Article Contributed by Micaela Wallen
Published on November 5, 2016
Sitting at the base of the mountains in Placerville, California, High Sierra’s sister festival Hangtown Music Festival covered 4 days of festivities which included beer tasting, meditation, yoga, costumes, but most of all, for the rock solid line up of diverse musicians. El Dorado County Fairgrounds opened its door with a freshly titled, Hangtown Music Festival. They may have dropped the Halloween Ball from their name, but that certainly didn’t slow down the party of twirling costumes under sunny skies and cool mountain air all weekend long.
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Friday, Pink Talking Fish took to the main stage for a fusion of Phish, Talking Heads and Pink Floyd songs. What a fun band to see live and make everyone feel at home. Tight playing and good energy had everyone revved up for more. Horseshoes & Hand Grenades followed with a full throttle set of new and old bluegrass through just one centered microphone. A special shout out to their ripping harmonica player, holstering several harmonicas and yet never missing a note.
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Nahko and Medicine for the People had always been the band I knew of, but unfortunately missed at High Sierra the past few years due to conflicting schedules. Immediately the positive energy this band released was felt through the crowd. Within minutes fans were smashed up against the rail singing every word and beaming with smiles. As expected, TAUK brought their funky unique mix of electronic yet jazzy instrumental music to the stage. Their sounds will always remind me of STS9 or Big Gigantic but with a thick UMPH of noise that is unforgettable.
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Karl Denson, who also plays with the Rolling Stones, had a special guest Angelo Moore from Fishbone join them for a Prince influenced set. There is something undeniably fun about Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe music. It wouldn’t surprise me to see this group headlining festivals across the country in the very near future.
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As campers awoke on Saturday, Whiskey Shivers took them right into the day on the main stage following their kick off performance on Friday. Vermont’s finest Twiddle, had us grooving with our bloody marys, waking up for whatever lie ahead.
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Gene Evaro Jr. was another stand out for me. A fellow music lover had told me not to miss him and I was surely glad I didn’t. He had an incredible voice, a unique yet fun sound, and had quite the look to get everyone rocking. This was the most packed I had seen the middle stage all weekend and people were certainly moving and shaking their creatures of the sea costumes loud.
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Dressed as Wolfs, the festival hosts, Railroad Earth, closed out the night as they took to the stage on the spoken words of the talented emcee, Joe Craven. We shared a moment of silence for those no longer with us, before a blast of music roared over us all. Starting with a long jam their familiar waves and meticulous bounce in sound sent all into an immediate twirl. With Saturday closing down on a very high-high, Sunday was still around the corner, loaded with names ready to rock.
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Check out more photos from Hangtown Music Festival.
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