Upcoming Country Festivals in France

At la Roche Bluegrass festival/ Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

A number of country music festivals in France are coming up in the next few weeks. Here are some of the main ones:


July 26-28 -- Craponne sur Arzon -- 26th annual Country Rendez-vous

July 31-August 4 -- La Roche sur Foron --  La Roche Bluegrass Festival

More than two dozen bands; street concerts; workshops, jamming and more in a wonderful Alpine setting. And its free!

August 2-3 -- Cagnes-sur-Mer --  14th annual French Riviera Country Music Festival

 A top-notch mix of European and U.S. artists, plus line-dancing and more.

August 14-18 -- St. Agreve -- 18th annual Equiblues

Full-fledged Rodeo and Country Music Festival

August 23-25 -- Chateau del Matot (near Caen) --  Country Normandy Festival,

Equiblues

A linedancer in Equiblues T-shirt shows some Americana... Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Equiblues was one of the first European -- and the first French -- country western festivals I went to in 2004, when I first started following the scene. That first experience was tremendously eye-opening, a lot of fun, and introduced me to a lot of people and ideas -- and I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to get back here again.

Equiblues -- now in its 17th edition -- takes place outside the little town of St. Agreve, in the Ardeche area of south-central France. It is one of the rare examples of a country western festival that also includes a full-scale rodeo, as well as concerts (under a big, red-white-and-blue tent) and the so-called "western market" of booths and activities.

The rodeo was just about over for the day when I got there, but the long, late afternoon shadows made for some nice images:

Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

I've noted before that it was at Equiblues in 2004 that I saw and photographed -- but alas didn't buy -- the iconic "Heritage Authentic" T-shirt whose imagery (truck, Monument Valley, shaman, Native American chief, made in France label) encapsulates a lot of what the imaginary wild west is about.

I haven't run across this T-shirt design since, though it has long been my goal -- almost an obsession -- to find it and actually buy it. I looked through all the booths at Equiblues last night, but came up again empty.

Examining all the booths like that demonstrated how merchandise has change -- in fact, the changes in the Equiblues scene are what I have been noting.

It seems both "bigger" and "smaller". The Western market seems more crowded -- but less "western." More booths, but far fewer "western" booths -- and far far fewer western T-shirts, and much more generic kitsch and other "stuff." People didn't seem as "dressed up" western as before, either -- aside from ubiquitous hats and boots (including on my own feet).

Remarkably, there did not seem to be one booth where you could buy country music CDs or DVDs. There also seemed to be a lot less "Stars and Bars" confederate imagery -- and what was there seemed more decorative than, shall I say, ideological.

Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

I reconnected at Equiblues with Georges Carrier -- who recently announced he was stepping down as the director of the great Country Rendez-vous festival at Craponne. (See my blog post on this.)  George will be started a sort of agency as a middle man for bands and festivals -- he told me it will be a non-profit organization, just to help his friends and acquaintances make contact with each other and spread the music.

I also reconnected at Equiblues last night with Didier Cere, a French rocker and biker with heavily tattooed arms, whom I met at Equiblues the first time round and haven't seen since (though we're friends on Facebook). His southern rock band, the Bootleggers (pronounced here Boot-laigg-AIRS) opened the more than 3-hour concert under the tent with a with a rousing set.

Didier Cere onstage, framed by the cowboy hats of the crowd.

Georges Carrier and Didier Cere at the DC sales table during the concert. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The other acts were the American singer-songwriter Brennan Leigh and Canadian Dean Brody.

Philppe Lafont looks on as Brennan Leigh signs CDs

France: Georges Carrier steps down as director of Country Rendez-vous

Georges Carrier at Craponne. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Big news in the French country music scene -- Georges Carrier has announced that he is stepping down as the director of the Country Rendez-vous festival at Craponne, the premier country music festival on the French calendar.

Carrier posted this open letter on his Facebook page, just a few days after the 25th edition of the festival took place at the end of July:

Chers amis,

J’ai décidé ce jour avec effet immédiat de quitter mes fonctions au sein du Conseil d’administration de l’association régissant le Festival.

J’ai été très honoré par la confiance que vous m’avez manifestée durant ces treize années de présidence et ces quatorze années en tant que responsable de la programmation artistique et de la communication. C’est par mon engagement, mon travail, mon intégrité et mes résultats auxquels j’associe Jocelyne, que j’ai réussi, grâce à votre bénévolat et votre soutien à faire du Country Rendez-Vous le premier festival de musique country de France et l’un des tout meilleurs d’Europe, reconnu par toutes les instances, dont la ‘Country Music Association’ de Nashville et Le ‘Texas Music Department’ du Gouverneur Rick Perry.

