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| Badger Mountain Dry Band
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 BAND BIOGRAPHY
For over 21 years the Badger Mountain Dry Band has brought their brand of progressive bluegrass music to the Pacific Northwest. Playing traditional bluegrass instrumentation, the group has presented a music ranging from traditional bluegrass standards, original Gospel material, 60’s rock and roll, swing tunes, big band tunes, old country standards, and more.
The group has been featured at many festivals, concerts, and community events such as:
-Seattle Regional Folklife Festival on 7 occasions;featured on National KBCS radio Broadcast from the Rainier Room stage in 2006; Bluegrass Feature Concert - Bagley Wright Auditorium in 2008; Northwest Court Stage in 2009.
-Closing act at the inaugural Lewis and Clark Bluegrass Festival in 2004; Return performers in 2006 and 2007
-The Tumbleweed Music Festival on 5 occasions; featured as headline act in 2005
-Boardman's Rollin On The River Festival in 2009
-the Yakima Folklife Festival on 3 occasions
-Muddy Frogwater Festival in Milton-Freewater
-Christ the King Sausage Festival in Richland, Wa. for 8 years
-Faith Assembly (Pasco) Community Concert Series
-Bethel (Richland) Friday Night Alive concert series
-Saint Joseph’s May Fest (Kennewick, Wa) on two occasions
-West Richland’s Summer Concert in the Park Series on 4 occasions
-Tri-City Water Follies Art in the Park series on 7 occasions
-and many more
Concerts have been presented in all of the Tri-Cities; West Richand, Pendleton, Hermiston, Beverly, Walla Walla, Milton-Freewater, Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Yakima, Lind, Connell, Whitman College, Seattle, Tacoma, and more.
The current Band lineup includes John April from Richland, Jim Honeyman from Kennewick, Chuck Peden from West Richland, Joe Smart from Pasco, and Kurt Gustafson from Kennewick.
CURRENT BAND NEWS & INFO
Joe Smart of the BMDB is the Walnut Valley Festival National Flatpick Guitar Champion for 2005. The Walnut Valley festival is held in Winfield, Kansas, and is recognized as the premiere traditional music title in the USA. You can find out more at the Walnut Valley Festival at http://www.wvfest.com/
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| Band Spotlight |
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| Reprinted from the November '05 issue of The Entertainer |
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The Entertainer recently had the chance to sit down with three members of Badger Mountain Dry Band. The resulting question and answer session is provided for your reading enjoyment.
ENTERTAINER: How did the band get started?
JOHN: It got started in the Spring of 1991. Jim Honeyman and I got together and started playing music. We originally started off by putting Beatles’ songs into a bluegrass style. It grew from there as we added a fiddle player, bass player and another guitar player. Since that time we have had several personnel changes. In fact there is one interesting statistic of our band. We have had four PhD Chemists in the band over the years and each one of them has played the guitar.
CHUCK: That would be my role at this time. It’s kind of like the drummer of Spinal Tap—they blow up after a few years and then just get another one.
ENTERTAINER: That’s a very unusual statistic.
CHUCK: Yes it is! [laughs]
ENTERTAINER: What is the style of music that you play?
JOHN: Primarily a bluegrass style, but we love to play songs that people know from the 60’s, 70’s, and a few 80’s. I love playing straight bluegrass music because of the real acoustic instruments but we have developed a habit of taking popular songs done originally in other styles and melding them into a bluegrass styled song.
ENTERTAINER: So you will actually take a popular rock song, for example, and turn it into a bluegrass song?
JOE: Yes, I think it presents a challenge trying to take something that’s already been established in a certain genre and then attempt to insert it into the bluegrass style. Not all songs are successfully transferred in this way but we enjoy the challenge of doing so.
ENTERTAINER: What has been the greatest memory for the band?
JOHN: Mine would have to be when we played Battelle Auditorium for a benefit concert for the Tumbleweed Festival. Joe was playing with us as well as Chuck, Kurt and Jim that night. I think all of us just had an “on” evening—everything just clicked. In fact, my parents were in the audience and after the show I got a rare compliment from my father on the great show. Apparently they weren’t familiar with seeing me play in that capacity.
CHUCK: My experience is similar just at another venue. It was the Tumbleweed gig we did in September as the headlining act. I just really love playing outdoors at night. The sound carries in a very nice way outside and it certainly helped that everyone seemed to click that evening.
JOE: I’d have to agree with Chuck. I really liked playing the Tumbleweed Festival as well. I think we did a 45 minute show and it seemed like it was only 10 minutes long. It was one of those magical nights where everyone was having so much fun and playing so well. It’s largely different from the nights when it isn’t going so well and you’re thinking, “Crap, we’ve got another 5 songs to play!”
ENTERTAINER: Does the audience feed that energy to create a great night or is it strictly the interplay between the band members that sparks the magic?
CHUCK: I’ve thought about that before. My wife asked me why I liked getting up in front of people to perform—it’s really not that. It’s more the dynamics between the people you’re playing with. You work hard enough to get out and perform without embarrassing yourself in front of an audience but for me it’s always been the camaraderie of the band members that sparks that energy. Of course, if we’re “on”, the audience then feeds off of that.
ENTERTAINER: What does the future hold for the band?
JOHN: I’ve really never given it that much thought. I just love getting together and playing music. I take it serious as far as being good at what I do. On the other hand, I don’t take it serious because I don’t intend on making a living doing this.
JOE: We’re pretty established in our daily careers. I think the band probably started out as somewhat of a hobby or maybe for a little extra gas money. Through the years I feel we’ve progressed and gotten more consistent. That certainly makes it more enjoyable and we definitely want to continue in that tradition. I just competed in the National Flatpicking Contest. It wasn’t so much a career move as it was placing yourself out there so you can see where you stack up against the professionals. So, I feel we are doing a similar thing with this band. We want to be good at what we do and play at the same level as other great bands, but it really ends up being something we do as a pastime and because we love getting together and playing music.
JOHN: I think one of the elements of this band is all of us get along really well. I would say it’s safe to say there are no egos weighing in on what we do. We also just finished a CD that will be coming out soon and we’re anxious to get it into the hands of our audience.
ENTERTAINER: Is there anything else that anyone would like to add?
JOHN: Actually, yes. I have just recently finished up a CD side project with Tim Moody (one of the other Chemists) called Little Girls Dancing. It’s kind of it’s own style crossing over from folk, funk, jazz, etc.
Chuck: Well, this is Chuck. I’m just trying to get equal time and Joe should get equal time on his project [laughs]. I’m a member of a band in San Francisco I’ve played with for thirty years and we just got done with a seven year project as well.
ENTERTAINER: Great! Maybe we can get some more information out on these projects in an upcoming issue of The Entertainer. Thanks are in order for Badger Mountain Dry Band for joining us for this interview. Be sure to look for their upcoming CD release. |
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