Yes, Shaboom is gone, but this year’s musical line up at the
Garlic Festival teems with young, up-and-coming stars who span
genres and seem to mark a new era for the hometown hoedown.
Yes, Shaboom is gone, but this year’s musical line up at the Gilroy Garlic Festival teems with young, up-and-coming stars who span genres and seem to mark a new era for the hometown hoedown.
With acts ranging from Five Minutes to Freedom – a four-member outfit including three Gilroy High School graduates given to plaintive melodies and frenetic alt-punk riffs – to rising country-blues singer-songwriter Shane Dwight, whose family lives in Morgan Hill, this year’s festival will surely draw an eclectic crowd, Entertainment Committee Chair Kurt Chacon said.
“I like to bring in a certain amount of new talent every year – something for young kids and old people,” Chacon said. “I didn’t replace Shaboom or try to find another surf band, but what I did is just jam the amphitheater stage with high-energy music.”
High on his own list of acts to see are rockers Billy the Kid, Five AM and Brandon Tyler, the “rock-pop-dance-till-you-drop” stylings of Just off Turner and Finding Stella, and local, Kenny G-esque performer Greg Chamber.
Thirty-six other acts will play throughout the three-day festival, with Brooks Latin Big Band closing the big stage Sunday evening with their “big Latin salsa sound.”
Of all the bands to play, only a few can boast of attending the Festival before they began wowing crowds. Among them is Shane Dwight, an amicable-yet-tough musician whose candid brand of blues and rock-country crunch have him playing more than 150 shows throughout the country, Canada and Mexico this year.
“I’ve been spending most of my time in hotel rooms all over the dang place,” Dwight said Wednesday from his home in Nashville. The East San Jose native recently moved to Tennessee but still has a 408 area code, and returning west for Dwight means cherished hours with his friends and family, who now live in Gilroy and Morgan Hill, he said. There’s also the task of making women scream while satisfying his “stone-cold blues fans,” as well as those who prefer his poppier rock flavors, he said.
“I love coming back to that area, and events like the Garlic Festival are kind of like a mini reunion for me – seeing people I grew up with,” Dwight said as he prepared to leave for a string of shows taking him through Reno, Fremont and Monterey before garlic town. After previous performances here, Dwight has usually rushed off for another show later that night. After this year’s performance, he’s scheduled for Oregon and Washington, but he said he hopes to stick around for some of the garlic treats he once enjoyed as a young man.
“Years ago, when I was a festival attendee, I had more of an opinion on the food, but recently I’ve usually had to play a show right after,” Dwight said. “It always smells wonderful. I love that time of year – you drive through and smell the garlic, and it makes you hungry.”
Once back home, Dwight said he plans to work with his next door neighbor and fellow musician Delbert McClinton, who reached the top of the country charts in the early 1990s after working with Tanya Tucker.
While they have not signed with a record label yet, fans and festival promoters say the young Gilroy-based Five Minutes to Freedom is on its way toward the top of the Billboard charts after three years of national touring since the band released its debut album in May 2006.
“I’m really impressed with those guys,” said Chacon, who spent 12 hours reviewing more than 160 full-length CDs and demos from bands across the country. These CDs included songs from folk-country artist Nick Motil from New York and locals, such as classic rocker JJ Hawg and ’50s-60s throwback, The Corvairs.
A couple beers and hearty sandwiches facilitated the listening process, but the outgoing entertainment chair and past festival president described some of the duller moments.
“We try to select a mix, but there are some really, really bad bands that send in samples. Loud techno-type music, and other stuff that’s just way out there,” said Chacon, an electrical contractor.
The musicians sent in their material through the festival’s Web site. The Garlic Festival does not pursue acts, he said. Rather, the stinking rose seems to draw talent.
After all the contracts were signed in April and May, Chacon squared away sound systems and stage set-ups. Now it’s time for fun.
“We’re pretty much ready to go,” said Chacon, who first volunteered pouring beer and then handled the event’s utilities. “You know things will be going well if you see me sitting down enjoying the music.”
For a full list of acts, see our entertainment schedule.
Shane Dwight at the 2007 Mushroom Mardi Gras in Morgan Hill:
Five Minutes to Freedom playing May 20 at the Grand & Green in San Francisco:
