Tim Parsons / Tahoe Onstage
High Sierra resembles a blues festival this year.
The Tedeschi-Trucks Band, North Mississippi Allstars, The Record Company and Samantha Fish will appear at the June 30-July 3 High Sierra Music Festival in Quincy, California. The festival is famous for its wide range of music, but this is the most blues it’s featured in years.
The term supergroup is often reserved for rock bands, but there was no question when the husband-and-wife duo Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi joined forces that the group would be super.
Trucks was a child guitar prodigy who first recorded as a young teen on a Tinsley Ellis album. By the time he was 17, he was playing in his Uncle Butch’s band, the Allman Brothers. Tedeschi also was a teen star, playing in bands since she was 13 and earning a degree from Berklee School of Music in Boston at the age of 20.
When they still had their respective bands, Tedeschi and Trucks played together in a side project called Soul Stew Revival. The Tedeschi-Trucks Band began in 2010, and in January it released its third album, “Let Me Get By.” The band includes singer and writer Mike Mattison.
The Tedeschi-Trucks Band will be the final group to play on the High Sierra’s biggest stage, the Grandstand at 9:15 p.m. Sunday.
Photo by Jerry Moran/Native Orleanian
The 27-year-old Samantha Fish will appear in Northern California for the first time. She’s from Kansas City and practically grew up at the famed blues bar Knuckleheads Saloon.
“My dad would accompany me because I was a minor,” Fish told Tahoe Onstage. “I used to work in a pizza shop and would deliver pizzas and I would come up there and that was my way of bartering my way into a lot of these shows.
“It’s funny. A lot of pictures people still use, I’m 18 or 19 and I’m jamming with Mike Zito or Michael Burks and I am covered in flour and pizza sauce. I used to sit in when I was a kid.”
Fish’s 2015 album, “Wild Heart” spent time atop the blues charts. It was produced by Luther Dickinson and included contributions from Dickinson and his North Mississippi Allstars band mates Brady Blade and Lightnin Malcolm.
The North Mississippi Allstars last played at High Sierra in 2013. It played at last year’s Hangtown Halloween festival in Placerville, California, and has been to the Crystal Bay Casino a few times. It features brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson, who are sons of renowned producer Jim Dickinson. Lightnin Malcolm and/or Brady Blade accompany the Dickinsons. During shows the bandmembers trade instruments and deliver Hill Country blues.
By the time the festival is completed, most blues fans will know about the Record Company, which was formed in 2011.
This summer it will appear at the Doheny Blues Festival on May 22, Mountain Jam June 4, Bonnoroo June 11, Ann Arbor Summer Festival June 18, The Waterfront Blues Festival July 4, the XPoNential Music Festival July 23 and the Magic City Blues Festival Aug. 6.
It’s debut album, “Give It Back to You,” was released in February. The trio of Chris Vos, Alex Stiff and Marc Cazorla has opened for B.B. King and Buddy Guy.
Related stories:
— High Sierra Music Festival: “It’s the best” LINK
— Stunning depth on Tedeschi-Trucks Band’s “Let Me Get By.” LINK
— Samantha Fish goes to Hill Country on “Wild Heart.” LINK
- Samantha Fish
1:30 p.m. Thursday, June 30 – Big Meadow
11:15 p.m. Friday, July 1 – Vaudeville Tent - The Record Company
1:15 p.m. Saturday, July 2 – Vaudeville Tent
2 p.m. Sunday, July 3 – Big Meadow - Tedeschi-Trucks Band
9:15 p.m. Sunday, July 3 – Grandstand - North Mississippi Allstars
4:45 p.m. Saturday, July 2 – Grandstand
1:30 a.m. Monday, July 4 – High Sierra Music Hall
