TURIN — Moe. is no longer jamming at Snow Ridge, but a plethora of other bands will take over the traditional moe.down festival, now titled Snow Ridge Jam Fest 2010.
The jam fest, which is replacing the annual moe.down, runs Friday through Sunday and will feature more than 35 bands, including national act and longtime moe.down attendee Rusted Root.
In a phone interview from the band's birthplace in Pittsburgh, lead singer Michael S. Glabicki said the band's performances at moe.down have been surreal but enjoyable.
"It's been sort of like an alternate reality. Like, 'not quite sure where we are, but there's a lot of loving fans,'" said Mr. Glabicki, who also plays acoustic and electric guitar, harmonica and various percussion instruments. "It's always a great experience with a lot of energy from the crowd."
Rusted Root's music is notoriously improvisational and genre-defying and has been described by the band in an interview with concertlivewire.com as "world, soul, shamanistic, aggressive dance music." One of its most well-known songs is "Send Me On My Way," which features rhythmic bluegrass rock and has appeared in movies such as "Matilda," "Ice Age" and "Pie in the Sky."
"The music's really unique and sort of my style is to really bring the sound up from the ground and the earth and try to have it not sound like something else," Mr. Glabicki said. "When I first started writing, if I heard something I liked but it sounded like something else, I'd scrap it."
Rusted Root's songs are the collaboration of Mr. Glabicki and band members Liz Berlin, Patrick Norman and Jason Miller. During its two-decade existence, the band has played at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival and toured with Hot Tuna, the Grateful Dead, Santana, the Allman Brothers, Sting and the Dave Matthews Band.
Despite its experience with headline acts and huge venues, Mr. Glabicki said that Rusted Root enjoys appearing at smaller jam band/bluegrass events like moe.down, the Great Blue Heron Music Festival in Sherman and various bluegrass festivals in Ithaca.
"We really enjoy the sort of more-niche type festivals," he said. "Upstate New York is really great for us. It's kind of a second home for us; it's probably our biggest market."
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Other national acts appearing at the Snow Ridge Jam Fest include Railroad Earth, Perpetual Groove, Donna and the Buffalo and Particle. The festival is being billed by Snow Ridge Ski Resort owner Russell F. Horn as "more stages, more bands, more hours of music" and is the result of a mutual agreement by Snow Ridge and moe. to branch out in different directions.
"Everybody knows moe.'s been here for 10 years," Mr. Horn said. "We all felt that after 10 years at the same location, we needed a change. We're doing the exact same thing, but with different bands."
For its part, moe.down will move to Mohawk and be held Sept. 3 to 5 this year. Among the changes taking place at Snow Ridge are the addition of a bathhouse with showers for campers, a VIP program that offers preferred dining and entrance to the festival area, helicopter rides for campers and a third stage for performances.
Despite its new name, Mr. Horn explained that the Snow Ridge Jam Fest will maintain many traditions from the past decade. The ski resort's chairlifts will be in operation to bring concert-goers to Snow Ridge's mountain bike trails and parking, camping and even catering will remain virtually unchanged.
Also remaining the same will be the type of music offered by the festival. This year, Mr. Horn is bringing back old favorites as well as adding many new acts to its line-up.
"It's jam band music, not hard rock 'n' roll," he said, adding that the songs will appeal equally to college students and retirees. "We've got a little bit of bluegrass music, we've got some blues music, acoustic music."
Attending will be jam band-enthusiasts from as far afield as Vermont, New Jersey, Arizona and Texas, and, Mr. Horn hopes, loyal devotees of some local bands that will be appearing at the festival for the first time.
"We're kind of excited, because what we never did before, and what I'm doing this year, is having local bands from New York state," he said. "Some of them have big followings in the area."
Among these north country bands are Lucid of Plattsburgh, Queen August of Depauville, Lake Effect Mud of Watertown, Surfer R Cool of Syracuse and Ogdensburg and Sabbatical of Canton. With the exception of Sabbatical, which will also get a moment in the spotlight performing between Railroad Earth and Rusted Root Friday, the bands will appear exclusively in a showcase from noon till midnight Saturday on the new third stage.
Mr. Horn, who hopes to attract 2,000 to 3,000 music lovers with the festival and is offering substantial discounts to members of the military, said the atmosphere of the event will be festive and fun but not unruly.
"These young festival-goers create their own entertainment with Frisbees, light shows, Hula Hoops," he said. "It generates a lot of revenue for the community, and we've never had a fight. It's amazing."
