It was an early Friday morning after a late Thursday night which landed me in a cab to the train station. Three and a half hours on the train, an hour or two tooling around Portland, 30ish minutes on the Max, 25 on the EcoShuttle, and I had finally arrived at Pendarvis Farm. I could tell, like we all could tell, because the elaborate shade structure that looks like vanilla salt water taffy pulled in a thousand directions was spotted atop a distant hill by someone in the shuttle. “There it is,” he said in a voice loud enough we knew he was talking to all of us. “There’s Pickathon.”
The first person I saw after walking through the gate was John Doe. Though his career spans several decades and even more extraordinary songs, I’ve come to Doe through the Sadies—the Canadian band who join him on his latest album, and with whom he’s playing several sets this weekend. It felt like an omen to have Doe (sort of) welcome me to the farm, so I made a point of starting my festival experience in the workshop barn, where he answered questions, took requests, and dropped memorable one-liners. (”One of the top five things not to do is be a jerk,” “If Bob Dylan has taught anybody anything, it’s that you can sing it however the hell you want,” etc.) Questions mostly stuck to the art and task of songwriting, as many in the audience were clearly looking to the Man With Almost No Bad Songs for the secrets to his craft. He actually managed to squeeze nine songs into the hour, despite the extensive Q&A section, including “Burning House of Love,” “Silver Wings,” and “See How We Are.”
Later, on the main stage, Laura Gibson pulled from her latest, Beasts of Seasons for a set that was at once beautiful, curious, thoughtful, and stirring. She noted her sister had just gone into labor and she’d be speeding home after the set to “hopefully make it there in time.” You’d think such a thing would cause an artist to be less-than-present as they sing, but Gibson’s a pro and the quiet, lovely turned the sweaty afternoon into a delightful thing. Meanwhile, in the barn, Justin Townes Earle was playing to a packed house despite the heat and the fact the festival was still unpacking its box fans.
I napped during Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys, because you have to nap sometime and there was just enough space on the hay grass. Woke up to Thao with the Get Down Stay Down unleashing one of the most energetic sets I’ve ever seen on that little side stage. Apparently, the band just finished recording a new album in Portland’s Jackpot Studios for Kill Rock Stars. As a result, their typical tightness and good humor was beyond the usual level of infectiousness, and the sleepy sweaty crowd found itself hypnotized into dancing like a pack of crazy people. So hypnotized, in fact, that they’d migrate to the barn a couple hours later to make it all happen again (though with slightly more energy, if that were possible, and fueled by considerably more beer).
But first, Doe and the Sadies had to rip the non-existent roof off the main stage field. (Maybe the proper expression is to rip the grass out?) Sticking to selections from their incredible collaborative disc Country Club (Doe noted in the workshop that a volume two is likely), they pulled off rock star moves like when brother guitarists Dallas and Travis Good picked their own guitars while fingering each other’s fret boards. But, as is generally true of Pickathon sets, it was the nighttime throwdown sets in the barn which rocked the hardest, starting with the Hackensaw Boys, stretching to Big Sandy’s vibrant old school honky tonk smackdown and the aforementioned Thao with the Get Down Stay Down set. I’d been up since 5 a.m., though, and there’s a full weekend of barn to burn, beer to drink, floor to dance on, and plenty of room left for a best of fest set.
But, if I had to guess, I’d put my money on tonight’s triple-header in the barn: John Doe & the Sadies, the Wiyos, and Blitzen Trapper. Or maybe it’ll be Alela Diane on that stage in the middle of the woods. I’ll get back to you on that.