‘A magical place’: Wheatland Music Festival’s long tradition, special atmosphere inspire Michigan musicians

This weekend’s Wheatland boasts Asleep at the Wheel, Charlie Musselwhite and scores of Michigan musicians for ‘precious’ 43rd anniversary event outside Remus. Peruse the schedule.

 

Wheatland has a tradition and history unlike any other Michigan music festival.

“I’ve met people that have been to every festival since 1974 or grown up going every year since they were born,” said Delilah DeWylde, who performs with her rockabilly band on the Dance Stage at 8:40 p.m. Friday.

“The festival fosters a passionate love of music, and encourages passing it along to the next generations. It’s just a friendly magical place and hard to describe unless you’ve been there.”

Cadillac native and New Orleans-based singer-songwriter Luke Winslow King first played the “teen tent” at Wheatland back in 2000 with the Winslow King Blues band when he was a senior in high school. This year, he plays the Centennial Stage at 9:55 p.m. Friday and 12:45 p.m. Saturday.

“I have not returned to the Wheatland stage since, but I’m really excited to make a comeback 16 years later,” said Winslow King, who releases a new studio album Sept. 30. “Many of my peers and friends came up picking at Wheatland. Wheatland-goers foster the string band tradition in northern Michigan and pass it on to younger generations.”

Petoskey’s Michelle Chenard called it “such a respected event,” a place where artists, audience members and festival staff are all “warm, friendly and genuinely happy to be there.”

For bluegrass and resonator guitar whiz Mark Lavengood, who’ll attend his seventh Wheatland this weekend and performs with the Bluegrass Bonanza on the Centennial Stage at 11:15 p.m. Friday, “everything about Wheatland is special and precious.

“The friendships forged are those that outlast lifetimes. The exposure to some of the best music on the regional, national and international circuits is the sort of thing that you just can’t buy.”

To be sure, Michigan musicians have long recognized the prestige of Wheatland, not to mention the privilege of playing what’s considered the granddaddy of Great Lakes State music festivals.

Take Kalamazoo’s Graham Parsons, frontman for The Go Rounds, a hard-gigging, fast-emerging Michigan indie-rock band that has ascended the music scene ranks and just released a new six-song EP.

Parsons said he’s been mailing press kits and requests to organizers of the folk festival since he was a teenager without success, assuming “they just entered some endless void as soon as they found out we played rock ’n’ roll.”

‘HONORED AND HUMBLED’ TO PLAY FESTIVAL WITH LONG TRADITION

But this year – with Wheatland celebrating its 43rd anniversary – a board member approached The Go Rounds and asked them to perform. The group will make its debut by playing the final set of the night Saturday on the festival’s Centennial Stage.

“We’re honored and humbled to have been invited to be a part of such a longstanding cultural legacy and commitment to the arts and music here in Michigan,” Parsons said. “This festival and organization is older than all of us and seems to have proven that there is an inherent inexhaustible value within traditional arts and music in this state.”

Indeed, the festival that unfolds this weekend on 160 acres outside Remus in Mecosta County not only boasts legendary national acts Asleep at the Wheel, Charlie Musselwhite, The Gibson Brothers and Solas, but spotlights top-drawer Michigan artists, including The Go Rounds, Delilah DeWylde, Mark Lavengood Bluegrass Bonanza, Traverse City’s May Erlewine, Petoskey’s Michelle Chenard and Pete Kehoe, Kalamazoo’s Red Tail Ring and Grand Rapids’ Ralston Bowles, among many others.

With more than 10,000 people expected, weekend tickets are sold out but Sunday tickets ($25) will be available at the gate starting at 8 a.m. Sunday.

Beyond the musical camaraderie and campground jamming that takes place throughout the weekend, the festival is also a place to explore the nether reaches of folk and American roots music.

“Ultimately, it all comes from the same place – a longing for love, for freedom, for release, for pure expression, for happiness, for understanding, for escape,” Parsons insisted.

“Classical, blues, jazz, rock ’n’ roll, folk, whatever, as long as it’s equal parts entertaining and challenging, as long as it helps people transcend and feel deeply.”

Parsons also stressed that he’s been “finger-picking and writing songs with structural elements of folk and blues and American songbook stuff,” some of which surfaces on the new “I Promise I Won’t Get Hurt” EP that was recorded in several different studios.

“This will be our first big festival with the new work in tow,” Parsons said, noting the band also plans to release another EP in December. “I’m very excited to share this with the good people of Wheatland.”

Get details and schedules for all of the festival stages online at wheatlandmusic.org. The festival farm is located about one hour and 15 minutes northeast of Grand Rapids.

Wheatland 2015 revisited: Check out a photo gallery and recap of 2015 Wheatland here.

(The Go Rounds, Red Tail Ring, Mark Lavengood Bluegrass Bonanza, May Erlewine and Luke Winslow King also perform the following weekend for the Earthwork Harvest Gathering outside Lake City. Weekend tickets for that are $100 for adults. Information available online at earthworkharvestgathering.com.)

Tune into Local Spins on WYCE at 11 a.m. Friday when The Go Rounds will be the in-studio guests.

Copyright 2016, Spins on Music LLC