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04-27-2010, 04:05 PM
Country music fans get their just rewards
Bruce Fessier • The Desert Sun • April 27, 2010
There's a tendency to think that if the liberal media compares Stagecoach to Coachella, they'll reveal to the legion of country fans that those left-thinking journalists don't think Stagecoach measures up.
But Stagecoach proved again this weekend that it's the perfect complement to Coachella.
Goldenvoice started the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 1999 with the idea that if it amassed all the good music being ignored by commercial radio it would attract masses of disaffected youths and have a big enough audience to have a commercially successful festival.
When it started Stagecoach in 2007, co-founder Paul Tollett wasn't quite as independent as he was in 1999. Goldenvoice had become a division of the entertainment giant AEG Live and his partnership with the Empire Polo Club had become so critical to the future of Coachella, he had to produce another successful festival to sustain it.
So Tollett tapped into the massive contemporary country audience, which was well served by commercial radio, to ensure Stagecoach's success.
But country music is almost as splintered as the rock industry. Veteran country artists, including such icons as Johnny Cash and George Jones, complained that they were discriminated against by the country establishment in terms of radio airplay and record distribution.
There actually have been dozens of splinter groups from the country mainstream of Hank Williams and Gene Autry since the early days of rock 'n' roll. They've included bluegrass, Western swing, rockabilly, gospel, traditional country with strings (Eddy Arnold) and urban and rural folk. Those eventually morphed into country rock, folk rock, outlaw country, country pop, alt-country, alt-bluegrass, neo-traditional, cowpunk and country rap.
Tollett saw an opportunity to unite the fans of these splinter groups with Stagecoach: California's Country Music Festival. That umbrella could be inclusive - just like Coachella - and especially reflect the California sound with country and folk rockers such as the Eagles and Poco. It could also include the flag bearers of the Bakersfield sound such as Merle Haggard and Dwight Yoakam, and the many alt-country, rockabilly and cowpunks coming out of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Tollett devoted the main playing field of the Empire Polo Club to the contemporary country artists to ensure the festival's success, but he also gave the disaffected country groups a showcase in the tents. This year, he continued to celebrate the California sound with Firefall and continued to present traditional and alternative country.
At first glance, one is tempted to say the Stagecoach formula hasn't worked as well as Coachella's. One of the amazing things about Coachella is that people who were initially attracted only to their favorite sub-musical genres started drifting to other venues on the polo field and started liking other kinds of music.
This is the greatest accomplishment of Coachella and one reason indie music festivals have become such an international phenomenon. Coachella united its many niche groups into one mass audience that not even radio or television could harness.
Stagecoach's fans aren't as united. The contemporary country crowd likes to sit and watch music from the comfort of their chairs and blankets. Many tend to miss much of the great, diverse music in the tents.
But, it's all about choice and that's their choice. The great thing about the contemporary country fans choosing to stay near their blankets and chairs is the fact that the Mustang and Palomino crowds remain the perfect size for more intimate artists. In that respect, it's like the great early days of Coachella, when you could see an artist on any of the five stages on a whim and find a place close enough to the stage to enjoy the show. You can't do that any more. The Coachella crowds are so big, you have to get to a venue early and plan where you're going to be every hour to get a good place to stand.
Stagecoach attracted 102,000 people this weekend. Remarkably, considering single day tickets were sold, 51,000 people came each day, which qualifies as huge a commercial success for a festival with 30 acts. But it also was a logistical success because the tent crowds were small enough to let you try some new music and, if you weren't satisfied, you could move to another venue and still find a good place to sit or stand. It ran so smoothly, Tollett said it was a vacation compared to all the adversity of Coachella.
Of course, Stagecoach and Coachella could still present other great musical genres to really be inclusive of the best music America has to offer.
Empire Polo Club owner Alex Haagen III is pushing Tollett to fill some of those gaps with a fall festival of blues, jazz and roots rock.
That may not happen for a while, but, when it does, Indio will be pretty much the capital of American music festivals.