Je souhaite bon courage à la nouvelle équipe car ce n'est qu'à l’aune de ces mêmes valeurs qu’elle parviendra à maintenir le festival au rang qu’il mérite, en espèrant que ma lettre ne soit pas la chronique d'une mort annoncée.

Cordialement,
Georges Carrier

Here is Georges's English version, with more info:

Dear friends

I have decided today to stop working for the Committee of the Country Rendezvous Festival in Craponne sur Arzon, France. 

It was an honor for me to work with the Craponne festival for 22 years as a volunteer, 13 years as president of the festival and 14 years as their talent spotter and buyer and having a great team to work with in the USA.. For all these years I have been committed in making the festival the number 1 outdoor country music event in Europe acknowledged by ‘The Country Music Association’ in Nashville, the Mayor of Nashville, the Governor of Tennessee and the ‘Texas Music Department’ by governor Rick Perry. Together with my USA team, I definitely put this festival on the map as being the premiere event to play in France and one of the biggest events to play in Europe.

I owe this result to my wife Jocelyne, my dearest friend Trisha Walker-Cunningham in Nashville, who bought all the Nashville artists on my behalf (usually the big headliners) for 25 years and, more recently, Dr Gary Hartman in Austin for some of the Texas artists.

To all the artists who performed at the event, the managers and agents who have helped to produce the best line-ups in France, I thank you so very much.

Unfortunately I regret that I cannot predict how reliable the new Board will be, nor am I able to recommend any of those in charge. Therefore you will have to use your own discretion as to whether you wish to do business with these new people or not.

Trisha and Gary have now told me that without my being the over-all head of the event and as closely as we worked together all these years, that they do not feel comfortable being involved with the event in the future because they only worked with me and not with any members of the Committee. Additionally, Trisha is now managing the fantastic Southern Rock Band, FLYNNVILLE TRAIN. She, Gary and I will continue to work together on different projects.
I want you all to know that I have not retired from the Music business and will soon inform you about my future plans. Again, I want to thank you all for your support these many years and I know our paths will cross again in the future.
Best regards
Georges Carrier
Music Consultant
http://www.gcmusicconsultant.com/

Carrier oversaw the programming of the festival for 14 years. One of his goals was to bring American artists to Europe -- and, unlike most country music festivals in Europe, the great majority of the acts at Craponne have been American, including big names such as Dierks Bentley, Asleep at the Wheel, Joe Ely, Bill Monroe, Marty Stuart, Alison Krauss and many many more.

This is what he told me at the festival the first time I went, in 2007, when I wrote an article about it for the International Herald Tribune:

"We are the only festival that does this - that keeps the music and only the music as the primary goal of the festival," said Georges Carrier, a professor of English in Lyon who has directed the Rendez-Vous for more than a decade and established close links with the music scenes in Nashville, Tennessee, and in Austin, Texas. "Who better than Americans can play their own music?" 

France has developed a number of promising country bands in recent years, he said, but most French artists had trouble singing in English. 

"I think having a festival like this - with the majority American musicians - is a good opportunity to make them learn how to do country music," he said.

Dierks Bentley at Country Rendez-vous. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Georges traveled to the States every years to meet with artists and check out the scene. He had representatives/collaborators in Austin and Nashville.

I don't know the ins and outs behind Georges's decision to step down -- but he has already started up a new direction, as a representative of bands and "music consultant" helping festivals and events program country music artists.

See his new web site GC-Music Consultant for more information.

Interestingly -- the Country Rendez-vous web site, which used to have an English language section and also had archives on the past editions of the festival now only has promotional information relating to next year's festival........the English site has disappeared, as have the archived articles....

French Festivals!!

It was at Equiblues that I photographed (but alas did not buy) this iconic Heritage Authentic T-shirt. Photo (c) with Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Wow, a whole month has gone by since I said I had a lot of catching up to do .... which means I have even more catching up to do!

But -- it's a good moment to do so, as three of Europe's best Country/Western/Etc festivals are beginning -- all three of them in France, one weekend after the next: the Country Rendez-vous in Craponne; the La Roche Bluegrass Festival in La Roche sur Foron; and Equiblues in St. Agreve.

