Each summer, music fans and a massive variety of bands converge in the Sierra Foothills for the High Sierra Music festival.
The event takes place this year on the weekend of July 2–5, and at press time, more than 50 bands are confirmed to perform. However, after May 7, one more band will be added, and it’s going to take a good old-fashioned battle of the bands to see who will win the coveted slot.
This Thursday, May 7, four locally based bands, Honey of the Heart, Gas Money, Huney Knuckles and Loma Alta, get to show their stuff at HopMonk Novato, and fans will decide who will open the day on Friday, July 3 on the Vaudeville Stage. The show, which is for all ages, will be hosted by Smoked Out Soul, and tickets are $15.
Grass Valley’s own Honey and the Heart is the musical love child of Justin Ancheta and Maren Metke who, backed by a full band, play a mix of musical interpretations influenced by folk, soul, roots and world/flamenco styles.
Gas Money hails from Sonoma County (Windsor, to be more specific) and has been earning quite the buzz due to their young ages and some strong showings opening for big headliners locally. Ask anyone who’s seen them, and the consensus is “they shred.” Lead by lead singer Cheyenne Vincent, Gavin Lee (guitar and vocals), Alexander “AJ 18” Neujahr (bass and vocals) and Nick Carico (drums) round out the not-even-old-enough-to-drink-legally-yet group.
Oakland’s Huney Knuckles is poised to bring the funk behind left-handed keyboard bass wizard Kevin Wang, who is consistently backed by drummer Darian Gray, the touring drummer for Booker T Jones for the past 14 years. The four-piece, which also includes guitarist Brian Sheu and Grammy Award-winning saxophonist Tony Peebles, has been turning heads and shaking rumps with their soulful tunes, head-spinning solos and irresistibly funky grooves.
Rounding out the eclectic battle of opposing musical forces will be Fairfax’s jam band, Loma Alta. Guitarist Chris Detrick and drummer Jared Baird (aka Harold Imperiled) are the core members, with P Salvat on percussion, Julia Chanin on sax and vocals, Eric Inersoll on keys, Tommy O’Mahony on bass and muli-instrumentalist Timmy Stabler.
High Sierra Music Festival founder David Margulies says the battle of the bands concept to earn a slot at such a huge festival started nearly a decade ago. Speaking by email, Margulies says, “We’ve been doing the Battle Of The Bands since 2017, but it was held exclusively online until last year.” He adds, “That was when we added live regional showcases, and each year, the bands that are invited to compete are picked by High Sierra staffers.”
Those bands are then separated out into seven live, regional shows, and from those shows, winners are then filtered into a grouping of regional semi-finals, which is what the May 7 HopMonk show is all about. Margulies explains that after the semi-finals, “Eight finalists will then all compete online for one final slot, and anyone who has already purchased a ticket to the festival is eligible to vote. The band with the most votes wins the contest.”
This year’s festival also marks the first one in its new home of Grass Valley, having relocated from its long-time home in Quincy, CA. A combination of slowing ticket sales and not enough space for out-of-towners, combined with better accessibility and sustainability, prompted the move, and already an improvement in sales is being seen.
While the move may account for part of the uptick, this year’s lineup is also pretty great. It boasts a stellar assortment of New Orleans artists, including Dumpstaphunk (Ivan & Ian Neville), Anders Osborne, Trombone Shorty Foundation and George Porter Jr. (appearing with Lebo & Friends), just to name a few.
The eclectic lineup also includes Steel Pulse, The Word (John Medeski, Robert Randolph, North Mississippi Allstars), Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Steve Poltiz, Scott Pemberton, Hot Buttered Rum, Tea Leaf Green and Big Something, to scratch the surface of the four-day event.
Who will be the local artist joining them? It’s up to the audience to decide.
For more information on the show, head to hopmonk.com.
It’s been some years since I last attended High Sierra Music Festival, might have to grab tickets to this one!
This story is fundamentally wrong. The event is a semifinal. There are at least 4 of these HSMF shows and one of the winners will make it to the HSMF. I would consider the winner of this event as having a very outside chance of making it.