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The Meriden Daffodil Festival has announced its 2013 line-up (to this reporter, exclusively.) The festival always takes place in the final weekend of April. This year those dates are Saturday, April 27 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, April 28 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The guy who books the fest, Rob DeRosa, has a serious love of Connecticut-based bands. Rob hosts the Homegrown local-bands radio show on Wesleyan’s WESU-FM Thursdays at 5:05 p.m. He runs the Thin Man music label, which has released lots of albums by local bands, not to mention a two-disk tribute to New Haven pop duo The Furors. He manages The Manchurians. He’s close friends with singer/songwriter/bandleader Frank Critelli, another major booster of local music in the state.
The Manchurians, The Furors, Frank Critelli, James Velvet’s band The Ivory Bills and a klatsch of Meriden-based cover bands are the only acts DeRosa usually allows to play at the festival every year. (Another onetime staple, New London’s legendary The Reducers, retired as a band after the death of their bassist Steve Kaika last year.)
The rest of the bill is always a welcome surprise. Three dozen acts in total are playing the Daffodil Festival this year, and fully half of them haven’t played there before.
Major highlights this year include;
• Kid-friendly sets by SteveSongs (a nationally known, Connecticut-based children’s entertainer) and Robert Messore
• “Fireworks” sets by The Alternate Routes, Goodnight Blue Moon and the cover band Last Licks, playing on the various festival stages while an extravagant fireworks display lights up the sky overhead.
• Intriguing jazz booking Orquestra Afinke (a salsa band) and Sparkplug (former sidemen of the late guitarist Melvin Sparks)
• WNPR and CPTV personality Ray Hardman with his ‘60s garage/punk band The Radiation, channeling songs from the Sonics to Spirit.
• Female singer/songwriters Hannah Fair and Becky Kessler.
• Bands with albums recently out, or currently in the studio, such as Little Ugly, Daphne Lee Martin and Paper Hill Casket Company
• A slew of Americana and roots band with interesting instrumentation. Expect to see musicians wielding everything from violins to banjos to ukes. Rani D’Arbo & Daisy Mayhem is known for its everything-but-the-kitchen sink percussion kit of found objects.
• Mark Mulcahy! The Furors!
The 2013 Meriden Daffodil Festival takes place Saturday, April 27 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday, April 28 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Meriden’s Hubbard Park. There are three separate stages for live bands. The dates, times and stag locations for each band will play have yet to be announced. The festival’s own website is here.
Here are various arrangements of the data. (For yet another assortment of the same info, see Christopher Arnott’s www.scribblers.us blog here.
All the Bands Playing, in Alphabetical Order:
The Alternate Routes
Christopher Bousquet
Frank Critelli
Breakthrough Frequencies
Chico & Friends
Dan Stevens Trio
Rani D’Arbo & Daisy Mayhem
Ellison Jackson
Hannah Fair
Food
The Furors
Goodnight Blue Moon
The Gonkus Brothers
The Guru
Hostage Calm
The Ivory Bills-james
Kelley & Sean
Becky Kessler
Last Licks
Little Ugly
The Manchurians
Daphne Lee Martin
Rob Messore
The Mold Monkies
Mark Mulcahy
1974
Orquestra Afinke
Paper Hill Casket Company
The Peacock Flounders
Poor Old Shine
The Radiation
River City Slim & The Zydeco Hogs
The Sawtelles
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Sparkplug
SteveSongs
Advocate Grand Band Slam Winners:
Becky Kessler: Singer-songwriter, 2012
Little Ugly: Best Rock, 2011 (Hartford)
Daphne Lee Martin & Raise the Rent: Best Country, 2012
1974: Best New Band, 2012
River City Slim & the Zydeco Hogs: Best Folk/Bluegrass/Cajun, 2011 (Hartford)
Other Advocate connections include The Alternate Routes (which sometimes features Fairfield County Weekly staffer Mike Sembos), The Ivory Bills (with former New Haven Advocate CD reviewer James Velvet, best known in other media as the co-host of WPLR’s Local Bands show) and former New Haven Advocate Music Notes columnist Christopher Bousquet.
Rock/Pop/Psychedelia:
Breakthrough Frequencies
The Furors
The Guru
Hostage Calm
Little Ugly
Mold Monkies
1974
The Peacock Flounders
The Sawtelles
Folk/Americana/Roots/Country:
The Alternate Routes
Christopher Bousquet
Frank Critelli
Rani D’Arbo & Daisy Mayhem
Ellison Jackson
Goodnight Blue Moon
Daphne Lee Martin & Raise the Rent
Paper Hill Casket Company
Poor Old Shine
Singer/Songwriters:
Frank Critelli
Hannah Fair
The Ivory Bills
Kelley & Sean
Becky Kessler
Jazz:
Food
Orquestra Afinke
Sparkplug
R&B/Blues/Blues Rock
Dan Stevens Trio
The Manchurians
River City Slim & the Zydeco Hogs
For Children:
Robert Messore
SteveSongs
Covers:
The Gonkus Brothers
Chico & Friends
Last Licks
The Radiation
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Fireworks Shows:
(These bands play during the festival’s big fireworks display on Saturday night, a recent innovation in Daffodil programming.)
The Alternate Routes (playing on the Welcome Stage)
Goodnight Blue Moon (playing in the Food Tent)
Last Licks (in the bandshell)
First Time Playing at the Daffodil Festival:
Christopher Bousquet (who’s played the fest previously with his old band High Lonesome Plains)
Breakthrough Frequencies
Rani D’Arbo & Daisy Mayhem
Hannah Fair
Food
Goodnight Blue Moon
Hostage Calm
Becky Kessler
Last Licks
Little Ugly
Robert Messore
1974
Orquestra Afinke
Paper Hill Casket Company
Poor Old Shine
The Radiation
Sparkplug
SteveSongs
Daffodil Regulars:
(Meriden-based acts and others who play the festival every year)
Chico & Friends
Frank Critelli
The Gonkus Brothers
The Ivory Bills
Kelley & Sean
The Manchurians
Welcome Returns:
(Bands who play the festival every other year or so, or used to play annually but have taken a few years off)
The Furors
The Guru
Daphne Lee Martin & Raise the Rent
The Mold Monkies
Mark Mulcahy
The Peacock Flounders
The Sawtelles