I've been to all three in the past -- I posted from Craponne and La Roche.   Each festival is quite different, and it would be fantastic to be able to spend three weeks in France going from one to the next and taking them all in. This year, though, it looks as if I will only be able to make it to Equiblues -- which combines concerts, line-dancing and a "scene" with a rodeo.

COUNTRY RENDEZ-VOUS, CRAPONNE

Country Rendez-vous  Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The annual Country Rendez-vous in Craponne got under way last night, with a five-band set including  ERIK SITBON & THE GHOST BAND (France), CROOKS & STRAIGHTS (Croatia!!), THE STEELDRIVERS (USA), THE TURNPIKE TROUBADOURS (USA) and TWO TONS OF STEEL (USA).

Country Rendez-vous is probably the most prestigious of the dozens of country music and western scene festivals that take place in France each year. Most of the bands are from the U.S., and the Festival's savvy director and guiding spirit, Georges Carrier,  travels to the U.S. each year to make contacts and see bands. The Festival also has representatives on the ground in Nashville and Austin.

A couple of festival-goers at the Country Rendez-vous, 2007 Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

LA ROCHE BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL

The La Roche Bluegrass Festival is one of the biggest and friendliest of the scores of bluegrass festivals that take place each year around Europe. This year there are 30 bands from 14 countries. All the concerts are free, and there are lots of street events in the lovely town of La Roche. The festival also entails a band contest.

EQUIBLUES, ST. AGREVE

If all goes well, I will make it to Equiblues for the first time in some years.

Different from the other two festivals, it combines country music with a full-fledged rodeo -- there is lots of line-dancing and a colorful "western market" scene. Equiblues was one of the first European western festivals I attended, and I am eager to see it again. I still have a special bottle of Equiblues wine that I purchased the first time!

Line dancers at Equiblues. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

France - and now a Country Rendezv-vous Craponne video trailer

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

George Carrier has just put up a video trailer for this summer's Country Rendez-vous festival in Craponne, France, one of the best country and western fests in Europe.

France -- Craponne Country Rendez-vous Festival Schedule is up

Country Rendez-vous, Craponne. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I haven't posted much lately, as I've been in the USA on a fellowship and then running around on a rather full lecture schedule. But -- I thought I'd just post a note that the line up for the Country Rendez-vous festival in Craponne, France -- one of the top country and western festivals in Europe -- is now up. Click HERE

Georges Carrier has put together a very rich program highlighted by Aaron Watson, Tanya Tucker, and Rhonda Vincent. I couldn't get to the festival the past two summers, but I hope I can this year.

MC Johnny Da Piedade (The Big Cactus Country radio show)

Friday 29 July 2011

7.00PM-1.30AM (4 BANDS)

7.00PM-8.00PM: TENNESSEE STUD (F)

8.15PM-9.20PM: THE SWEETBACK SISTERS (USA)

9.35PM-10.40PM: WHITEY MORGAN & THE 78'S (USA)

10.55PM-00.05AM: JOSH ABBOTT BAND with Kacey MUSGRAVES (USA)

00.20AM-1.30AM: AARON WATSON (USA)

Saturday 30 July 2011

6.00PM-1.00AM (5 BANDS)

6.00PM-7.10PM: TRUCK STOP RULES (F)

7.25PM-8.35PM: BOBBY FLORES (USA)

  8.50PM-10.00PM: FLYNNVILLE TRAIN (USA)

10.15PM-11.30PM: RHONDA VINCENT (USA)

11.45PM-01.00AM: LISA HALEY (USA)

Sunday 31 July 2011

3.00PM-11.00PM (5 BANDS)

3.00PM-4.05PM: THE RANCH HOUSE FAVORITES (NL)

4.20PM-5.30PM: KATHY KALLICK BAND (USA)

5.45PM-6.55PM: KYLE PARK (USA)

7.10PM-8.30PM: TANYA TUCKER (USA)

8.45PM-10.00 PM: LOS PACAMINOS (UK)

Free Concerts (downtown Sat and Sun)

 

MATCH RIVER (F), HOWLIN FOX (F)

BLUEGRASS DELUXE (F)

Nashville considers overseas country music

Dierks Bentley, Country Rendez-vous, Craponne, France, 2008. Photos (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

As the Country Music Association's annual festival and fan fair kicks off in Nashville, the AP runs a story about American country music artists touring and trying to reach an international audience. Readers of this blog will have seen reports and pictures of mine on several American country and western (and bluegrass) acts on the road here in Europe. Some big name acts tour, but most of the acts on the European circuit are independent, lesser known or niche performers. They play at some of the dozens of country music and bluegrass festivals held around the continent from spring into the fall, and also at clubs, saloons and even concert halls. (Kris Kristofferson performed a couple years ago in one of Vienna's top classical music venues -- a wild scene with the audience in cowboy hats and boots, amid the rococo decor.)

