Equiblues 2015!

This was the third time I have been to the Equiblues rodeo and country music festival in St. Agreve, France -- an annual event that draws upwards of 25,000 people and that this year was celebrating its 20th edition.

It was one of the first big country-western festivals I attended (back in 2004) when I first started following the "scene". Last time I was there was 3 years ago -- read what I wrote back then HERE and HERE.

Equiblues lasts the better part of a week, but this year, I only was able to make it there for Friday evening and Saturday, and -- alas -- I missed all of the rodeo -- though I saw some of the cowboy mounted shooting competition.

One of my reasons for going was to meet with Georges Carrier, an expert on country music in France who had been the director of the Country Rendez-vous festival in Craponne for 18 years.

I parked in front of the scene in the photo at the top of this page -- a fitting welcome image.

But the photo below encapsulates the atmosphere event better: "Authentic Dreams". Festivals like Equiblues are signal embodiments of what I call "real imaginary" spaces -- a re-created; no -- a created -- "America" where everyone wears cowboy hats and boots and hustles and bustles amid the trappings of the frontier; but where little has much really to do with the United States. As usual, except for some of the artists and rodeo performers, I was one of the only -- if not the only -- American there. I did hear English in the crowd from one couple strolling through, but UK English.

Actually, I found this year's Equiblues just about identical with what I found three years ago. Even the same food (sausage and frites; steak and frites; wine; beer...) and physical set-up. For festival-run merch, tickets, food, and events -- you have to pay in Equiblues dollars that you have to buy with Euros: one dollar = one Euro.

As usual, I was fascinated by the use of flag imagery -- American flags, Confederate flags and various other flags and banners. They are used basically without much meaning, as decoration mean to provide an "American" or "Rebel" spin, as backdrops, clothing, ornamentation.

In the photo below, fly in a row, over a souvenir and clothing stand,  an American flag, a Confederate flag with the words "Heritage Not Hate", a  Confederate flag and, I think, an Iowa state flag. I doubt of many people understood the significance of the slogan......

Check out the flag-inspired clothing, too.

The music, of course, with crowded concerts every night -- by American, Canadian and French artists -- under a circus-like big top, is one of the highlights. And there is a big space for line-dancers. I am still fascinated by the hypnotic geometric movements of these masses of people.

 There was even a Miss Equiblues contest.

But most visitors looked more like this:

More evidence of growing Italian country scene

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Here's more evidence that Italy's country western scene is developing.

The Italy blog Italy Chronicles runs a post about an Italian country singer named Fabrizio Pollastrelli who goes by the stage name Paul Aster and plays with a band called "The Fellows." His web site says they play "southern rock 'n' country music."

Aster hails from northern Italy and is currently based on Fano, in Le Marche on the coast.

Here he sings -- like so many other European country artists -- Country Roads....

Italy has a few wellknown, veteran bluegrass groups -- like Red Wine and Bluegrass Stuff -- but until fairly recently it has not had much of a "mainstream" country music scene.

As I've posted in the past , this seems to be changing. There is a slowly growing country-western-music-etc scene that includes country music and other general western festivals as well as a surging line-dance scene.

This is on top of fairly well-established western scene linked to horses and horse-riding, and the Cowboy Action Shooting scene, which has clubs in many parts of the country.

The biggest western event has long been the FieraCavalli -- horse fair -- in Verona.

Here's a video from the FieraCavalli 2009 -- masters of line dancing.






I can't forget that the first European country singer I met when I first started exploring the "imaginary wild west" was an Italian, "George McAnthony," from the South Tyrol/Alto Adige region. I saw him perform a couple of times and did a lengthy interview with him -- he was a nice guy and he and his story helped trigger my interest in the imaginary wild west phenomenon..Sadly, George died three years ago, aged only 45.

Still, just nine or 10 years ago I attended a  well-attended "Western Games" festival near Rome -- and there was no line-dancing, and the country band they had playing drew an audience of zero.

More imaginary wild west in Italy! Video of Colosseum Country festival!

Here's a video report on the Colosseum Country Festival that took place near Rome back in October. Mostly line-dancing, and lots of tropes....

I posted about this festival and other events in the slowly growing Italian wild west & country scene back in August. It's gettin' there, I guess.

