Bluebird Festival exposes Columbians to diverse music
Several business hosted artwork by local artists.
Nov. 18, 2008
Local hip-hop artist Steddy P raps with other Indyground Entertainment artists at The Field House on Saturday for the first Bluebird Music and Arts Festival. Artists and musicians performed at 10 different venues around Columbia for the festival.
Katie Currid/Staff Photographer Brothers Dave and Dick Pruitt of The Bel Airs rock out at Mojo's on Saturday. The local band joined other musicians from the Midwest for the Bluebird Music and Arts Festival, which took place Friday and Saturday.
Joe Pug juggles the guitar, harmonica and vocals at The Blue Fugue on Saturday for the Bluebird Music and Arts Festival. Although many of the performers at the festival were local to Columbia, Pug hails from Chicago.
Becky Dahm, a member of the band Celandine, watches Joe Pug, another Midwestern artist, Friday at The Blue Fugue. Many artists playing Bluebird supported other bands in the festival by attending their shows.
Ha Ha Tonka bassist Lucas Long plays at The Blue Note on Friday night. Ha Ha Tonka, of Springfield, Mo., plays a mix of indie rock and bluegrass.
While often a good concert means being sandwiched in a single, small venue with other people and having to wait to see the particular band you like, Columbia's Bluebird Music and Arts Festival gave attendees the chance to create their own customized concert.
All up and down Ninth Street, Broadway and the surrounding area, music could be heard while simply walking downtown. Upon leaving The Blue Fugue, which had windows open for the enjoyment of passersby, the sounds resounding from The Cherry Street Artisan could be heard around the corner. For $5 at the door on both Friday and Saturday, The Blue Fugue provided at least five acts each evening, many of which came from right here in Columbia. These acts included The Hooten Hallers, Ursus Arctos and Ptarmigan. Also featured was the Tulsa, Okla., band The Effects. Part of the purpose of Bluebird was to expose its audience to music they may have never heard before, but also to provide a taste of native Columbia.
Friday at the Cherry Street Artisan included Columbia natives In Thicket, who played a highly energetic and instrumental set to a pleased and enthusiastic audience of dozens. The relaxed atmosphere, as well as the abundance of space, proved beneficial to the festival. Fans came on a rainy night to see some music they may or may not have heard before, and due to the synthesis of so many of Columbia's businesses, were able to enjoy the music in a laid back environment. The performers also seemed comfortable in the environment as well, coming in through the front door with their instruments, conversing with fans and ordering beverages at the counter before their set.
This was also the case at the liveliest and most popular of all the venues: The Blue Note. Not five minutes before their set was scheduled to start, Missouri natives Ha Ha Tonka were mingling with the crowd and talking to their fans. Named after the state park in southwest Missouri, Ha Ha Tonka converge indie rock with a bluesy bluegrass sound in known songs like "Caney Mountain" and "St. Nick's on the Floor in a Fervor" to create a set that also surprisingly incorporates a capella with "Hangman." Their energetic and fun stage presence, along with this unique sound, produced a crowd that claps, dances, stomps and sings along unreservedly to each and every song.
Lead vocalist and guitarist Brian Roberts shares the enthusiasm.
"We're really glad all of these people came out on this nasty night to see us, and Big Smith," Roberts said. "Like I said on stage, they're the best band to come out of the Ozarks and they're actually the ones that gave us our start."
Roberts and the other band members talked affably and openly with all of their fans, and when reminded how good the band's set was, Roberts said, "I can never hear that enough."
Similar fan enthusiasm was present for Friday's Blue Note headliner Big Smith. Newest member and fiddle player Molly Healey also lent her talent to opening act Noah Earle's performance, which provided a mellow backdrop preceding lively sets by Ha Ha Tonka and Big Smith. Contributing further to the diversity and spanning the Bluebird festival was the range of musical instruments, which incorporated violins and fiddles, mandolin, keyboards, upright bass, washboards and spoons, among others. New sounds and a variety of venues and acts to choose from made it possible for the attendee to decide what they wanted out of the festival.
Saturday featured an art gallery crawl that highlighted artwork on display in some of Columbia's businesses, including 9th Street Tattoo, Cherry Street Artisan, Makes Scents, Maude Vintage and others. Ink artist Jenny Rogers was available to meet at Makes Scents during the gallery crawl on Saturday, as well as sculptor Mark Mueller, who made an appearance at Calhoun's. Other mediums such as photography, print work, sculpture and paintings were labeled and on display across Columbia at each of the 18 art-crawl locations.
Hannah Reeves, labeled the "backbone of the Arts programs" by co-director Bob Hartzell, selected the art for the Crawl. Reeves and Hartzell canvassed downtown Columbia businesses that would be willing to hang up artwork. They paired specific artwork with certain businesses that would complement it.
"The warehouse-like look of Sven's Kafe & Gallery on Orr Street, with metal exterior walls and exposed building materials inside, was a great backdrop for Chris Morrey's masculine sculptures, which are bronze abstract busts on rust-stained, concrete bases," Reeves said.
Hartzell said he thought the festival was a success.
"The mere existence of, and excitement about, a festival celebrating life in the Midwest shows its relevance and timeliness."
Reeves has similarly positive feelings about the festival.
"We are very proud of how the event went," Reeves said. "For the visual arts portion, both venue participation and visitor attendance were free, so we were able to showcase excellent artwork at a huge variety of spaces, and to a large set of people."
That evening featured another night of musical acts, most prominently Minnesota indie rap group Atmosphere at The Blue Note. The show proved to attract a diverse audience of MU students, teachers and natives of Columbia and surrounding areas.
"All of the performances were great, starting from the openers up through the headliner," said Timothy Jensen, a Minnesota native and MU freshman.
The goal of the festival was to showcase the Midwest's culture, a theme that even extended to the slogan: "The country we come from is called the Midwest." With a diverse culture comes a diverse festival, and Columbia's people and businesses all put in their own unique bits to create a memorable cultural experience.
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