Milan Music Fest
Expands to 5 Days As it Celebrates 25th Anniversary in Southeastern Michigan
While a lot of bluegrass music was performed live around the country from the second half of 2021 on, lingering aspects of the COVID pandemic still left artists and music fans on edge as this new year plays out. The good news is that 2022 is shaping up to be a season where live bluegrass music is plentiful and available to the public on a larger scale.
While the small and medium-sized indoor music venues remain essential to any bluegrass band’s schedule, the outdoor bluegrass festival continues to be the life blood of the summer season. Some older festivals have folded up their tents recently while new festivals will debut in 2022. The Milan Music Fest, however, has now been around for a quarter century. The longtime ringleader of this successful event is Mark Gaynier, who grew up on a working farm about 30 miles from Milan in a small town called Monroe, Michigan.
“I was a salesman for Frito-Lay and one of my accounts was the KC Campground in Milan,” said Gaynier. “The owners of the campground built it out of scratch from woods on a dirt road in 1979, and their names were Cayce and Ruth Kiger, who were big farmers in Milan. In 1980, they held a big benefit at the campground for someone they knew and they brought in bluegrass bands for it, and it was a huge success. The next year they held the first-ever Milan Bluegrass Fest and it ran until 1986, ending after Ruth Kiger died of cancer. She was the driving force, as in she wanted a campground and Cayce built it. She wanted to do the bluegrass festival as well, and he made it happen. When she passed away, Cayce said that he could not do this anymore without her.”
About ten years later, Gaynier was given an offer one day that had the potential to change his life forever, and his decision was not an easy one. “In 1995, Cayce called me and said, ‘I want you to buy the campground,’” said Gaynier. “I just started laughing. He then says, ‘No, I’m serious. I want to talk to you about it.’ So, we met and he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse and I bought the campground in 1996. One of the things I said when I bought the place was that I wanted to bring back the Milan Music Fest. It was a part of my business plan. When you do something you like to do, it’s not really a job. I’ve owned the campground for 27 years now. When I bought it, I thought I’d buy it for an investment and improve it and then sell it. But, I’m still investing (laughs). Once the bluegrass festival started up, I realized I loved it and I’m passionate about it.”
Right away, Gaynier hired Jim Wilder and Jerry Yates to help run the festival, both of whom had event experience elsewhere. Since then, Gaynier eventually took over the festival duties and has hired the right people to make the festival a success.
One thing, in particular, that Gaynier brought to the table was the hiring of an official festival emcee, and for the last eight or so years, his master of ceremonies has been bluegrass veteran Blake Williams. Williams, of course, was and is a great banjo player who performed for years with Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt, two of the biggest names in bluegrass history, as well as with Grand Ole Opry regular Mike Snider and his own Williams and Clark Expedition band with Bobby Clark.
“Since 2013, I have been running the festival and doing it all,” said Gaynier. “And, I wanted to hire an emcee. My thing is I know that my emcee is in front of my customers more than any band. If you don’t have the audience’s attention and keep their attention and build excitement; you lose the crowd. What I liked about Blake was he was out on the road for many years and knows all of these entertainers and he knows the stories and he knows how to pull the fans and the bands together.”
At that point, Williams was ready to get off the road and do other things in the business, including being the master of ceremonies. “I sort of found a little niche there with emceeing and I love it,” said Williams. “I love representing the festival, I love cutting up with my friends onstage. I love to try and do a little humor and representing the sponsors well and trying to keep the show on time. It’s fun for me. And, when those pickers climb in those vans and go off to another show, I don’t miss that a bit. It’s the traveling, man. I’ve been to 48 states and about seven or eight countries playing bluegrass music and I was on the Grand Ole Opry for over twenty years. Mark hired me up there in Milan in 2014 and we became fast friends. My wife Kimberly helps to promote his festival and we just love doing it. Mark is a great guy who loves to promote young bands and we appreciate that.”
Gaynier, to his credit, has a talent search button on his milanbluegrassfest.com website where up-and-coming bands can enter their information and music in hopes of getting a coveted slot on the lineup. Gaynier expects that Tuesday’s bill will be expanded by some new talent that he feels is ready for a chance.
Gaynier is also known for treating the performers right when they come up to Michigan. One happy bluegrass original who has played the festival multiple times is Dave Adkins. Adkins is a forward-thinking bluegrass artist yet he is also old school, as in just like the First Generation greats of the genre, you know it is Dave Adkins singing within the first notes of his recordings or live performances.
