Crown Guitar Festival Brings a Zappa to Montana—and So Much More!

By: Debra Devi

Despite Frank Zappa’s tongue-in-cheek “Montana” from 1973’s Over-Nite Sensation, he never traveled to Big Sky Country.

But his son Dweezil Zappa has, most recently as an Artist-In-Residence (AIR) for the Crown of the Continent Guitar Workshop & Festival in Bigfork MT (Aug 24-31).

Dweezil Zappa serenades Montana at the Crown of the Continent Guitar Workshop and Festival 2014.

Founded by classical-guitar enthusiast David Feffer five years ago, Crown Guitar Fest has turned this arty, well-heeled town into an international center for the study and appreciation of the guitar.

This year, Dweezil auctioned off a black-and-silver Fender guitar etched with Frank’s likeness to benefit the Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation. The foundation supports environmental groups and school music programs in northwestern Montana.This marks the first time the Zappa family has sanctioned the use of Frank’s image outside the Zappa Family Trust.

Dweezil also established an annual Frank Zappa Student Guitar Scholarship to bring gifted young guitarists to the Crown Guitar Workshop to study.

Zappa wowed the Workshop students each day with his friendly, approachable vibe, and the festival crowd at night with an incredible concert that was both mind-blowing and moving.

Zappa guitar – photo credit: Steven Pickel

Zappa’s concert would have been reason enough to attend the fifth annual Crown Guitar Festival, but it was just one of a series of guitar-centric concerts that brought the crowd to its feet every night in response to some of the most dazzling guitar playing imaginable.

The week-long event takes place at Averill’s Flathead Lake Lodge, a comfortable dude ranch that has hosted presidents (both Bushes) and gangsters (Bugsy Siegel) since 1945. Meals are served family-style in the log cabin’s Main Lodge, encouraging plenty of interaction between students, faculty and AIRs.

Around sunset, as the ranch’s horses gallop up the hill to their evening lodgings, a crowd streams toward the huge white tent in the pasture, which holds around 1000 people.

This year, the tent hosted stellar performances from Zappa; jazz beacons Mike Stern, Leni Stern and Lee Ritenour, classical maestro David Leisner, Americana singer/songwriter Shelby Lynne, blues star Ana Popovic, and John Oates of Hall & Oates.

The Crown Guitar Workshop & Festival draws guitar lovers from all over the world, and Dweezil Zappa treated them to some very special moments, sharing insights into his Dad’s legacy and noting “it’s gonna be a kind of jammy evening—hope you don’t mind!

During his afternoon clinic, Zappa demonstrated exactly how he gets his violin-like tone, and generously allowed the students to try his gigantic pedal board, which is hooked up to two Fractal Audio Axe FX units.

Now those students got to watch him in action from front-row seats reserved for Workshop participants as he and his crack band–featuring supernaturally talented vocalist/saxophonist/keyboardist Scheila Gonzalez–blasted through Zappa faves like “Suzy Cream Cheese” and “Black Napkins.” While singing, Gonzalez occasionally broke into an Eric Cartman impression that had both crowd and band in stitches.

Dweezil Zappa presents at a workshop.

Before tackling “The Black Page,” which he called “a treacherous instrumental,” Zappa explained that it was written as a drum solo first and that Frank wrote the melody “to the rhythm of the drum solo.” As a fan whooped from the audience, Dweezil remarked dryly, “Somebody knows how to ululate.”

Clearly touched by the crowd’s enthusiasm, Zappa added “Watermelon” to the set, noting, “this is one of the only times I’ve played all three of Frank’s signature guitar songs in one show.

“And this is very emotional song for me,” he added quietly, tearing up a bit as he began playing the song’s elegiac introduction.

The next night, scholarship student Solomon Hicks, 19, warmed up the stage for Mike Stern with a crowd-pleasing blend of blues and jazz, plus tricks he’s perfected as lead guitarist for Harlem’s Cotton Club All Stars Band–like playing guitar behind his head. Keep an ear out for Hicks’s upcoming CD, Carrying On The Torch of the Blues.

Tobias Hurwitiz and Mike Stern working through a riff – photo credit: Steven Pickel

Stern is a guitarist’s guitarist, yet his music is accessible to anyone because it’s so filled with grace and joy. He took the audience on a magic carpet ride as he performed with New Zealand bass prodigy Ben Shepherd and Lee Ritenour’s son Wes on drums.

“We just had a couple of rehearsals,” Stern noted, smiling. He was in good hands with Shepherd and Ritenour, who responded almost telepathically to Stern’s every move.

Stern kicked his set off with a funky “Mr. PC” by John Coltrane, which Coltrane named for bassist Paul Chambers. Stern segued next into his own tune, “KT,” named for drummer Kim Thompson.

Solomon Hicks – photo credit: M. Roessmann

Stern also sang—or, rather, wordlessly vocalized—in a voice of almost childlike purity with an African sense of melody. Not so surprising considering the years his wife, Leni, has logged performing with West African master musicians.

Later in the week, Leni Stern played an excellent concert, as well, blending soul, jazz, blues and West African rhythms into a delicious musical gumbo.

