NedFest

The 10th Annual Nederland Music & Arts Festival is here. Again Nederland celebrates the area's vital, vibrant, indigenous music scene with the presentation of the key players and rising stars (many of who are local residents) of that astounding, psychedelic music known as Bluegrass, Jazz/Fusion, Jamband.

And again the Nederland/Boulder area celebrates the re-birth of the music.

The story of this renaissance of music and Nedfest is the story of an itinerant music lover/pilgrim - Michigan Mike who arrived in Boulder on November 30, 1992 when this areas' legendary music scene of the late '60's and 70's had become a receding memory.

He arrived in the area, a mere youth. He saw the dying of the song. He framed the intent of bringing IT back. And now, at this 10th Annual Nedfest, Mike and everyone else celebrate total Victory.

Mike's first job in the area was as D.J. at the Dark Horse playing "standard party music". This evolved into a Grateful Dead Bootleg Night. This evolved into totally hooking up with Leftover Salmon. This evolved into The First Foot Stompin' Mountain Movin' Music Festival at Mike Henry's pld place on Cold Springs Road.

"Kegs of beer and a tarp extending off the garage enabled a really good time for Nederland locals to jam out," remembers Mike.

This evolved into the Second thru Fourth Non-Annual Foot Stompin' Mountain Movin' Music Festival at Mike's no heat-no water cabin on Caribou Road which was equipped with a covered stage - and of course kegs of cold beer.

"There was not a lot happening in the bars for people my age when I moved to Ned," Mike recalls. The PI (Pioneer Inn) and the Assay office hosted some hard rock and blues band now and then. But that was about it.

"The place for Gen Xers was called Top of the Square, which, except for open-mic rarely hosted live music.

"It was the same in Boulder. The Boulder Theatre had just closed down. And J.J. McCoves and many other music venues had been turned into pool halls. There just wasn't much going on, hadn't been for at least 10 years," he said.

Mike, in his work, booking and promoting music, soon became a key, central figure in the areas' music scene.

"I convinced the owners of Top of the Square to let me bring in a band once a week. A quick and significant increase in business convinced them to knock down walls and convert from an intimate little four dining room restaurant/bar into one big party area. It was a huge hit and by July 1996 I was booking five nights of music a week there!" says Mike.

"By August '97 I had booked more than 300 nights of music. It was The Club, even if you lived in Boulder. Because Boulder had absolutely nothing going on at that time, either. People were coming out in droves for the live tunes. Other businesses in Ned saw this, and started booking live bands also. And hence the '90's Nederland music scene began to bloom.

"Many bands got their start at The Top, while others were already big names. Nederland Acid Jazz, Bluegrass Wednesday, Charles Sawtelle & Whippets, Tony Furtado, Wendy Woo Band, Zukes Of Zydeco, Zambeeland Orchestra, Skin, Fe', Chief Broom, Roots Revolt, Foxtrot Zulu, Fat Mama, Sherri Jackson Band, Hypnotic Clambake, Magraw Gap, Ben Stevens, Blackdog, Floodplain Gang, Bruce Hayes, Mark Diamond, Motor Bootie, Tribal Folk, PSOAS, Odd Men Out, Wiley Cotton Band, Catawampus Universe, Dexter Grove, Chitlin, Johnny O. Band, Kim Reece & White Bred Funk, Kester Smith, Dave Grant, Steve Owen, Acoustic Food Chain, Adrian Romero & Love Supreme, Available Jones, Bambochee, Bleecker Street, Blue River Rounders, Blunt Instruments, The Boulevards, Brainbone (w/ Drew Moore), Brethren Fast, Buckethead Dog, Butlers and Thieves, The Buzz Harvest, Cajun Style!, Chip and the Chowderheads, Chocolate Cow, Chuck Grossman, Craig Corona Band, Dank, The Deadbeats, Double Dose, Doublestop, Drip City, Durt, Dwight & the Terrestrials, Free Funk Ensemble, Funk & Wilde, Furious Howard Brown, Government Grown, The Great Swannee Orchestra, Heptagram, HiFi Mofo, Higher Ground, Jack & Mike, Flipper Jester Trio, Jazz Ficks, John Randal Band, Koro, Launching Lydia, Legba, Liquid Playground, Loose Roots, Mountain Music Project, Mumbling Douglas, Acid Jazz with Nandeska, The New Originals, Old Soul, On Air, OPUS, The Organ Grinders, Otis Roach Band, Pete Fiori & Friends, Pickabillys, Rhino 2 Rhino, Rubber Spark, Seldom's Ark, Shankis Lonvernia, Acoustic Prostitution, Schwagg, Mucis, Rasputin, Sammy D. & Master Cylinder, Side Of Fries, Soul Tractor, Spike & Jerry, Steve Burnside & The "G" Forces, Stubblefield, The O'Malleys, Tom Yermack, Tree Full Of Pigs, Tribe Of Butterflies, Uncle Daddy, Uncle Woody, Union Wage, Vermiscious Knids, Zale & Friends, members of Leftover Salmon, members of String Cheese Incident, plus many more, said Mike.

The First Annual Nederland Music & Arts Festival was held at the Jeff Garcia Memorial Baseball Field in August of 1999 and featured Skin, Roots Revolt, Higher Ground, Available Jones, Fe', Blackdog, Wiley Cotton Band, The Buzz Harvest, Chuck Grossman, Steve Ray Liedlich, Patrick Latella and special guest MC: Vince Herman (of Leftover Salmon).

"Nedfest is a great homegrown festival that gets better every year," says Vince Herman.

"It's hard to put on a fest without big cash behind you," he noted

"A land mark year for the event was two years ago," recalls Herman. "Mike jumped up the caliber of musician by adding Dr. John and Sam Bush. But even the first Nedfest 1999 line up was great with Keller Williams and Yonder Mountain.

" This festival benifits the community and that is why it keeps getting passed. It says something, does something good for the town. It shows it has an abundance of character. You're not celebrating a dead guy. But celebrating life, community and fellowship.

"Lets hear it for the little guy (Michigan Mike) who managed to pull off this great, wonderful thing," Herman said.

"In the future the fest needs a new site with camping to get to the next level," was Herman's suggestion for future improvement.