"Cowboy protest" for more country music on UK radio

Country music fans whooped  and line-danced in "cowboy protests" outside British radio broadcasters last week to press their call for more country music on UK airwaves. The protests were organized by a group called Cowboys for Country Music.

The New Musical Express reports:

The Cowboys For Country Music demonstrated outside the BBC's Broadcasting House last week as well as the headquarters of Global Radio in London - the company who own Capital FM. The group line-danced in front of the venues in an effort to make UK radio stations play more mainstream American country music, by artists such as the Grammy Award nominated The Band Perry and Lady Antebellum. The group ... were holding placards and wearing chaps and cowboy boots and danced to 'Cruise' (Remix) by Florida Georgia Line featuring Nelly.

Here's a great video of the protest! (You may have to click over to YouTube to watch it -- at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc_b9wGAbiI )

On the video, a cowboy-hatted fan says they were protesting because "It makes up such a big percentage of the music industry; it's extremely popular, obviously, Stateside, and there's a lot of demand for it here in the UK, but because the radio stations don't play enough of it, that's why we want to try and promote that."

Colosseum Country Festival (and more) brings imaginary wild west to Rome

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Italians seem to be succumbing to the public expression of the Imaginary Wild West.

The phenomenon isn't as widespread as in some other countries, but it's certainly now there, or beginning to be there -- as testified by the upcoming "Colosseum Country Festival" to be held near Rome at the beginning of October, whose main attraction seems to be line-dancing.

Western riding and horsemanship have long been at the heart of the trend in Italy

Already half a dozen years ago I attended the "Western Games" at a "ranch" near Lake Bracciano northwest of Rome, which was a mini-rodeo and riding competition set among displays, Indian dancing, and general wild west themed family entertainment attractions. There were even "live" American cowboys brought over from Oregon.

Western Games, Bracciano, 2005. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

The prime mover behind that festival, Andrea "Drew" Mischianti, has long been a key figure in Italy's western, horse, riding and cowboy scene for many years and long wrote a column about the cowboy life for an Italian wild west magazine. He and his wife Natalia Estrada run a "Ranch Academy" to teach and take part in "buckeroo" skills and lifestyle. They also take part in competitions and exhibitions of skills.

But country music -- unlike in other countries -- had little, if any, attraction. At festivals I've attended in France, Germany, CZ, Austria, Switzerland and PL, for example, music and line-dancing were major and something THE major, draws. But at the Western Games, this band played to an audience of ZERO. 

Western Games, Bracciano, 2005. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

Line-danging, bluegrass and country music now seem to be making some inroads in popularity, particularly in northern Italy, where there have been some festivals. The Genoa-based Italian bluegrass group Red Wine is considered one of the best in Europe and tours in the U.S. The Rome-based banjoist Danilo Cartia also has been making a name for himself. This month, the American banjo great Tony Trischka will be performing with Red Wine before going on to at banjo workshop in Urbino.

Even in the little village festival in Collelungo, in Umbria, a (sort of) country duo called Western Strings was one of the acts chosen to perform in the piazza. Among the songs they played were the two all time European favorites -- Country Roads and Sweet Home Alabama.

Italy also, of course, has a thriving Cowboy Action Shooting scene -- I'm a member of the Old West Shooting Society and have attended a number of events, which I have posted about.

OWSS match, 2009. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

A lot of catching up to do...and maybe an Italian western fest?

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Extraordinary. I realize I haven't posted here for more than a month! It's not for lack of wanting to... just for lack of time. Or maybe a surfeit of ... laziness perhaps? Mental laziness at any rate, as I feel as if I've been running around, very busy, doing many other things...

Right now I'm in the middle of a working trip that has taken me so far to Spain, Slovakia, Austria and now Hungary (Budapest) -- but for other matters, not the imaginary wild west... I still have a few stops to make -- but, I'm trying to figure out if I can manage to hit the Valsassina country festival in northern Italy: it's the first edition of it, apparently, and it's one of the few such festivals in Italy at all.  But it's rather out of the way for me -- up near Lecco, in the mountains above Lake Como north of Milan...

I've been to just one other western festival in Italy -- the Western Games that used to be held near Rome -- and I'm eager to see the northern Italian take. There's another country festival in Italy June 29 -- at Voghera, where there is also a wild west theme park. (But I'll be in Czech Republic so will miss it.)

