By Scott McLennan

A storm-snarled weekend in Swanzey, New Hampshire delivers breakout acts, deep improvisation, and a snapshot of the modern jam ecosystem.

Dirty Heads Dustin Bushnell Jared Watson at Northlands. Photo: Scott McLennan

The Northlands Music & Arts Festival, held June 19 through 21 in Swanzey, NH, is as much a musical journey as it is an event. This year, Northlands showcased the breadth and depth of what appeals to jam-band fans, and it covered a wide swath of creativity, including acoustic string band music, jazz, techno, hip-hop, funk, blues, and a brand of rock ’n’ roll inspired by the Grateful Dead that draws on a kaleidoscope of styles.

Northlands has become a defining summer pulse-check of the jam scene — but it still manages to push against expectations.

The risk-taking by fest curators was most evident on the first day of Northlands, which leaned into reggae-rock and melodic hip-hop. The top slot on the bill was given to The Dirty Heads, while the second and third billing slots went to Little Stranger and Mihali. The most obvious overlap between those bands and the more intrinsic jammers stacked on the fest’s other two days? That all of these groups would do brisk business selling branded rolling papers at their merch booths.

Still, musical connections were made, especially when guitar maven Tim Palmieri from Lotus sat in with Mihali’s band for a thrashing jam that shook that group’s easy-flow mellowness.

Kevin Shields of Little Stranger at Northlands. Photo: Scott McLennan

Little Stranger had a breakout set on Day 1, crafting a compelling blend of hip-hop and emo spiced with horns (and songs about weed).
Dirty Heads has been a long-running standard-bearer for reggae-rock, and the band arrived at Northlands with new material to showcase from the album 7 Seas. Dirty Heads use reggae rhythms to shape the music’s grooves and lyrical flow, but forgoes classic reggae’s subtlety when driving home messages about learning to be chill. Ironically, it sounds like someone is screaming at you to relax.

Ghost-Note, led by drummer Robert “Sput” Searight, played a wonderfully time-traveling set that touched on classic funk inspired by James Brown, moved through more contemporary P-Funk style mayhem, and then touched on hip-hop’s role in the evolution of funk.

The Dead tradition was celebrated on Day 1 by Circles Around the Sun. The late Neal Casal formed this band to record soundscapes inspired by Grateful Dead songs. His compositions were used as intermission music when the Grateful Dead played their Fare Thee Well concerts in Chicago in 2015. CATS continues exploring that mode with melodic improvisations that meander way out and then eventually drift back home.

Days 2 and 3 of Northlands fell more in line with the traditional contours of the jam band scene. Joe Russo’s Almost Dead headlined on Saturday, and The Disco Biscuits topped the bill on Sunday. Everything leading up to those respective sets was of a piece, so to speak, even when sounds and appearances differed sharply from band to band.

Northlands uses the bucolic grounds of the Cheshire Fair, transforming it into a little community for a weekend, a place where campers and day trippers let their freak flags fly.

Brad Barr and Joe Russo with The Slip at Northlands. Photo: Scott McLennan

That sense of collectivity helped Northlands overcome the inevitable snafus that arise when hosting and staging big, multi-band outdoor fests. When singer Kanika Moore could not make it in time for her Saturday afternoon set, the fest moved her to Sunday and switched Annie in the Water to Saturday. Likewise, when a last-minute scheduling conflict arose that prevented The Slip’s drummer Andrew Barr from participating on Saturday, Joe Russo agreed to step in to ensure this highly anticipated set could go off before his own headlining set with JRAD.

The biggest snag arrived Sunday, when a fast-moving storm hit Southern New Hampshire, forcing the festival to be evacuated. Attendees waited in their cars and safe areas for the storm to pass before they made an orderly return to the site. The worst casualty: the smoking set from the Supersonic Shorties was cut short.

Day 2 of Northlands saw the return to Swanzey of Yonder Mountain String Band and Dogs in a Pile. Dogs in a Pile has become fest favorites—and its growth over the past year has been explosive—so its billing in the pecking order was moved up. Following a long, galvanizing romp through “Trunk Rum,” Dogs welcomed late-arrival Kanika Moore and keyboard-keytar phenom Natalie Brooke to the stage for a slow-burn jam on Aretha Franklin’s “Rock Steady.”

