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Whidbey Xtra! WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2015 | Vol. 1, No. 18 | WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | FREE
Oak Harbor Music Festival ready to rock By RON NEWBERRY Staff reporter
Larry Mason’s efforts to see the Oak Harbor Music Festival flourish involve starting with a blank canvas each year. Through all his tinkering, he likes what he sees after assembling a fresh 2015 band lineup made up largely of acts new to the Whidbey Island event. “We don’t have the same bands playing every single year,” Mason said. “I really want to try new things.” Mason’s dedication to land a headliner for the Sept. 4-6 event resulted in securing Los Angeles-based rock band, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real, which collaborated with Neil Young on an album that was released earlier this month. Nelson’s band is touring across the country this summer, including stops to perform with Young to promote the album they worked on together, The Monsanto Years. Nelson, the son of country music legend Willie Nelson, will bring his band to Oak Harbor to perform at 9:30 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 5.
“We are just stoked,” Mason said. About 15,000 people came to see the Oak Harbor Music Festival last year, doubling attendance from the previous year. The event, which takes place on two main stages at opposite ends of Pioneer Way in historic downtown, is in its fourth year. Penn Cove Shellfish Company and Island Trollers are stage sponsors. Mason has lined up more than 30 bands for the threeday event with music ranging from country to rhythm and blues to bluegrass, yet it is heavy with rock. Some of the most popular groups and performers from last year are returning, namely The Beatniks, The Fame Riot, The Robbie Walden Band and Dylan Jakobsen. “Everybody was bugging me to get the Beatniks back,” Mason said. The rest of the band lineup is largely different from 2014 with some having performed in previous years. Spokane-based rock band Too Slim and the Taildraggers are Oak Harbor-bound along with
Rust on the Rails, a relatively new Seattle band that features Coby Beebe and Blake Noble, who performed in different groups in Oak Harbor last year. The Kalimba Band, an Earth, Wind & Fire tribute band, will get the crowd “up and jumping,” Mason said. Another band he’s excited about is Jelly Bread, a rock band from Reno, Nev. “There are a lot of new ones that are really fun,” said Margaret Livermore, president of the Oak Harbor Music Festival. The rest of the Oak Harbor Music Festival lineup consists of: Tango Alpha Tango, Adrian Xavier, The Mama Rags, Tiller’s Folly, The Dodgy Mountain Men, Namoli Brennet, Nathaniel Talbot, The Joy Mills Band, Broken Banjo, PETE, Clint McCune, Cranberry Bog Bluegrass Band, Janie Cribbs and the T. Rust Band, Ranger and the Re-Arrangers, Dan Duval Trio, A Town Big Band, Lifeboat 14, Mark Lewis Cool Jazz Trio, Greg Murat and Cool Wind, and Dave McGraw and Mandy Fer. The festival will run from 6-11 p.m., Friday, Sept. 4,
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Photo by Ron Newberry/Whidbey News Group
Larry Mason performs with the Halyards at the 2014 Oak Harbor Music Festival. He’ll play with Broken Banjo in 2015. opening with Tiller’s Folly. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sept. 5, and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sept. 6. Mason played in the band, The Halyards, at last year’s festival. This year, he’ll be
performing with Broken Banjo. More information about the music festival may be found at www.oakharbor festival.com
Oak Harbor Music Festival 11a.m. to 11p.m., Saturday Sept. 5 & 11a.m. to 8p.m., Sunday Sept. 6
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