FROM BLUEGRASS TO METAL AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN
FREE DEUTSCHTOWN MUSIC FEST EXPANDS TO 400 ACTS IN SEVENTH YEAR
In August 1994, Rusted Root released its major- label debut, “When I Woke,” with a little single on it called “Send Me on My Way.” It’s been heard on numerous movie soundtracks, notably “Ice Age,” and commercials and has been streamed more than 167 million times on Spotify.
On this 25th anniversary, the band is down for maintenance, but there are two near reunions over the next few months, the first happening Friday on the main stage of the seventh annual Deutschtown Music Festival on the North Side.
That lineup has four straight bands with onetime Root members, starting with singer Jenn Wertz fronting her Stonesy outfit and continuing with trashy rockers The Borstal Boys ( with bassist Patrick Norman), indie/ jam band Drowning Clowns ( with singer Liz Berlin), and Jim Donovan and Sun King Warriors, a harddriving blues- rock band fronted by the former Root drummer.
It was assembled after organizers happened to notice that all four of those bands submitted an entry to the festival. If there’s any crossover between the bands, it’s most likely to happen during the Sun King Warriors set. ( The other Root convergence, by the way, is on Sept. 1 at Hartwood Acres when SKW and Wertz open for frontman Michael Glabicki’s new band Uprooted.)
“We are all feeling positive about it,” Wertz says. “I guess it’s fitting and kinda serendipity that we all be playing in/ around each other.”
“I’m glad to see all of my former bandmates making music,” Donovan says. “And I always enjoy seeing them and getting to hang out and make music with them, which I hope we get a chance to do at some point during the night. Rusted Root was a beautiful thing, and I’m glad that we still support each other like this.”
In all, the free festival, a nonprofit event produced by the Northside Leadership Conference, has assembled a record 400 acts, an increase of about 40 over last year, ranging from punk to bluegrass to hip- hop, at 30 indoor and 12 outdoor stages. Among the new stages this year is The Government Center record store, which opened on East Ohio Street earlier this year. Inspired by a recent trip to Austin, Texas, the festival has added a gospel brunch on Sunday from 9 a. m. to noon in Allegheny Commons Park.
On Saturday, also in Allegheny Commons, the kids can play, with a tropical obstacle course, face painting, balloon sculpting, moon bounce house and climbing wall, plus Whimsy the Dream Fairy, the 3WS Sports Challenge, the CitiParks Roving Art Cart, stilt- walking and juggling by O’Ryan the O’Mazing, and live ice carving by Ice Creations.
Along with the Root spinoffs, many of Pittsburgh’s marquee bands are represented, including A. T. S., Bastard Bearded Irishmen, Chet Vincent and the Big Bend, The Weird Paul Rock Band, The Buckle Downs, Gene The Werewolf, Bindley Hardware Co., The Nox Boys, BBGuns, Pet Clinic and Andre Costello and the Cool Minors.
“We get a lot of repeats, a lot of bands who applied have played before,” music curator Hugh Twyman says.
“Millvale,” he says, referring to the Millvale Music Festival, “they try to get all brand- new festivals, somebody who’s never played before will play, and I say, ‘ I can’t do that.’ For me to pass over The Telephone Line or The Buckle Downs for somebody who hasn’t played before, it just can’t happen. No matter where you go, you’re going to get a pretty bangin’ lineup.”
This will be the fifth year for pop- rock band LoFi Delphi.
“We’ve played in teeny bars where the width of the stage was not much wider than my keyboard, and we were lucky enough to play the main stage last year,” notes singer Beck Gal. “And every time it’s been fun as hell, and we look forward to it every year.”
One of the unique challenges of scheduling the local bands is the surprising amount of musicians playing in multiple acts, making it a spreadsheet puzzle.
“You won’t believe,” Twyman says. “I make my first list and then it’s like, ‘ Do you share band members with other bands?’ There’s like 120.”
Foremost among them is keyboardist Chloe Wiecz, who plays with her band hunnycomb, as well as the Jenn Wertz Band and Working Breed. Sean Finn plays drums with Andre Costello as well as The Real Sea, a new dream- pop band led by Buffalo singer Sharon Mok with members of Life in Bed, the Red Western and more.
So, not only can they not play at the same time, but they need an hour or so between gigs in case they have to run to another venue.
Along with the 500 submissions the festival received through the normal channel of its website, D- Town posted the event on Reverbnation, attracting an additional 2,600 applications from national artists. Jesse Descutner, an assistant, took on the task of weeding out about 2,500 of them for the organizers to review.
The national bookings come with a different set of challenges, Twyman says.
“National acts, even a couple locals, they forget that they submitted.”
Or they have no real intention of coming.
“None, none,” he says. “The national acts are the ones who tend to drop out. I’m always up front about telling them, ‘ You might be playing in a nontraditional space to a crowd of nobody.’”
There are about 30 acts from out of town, most notably the Raelyn Nelson Band, the punkabilly group led by the granddaughter of Willie Nelson, and Austin pop- rock band The Human Circuit.
“The first year we had one out- of- town band,” says Cody Walters, who co- founded the festival in 2013 with Ben Soltesz. “They were from D. C., a band called The Fed. They came in and ended up meeting two different bands here — Chet Vincent and the Big Bend and Grand Piano — who then were able to perform shows in D. C. with them. So, that kind of networking we really want to encourage.”
Like at any good festival, be ready for the element of surprise. In past years, The Common heart has played pop- up sets at Deutschtown.
“I got to sit in with them a couple years ago at the Elks stage,” notes bassist Jesse Prentiss. “I think it was one of the last sets of the festival so the place was packed, and all of our friends who had played earlier were up front and psyched for the show. I think it is within the bounds of humility ( since I was only a guest player) to say the band completely crushed it. The last time I remember a local show with that kind of energy — with everyone staring at each other like ‘ this is so cool!’ — was maybe Rusted Root at the Birmingham Lofts, back before electricity.”
With The Common heart spending the weekend in Wyoming, of all places, the element of surprise will be up to someone else.
Hopefully, not the weather.