Bassist Marc Friedman and brothers Andrew and Brad Barr rarely reunite as The Slip, a band that for a spell in the mid-’90s into the early 2000s crafted a beguiling sound that was progressive, catchy, and singular. The set with Russo captured what The Slip is all about; it also benefited from an energy that comes when musicians tap into the unknown. Barr did say that he, Friedman, and Russo had discussed, many years ago, playing a trio show together. They made the most of that opportunity given to them at Northlands.

Dave Dreiwitz and Scott Metzger of JRAD at Northlands. Photo: Scott McLennan

Lotus, another Northlands vet, built a wily set of instrumentals that became more angular and spacey as the veteran trance-jam band played on.
Joe Russo’s Almost Dead played two full sets to close out the second day of Northlands. JRAD’s M.O. is to run the music of the Grateful Dead through manic paces, but at Northlands the band peaked on an Allman Brothers song. Coming out of a pensive jam and winding latter-day Dead piece “Foolish Heart,” JRAD maneuvered into the Allman’s “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.” Guitarist Tom Hamilton supplanted Duane Allman’s signature slide work with his own brand of gnarly, deconstructed jamming, and piano player Marco Benevento paid homage to Gregg Allman’s inventive keyboard work.

JRAD also drew on Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, guitarist Scott Metzger leading the charge through “All You Fascists” and “When I Paint My Masterpiece.” Of course, Dead fans were hardly forgotten, with a huge, show-ending version of “Terrapin Station” served up in JRAD’s inimitable approach to the Grateful Dead catalog.

On Day 3, Moore, after she wrapped up an early set with her own band, took her “artist at large” role seriously, with several fest-making sit-ins, beginning with the Jen Hartswick Band. Singer and trumpet player Hartswick had already built a wonderful set, filled with sultry jazz numbers and an out-of-left-field cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused,” before Moore joined the band for a stellar read of Ray Charles’ “Drown in My Own Tears.”

Jen Hartswick, Kanika Moore, and Shira Elias with the Supersonic Shorties at Northlands. Photo: Sam McLennan

Moore was also featured in drummer Nikki Glaspie’s all-women, all-star band Supersonic Shorties. The Shorties, who also brought back Hartswick, only had about 20 minutes of stage time before the evacuation order came—but those were a spectacular 20 minutes. Glaspie’s ensemble offered a big sound, but it was also disciplined, moving solos around for maximum effect and never lingering on a part for so long that you think you’ve had enough of what was being served.

Andy Frasco and the U.N. restored the exhilarating vibes when the crowd was allowed back into the festival. Frasco is a relentless, high-energy force, in all the best ways, using music as a weapon to generate unmitigated joy and shenanigans. His songs are overtly campy, but it is Frasco’s performances that are fan-service dynamite in the best of entertaining ways. Frasco and Moore debuted a new song they have together, “Perfectly Yours,” which drew these two jam stalwarts into a country music duet.

The Disco Biscuits at Northlands Photo: Sam McLennan

Moore made her final appearance of the day with the headlining Disco Biscuits for inspired versions of Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere” and Pink Floyd’s “Have a Cigar.” Those covers capped a first set by the Biscuits that offered dedicated jams on old fan favorites “Digital Buddha” and “Vassilios,” along with a twisted-up take on “Spacebirdmatingcall.”

The Biscuits’ second set was a free-flowing affair, weaving in and out of older and newer material with guitarist Jon “Barber” Gutwillig and keyboard player Aron Magner pushing the directions of the jams, while bassist Marc Brownstein and drummer Marlon Lewis expertly drove the grooves.

The band charged through its old screwball rave-up “Frog Legs” before unleashing a relentless version of the newer “No Recollection” that brought the fest right up to its curfew.

The exhilarating finale felt like a fitting conclusion for this expansive survey of the current state of the jam, which is being preserved by a crop of bands that, even as they acknowledge the past, are forever looking forward.

Scott McLennan covered music for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette from 1993 to 2008. He then contributed music reviews and features to The Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Portland Press Herald, and WGBH, as well as to The Arts Fuse. He also operated the NE Metal blog to provide in-depth coverage of the region’s heavy metal scene.