Festival of Wood features lots of free music this weekend

MILFORD — A country music band that hails from Brooklyn, N.Y., seems an unlikely combination, but Alex Battles’ band, Whisky Rebellion, is sure to light up the amphitheater at Grey Towers’ Festival of Wood this Saturday at 4:30 p.m. The free outdoor concert will be the highlight of the weekend-long festival that celebrates our natural and cultural heritage of wood. Though living in Brooklyn, N.Y., for the past 10 years, Battles grew up on a tree farm in Chesterland, Ohio, and has a deep appreciation for and understanding of forestry and the many ways we use wood in our everyday lives, including in music. Battles writes country songs, both funny and bittersweet, on his grandfather’s tenor banjo, which he rescued from his cellar. His major songwriting influences are Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, John Prine, Tom Lehrer, Tom Waits and Tom T. Hall. He has been writing music since 1999, and has written a respectable 113 songs. Battles is also the founder and host of such events as the Brooklyn Country Music Festival, The CasHank Hootenanny Jamboree, Johnny Cash Birthday Bash, JugFest, and the The Brooklyn Winter Hoedown. The rest of the festival’s free weekend music schedule includes: • The River Gap Recorders Consort (Saturday, Aug. 11, 12-1 p.m.): This music, generated by the ONLY instrument that is completely made out of wood, literally spans the ages from medieval and Renaissance to modern and contemporary. • Bill Frye, strolling guitar player (Saturday, 2 - 4 p.m.): You’ll want to sing-along with this strolling troubadour as he performs some favorite wood-related tunes, such as “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” and “Norwegian Wood.” • The Lost Ramblers (Sunday, Aug. 12, 11:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.): These guys really do ramble around with their banjos, guitars and fiddles. They’ll be all over the festival site, and may stand still long enough to perform in the amphitheater. • Lydia Adams Davis (Sunday, 11 a.m. - noon): A special musical and puppet program for children that focuses on forestry and wood. For nearly 20 years, Lydia Adams Davis has performed her children’s programs across the US and in Europe. She has appeared with Pete Seeger and The Sloop Singers on Broad Old River. Her voice can be heard as storyteller, narrator, and vocalist, on several filmstrips, records and children’s videos produced through American School Publications, a MacMillan McGraw Hill Company: Party Rhymes; Ernst the Crocodile; Yonder; and Dinosaurs to the Rescue! • Native American flutist Little Bear (Sunday, 3:30-4:30 p.m.): Kids and adults alike will feel more connected to the earth after listening to Little Bear and his flute. For more information on the Festival of Wood visit the Grey Towers’ Web site at www.fs.fed.us/gt or call 570-296-9630.