ENTERTAINMENT

Bovine Social Club brings Americana to Blairstown

BILL NUTT
CORRESPONDENT

The Bovine Social Club is preparing to play in Blairstown. But, according to singer/guitarist Samuel St. Thomas, the members of the group are really thinking about Nashville.

Specifically, the roots-oriented band based in northwest New Jersey is trying to channel the Grand Ole Opry shows from the 1940s through the 1970s that were held at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Music City.

“I visited the Ryman last year,” says St. Thomas. “I sat in those wooden seats and tried to imagine what the Opry was like. You had these musicians who really seemed to enjoy each other’s company. You couldn’t just show up; you had to be invited.”

“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to put together something like that in Sussex and Warren Counties?’ I immediately thought of the Historic Blairstown Theatre as the perfect place to do it.”

St. Thomas’ daydream will become reality tonight in an evening billed as the Great Bovine Jamboree. The event features performances by four acts from the New York/New Jersey area that are all based on American roots music.

“These are all people we really admire,” says St. Thomas. “We wanted to put together a show that was a real event.”

The Brooklyn Bluegrass Collective is an eclectic ensemble that also draws on the traditions of jazz, country, and even classical music. “Brooklyn has become a hotbed for music, and we’re glad to have these folks with us,” St. Thomas says.

Free Range Folk, based in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, takes an independent approach to bluegrass. Its latest CD includes originals as well as a cover of “Fisherman’s Blues,” a Celtic-inspired song by the Waterboys.

Singer-songwriter Emily Barnes from Johnsonburg has played her folk-influenced songs at several venues throughout northwest New Jersey, including the annual Groove in the Grove Festival in Budd Lake.

“Our idea with all these acts is to focus on Americana,” says St. Thomas. “We’re saturated with rock ’n’ roll and with country, but we wanted to do something that was more inclusive.”

The Bovine Social Club’s sensibility is evident on its new CD. The album was produced by Tim Carbone, who is familiar to area music fans from his solo work as well as his membership in such bands as Blue Sparks from Hell and Railroad Earth.

“Tim was great for us,” says St. Thomas. “He asked us what we wanted to do. He had everybody in the band bring in every instrument (he) knew how to play and lined them up. Then he called the shots, like a painter working on a canvas.”

That method was well-suited for the Bovine Social Club, according to St. Thomas. “Each member comes with his own influences. I’ve long had an interest in alt-country and bluegrass. Other guys in the group take a jazz approach to bluegrass.”

St. Thomas says that he hopes his band’s freewheeling attitude will pervade the Bovine Jamboree. He anticipates a loose structure that will allow members from one band to sit in on the set of another band.

“Our guitarist, Johnny Smith, will be the musical director,” St. Thomas says. “We’ll have a plan, but it’s not going to be too rigid. We want to keep that sense of spontaneity.”

St. Thomas notes that the event is being billed, optimistically, as the first Great Bovine Jamboree. “We’re booked at Blairstown every other month through October,” he says. “This is something we’d like to keep going.”

THE GREAT BOVINE JAMBOREE

WHAT: The New Jersey-based Bovine Social Club lead a revue of Americana music modelled after the shows from Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium. Also on the bill are the Brooklyn Bluegrass Collective, Free Range Folk, and the singer-songwriter Emily Barnes.

WHEN: 8:30 p.m. today, doors open at 8 p.m.

WHERE: Historic Blairstown Theatre, 30 Main St., Blairstown

TICKETS: $20 in advance, $25 at door

INFORMATION: 908-362-1399 or www.thehbt.com