Strawberry Turns 25

The Strawberry Music Festival is held twice a year at Camp Mather, just outside the gates of Yosemite National Park in California. This year the festival was celebrating it's 25th anniversary with some extra special shows and some giveaways to the faithful Strawberry regulars who sell out nearly every festival Perennial MC Dallas Dobro was doing his usual "verbal manure" despite having been recently fired from his morning shift at KPIG radio. The festival reunited Fiddlestix, who are always around the camp every year but haven't been together on the main stage since the first Strawberry 25 years ago. Other old favorites included Blue Shoes, Way Out West and Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan. Musical highlight were Marty Stuart & The Fabulous Superlatives, That 1 Guy, Harry Manx, Rodney Crowell, Wolfstone, Rosanne Cash and Sam Bush.

Amy's Orchid Cafe also brought back the old days with a good ol' acoustic jam hosted by Joe Craven and featuring guests like John Cowan, Marty Stuart, Darrell Scott, Tom Ball, Harry Manx, Kenny Vaughn, Michael Witcher and others. Headliners included Rosanne Cash, Marty Stuart, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Laurie Lewis & The Right Hands, Rodney Crowell, Incendio, Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite Boys and Rhonda Vincent. Rodney and Rosanne both came out and shared a few songs in each other's sets and Sam closed out the whole affair with Jerry Douglas' band joining them for a few long songs.

Fiddlestix with Cactus Bob, Prairie Flower and Sarah Elizabeth Campbell	Sam Bush & Jerry Douglas	Tom Rozum & Laurie Lewis
Kenny Vaughan	Kenny Vaughan, Marty Stuart & Brian Glenn	Rosanne Cash & Rodney Crowell
Marty Stuart	Rhonda Vincent	Big Sandy & his Fly-Rite Boys
Rosanne Cash	Darrell Scott, Marty Stuart, John Cowan & Kenny Vaughan	Sam Bush

-story and photos by Bill Frater