For his last song, Mike Stern was joined by his friend and frequent jamming partner, Lee Ritenour, who has been involved with Crown Guitar Festival & Workshop since its inception. Ritenour whipped out a slide and proved to be no slouch as a bottleneck player—something he’s not seen doing very often!

Ritenour also gave his own great concert, backed by possibly the world’s most energetic rhythm section: bassist Abraham Laboriel Sr. and Earth, Wind and Fire drummer Sonny Emory.

Acoustic guitar was beautifully represented by classical virtuoso David Leisner, who performed solo and also with the local Glacier Symphony String Quartet.

Another standout show was the searing performance by fiery blues siren Ana Popovic, who just about burned the tent down with one raging solo after another on tunes like her own “Can You Stand the Heat” and a revved-up cover of Albert King’s “Can’t You See What You’re Doing to Me?”

Popovic amply proved that a female guitarist can hold her own with the world’s finest players. She popped up throughout the week to jam with her fellow AIRs, bringing the crowd to its feet repeatedly with passionate, spiraling solos. In stilettos.

Anna Popovic – photo credit: M. Roessmann

Festival attendees got a break from guitar solos, but not from extraordinary music, when John Oates and Shelby Lynne each took the stage for soulful concerts that still managed to work in a lot of great guitar playing.

Oates was accompanied by Louisiana rhythm guitarist Shane Theriot, who cut his teeth playing with the Neville Brothers, and is the musical director of “Live from Daryl’s House.”

Not only is John Oates still singing like a dream and writing addictively hooky songs, he shared insights and stories from Hall & Oates glory days.

Of their mega-hit “She’s Gone,” he said, “it put me and Daryl on the map and I still play it every night. It’s interesting chordally and I never tire of it.”

Oates also explained how he came up with “Private Eyes” by goofing off with a synth one late night in the studio. Then he welcomed Dweezil Zappa onstage, who looked totally thrilled as he played a note-for-note perfect rendition of the “Maneater” guitar solo.

Shelby Lynne joined Oates onstage for an encore. The slender blonde looks fragile, but her voice is as gritty and raw as a scrape full of gravel. Her own show cut deep, with a performance that was emotionally powerful and at times transcendent, as she accessed the pain beneath each song.

Lynne cut to the heart of what music is all about when she said, “We can do it to death, we can practice it to death. We can make it perfect, but is it really perfect if you do all that?”

Concert tent – photo credit: Steven Pickel

What really makes Crown Guitar Workshop & Festival unique is the opportunity to hang with artists like these during the day. Each AIR gives an afternoon clinic open to all students, and all were very generous with time and insights.

Who can more confidently assert than John Oates, for example, that “when it comes to songwriting, the rules are that there are no rules”? Oates added, “don’t fall in love with your own ideas and overlook the possibility of something else happening,” noting that “songwriters are able to snatch meaningful moments from what the average person might not notice.”

In her clinic, Popovic proved both fearless and passionate, noting, I’m a very demanding bandleader. I want to feel that excitement even six months later from my drummer and bassist. If they are starting to lose their passion for the music, I change them up. Change is good!”

She also expressed her gratitude for having been invited to play on the Experience Hendrix Tour: “As a female, it’s a big privilege.”

She noted that, to her surprise, there was no attitude on the tour, despite the potentially huge egos aboard the tribute train.

“I expected some kind of attitude or laziness but there was none. Buddy Guy was on fire from the first note, and so was everyone. I discovered that when you cross into this level, you can have over twenty incredible guitarists and everyone is just cool and thankful to be there. There were no ego trips.”

Her advice for guitarists hoping to solo as well as she does? “I think about the groove. Nothing else. All I think about is being inside the groove. You can shred or play wrong notes but if you’re in the groove, it doesn’t matter. The groove is all that matters.”

Mike Stern and Lee Ritenour enjoying a jam at the Crown Guitar Festival.

AIRs also drop in on the daily three-hour Crown Guitar Workshop classes in rock, blues, jazz and songwriting taught by the top-notch Crown Guitar faculty. Both Theriot and Leni Stern stopped by with valuable lessons in funkitude for Matt Smith’s “The Versatile Guitarist” class, for instance.

Sometimes, though, the most exciting moments occur by the fireplace in the Main Lodge, or on the grassy banks of Flathead Lake. That’s where guitarists do what they like to do most—sit around and trade licks.

You might find Mike Stern asking faculty member Tobias Hurwitz to show him the “harmonic porcupine”—Hurwitz’s innovative artificial harmonic technique. Or David Leisner helping a student improve his technique by gently moving one of his fingers. Or John Oates and scholarship student Maxwell Feinstein talking songwriting (and deciding to collaborate!).

As Crown Guitar Festival & Workshop founder David Feffer likes to say, “The natural beauty that surrounds us here in Montana inspires great music and, we hope, new friendships and collaborations.”

He also says, “We don’t bring anyone here who isn’t nice. It doesn’t matter how famous or talented they are. They also have to be nice. That’s the magic ingredient that makes this all work.”

<i>To register for the 2015 Crown of the Continent Guitar Workshop & Festival, visit http://cocguitarfoundation.org/. For more photos and videos from the week, visit HERE.

GALLERY