A few bands stood out at successful WestFest

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jul 5, 2002 by Bill Reed

Well, pardners, WestFest has pulled up stakes and said "Happy Trails" for another year.

Official attendance figures aren't in yet, but the festival attracted several thousand fans to the Pikes Peak Center grounds Saturday and Sunday. And after watching 24 hours of good roots music last weekend, I can understand why they turned out.

WestFest's second year in Colorado Springs was a success - the new venue worked, the lineup worked and the local crowd seems to be taking ownership of the Western celebration.

But before we let it go completely, I thought I'd hand out a few honors - some dubious and some sincere - from this year's shindig.

Everybody's Favorite Band Award: In their second year at WestFest, Hot Club of Cowtown were the darlings of the festival. The Western swing trio from Austin was definitely my favorite band; Michael Martin Murphey said it was his favorite band; and the crowd seemed to concur. Elana Fremerman (fiddle), Whit Smith (guitar) and Jake Erwin (upright bass) are amazing on their instruments. They play a mix of Western swing and old Tin Pan Alley tunes (while wearing snappy vintage clothes and playing classy vintage instruments), but they play the old-timey tunes at a blistering pace. The bottom line is they love to play - Erwin's look of glee while he slaps the bass is worth the price of admission - and that makes it lovely to watch them.

The "I Saw Them First at WestFest" Award: This award puts a band in good company. The Dixie Chicks, Clint Black and Dwight Yoakam are some of the artists who used WestFest as a launching pad on the way to country music stardom. From this year's lineup, Pinmonkey looks like the band with "big time" written on them. Eagles-esque harmonies, good songs, a good-looking singer and a hot dobro player on lead guitar could propel Pinmonkey. The band's single "Barbed Wire and Roses" is doing well on country radio, and their major label release will hit stores in September.

The Envelope-Pusher Award: Tony Furtado may not have the vocal chops to break out big, but he's a great musician (banjo and slide guitar). The Americana jams of his band American Gypsy pushed WestFest in new directions while honoring the spirit of the event. Let me tell you, the groove on "St. John's Fire" was a little slice of heaven.

Quotable Award: This one's a tie, but both quotes gently poke fun at the band Poco. WestFest's hired mouth Chuck Leary (who kills time between acts with easy banter) made fun of the band's constantly rotating lineup, saying to the crowd, "Raise your hand if you have not played in the group Poco." Then Poco lead singer Rusty Young noted, "Twenty years ago, I had no idea that in 2002 the best place to hear Poco songs would be the grocery store."

Montgomery C. Burns Miser Award: Goes to WestFest organizers for not allowing festival-goers to bring in water bottles. It didn't seem so bad until the mercury was rising, the sun was beating down and people started collapsing like Slinkys on the pavement. Was forcing people to buy those $2 water bottles really worth it?

Come Again, Sonny? (Most Unexpected Cover) Award: Pinmonkey took the cake with a complete recasting of Sugar Ray's 1997 rap-pop smash "Fly." They never bothered to tell the crowd it was a Sugar Ray tune. Of course, this crowd might have been thinking Sugar Ray Leonard ... or Sugar Ray Robinson.

Best Bit of Cowboy Wisdom Award: Riders in the Sky closed their show with the reminder to "always drink upstream from the herd." Sounds like a good life philosophy to me.