Not just a music or arts fest
Summer in western Massachusetts abounds with festivals, from musical gatherings like the Green River Festival to arts events such as last week’s Cultural Chaos in Easthampton.
Then there’s the Unifier Campout, which aims for something more: plenty of music, to be sure, but also art, yoga workshops, dance parties, spoken word performances, and craft and permaculture displays. Even more, it’s a four-day campout in woods and fields that’s designed to bring people of all ages and backgrounds together.
Now in its sixth year, the Unifier Campout takes place on over 400 acres of woods and lakefront in Tolland from Thursday, June 20 through Sunday, June 23. Camping is optional, but Kalpana Devi, one of the event’s organizers, says being at the site for all four days brings a special vibe.
“I had never felt such a spirit of connection than being [at Unifier]” said Devi, a longtime singer, dancer and performer with the Valley reggae/folk band ReBelle.
There will be two stages at Unifier Campout, with over two dozen bands and solo artists performing over the four-day event, including Bella’s Bartok, the high-energy Northampton group that combines folk, vaudeville, pop and other sounds. A wide variety of music — folk, blues, world beat, reggae — is on tap to match the spirit of the event, says Devi, whose band will also be performing. Another example is Club D’Elf, which one critic describes as “James Brown-meets-Sun-Ra.”
According to organizers, the Unifier festival “is an experiential, interactive event that builds community and earth-centered awareness through arts and entertainment, while promoting sustainable living. Our philosophy is deeply rooted in honoring nature and all life, and is based on the premise that we are all born to live creatively.”
For more information on the festival, which includes kid-friendly activities and canoeing and kayaking on the lake, visit http://unifierfestival.com/.
A barefoot troubadour in Holyoke
Singer-songwriter and raconteur Todd Snider was supposed to play in the Valley last November but had to cancel that part of his tour because of illness.
But now the Nashville-based funnyman is back, and the wait has probably been worth it: Snider has a new all-acoustic, solo album out, “Cash Cabin Sessions, Vol. 3,” and he’ll be playing cuts from it tonight (Friday, June 14) at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke.
With his sly humor and scratchy voice, as well as the rambling, stoner monologues from his shows, Snider is roughly one-third singer-songwriter, one-third beat poet and one-third class cutup. Not surprisingly, his new album, though sub-titled “Vol. 3,” is not actually the third in a cycle; there are no Volumes 1 and 2. But he did make the record in the famous Cash Cabin Studio outside Nashville, where Johnny Cash once recorded.
It’s a stripped-down and witty album that showcases Snider’s droll, absurdist take on life and also offers portraits of old Nashville. In the tune “Talking Reality Television Blues,” Snider provides a concise but accurate summation of the TV age, ending with a portrait of a familiar figure from today’s headlines:
“Then a show called ‘The Apprentice’ came on / pretty soon an old man with a comb-over had sold us the moon / and we stayed tuned and now here we are / reality killed by a reality star.”
Todd Snider plays Gateway City Arts at 8 p.m. Kevin Gordon opens the show. For tickets and more information, visit gatewaycityarts.com/todd-snider.
— Steve Pfarrer