With Buttermilk Jamboree set to fire up Circle Pine Center for the first time since 2019, Local Spins asked the festival’s director to reveal the recordings that have influenced her life the most.
It All Started With Woodstock: The soundtrack, that is. So says Danielle Hoskins.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This summer, Local Spins’ ‘Albums that Changed the World’ series will occasionally feature music that’s influenced music festival organizers as well as musicians who trace their inspiration to key recordings that shaped their careers. Today, we showcase the albums that influenced Danielle Hoskins, lead organizer of this weekend’s Buttermilk Jamboree taking place at Circle Pines Center in Delton.
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Danielle Hoskins oversees the Buttermilk Jamboree taking place this weekend at Circle Pines Summer Camp and Retreat Center in Delton (between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo).
Danielle Hoskins (Photo/Circle Pines Center)
The Middleville resident has been part of Circle Pines since 2009, though she’s been a music enthusiast much longer than that. “I started going to music festivals with Wheatland when I was 17,” she says. “I really love music festivals. You see people listening to music and enjoying themselves.”
This will be the 10th Buttermilk Jamboree, which started in 2011 but was silent the past two years. Hoskins may be prejudiced, but she thinks it is one of the best music festivals out there.
“It is very family-friendly. There’s something for everyone,” she says, with a list of performers that includes Jive at Five swing band, rootsy rock from Soulbillys, worldbeat from Funkadesi, bluesy folk-rock with the Schrock Bros with Peter “Madcat” Ruth, and more than three dozen other acts running the musical gamut. “There’s a comprehensive list of activities and performances for kids. There’s a great beer tent – If you want to stay up and party, there you go,” says Hoskins. Get details and tickets online here.
For herself, Hoskins points to some classic sounds as influences, starting with one that really shouldn’t come as a surprise.
1. “Woodstock: Music from the Original Soundtrack and More” (1970) – My Uncle Bruce worked at WYCE (88.1 FM). He was very into vinyl, listened to it all the time. I was the only little kid getting into Richie Havens in second or third grade. I listened to it so many times. Maybe that’s what sparked my love of music festivals.
Listen: John Sebastian, “I Had a Dream”
2. The Beatles, “Anthology” (1995) – That was one of the first CDs my family owned. Mom was super excited. We were told to be very careful with the discs. I started to get into the habit of baking cookies and listening to the Beatles. My dad would keep buying the ingredients, I’d keep playing the music.
Listen: “Free as a Bird”
3. “Lost Highway” soundtrack (1997) – I got into it in high school. There’s a Nine Inch Nails song on it, and that’s (the only place) where you got it. Then there was the Smashing Pumpkins. Trent Reznor (the NIN leader who produced the soundtrack) had all these background sounds. I saw Smashing Pumpkins at the Summer Camp Music Festival in Illinois. I’d forgotten the CD until I heard it live. “That song is on ‘Lost Highway’,” I told a friend. It was a fun one to rediscover.
Listen: Smashing Pumpkins, “Eye”
Currently Loving: Way Down Wanderers, Foster the People – I listen to a lot of Spotify. I create lists; that’s reflective of my organized life (as a teacher). I like the sound of Way Down Wanderers a lot in general. I like the vocals of Foster the People a lot. The lyrics … speak to me, make a connection.
Listen: Way Down Wanderers, “Wildfire”; Foster the People, “Imagination”
ALBUMS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD: Danielle Hoskins’ Playlist on Spotify
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