Writer John Gerome starts his AP article with an interview with Dierks Bentley about a recent tour of Australia with Brooks and Dunn and then looks at other acts who tour, mentioning the size of the market.

Few contemporary country hitmakers tour outside North America with regularity. The international market for country isn't anywhere near what it is in the U.S., and the cost of hauling a crew, band and equipment across continents is brutal.

"Most country acts are reluctant to go overseas because they can't make the same money," remarked Joe Galante, chairman of Sony Music Nashville. "But you have to go there and spend some time and build a marketplace."

A few are making a go of it. Besides Bentley, Keith Urban regularly tours abroad. Brooks & Dunn, Sugarland and Taylor Swift are also making inroads. Alan Jackson and Martina McBride are both preparing to play shows in Europe.

Read full article


I saw Dierks Bentley himself, in fact (along with Asleep at the Wheel and others) at the Country Rendez-vous festival last July in Craponne France.

The Country Rendez-vous, one of the premiere country music festivals in Europe, always books American artists as the vast majority of its acts. Its roster over its more than 20 years of history is impressive -- everyone from the father of bluegrass Bill Monroe to Marty Stuart, Joe Ely, the Derailers, to Billy Joe Shaver, Mark Chesnutt, Guy Clark, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Rhonda Vincent, Whiskey Falls, and many, many more -- see a more complete list by clicking HERE.

Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel. Country Rendez-vous, Craponne, France 2008. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The Country Night in Gstaad, Switzerland each September also features mainly U.S. acts. This year's headliner will be Kenny Rogers.

Other acts that have toured recently include Ricky Skaggs, banjo great Tony Trischka, Kris Kirstofferson, Lynne Anderson, Roseanne Cash, Dale Watson, and on and on.

For more about country music in Europe -- see earlier blog posts here, or take a look at the lengthy paper I wrote (you can access it from a link in the sidebar).

Craponne -- Country Rendez-vous program now online

Country Rendez-vous Craponne, 2008. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

The program for this year's Country Rendez-vous festival in Craponne, France -- the 22nd edition of the festival -- is now online. the Festival, regarded as the top country music festival in France, takes place July 24-26 and features mainly American groups. It draws as many as 25,000-30,000 fans each year. Click HERE for more information on the program.

Friday 24 July 2009

7.00PM-1.30AM (5 BANDS)

7.00PM-8.00PM: TAHIANA (F)

8.15PM-9.15PM: PAULA NELSON (USA)

9.30PM-10.35PM: W. C. EDGAR (USA)

10.50PM-00.00AM: OWEN TEMPLE (USA)

00.15AM-1.20AM: THE FLATLANDERS (USA)

Saturday 25 July 2009

6.00PM-1.00AM (6 BANDS)

6.00PM-7.00PM: DAZZLER & LAYNE (F)

7.15PM-8.15PM: THE FIGS (USA)

8.30PM-9.30PM: PAUL EASON (USA)

9.45PM-10.50PM: CARRIE HASSLER & HARD RAIN (USA)

11.05PM-0.15AM: JO DEE MESSINA (USA)

0.30AM-1.40AM: ERIC CHURCH (USA)

Sunday 26 July 2009

3.00PM-10.00PM (5 BANDS)

3.00PM-4.05PM: THE TOY HEARTS (UK)

4.20PM-5.30PM: BASTARD SONS OF JOHNNY CASH (USA)

5.45PM-6.55PM: STAR DE AZLAN (USA)

7.10PM-8.55PM: JEFF GRIFFITH (USA)

8.40PM-10.00 PM: MATT SKINNER & DOUG MORELAND (USA)

Jewish Texan Country Singer (NOT Kinky Friedman)

In a previous post I posted a slideshow of pictures of the Austin, Texas-based Western Swing band Asleep at the Wheel, whose leader and anchor over the past more than 35 years is my old friend Ray Benson, performing at the Country Rendez-vous festival in Craponne, France. I've known Ray since we were teen-agers. He, like me, hails from suburban Philadelphia, but he moved to Texas in the early 1970s and has transformed himself from an east coast suburban Jewish boy to one of the top country music performers around -- he's won nine Grammy awards as the leader of Asleep at the Wheel and maintains a full-throttle recording and performance schedule.

