Is it a festival or a collection of gigs? No doubt, a
strange question for many SummerTyne Americana devotees, but one pondered
several times across the weekend of a first visit to this jewel of the North
East. There are similarities with the likeminded Southern Fried Festival in
Perth, but there is more of a compartmentalised feel to SummerTyne. While the
outdoor Jumping Hot Club stage and the indoor concourse stage in the Sage’s
ground floor foyer are integral parts of the event, the lifeblood and true pull
are the array of independent ticketed events that are liberally strewn across
the transformed venue.
An early decision to maximise the paid offering via
purchasing tickets for six shows meant that there was always going to be a
chance of the other two performing areas becoming a peripheral attraction. This
proved the case after an initial sampling of the SummerTyne experience, with essentially
the outdoor location being at the mercy of the weather and the concourse
sonically hampered by its temporary transfer into a venue. Yet there were still
plenty of golden moments to enjoy, if perhaps not to the intensity of the gigs.
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| Massy Ferguson |
With the Gateshead weather set fair for the Friday
afternoon, the Jumping Hot Club stage proved a popular place for both locals
and those travelling from further afield to sample music with a distinct North
East roots. The remit of the Sage for this opening segment of the festival is
plain to see and highly commendable. The staging of SummerTyne surely has to
fight its corner with the wider local arts scene and embracing the locality is
an essential selling point. Most of the local acts on Friday afternoon had a
least part of their sets seen, although you had to arrive early to get one of
the intense watching seats. Alternatively, the amphitheatre setting of this
location via the grassy terracing made viewing accessible. The pick of the
local artists was a band called Buffalo Skinners, but all slated acts
played a key role in getting the show under way.
As the weekend proceeded, the outdoor stage has to compete
with the concourse stage for the afternoon’s free entertainment. Obviously, the
weather can be an important factor with options on the table as we were to find
out on Sunday. However, with tickets to see the Angaleena Presley show on
Saturday afternoon only a couple of artists were seen outside. These included
Fargo Railroad Company, following up their Maverick Festival set with a hearty mash
of Southern Rock, and the impressive Amythyst Kiah putting an old time roots
spin on her Appalachian inspired music.
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| Robert Vincent |
While general viewing of bands on the outdoor stage was
fairly limited, there was another opportunity to see Robert Vincent play a full
band set on Sunday and further solidify the progress being made. An increasingly
similar variety of excellent songs was played from his two albums, just prior
to the inclement weather setting in. With little sign of it abating, a couple of
brief sorties outside after the afternoon paid show provided a short but wet
sample of High Plains Jamboree and the Savoy Family Cajun Band. Fair play to
the hearty souls who braved the rain to embrace both bands in the entirety, but
generally the pull of drier entertainment prevailed.
For the whole of Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the
concourse stage was commissioned by the AMA UK to give an opportunity for some
of its member artists to play a festival show. The audience was a mix of seated
and standing folks watching intensely and a sizeable chunk passing through. As previously
indicated, the band sound did struggle with the environment, but all witnessed
artists embraced the opportunity. The pick of these was definitely Massy Ferguson,
who probably had the biggest sound of the artists scheduled, but stuck to the
task of showing why they are such a highly rated band. A bonus from the
performance was UK artist Danni Nicholls joining the band on stage to sing the
Zoe Muth part on ‘The Hard Way’. Not
a bad substitute!
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| Jim Lauderdale, Chuck Prophet, Ashley Campbell, Amythyst Kiah |
Two events that went down really well on the concourse stage
were at the bookends of the festival. Just before the ticketed shows began on
Friday, young multi-piece soul combo Stax Academy Revue wowed early Sage
arrivals with a stellar take on the endless supply of classics that flowed out of
a small Memphis studio in the sixties. This act also had a supreme support slot
for Stax legend William Bell on the following evening in the Sage main hall and
won over many fans during their weekend stay in Gateshead. Likewise, High
Plains Jamboree had a successful SummerTyne and was granted a late Sunday night
slot on the concourse stage, which gave folks an alternative to the ticketed
events. The bonus was being able to catch the last half hour after the Chuck
Prophet show finished and this traditional country outfit, led by Brennen Leigh
and Noel McKay, duly rounded off the weekend in fine style.
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| High Plains Jamboree |
For the record, and recorded in greater detail elsewhere, the
six ticketed shows seen began on Friday evening with Merle Haggard's Strangers and Ashley Campbell just edging out The Shires. Marlon Williams played the only late night paid
show of the weekend and this was not to be missed. The two afternoon show pairings
of Angaleena Presley and Danni Nicholls on Saturday plus Jo Harman and LisaMills on Sunday both beat off the competition from further free stuff. Where
tempting choices were available, Jim Lauderdale and Sam Outlaw won over William
Bell on genre preference, while the power of Chuck Prophet was never going to
be really challenged by the grace of Beth Nielsen Chapman as the festival
closer.
However, there was one impromptu event that proved the pick
of the free presentation. It was hastily announced and posted around the Sage
that on Saturday evening Jim Lauderdale would host a songwriters in the round
show in Hall 2 after his show. Therefore, plenty of dedicated diehards queued
up to see Jim joined by Chuck Prophet, Ashley Campbell and Amyhtyst Kiah each
perform a quartet of acoustic songs that took us well into Sunday morning. Following
a general theme of relationships, each songwriter took the topic in a different
direction especially Amythyst with some deep rooted offerings and Chuck, as you
would expect, heading deep into left field.
As the dust settled on a successful first trip to SummerTyne,
thoughts turned to maybe another visit in the future. The festival appears fairly
established with its ten plus years existence, but no doubt will always have to
fight its corner from a funding point of view, especially with little sign of
heavy corporate backing. It doesn’t take too much digging to understand what
the event means to the dedicated Americana community of the North East and from
a distance, it is essential that it be preserved.
Just returning to the opening
question, and perhaps a personal emphasis on the six gigs did make this
festival a little different. Maybe like the term ‘Americana’, a festival can
take whatever form you want it to be. The proof is in the enjoyment of the event
and SummerTyne delivered wholeheartedly on that front.