According to the information on the web site http://www.countrymusicnetwork.it/ the festival was "strongly desired and promoted" by the Volonteers of the local parish of St. Alessandro di Barzio and suported by the "friends of the horse" association in the Valsassina.
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The object is "the diffusion of  American Country culture in a festival of colors, emotions and traditions to relive the scenes and breathe the hottest atmospheres of the villages of the Far West."

There is a charitable aspect to the festival, which is also somewhat rare in the scene -- all proceeds are to go to a new parish elementary school.

As I have observed, most -- or at least much -- of the imaginary wild west scene in Italy centers on horses (and cowboy action shooting) though I understand there is also a line-dancing scene in the north. There are scattered bluegrass bands and musicians, too. (The info on the Valsassina Festival says that every night of the event there will be live music and "the legendary LINE DANCE" with instruction.)

It looks like country music may be catching on, though, to judge from the schedule of the Silverado country band, which is playing at both Voghera and Valsassina -- as well as a lot of other gigs and little country fests, across northern Italy.

France -- video from Country Music and Line Dance Festival

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I love the country and western festivals I go to in France. The music is generally good, the people are nice, and the fans generally look amazingly stylish in their duds. Line-dancing is very popular (sometimes to the chagrin of the musicians) -- and there are often huge line dance areas set up for big masses of dancers whose uniform movements are fascinating to watch.

There was a country music and line dance festival May 2009 at Disneyland near Paris -- this was the promo video....


Vidéo du Festival Country & Line Dance à Disney Village
Uploaded by am2v77. - Exotic and entertaining travel videos.

Line Dancing -- AKA "Redneck Aerobics"

A line dance team at a competition in Austria, 2005. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Reuters runs a feature on the line dancing phenomenon -- and how it is used now as a "redneck aerobics" exercise... (I once sat through a line dance competition in Austria, where each group had to perform to Achy Breaky Heart....)

Though deeply rooted in Irish and German folk traditions, line dancing was off most urban grids until 1992 when Billy Ray Cyrus, father of teen idol Miley, stomped upon the stage with his megahit "Achy Breaky Heart."

Today line dancing is a worldwide phenomenon. Devotees have formed organizations as far away as Singapore and Australia.

Adam Herbel, a.k.a. the Dancing Cowboy, teaches country line dancing at The Rodeo Club in San Jose, California. He said some come for the exercise, some for the music and atmosphere.

"We have a funny thing called redneck aerobics," said Herbel, described as a series of five or six upbeat line dances strung in a row.

"When the DJ calls out 'its redneck aerobics,' everybody knows what's coming," he said. "Sometimes the fitness gals will do pretty advanced line dancing."

Line Dancers in Berlin, March 2009.

Italy -- Line Dancing and Imaginary Wild West near Rome

Just in time for my lectures in LA next week, I've found out about some Line Dance and imaginary wild westers in Italy. These include Etna Country Style and Tweety Country in Sicily, which have ample youtube sites with lots of videos.

There's also "Wild Country Roma" --  line dance and imaginary wild westerners based near Rome.... the line dance movement in particular is spreading now to "il bel paese", it seems.....

Will have to check the out when I get back from the Real American west.

Oh -- and I found out about  Wild Country Roma  from a country music Facebook friend in France.... and here they are in a Line Dance competition in Spain....

French tourists line dancing in Austin

 French line-dancers in Craponne, 2007. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Last October, a group of French tourists surprised local patrons at the legendary eatery Artz Rib House in Austin, Texas, by getting up and line-dancing. Two people immortalized the experience on YouTube.

Line dancing is very popular in France and is one of the backbones of the Imaginary Wild West there. At the Country Rendez-vous festival in Craponne a couple of years ago, there were groups from more than 120 line-dancing clubs. And there is a big business in line-dancing costumes, boots and other parephenalia.... Musicians often complain that the people don't care about the performance -- as long as they can dance.

Oddly enough, it was at Craponne that I met Art -- the owner of Artz Ribs. He was part of a group led by Jon Emery that played the festival. I had already dined at Artz Ribs -- when I went to Austin a few years ago, it was the first place I was taken by my friend Ray Benson, of the group Asleep at the Wheel (which also played at Craponne, but the year after Jon Emery...)

Jon Emery Band at Craponne Country Rendez-vous, 2007. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber