HOQUIAM’S BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL – Music that matters

Hoquiam’s residents with their passion for things that get people to be in touch with their history and reminiscences easily fell in love with Bluegrass music. So, once a year they celebrate everything about this type of song with local and visiting performers both amateur, professional as well as celebrity musicians get together in the historic Hoquiam Olympic Stadium to play, listen and feel everything in a Bluegrass tone. As the pioneer of Bluegrass music Bill Monroe once described the genre: “Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin’. It is Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. It is blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound. It is plain music that tells a good story. It is played from my heart to your heart, and it will touch you. Bluegrass is music that matters.”

The bluegrass music festival does not only celebrate the music genre that is bluegrass it is also a time for the city of Hoquiam to share with other people their passion for delicious cuisine, good manners and of course good music. Hoquiam and the Grays Harbor area is historically a working man’s land with the chief industry and source of income for the people being logging and this is as you would guess a hard and challenging life and when bluegrass came into its form the men and women of Grays Harbor, Hoquiam city and Aberdeen felt an instant relationship with the music.

During the festival you will be amazed as to the different pace and rhythm that each bluegrass band churns out their music, some fast and catchy with a nip of country genre but still not to be mistaken as such and other tunes being melancholic and heartfelt that the audience would feel like praying to the divine. This crescendo of notes is climaxed by the showdown between two of the bands members who alternately play tunes that are spontaneously dished out in an effort to wow the crowd and inspire or rather challenge the other guy to do better and this is all played out with two entirely different instruments, such as a mandolin going against an acoustic guitar or a banjo. Can you picture the excitement running through the audience at that point?

Most traditional bluegrass bands use a mixture of stringed acoustic instruments that deliver continuous melodies that touch the heart and soul of those who listen in a lively sort of manner, instruments like the banjo, acoustic guitar, violin and mandolin are all played together or in sequence or support to the main musicians’ efforts.

Instrumental solos are a crowd pleaser and you will get a lot of these amazing displays of pure raw talent during the Bluegrass festival. Band members try their best to outdo other bands or even their own band mates not so much so to show who is the best soloist but rather to entertain the crowd and give them a good time.

Bluegrass music is very much alive in Grays Harbor and Hoquiam city, the festival brings together fans, bluegrass scholars and of course bluegrass musicians who enjoy each other’s company and talent. In Hoquiam’s Bluegrass festival it is not unlikely that some of the bands will play gospel songs and for the uninitiated this is considered as part of the bluegrass repertoire.

Aside from experiencing bluegrass with new style or others would say “Newgrass” instrumentation like the piano for instance. Bluegrass is recognizable by its vocal harmony, which features two, three, or four parts, often times heard with a cacophonous high pitch referred to in bluegrass as the “high lonesome sound”, creating an interesting if not attention catching bellow of forceful vocals.

Love delicious home cooked meals and gracious company with your bluegrass? Go get yourself to Hoquiam and be part of the Bluegrass music festival where the music played in the historic Olympic Stadium definitely celebrates the sweet life of the working man.

Check out Wade Entezar and the Gray’s Harbor Bluegrass Fwstival music that matters

categories: music,travel,fun,family