On Saturday, Pumpstock, a free outdoor music festival celebrating American roots music returns to Bailey Park in East Lansing.
In 2009, Smitty Smith and his late wife Gerry addressed what they saw as a lack of performance space for Americana and roots music. So, they started Pump House concerts in the city of East Lansing’s decommissioned water pumping facility.
The series later spawned an annual outdoor festival they called Pumpstock. The Pump House shows faded away with the COVID pandemic, but Pumpstock continues. This is the event's 15th year.
Smith likes to have local musicians open the Pumpstock festival, and this year is no exception. This time around, it’s the Wild Honey Collective.
“They play folk but not boring folk,” Smith explained.
“Upscale. Mostly strings. High energy and really good songwriting, and they swap instruments all the time. ‘You play the banjo now, then this other guy plays the banjo next time, and I grab a mandolin.’ It’s like that.”
Next up will be Native American performer Elexa Dawson, with her trio Weda Skirts. They’re bringing what Smith describes as bluegrass-adjacent music.
“Elexa lives in Emporia, Kansas, and [it’s a] high energy all-female band,” he continued. “More folky, maybe, than Wild Honey, but again, not boring at all, pretty high energy. That’ll be a good time.”
Dawson is also doing a songwriting workshop Friday at 3 p.m. at the East Lansing Public Library and an Indigenous foods event Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Old Town General Store in Lansing.
Tim Grimm is bringing guitarist Sergio Webb along for Pumpstock. Smith says Grimm is also an actor.
“In his way, he reminds me a little bit of Jeff Daniels, who does music but also does all these other things. He’s not as movie-focused as Jeff, and he’s not a Michigan native," he said.
"He’s from Indiana, living in Oklahoma now, and writes some great songs that might bring you to tears or might make you laugh. He’s a strong, strong songwriter, besides a very confident performer.”
Next at Pumpstock, Smith is bringing in Chicago blues artists Donna Herula and Downtown Charlie Brown.
“Donna has won different awards around Chicago. Charlie’s been playing blues in Chicago for a long time. So, we’ve got straight-ahead Chicago and sort of a little bit Delta-ish blues coming to Pumpstock, and they’re really, really good.”
Topping the bill will be a group called The Oh Boys with music reminiscent of rock and roll’s earliest days.
Smith said Oh Boys frontman Zachary Stevenson has portrayed Buddy Holly in the touring theatrical production of "The Buddy Holly Story."
“If you wanted to, he could play and you could close your eyes and you would think you were listening to Buddy Holly,” Smith said. “They’ll do a couple of Buddy Holly songs, but what they do is they write their own songs in that vein. They call it modern music for vinyl hearts.”
Pumpstock starts at 2 p.m. Saturday at Bailey Park. Along with the music, there will be food, activities for kids and dogs are also welcome.
