They played in Portland last year.
One of their most influential experiences was opening for the Man in Black’s eldest daughter. “We met her four years ago in Charlotte,” Frantz said. “She had heard some of our early records and asked us to join her. We did a Carter family tune together.”
Although they seem to be always on the road, playing more than 200 times a year, the duo says travel is much easier now, roving around with a smaller outfit and honing their craft.
In one of their best covers, Mandolin Orange puts a new twist on Bob Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather.” In the original, Dylan sings both male and female parts of the dialogue about a sailor heading off to sea, wondering what he can bring back to his love. In the updated version, Frantz and Marlin switch the gender roles and provide a more contemporary view of the domestic arrangement, a sort of seahorse.
Their strongest songs, though, are of their own making. “Andrew is the main songwriter,” says Frantz, guitarist. “My involvement is more the arrangement, figuring out how we want it to sound. He usually creates the melody and lyrics simultaneously, although sometimes the melody and chords come first.” Marlin, who plays mandolin and guitar, calls his creative process “spitballing,” throwing out nonsense phrases until there’s enough to work with.
“We mostly play shows,” Frantz says. “In a lot of ways, it’s what we enjoy doing. This new album, the way we recorded it, is informed by that. We want it to feel live, like people sitting around playing music together, not just the layers of the studio.”
Sarah Jarosz, one of the headliners of the Ossipee Valley Music Festival, has played here before. Even though her busy tour schedule means she often croons in a new town each night, she says she can’t wait to get back into Maine this Friday. She’ll play six times in the eight nights before she arrives, and looks forward to the brief respite the great outdoors can offer.
Jarosz was nominated for a Grammy for Best Folk Album (2013’s Build Me Up From Bones) and Best American Roots Song for its title track. Her first album, Song Up In Her Head, featured an instrumental called “Mansinneedof” that also received a Grammy nomination. She grew up going to a lot of festivals and is fond of the culture. “It’s how I fell in love with a lot of the music I still listen to. It’s how I started playing,” she said. “You get to watch your heroes and your friends play, too.”
Jarosz also covets the controlled environment of a smaller venue, where fans are focused on the listening. A music festival is a different animal, where “it’s about the music, but it’s also about everything else.”
She has a new album out called Undercurrent and says the new music is the main source for her seemingly unlimited energy, as well as getting to play with different people along the way. In Maine, she’ll be joined by Jedd Hughes (acoustic and electric guitar) and Jeff Picker (upright bass). Jarosz has been writing with Hughes since her last record. “He’s a collaborator I’m very fond of, and I’m glad to have him on the road with me.”
This new album is her first one with all original songs. Her previous live coverwork includes a surprising version of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.”
“Covers are an interesting thing,” she says. “There are those songs that feel like the original is the way it should always be played. Not all songs necessarily lend themselves to another person’s interpretation. When it does, it’s a special thing. I try to think of a way to make it fresh and original, in the tradition of oral music – playing a tune and making it your own. I’ve always loved playing other people’s songs.”
She craves both musical experiences – playing live and recording – but draws a distinction. “It’s special to be able to take time in studio and figure out all the ways of playing and recording songs, but it’s not a direct connection with the people hearing it.”
Response so far to her fourth album has been gratifying, she says. “The tour’s been great, a lot of shows sold out. It’s cool for a record that just came out last month that people know the songs and are singing along.”
For more about the Ossipee Valley Music Festival, visit http://ossipeevalley.com.