Are you needing that extra push to check out your first Walnut Valley Festival? KMUW's Jonathan Huber and Bing Futch talk about what makes the festival so special.
You're listening to Walnut Valley Festival: The Early Years. I'm Jonathan Huber: We're going to hear from this year's Walnut Valley Festival ambassador, Bing Futch. Bing is well known for playing the mountain dulcimer. I talked to him about what it's like wandering the campgrounds, looking for picking partners, coordinating extraordinary onstage jams, and what his first time at the festival was like in 2017.
Bing Futch: 2017 was an eye opener. Everybody had talked to me about what it was like. Everyone's account was slightly different than other people's, so I had an idea in my head of what it was like but nothing lived up to walking through the grove for the first time, and I likened it to, you know, channel surfing on your radio. You just walk past... I was on my bike, so you drive past a number of campgrounds, and the music kept changing, like you were just searching through the station. And it was everything: gypsy jazz, bluegrass, old time rock and roll, and I... it was amazing. I was absolutely blown away by it, and blown away by the festival in general, and I think that was the year that they set the hook.
Yeah, I think I remember hearing you talk about you. You know, you were still performing, but you were out in the campgrounds for... until five or six a.m. Right?
Yeah, you know, once you get out there, you kind of lose track of time. You want to sit and pick for a little while with people, which turns into like 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and then you're like, I just realize I have barely scratched the surface of this crazy world. I need to keep moving, and then you sit down again for another 30 minutes. Before you know it, the sun's looking at you like, "hey!"
But this year you're going to be a festival ambassador, and as far as to my knowledge, there hasn't been one at the Wanda Valley Festival. So, what's that entail?
Well, a lot of it's going to be doing things like this, doing a lot of media, you know, conversations and dialogs. I'll be doing some of that stuff with Bart Redford, director of the festival, as we get closer to the event, like actually the week of the event, we'll be going out and doing some stuff. And also going out and doing some outreach, community outreach, going out to schools, presenting programs, and letting people know. And this is going to be like a rotating position or role that every year there will be a Walnut Valley Festival ambassador.
I remember last year is on stage two. I can't remember if it was Friday or Saturday, but you in the last few songs you set, you brought up three different Bones players and Spoons players: Barry Bones Patton, Abby the Spoon Lady, and Arch Stanton, and you guys just spent like 10 minutes. You were keeping the melody, but they were doing their own melodies too when they when they got the solo. So can you talk about how did that? How did you set that up?
Well, a lot of the times it happens in the jams. We'll be sitting there, I'll you know, I'll be standing on one of the dirt roads down in the campground, picking, and then some other people to pick along, and then you'll just hit a groove with some people and go, "Gosh, you know what? You want to bring that on stage tomorrow, or you know what's your schedule like, where are you going to be." And that's how that kind of thing happens. But I'd run into Barry Bones backstage, and he's come up with me a few times over the years. I said, "Barry, I want to do something really wild because I know Abby's here." He goes, "Let's have a spoon throwdown." He was like, "Oh, that's great! And I'll get Jerry." Arch goes by Jeremy Blaze now, and he goes, "I'll get Jeremy in on it because we were doing some stuff at the parlor last night." And I'm like, "Oh, it's formin'." I was looking for maybe one or two, and he was looking to make it a trifecta, and that's how we got all three together, and that was a hoot. I didn't want it to stop, and I've done it with other people as well because we don't often get this opportunity to jam together like that. And also, even though Barry and Abby and Jeremy are known in their own right, I still don't think they get enough love and enough visibility from audiences at the festival because they're off in the campground. If you're lucky enough to be at the jam where they show up, you're like, oh, this is great. So I love any opportunity I can to get these folks who are normally maybe not on stage in the interior stages and get them out there so people know that there's some really top-notch talent all over the festival and in the campgrounds. So that was one of my favorite ones because it just felt like a... like a spoon summit, you know.
What would you say to someone who's never been to the Walnut Valley Festival? They maybe... they're on the fence. Maybe it's a little long of a drive, or they just need that extra nudge to pack up and go.
You know, I would just tell them that all they have to do is give it one chance, and they're going to want to be clear in the third week of September for the rest of their lives. And I say it dead serious, without any hint of a smile, "Like no seriously, get ready to plan the rest of your life," and that's all I can say because, like I mentioned before, everybody's got their own vision of what it feels like to be there. And it sounds amazing, but not- it's nothing like anything until you get there and you see it yourself and you go, oh my gosh, now I totally get what this is. And I just, I think that's the best thing I can ever tell anybody is go one year, buy a ticket, and then just plan on doing that for the rest of your life.
I mean, I'm usually listening to music when I'm taking my camper down, but once I cross the river and I'm coming in, and I can see all the the campers that have already set up, and I see the campfire smoke... I turn off the music, I roll down the windows, and I just let it all permeate and sit in the bluegrass stew.
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, there's nothing like that visual too when you come across that... that movable city, you know, and know that you're... you can tell right now that you're in for a good time because those people got there that early to make sure they're all set up, and that's what I think it takes for people to really wrap their heads around it. Once they get there, they can see what it takes to get there. They can see what it takes to be there early enough to get your camping spot, and then what it takes just to stay up, just to try and you know, get the voice every day and read it and go, am I really going to be able to see everything that's written on this piece of paper every single day? It's almost overwhelming, but in a good way. You know you're not going to see and hear everything, but what you're going to see in here is going to be absolutely amazing, and it's going to encourage you in so many different ways. It'll encourage you to be a better musician. It'll encourage you to be a better person around all these people. Just nothing but love, you know, and respect and family. There's so many reasons to go and have a good time, and I just, I've shortened it over the years. I try to describe it. Oh, and there's this, and there's this, and you just sound like a raving lunatic. You're like, no, seriously, just take a week and go. And even if you can can't afford that, come in for a day, be a day visitor, but make it a long day. Make it Friday or Saturday. Get there early. Don't plan on leaving anytime soon. Get your hotel early if you're not going to camp. That's the most important thing, and then just let that day sell you. And I think it will.
Thanks so much for taking some time for me, Bing. I'm looking forward to seeing you in just a few months in September.
Likewise, Jonathan. Thank you very much. We'll see you soon, man.
That was this year's Walnut Valley Festival Ambassador Bing Futch. You're listening to Walnut Value Festival: The Early Years.