Bruce Fessier • The Desert Sun • April 27, 2010
There's a tendency to think that if the liberal media compares Stagecoach to Coachella, they'll reveal to the legion of country fans that those left-thinking journalists don't think Stagecoach measures up.
But Stagecoach proved again this weekend that it's the perfect complement to Coachella.
Goldenvoice started the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in 1999 with the idea that if it amassed all the good music being ignored by commercial radio it would attract masses of disaffected youths and have a big enough audience to have a commercially successful festival.
When it started Stagecoach in 2007, co-founder Paul Tollett wasn't quite as independent as he was in 1999. Goldenvoice had become a division of the entertainment giant AEG Live and his partnership with the Empire Polo Club had become so critical to the future of Coachella, he had to produce another successful festival to sustain it.
So Tollett tapped into the massive contemporary country audience, which was well served by commercial radio, to ensure Stagecoach's success.
But country music is almost as splintered as the rock industry. Veteran country artists, including such icons as Johnny Cash and George Jones, complained that they were discriminated against by the country establishment in terms of radio airplay and record distribution.
There actually have been dozens of splinter groups from the country mainstream of Hank Williams and Gene Autry since the early days of rock 'n' roll. They've included bluegrass, Western swing, rockabilly, gospel, traditional country with strings (Eddy Arnold) and urban and rural folk. Those eventually morphed into country rock, folk rock, outlaw country, country pop, alt-country, alt-bluegrass, neo-traditional, cowpunk and country rap.
Tollett saw an opportunity to unite the fans of these splinter groups with Stagecoach: California's Country Music Festival. That umbrella could be inclusive - just like Coachella - and especially reflect the California sound with country and folk rockers such as the Eagles and Poco. It could also include the flag bearers of the Bakersfield sound such as Merle Haggard and Dwight Yoakam, and the many alt-country, rockabilly and cowpunks coming out of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Tollett devoted the main playing field of the Empire Polo Club to the contemporary country artists to ensure the festival's success, but he also gave the disaffected country groups a showcase in the tents. This year, he continued to celebrate the California sound with Firefall and continued to present traditional and alternative country.
At first glance, one is tempted to say the Stagecoach formula hasn't worked as well as Coachella's. One of the amazing things about Coachella is that people who were initially attracted only to their favorite sub-musical genres started drifting to other venues on the polo field and started liking other kinds of music.
This is the greatest accomplishment of Coachella and one reason indie music festivals have become such an international phenomenon. Coachella united its many niche groups into one mass audience that not even radio or television could harness.
Stagecoach's fans aren't as united. The contemporary country crowd likes to sit and watch music from the comfort of their chairs and blankets. Many tend to miss much of the great, diverse music in the tents.
But, it's all about choice and that's their choice. The great thing about the contemporary country fans choosing to stay near their blankets and chairs is the fact that the Mustang and Palomino crowds remain the perfect size for more intimate artists. In that respect, it's like the great early days of Coachella, when you could see an artist on any of the five stages on a whim and find a place close enough to the stage to enjoy the show. You can't do that any more. The Coachella crowds are so big, you have to get to a venue early and plan where you're going to be every hour to get a good place to stand.
Stagecoach attracted 102,000 people this weekend. Remarkably, considering single day tickets were sold, 51,000 people came each day, which qualifies as huge a commercial success for a festival with 30 acts. But it also was a logistical success because the tent crowds were small enough to let you try some new music and, if you weren't satisfied, you could move to another venue and still find a good place to sit or stand. It ran so smoothly, Tollett said it was a vacation compared to all the adversity of Coachella.
Of course, Stagecoach and Coachella could still present other great musical genres to really be inclusive of the best music America has to offer.
Empire Polo Club owner Alex Haagen III is pushing Tollett to fill some of those gaps with a fall festival of blues, jazz and roots rock.
That may not happen for a while, but, when it does, Indio will be pretty much the capital of American music festivals.