Desert Bluegrass Association Performs For Oro Valley Festival
Closing Oro Valley Parks and Recreation and the Southern
Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance’s (SAACA) three day long OV Festival of the
Arts were members of the Desert Bluegrass Association. The collective formed on
the main stage at the Oro Valley Marketplace for one final performance set
shortly before all of the festivities would end, after they had started during
the Christmas tree lighting on Dec. 5.
Before beginning his group’s set that crisp Sunday
afternoon, band leader and association trustee Jim Sanchez took the mic to
describe the Desert Bluegrass Association’s mission. “We’re all students of the
association, including myself,” Sanchez told the crowd, about a hundred
strong.
As evidence of their hard work practicing together to
perform local shows, the band showed no signs of nerves as they played through a
wide collection of both Christmas classics and bluegrass staples. There were a
slew of instruments packed onto the moderately sized festival stage, ranging
from a grouping of guitars, to a pair of uprights basses, violins, banjos, and
mandolins.
Each instrumentalist was competent, if not stellar, at
their craft, with vocals being provided by alternating leads during the night.
This included Sanchez himself, as well as a Ocotillo Rain and Thunder Bluegrass
vocalist and mandolinist Jeff Collins. Donned in a bright red Wildcats sweater
and a reindeer hat, Sanchez introduced Collins to the crowd as he took center
stage to perform a rendition of 1924’s “I’m Going Down This Road Feeling Bad” by
Henry Winter.
Collins wasn’t the only one clearly willing to express his
bright holiday spirit that day, either. One of the band’s two upright bassists
had placed a Santa hat atop her instrument, whilst one of the many guitarists
present on stage decked his instrument out in portable multicolored Christmas
lights. This fine showing of Christmas enthusiasm was contagious, as it was
during the chestnuts that the association had performed that they had the most
audience reciprocation.
Once Sanchez broke out the lead on “Jingle Bells,” for
instance, the people of Oro Valley were up and ready to sing along in full
unison. This continued on tracks like “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer,”
“Silent Night,” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which Sanchez had
humorously dedicated to Collins on behalf of his hat before performing.
This is not to say that the audience did not sing along
with the traditional bluegrass songs that Sanchez and company had put together
for the show. Early on into the proceedings, he and backing vocalist Arlene
Tomlinson had a “Boys vs. Girls” portion of the show where audience members
would sing along to a song lyric on the chorus of Doc Watson’s “Crawdad Hole.”
At the end of the song, the entire audience had been given a pat on the back—not
just one side—and it was a rousing feel-good moment for everyone involved.
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| Jeff Collins |
Other songs performed by the Desert Bluegrass Association
during their Dec. 7 show include “Up On the Housetop,” “Go Tell It On a
Mountain,” and “I’ll Fly Away.” The most memorable moment was their performance
of “Mama Don’t,” which involved multiple guitar, banjo, and violin solos, which
received tremendous applause. Even after their set was over, however, and SAACA
engineer Jonas Hunter was already putting away his sound equipment used during
the show, members of the group weren’t necessarily done performing at the
festival.
As Collins, Tomlinson, and a small troupe of banjo and
guitar players were just leaving the stage, they were stopped by a little girl
who particularly enjoyed their music and was raring to join the band herself. At
only about 6-years-old, however, Sanchez and company could not necessarily
oblige to her request. However, they made it up to her by performing a couple of
songs purely based on her piqued intrigue in bluegrass and the ensemble put on
that afternoon.
The Desert Bluegrass Association offered up a great show to
members of the Oro Valley community to close up the musical portion of the
Festival of the Arts. Given their low-key, yet infectious performance style and
overall enthusiasm just to be playing there, it is not hard to assume that some
of its students will definitely move on to become influential names on the
Tucsonan music scene once the time is right. “It’s never too late to learn
bluegrass,” Collins offered to the audience with a laugh as the band was making
their way off of the stage. “After all, just look at me!”
For more information on the Desert Bluegrass Association,
including information on how to join them, you can visit their official website
at http://desertbluegrass.org. For
more information on Ocotillo Rain and Thunder Bluegrass, visit their website at
http://ocotillorain.blogspot.com.
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