Buffalo Music: Festival bringing great lineup Sept. 12-14

The Borderland Festival is one of the most extensive music events in Western New York every year, sprawling across multiple stages at Knox Farm State Park. The Buffalo Hive asked Bob McLennan (who also happens to be on our Board of Directors as was formerly board chair for The Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation) to offer a guide to his “must see” events for the festival on Sept. 12-14). This is the first of several stories we’ll be running on Borderland.

By Robert J. McLennan

The Buffalo Hive will be at WNY’s great music festival, Borderland!  We’ll have a tent and table set up in a good location and we hope many of the thousands of music fans attending the fest will stop by and visit with us and find out all about The Buffalo Hive. 

I plan on being there almost the entire weekend so I’m really looking forward to enjoying the great lineup of music, in addition to preaching the gospel of The Hive!

Here are my top ten selections I’m most excited about, but of course this is very subjective.   In fact, the booking Jennifer Brazile and the Borderland staff have accomplished is so good there is not a band in the lineup I don’t want to see.  It all looks delicious.  But here’s my Top Ten, in the order of when they are appearing at the fest:

1. Organ Fairchild — Buffalo’s Dave Ruch, Joe Bellanti and Corey Kertzie; they claim they’re “Not your grandmother’s organ trio.”  This is a band I have seen and I definitely want to see them again, so there’s that.  They jam and party and have fun and play great originals and really cool covers you wouldn’t expect.
   
   
   

2. Mountain Grass Unit — A “jamgrass” band from Birmingham, Ala.  I checked out their videos; they look very accomplished and energetic, merging bluegrass with a lot of other stuff, and if they are inspired by Tony Rice and Billy Strings, you can’t miss ‘em.

3. Battle of the Borderland Winner Roy G Biv — Their Facebook page says, “Roy G Biv is a Buffalo based quartet that explores several genres through improvisation and amalgamations of musical influences.”  So far, so good … I want to hear what they’ve got that led them to win over all the other bands.

4. Dirty Work — The side project of the members of Aqueous, this is a Steely Dan tribute band.  They’re from Buffalo and they are phenomenal, hitting all the must-hear tunes from a band I love, and putting their own spin on it.  I’ve seen Dirty Work a couple times; they are great!

5. Soul Rebels — I’m halfway there with seeing the words “New Orleans brass tradition.” And then hearing that they blend rock, funk, jazz and soul and that their live shows are an eclectic party harnessing the power of the drums and horns … I’m there!

6. Folkfaces & Friends — What a great band, led by Tyler Wescott!  I’ve seen them several times and I’m always amazed.  You’ll hear a wide range of genres including country blues, traditional jazz, rock and roll, honky tonk, western swing, bluegrass and old-time, jug band music and more.   Guitars, banjo, harmonica, kazoo, fiddle, upright bass, drums, and washboard, with Patrick Jackson, Brendan Gosson and Dan Schwach.

7. Ulithian Vibes — ”One people. One reef. One love.”  A band from the Ulithi Atoll in Micronesia in the Pacific Ocean, closer to the Philippines than Hawaii.  They are coming a long way to show us what they do, blending traditional chants with reggae, soul and island beats.  The message they want to share with us is one of cultural pride, climate resilience and ocean love. Their debut album is supported by the National Geographic Society, and they’re bringing it live to us in WNY.

8. Johnny Mullenax — ”A funky country bluegrass good time for working folks!”  Johnny claims influences from AC/DC to The Ramones to John Coltrane and Parliament.  And his style has been compared to Billy Strings.  That works for me.

9. Robert Randolph — An incredible pedal steel guitarist, he’s played with Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana and many more, and I’ve always wanted to see him play.

10. Driftwood — I’ve seen them a couple times at the Sportsmen’s Tavern and they were fantastic.  I’ll always remember them coming down off the stage into the middle of the floor for as amazing encore of “Gimme Some Lovin’.”  Bluegrass roots, but much, much more!




OK, I tried but I can’t limit it to 10. It’s got to be my top 15.

11. The Heavy Heavy — I missed them when they were at Buffalo Iron Works, so here’s my chance.  Some critics compare them to The Band, Jefferson Airplane and The Mamas & Papas, and the clincher for me was when I watched a video where they said Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler’s guitar stylings are a big influence.

12. Teskey Brothers — Two Australian guys who mix a lot of retro-soul with folk and blues.  Their seven-piece band has been playing for thousands all over the world, even opening for Bruce!

13. The Wailers — What can I say about this band?  I haven’t seen them before, but c’mon, Bob Marley’s former backing band!  Looking forward to hearing the timeless Marley classics. The photo below is current leader Aston Barrett Jr.

14. Trampled By Turtles — Sometime in the early 2000s they played at the Sportsmen’s Tavern for a $3 cover charge, but I didn’t see them until I went to DelFest, Del McCoury’s bluegrass fest, in 2015 and they blew us away.  A great kick-ass bluegrass band well placed between The Wailers and Khruangbin on Sunday.

15. Khruangbin — My son Corey has seen them live and he loves this band.  I like what I’ve heard, but I need to see the live performance.  The New York Times called it “extremely slippery, genre wise (Is it psychedelic lounge dub? Desert surf rock? The sound you hear inside a lava lamp?)” It is mostly instrumental and their sound has been described as soul, surf rock, psychedelic, dub, and funk.  The most used term to describe Khruangbin’s music is Thai funk.  Nobody else on the Borderland bill has that description.  I’m looking forward to checking them out.

And this is only half of the bands on the bill.  There is much more to see and hear.  While you’re there on the weekend of Sept. 12, 13 and 14 at Borderland, come out and visit us at The Buffalo Hive table and see what we have to offer.