Ray is not a "Sauerkraut Cowboy." But he is an example of how people can transform themselves, reinvent themselves, even "live their dreams". I've talked to him several times about this. And this, of course, is "the American way." People immigrated to America from all over the world and became Americans. Texas, too, is an "immigrant state." My own great-grandparents immigrated there from what is now Lithuania.

The imaginary wild west is an immigrant state of mind. People I've met in the European country and western scene immigrate internally, for a variety of reasons, into an imaginary wild west that they make real.

Here's an article I wrote about Ray -- it's for the Jewish media, so it focuses on his Jewish background.


A Jewish singer towers over country western scene

Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber Published: 09/26/2008

CRAPONNE SUR ARZON, France (JTA) -- Think Jews and country music and you'll probably come up with Kinky Friedman, the cigar-chomping frontman of the iconoclastic Texas Jewboys, who is also a humorist, mystery novelist and failed but flamboyant candidate for Texas governor.

The real Jewish king of country music, however, is Ray Benson, the nine-time Grammy-winning leader of the country western swing band Asleep at the Wheel.

At 6-foot-7, Ray Benson has been described as a "Jewish giant" and "the biggest Jew in country."

He literally and figuratively towers over the stage in a Stetson and fancy tooled boots, with a grizzled beard and long, thinning hair pulled back in a pony tail.

"I saw miles and miles of Texas, all the stars up in the sky," he sings in his deep, mellow baritone. "I saw miles and miles of Texas, gonna live here 'til I die."

Now 57, Benson was born in Philadelphia but has lived in Austin for 35 years. He talks with a twang, plays golf with Willie Nelson, has recorded more than 30 albums and was named Texas Musician of the Year in 2004.

By his own estimate, he is the only Jewish singing star in the country western scene.

"Kinky's not a country western singer -- he's Kinky!" Benson laughed during a conversation with JTA this summer at the annual Country Rendez-vous festival in south-central France, where Asleep at the Wheel wound up a five-nation European tour.

READ FULL ARTICLE

Craponne -- Country Rendezvous pictures

I meant to write up something on the Country Rendez-vous in Craponne last weekend, but got in each night far too late, and then left town to travel a little, ended up this past weekend in La Roche sur Foron, France, near Geneva, for the first couple of days of the European Bluegrass festival....

So here, at least, are some pictures from Craponne -- various performers, site, atmosphere, crowd, junk for sale....The festival forms a Wild Western Space par excellence...the area is fenced, and you step through into another world...

Country Rendez-vous Festival, Craponne, France

I'm at the annual Country Rendez-vous country music festival in Craponne, France this weekend. Got here Thursday, driving up from Italy, arriving just in time to attend the opening reception at a government building in Le Puy, the nearest big town to Craponne. Le Puy is a spectacular medieval (and older) town, a historical place of pilgrimage and mysticism, built in an area of extinct volcanoes. An ancient cathedral tops a steel hill at the center of town, with a spectacular church on another nearly vertical neck of rock, and a huge statue of the Madonna and Child on another.

I was at the festival for the first time last year, and ended up writing a piece on it -- and country music in France in General -- in the International Herald Tribune.

I'm staying with the artists in Le Puy -- a tad inconvenient, as it is a 45-minute drive to the festival venue in Craponne, which means if you go out there, you can't just run back.

The headline act of the first night of the festival (last night) was Austin-based Asleep at the Wheel, the legendary western sweing band led by Ray Benson, who (like me) hails from suburban Philadelphia and whom I've know since we were teenagers.

I chose to go up to the festival on the bus with the band, so I missed the first couple of acts, but I did see the extraordinary progressive bluegrass/roots band Cadillac Sky, which I loved.

They played just ahead of ASTW - who went on well after midnight, playing a mix of their old hits (Take Me Back to Tulsa, Miles and Miles of Texas, etc) songs from their musical play about Bob Wills, A Ride with Bob, and other pieces - Ray did a terrific version of Townes Van Zandt's classic Pancho and Lefty. (I think my favorite song I've heard Ray perform is another Van Zandt song, If I Needed You.)



The crowd was not as huge as it could have been, as it had rained heavily during the evening. But the band got at least part of them up and rocking.

I got to bed at 4 a.m....