The great bluegrass artist Peter Rowan, whose career started in 1964 as a
member of Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys, has played at some amazing venues
throughout the years, including at a castle in Killarny, Ireland, on a hay
wagon riding through New York City to help advertise a show at Carnegie Hall
for the New York City Folk Festival and at an old Maharaja palace in Nepal,
where a Tibetan nun joined him on stage.

Next on the list will be nearly 6,000 feet up on Mount Hood, at the Timberline
Lodge Americana Music Festival on Monday, Sept. 2.

“The setting of natural beauty always inspire music to reach new heights,”
Rowan wrote in an email to The Moutain Times. “Like Telluride, Timberline
Lodge and its setting brings forth the best in all performers. I greatly look
forward to playing there on Labor Day Weekend.”

The Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band and special guest Scott Law will headline the
free festival at the lodge’s outdoor amphitheater. Music starts at 1 p.m. with
fiddler, singer and songwriter Chris Kokesh and her band, Broken Top,
followed by The Great Northern Planes at 2 p.m., then Kokesh will return as
part of a duo with singer and songwriter Jonathan Byrd as The Barn Birds at 3
p.m., with the quartet of Rita Hosking and Cousin Jack at 4 p.m. and finally
The Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band at 6 p.m.

“It’s an amazing lineup of talent,” said Jon Tullis, Timberline’s Director of
Public Affairs, who started to assemble the lineup nearly a year ago. “I just
got lucky, I guess.”

Kokesh has already experienced playing at the lodge, while noting the shorter
intervals for each band ensures they’ll play the most favorite songs.
“It’s kind of fun, so you play your best stuff,” she said. “You get in and you
get out.”
Kokesh, who sings and plays the fiddle and guitar, described the sound of
Broken Top as more traditional bluegrass with the traditional instruments,
while the music of The Barn Birds is more towards roots and modern folk.
“I just feel lucky to be able to play in groups there,” said Kokesh, who just
released a new album called “The Barn Birds.”

“I like doing both, I really love playing bluegrass and I love just kind of
breaking it down to the duo,” she added.

As an added bonus, Mark Votapek, a cellist professor and string chamber
music coordinator at the University of Arizona School of Music and former
cellist with major orchestras in Honolulu, Oregon and Sacramento, will present
two special free concerts at Timberline Lodge in conjunction with the
Americana Music Festival. Votapek, currently on his second thru-hike of the
Pacific Crest Trail has played a number of concerts during the hike and will
play an hour of classical music at 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 1, in the Timberline
Lodge main lobby and at noon, Monday, Sept. 2, at the lodge’s outdoor
amphitheater as a prelude to the festival.

In an email to the Mountain Times, Votapek noted how his series of concerts
have reached a different audience that may not have been exposed to the
classical music he plays. He also reflected on how he is unable to do his
typical preparations before playing.

“It’s really made me think differently and present differently,” wrote Votapek,
who started playing cello at the age of seven and began hiking in earnest
after he graduated college. “It’s been wonderful really. Instead of worrying
about minutia and how good (or bad) I am as a cellist, I’m almost entirely
focused on communicating just WHY this music is so great.”

Votapek, who first hiked the trail in completion in 2008, reported no major
disruptions to his journey this time, although at one point he encountered a
bear that did not want to leave his camp.

He added that while he has climbed to the summit of Mount Hood once, he
has no plans to perform his cello at the top of the mountain.

“I’d love to go up it again, but never with a cello,” Votapek wrote. “Cellos
make very poor climbing partners, and an ice axe is far superior to an endpin
when it comes to self-arrest.”

The festival will move indoors after the music, with the premiere screening of
the documentary “The Mountains Will Wait For You,” about Grace Hudowalski,
the first woman to scale all 46 peaks of the Adirondack Mountains, at 8 p.m.
inside the lodge. The 45-minute film is directed by Fred Schwoebel and
narrated by Johnny Cash.

Attendees will also be able to purchase food and beverages at the festival,
while all musicians are invited to bring their instruments and jam on the back
“pickin’ patio” at the lodge.

For room reservations, call 800-452-1406 and for more information call 503-
272-3134.