Falcon Ridge Folk, Vans Warped, Buddy Guy
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., July 23, 1998)

Falcon Ridge turns 10

The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in nearby Hillsdale, N.Y., celebrates its 10th anniversary this weekend starting on Friday and running through Sunday with what looks to be its biggest and best lineup ever, featuring long-missed veterans including Bill Morrissey, Bruce Pratt and Jack Hardy next to annual favorites such as John Gorka, Patty Larkin, Greg Brown and Dar Williams. Also on board this year are Brooks Williams, The Bobs, June Rich, The Nields, The Laura Love Band, Lisa McCormick, Nancy Tucker, Richard Shindell, Tom Prasada-Rao and Vance Gilbert -- in other words, virtually everybody who is anybody in the new-folk world. The festival also features an all-day and late-night dance stage with premiere Cajun, contra and square dance bands, camping, song swaps, workshops, family stage, children's activities, spoken word, comedy and a new-artist showcase beginning on Friday at noon. For more information, call 860-350-7472 or visit www.FalconRidgeFolk.com on the Internet.

Warped rock

With the demise of the annual Lollapalooza tour this summer, punk-rock fans are turning in droves to the Vans Warped Tour, which touches down at Three County Fairgrounds in Northampton on Wednesday, July 29, beginning at 12:30. Truth is in recent years Lollapalooza became more mainstream, and the stealthy Warped tour eclipsed its alternative credibility, to the point that this summer's Warped -- with its mix of punk, ska, swing and groove -- looks like vintage Lollapalooza. The musical offerings include Rancid, Deftones, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Save Ferris, NOFX, Bad Religion, The Specials and Rev. Horton Heat among others. The tour also includes extreme sports demonstrations, with a giant skate ramp, BMX bike jumps, skateboarding street course and a giant climbing wall. For ticket info call 413-732-0202.

Buddy Guy flexes

The world already knows that Buddy Guy is one of the greatest blues guitarists and one of his idiom's most compelling performers. On his new CD, "Heavy Love" (Silvertone), Guy stretches his musical muscles with some deep-funk that will attract the young groove-nation (the title track and "I Got a Problem"), a scorching duet with young, white blues phenom Jonny Lang ("Midnight Train"), a bit of Louis Jordan-derived jump blues ("Saturday Night Fish Fry"), a cover of ZZ Top's "I Need You Tonight," some state-of-the art electronic touches on the Willie Dixon classic, "I Just Want to Make Love to You," and some classic R&B with assistance from legendary Stax/Volt sessionman Steve Cropper ("Are You Lonely For Me Baby"). Guy turns 62-years-young next Thursday, July 30, the same day he performs at the Pines Theater at Look Park in Northampton at 7. For more info call 413-586-8686 or visit www.javanetpresents.com on the Internet.

Backstage bits

Deana Carter's biggest fans, or at least those who hung around long enough, got the huge thrill of meeting the country singer after her show at the National Music Center in Lenox last Friday. Carter travels with a black tent set up backstage which fans are ushered through, in which they meet Carter bathed in black light amidst assorted slide projections with messages of "peace" and "love" and a spinning mirror-ball, in keeping with her self-purported image as a flower-child disco-head....

Eden White, a New York-based, piano-playing singer-songwriter in the Tori Amos mold who won a spot on the Lilith Fair tour in her hometown, comes to the National Music Center's small theater on Friday, Aug. 7, for the first in a series of concerts there showcasing up-and-coming performers....

Smashing Pumpkins, better known in these parts as the band fronting Stockbridge native and superstar drummer Kenny Aronoff, performs at Boston's Orpheum Theater next Friday, July 31. Look for an interview with Aronoff in this space next week....

Milagro Saints, the first band to play at the Berkshire Mountain Music Festival last month in Lanesboro, returns to the region on Aug. 21, for a showcase performance at Dream Away Lodge in Becket. That's good news to fans of the North Carolina-based band, whose eponymous CD on the MoodFood label is one of the best to cross this desk in a long time. Local singer-songwriter Robby Baier will share the bill. More info on that date to come....

Pittsfield native Diane Taraz returns to the Berkshires on Sept. 1 for a performance at the Lion's Den in Stockbridge....

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on July 23, 1998. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1998. All rights reserved.]