HONESDALE- “When the king has gathered around him all the savants and artists,” once wrote poet Ezra Pound, “all his riches will be fully employed.”
On Saturday morning, as all the artists and vendors were setting up for the 3rd annual Roots and Rhythm Festival at Central Park in Honesdale, artist Dane Tilghman had an artistic revelation, an epiphany of sorts, pondering this commentary. Pursing his lips and silent, the wrinkles on his forehead dissolve and he says, “You know, to some, the blues is like a religion.” That same day, the sign-board of the First Presbytarian Church of Honesdale read, “To be almost saved is to be totally lost”.
Whether saved by the blues or lost in it, you most certainly enjoyed yourself if you were anywhere in Honesdale on Saturday. Halfway down Main Street, at 10 a.m., Big Daddy Dex and the Groove could be heard playing “Sweet Home Chicago”, the organ resonant and rapturous, as if Ray Charles incarnate were clambering away at the ivories.
On the main stage, the day kicked off with the coalescent soul sounds of The Evan Goodrow Band, bringing Boston Berkley College of Music licks to small-town Pennsylvania. While Goodrow and company ripped on stage, Dennis Keller, aka “Macramé man” told out-of-towners the stories of times-past woven into his hemp necklaces on 9th street. Dane Tilghman still sat in the shade, reminiscing about blues music in his cool way.
Goodrow Band having finished and finally taken a seat in the grass with the crowd, attention moved to the 9th street stage and Studebaker John and the Hawks. Studebaker John and company, who kicked-off the weekend at The Fireside on Friday, brought with them from Chicago their own style of blues, complete with ZZ Top-esque slide-guitar, Buddy Rich-inspired drum solos, driving basslines, and a little harmonica that might take one back to a time when the Rolling Stones could play with no Hell’s Angels necessary. John and the Hawks played three sets, each in-between the main stage acts.
“We had such a good time last year,” commented Ed and Laura Ebjo, who drove all the way from Long Island, New York for the festival, “we had to come again.”
The day carried on with the rockabilly flavors of Roy Wilson and The Buzzards who, with their greased hair and steel-toed boots, might have stepped right out of Happy Days and high-fived The Fonz before rocking out with intense, juiced-up versions of Johnny Cash and Chuck Berry tunes, along with some of their own originals. They were followed by the rocking and true-to-its-roots country stylings of Dale Watson, who the Austin Chronicle says is “the stuff country music legends are made of.”
