WILKESBORO, NC — MerleFest celebrated its 22nd year with four days of music over 11 stages: Americana, Austin Songwriting, Cabin, Creekside, Dance, The Pit, Watson, Walker Center, Hillside, Little Pickers and The Lounge, with a couple of "just get up and pick" stages, all on the grounds of Wilkes Community College.
Spearheaded by ‘B’ Townes from Wilkes Community College and ‘Doc’ Watson in memory of his son, guitar picker Eddy Merle Watson, who died 24 years ago, the festival again chose SE Systems of Greensboro and Charlotte, N.C. to provide production audio, lighting, staging and recording.
“We’ve been with the festival from the very beginning,” said Cliff Miller, president of SE Systems. “This year’s festival saw over 100 acts take the stages including Watson, Travis Tritt, Jerry Douglas, Linda Ronstadt, Sam Bush, Emmylou Harris, the Waybacks, Cadillac Sky, David Bromberg, The Steeldrivers, just to name a few.”
Miller chose a combination of Yamaha and Nexo products for the two largest stages, Hillside and Creekside. A Nexo GEO D line array, two Yamaha PM5D-RH digital consoles, six Nexo GEO S1210 monitors for sidefills, eight Nexo PS15 floor wedges and four PS-10 frontfills were used at the Hillside stage.
Festivalink, which offers audio downloads of festivals, used an ADK Lyve Tracker for recording at the Hillside Stage. Yamaha T5n amplifiers were also used on both stages.
A pair of Yamaha M7CL-48 consoles using six Yamaha AD8HRs with an NAI-48 on stage connected via EtherSound, three arrays of Nexo GEO S1210 and S1230 loudspeakers and Nexo PS10s were used for frontfills at the Creekside stage.
“MerleFest is always a challenge for the sound system and the front of house engineer due to the mix of mostly acoustic instrumentation and a lot of open vocal and instrument mics within a very limited space,” said Boban Petrovic from SE Systems who acted as front of house engineer at the Hillside Stage.
“I’ve been working at the Hillside Stage for eight years and have dealt with various speaker systems,” said Petrovic. “This year I was faced with a completely new system: the Nexo GEO D, which I hadn’t heard before. When you don’t have the opportunity to compare two systems side by side, my approach is to see how fast and how well you are able to make them work in a given circumstance, and of course, to my subjective judgment.
“Well, I was surprised and impressed with the results,” Petrovic continued. “Not only did it take a relatively short time to do basic EQ, but also the reproduced music was at an exceptional clarity. The GEO D was well-balanced, evenly spread, and wide and high across the area of coverage.
“What impressed me most were the vocals,” Petrovic added. “Beautifully defined, warm and full-bodied. The acoustic instruments had great intelligibility and separation. The Nexo system showed very high analytical character, and the low end never muddied or masked the upper range of vocals.”
Petrovic added that the transient response of low end drivers were the best he’s heard and the cardiod pattern solved a problem he had with one of the sets.
“The non-directional bass was a problem for performers on the stage and I was forced to lower sub-levels at FOH. Using the Nexo cardiod subs, I was able to satisfy complaints about too much low end at the stage. I couldn’t believe how little low end spill was on the sides and rear of the cabinets. The audience is the final judge and they had nothing but praise, which is always music to my ears. The GEO D was love at first sight.”
Fishman, in partnership with First Quality Music, was in attendance again this year to work with leading artists such as Tritt and Douglas, featured together in a set during Friday night’s Welcome Home Super Jam, country music performer Jim Lauderdale and headliner Emmy Lou Harris, among others.
Throughout the festival, Aura Image Processing (on board and in pedal formats), AFX acoustic effects pedals, the new Nashville, Concert Series and Matrix Infinity pickups, and Loudbox acoustic amplifiers generated their fair share of attention on stage and in the Fishman/First Quality tent. Performers and attendees alike also appreciated the Fishman Solo Performance System.
Other leading “traditional-plus” artists to share in the annual communal music get-together on several performance stages and the Hillside Happy Hour included Doc Watson, Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band, The Duhks, Mountain Heart with Tony Rice, The Grascals, Del McCoury Band, Beausoleil, The Wayback Band, Missy Raines and the New Hip and festival headliners Harris on Saturday night and Ronstadt with Los Camperos de Nati Cano, a mariachi band with dancers, on Sunday night.
Asked about the festival, Fishman’s director of marketing & artist relations Chris DeMaria said, “As expected, this was a great opportunity to spend time with artists one on one. It’s also a great way to connect with young players—some in their teens—who are experiencing Fishman for the first time and developing their opinions. The younger players have a great appreciation of the tradition and genre, but embrace new technologies with more interest and enthusiasm.”
For more information, please www.merlefest.org, www.sesystems.com, www.fishman.com and www.yamahaca.com.
Photo Credit: Terry Richardson
