Sag Harbor American Music Festival Celebrates Five Years

[caption id="attachment_37837" align="alignnone" width="600"] Artist Maryann Lucas presents the new Sag Harbor American Music Festival poster art on Sunday, featuring the Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum with Alfreo Merat Radio Europa performing.[/caption]

By Emily J. Weitz

When the Sag Harbor American Music Festival started five years ago, no one knew how it would be received. Free music flowing through the streets sounded like a beautiful concept to its founder, Kelly Connaughton Dodds, but she wasn’t sure the community would embrace it. But embrace it has. Whole heartedly.

[caption id="attachment_37838" align="alignnone" width="600"] Musician and board member Joe Lauro, festival co-artistic director Kerry Farrell, board president and co-artistic director Kelly Connaughton Dodds, board treasurer Laura Grenning and board secretary John Landes on Sunday at the festival’s kick-off party in Sag Harbor.[/caption]

The festival has grown over the years, in manageable but significant ways. Ms. Dodds isn’t rushing to make it something huge. Though with 500 people filling the Old Whalers’ Church at last year’s kickoff concert with virtuoso bassist Christian McBride, and dozens of businesses supporting the music, it has most certainly become a date on the calendar to cordon off. So mark it: September 25 to 27, 2015.

Each year, more musicians participate, so that last year there were 30 acts performing throughout the village on Saturday. And the genres, which fall under the umbrella of Americana music, have expanded to include all music with a connection to America. Last year, a punk band, InCircles, rocked out in front of Suffolk County National Bank drawing a diverse crowd of listeners, while a bluegrass group serenaded a crowd on the lawn of the Customs House.

This year, gospel music will have a prominent place in the billing. At the kickoff party for the festival last Sunday at the Sag Harbor home of John and Lindsay Landes, Ms. Dodds announced to a crowd of local musicians and supporters that The Fairfield Four would start off the weekend with the concert in the Old Whalers’ Church.

“We wanted to feature gospel this year,” said Ms. Dodds in an interview before the launch party, “and these guys are amazing. They’ll be at Lincoln Center, playing outdoors in August, and then we’ll have the quartet in the church.”

Not only are the acoustics in the Old Whalers’ Church excellent, the space was designed for just this kind of music. Four soulful voices rising up through the rafters, singing old spirituals a cappella.

“Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps,” said Ms. Dodds.

Saturday has traditionally been the day for festival goers to wander around the village, stumbling upon the dozens of acts in galleries, restaurants, and on street corners. All the musical offerings during the day are free, and there’s another show starting every half hour or so. Until now, the Saturday night billing at Bay Street Theater has been a dance party of some sort. This year, there will certainly be dancing, but the show will be a little different.

“We wanted to present another big act,” said Ms. Dodds.

That act will be The Hillbenders, a young bluegrass group from Missouri, who were at the fabled South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas this year, where they broke out in a big way. Rolling Stone raved about the group and the festival founder said their music “released the music in his head.”

“They present The Who’s ‘Tommy,’” explained Ms. Dodds, “a rock opera, bluegrass style. They’re so talented and exciting, and it’s completely different.”

“Tommy,” first released as an album in 1969, debuted on Broadway in 1993 and has become the most famous rock opera ever. To bring in a banjo, a slide guitar, and a mandolin gives the music a completely different sound, but a sound that falls under the umbrella of American music nonetheless.

“It’s Americana and rock combined,” said Ms. Dodds.

Ms. Dodds always wanted this festival to evolve organically, and it has.

“Our expectations were that it would be this small local thing,” she said, “and it’s grown from that because the response in the community was so strong.”

In its fifth year, along with pushing the envelope musically, the weekend expands this year to include a Sunday morning offering: a gospel brunch at Harlow East. The group, The Ron Crichlow Ensemble, is comprised mostly of childhood friends from Queens. Tickets include a prix fixe brunch menu.

As the festival grows, the non-profit finds itself with a surplus. That extra money goes right back into the community to support music education and live music in Sag Harbor throughout the year. Each year, The Sag Harbor American Music Festival has made a donation to the Pierson High School music program. The first year, the school bought an electric piano. The second year, they got an iPad with special music software. This past year, they bought two stand-up basses.

“It’s a modest amount,” said Ms. Dodds, “but it’s enough to supplement their program. And music education is where it begins, to have that appreciation of live music.”

Advance tickets to the Sag Harbor American Music Festival are already available. While Saturday will continue the tradition of free music all day throughout town, there are several ticketed events. There are also ample opportunities for sponsorship, to be a part of the community that supports live music in Sag Harbor. Check out www.sagharbormusic.org for more information.