If you missed the 2016 Brown County Music Celebration at the Brown County Playhouse on March 5, you’re in luck, as BCS Media students Caleb Best and Rachel Huddleston were on hand to video and edit the event and post it on YouTube (thanks kids, you did a great job preserving the event for posterity). Sound tech for the evening was Rebecca Muth, who did a fine job wrangling all those mics and line inputs.
This year’s BCMC featured the music of The Hammer & The Hatchet (aka John Bowyer & Jayme Hood); The Mizfits (Lou Stant, Curtis Moore, special guest Carolyn Dutton on violin, along with the recipient of the 2016 BCMC Lifetime Achievement Award, woodwinds man and big band leader Mel Chance); and of course the main attraction, Mel Chance and The Noteables, featuring three special guest vocalists from Brown County: Amanda Marie Webb, Kenan Rainwater and Lauren Robert.
On with the show!
running time: 1 hour 57 minutes
A Look Back at the Brown County Music Celebration
Launched in 2013 by the Brown County Playhouse, the first two years, ’13 and ’14, the event was dubbed the Brown County Music Awards. This was my 4th year being involved in the BCMC. In the inaugural event I was nominated for an award (didn’t win, darn it), the 2nd year I was tapped as Music Director, assembling a crackerjack 5-piece backline band to beef-up the proceedings (that band included Barry Johnson on drums, Del Sheets on bass, Marvin Parish on guitar, Sarah B Kenny on violin, and myself on guitars and banjo).
The name change to Brown County Music Celebration came about as a result of numerous comments by participants after the inaugural event in 2013. All the musicians loved being part of an annual event focused on our local music scene, but very few actually liked the idea of the event being a competition. To determine the winners of the nine awards given in 2013, snail-mail and online voting was set up, and the winners got the awards. All well and good, except for the fact that Brown County is a very closely-knit community, virtually all of the musicians were good friends, and some even played in multiple bands around town. The mobilization of fan bases favored the better-known bands, and everyone felt rather uncomfortable trying to out-do their buddies.
To their credit, the Playhouse took the critiques to heart, and in 2015 the format changed significantly. Changing the word awards to celebration, gone was the voting, and a small group of local movers and shakers in the BC music scene was put together to offer suggestions for acts to stage. The pile of awards was winnowed from nine to only one: the Lifetime Achievement Award, the recipient of which was also chosen by the organizing committee along with the Playhouse folks.
For the third incarnation of the event in 2015, I was tapped to play a little guitar and function as the emcee/host of the event… which I can tell you was a real stretch for me. I’m used to playing my guitar, and to a lesser extent basic public speaking after decades of hitting stages and talking to the crowd. But to be the host of such a prestigious local event taxed my nerves a bit. But I hung in there, and received kind comments after the show. This year, I was considerably more at ease hosting the show… though in my opinion I have a long way to go before I give Garrison Keillor anything to worry about. I continued to function as the host and incidental guitar music guy in 2016.
For the 2016 BCMC and the focus on Mel Chance and big band music, the event took a significant detour, from the Americana/bluegrass/folk roots music Brown County is noted for to something considerably more urbane. We did feature one of BC’s up-and-coming Americana roots duos to good effect by staging The Hammer & The Hatchet, and certainly The Mizfits contributed a decidedly New Orleansian feel to the proceedings (with Brown County’s Duchess of the violin, Carolyn Dutton, stealing the show as usual). But inasmuch as Brown County has only Mel’s band to represent the big band genre, we took advantage of a once-in-lifetime opportunity to feature classic big band music, with three of BC’s best vocalists (Amanda Webb, Kenan Rainwater and Lauren Robert) stepping up to stretch their wings. It was a fantastic night of great music made by Brown County folks.
So in 2017 (probably early in March), the BCMC will hit the Playhouse stage for our 5th anniversary. Already ideas are floating around regarding who to stage, and with a little luck I’ll be asked back to host. The Brown County Music Celebration is a fun, off-the-cuff concert that has become one of Brown County’s premier music events of the year, and I’m looking forward to it.