“The Milan Fest is great, honestly,” said Adkins. “And I tend to tell it like it is and it gets me in trouble a lot, but at least I can lay down and know I told the truth. You know what I mean? And that dude, Mark Gaynier, loves bluegrass musicians and loves to help people.”
Adkins tells a story about Gaynier’s approach to serving the artists he hires in Milan. “I had a bus for a while, and I just could not make it work,” said Adkins. “It broke down every time we went out in it. So, we were up at that Milan festival sitting in our little van with the air conditioner on, trying to relax and get cooled off. Mark came by and knocked on the window and said, ‘Are you ok?’ I said, ‘Yeah, man, we’re just wanting a cool place where we can rest and let my throat rest and just take a break from the heat.’ He said, ‘You know, I never thought about the bands that don’t have big busses or stuff like that.’ So, the next year, I drove up and pulled in and he said, ‘Dave, have you got a minute?’ I said, ‘Of course.’ He said, ‘Well, let me show you this.’ He had built an extra room onto the big hall there where they serve breakfast and the new green room had an air conditioner and a TV in it just for musicians who did not have a bus. That is what kind of a person he is, man. I am forever grateful as he has been so good to us.”
When you talk to the performers from south of the Mason Dixon line who venture north to places like Michigan for a gig, they soon realize that the Great Migration of the 1900s really did happen. Back then, folks left the mountains to head to the heartland states looking for better employment opportunities, and they brought their culture and music with them. Many folks in the Midwest still honor their roots in the Appalachians and the South and the love of mountain roots music is proof of it today.
Few all-stars in the bluegrass diaspora have southern roots as deep as Russell Moore. He came out of Texas and moved with his band Southern Connection to Asheville, NC, for a year before becoming Doyle Lawson’s group Quicksilver, which led to moving to Bristol, TN and then into the greater bluegrass world with each new success. With his world-class band IIIrd Tyme Out, Moore has also performed at the Milan Music Fest many times.
“Milan is a big one, as in a wonderful festival,” said Moore. “Mark likes to have us over there pretty much every year. We enjoy going up there to play that show and it is an awesome festival. Mark is a great promoter and an awesome guy. Ever since we have been going up there, since he took over the festival, he has always supported us and bluegrass music in general. When we go to Milan, we see so many people that we have not seen since the last festival. I mean, we have places where we will experience that in other regions, but at that festival, in particular, we have a big fan base. He puts on a great show and that all works together to bring the fans and the artists together. It is a very well-run event.”
Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out don’t mind doing two sets in a day, one in the afternoon and one at night, as it gives the band room to open up their catalog a little bit. “We, of course, don’t want to play the same songs on both sets,” said Moore. “We do change it up. Especially right now as we are celebrating our 30th anniversary as IIIrd Tyme Out. We are now going back and reviving older songs that were big fan favorites years ago. Our biggest song over the years is probably ‘Erase The Miles.’ It is still our most requested song. If we don’t do that song, we stand a chance of being tarred and feathered before we get out of town. Our song ‘John and Mary’ is a big one as well. Usually, if we are doing one big, long set, we will close with both of those songs. But we will split them up if we do two sets in a day.”
Meanwhile, Gaynier continues to find ways to make the Milan Music Fest better from year to year. His view is if everyone in front of the stage, onstage or behind the stage is happy, good things will happen. “As I look back, I have taken the time to talk to the bands and I see the struggles that they go through,” said Gaynier. “Nobody tells me or puts in their contract that I have to feed them because they know when they come to Milan, they are going to get a great meal. My philosophy is if that band is comfortable, well-fed and happy, they are going to give me the best show they can give me. If they are worn out and overheated and hungry, it is just a long day for them. I try to make them as comfortable as I can, and they know I expect one heck of a show. If my entertainers are happy, my customers are going to be happy.”
Milan Music Fest’s Twenty-Fifth Year
To celebrate the 25th Milan Music Fest, located at the KC Campground found at 14048 Sherman Road in Milan, Michigan, this year it will expand into a five-night affair from August 2 – 6, 2022.
As the Milan Music Fest begins, Tuesday evening will bring The Grascals and Special Consensus to the stage. Wednesday finds the great guitarist Jim Hurst on the card along with up-and-coming fiddler extraordinaire Carley Arrowood, country veteran Jimmy Fortune along with the bands Full Cord and Midnight Hollow.
Thursday’s lineup includes the Lonesome River Band, Alan Bibey and Grasstowne, Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers, the Little Roy and Lizzy Show and Larry Efaw and the Bluegrass Mountaineers all playing afternoon and evening sets.
The two-sets-a-day pattern continues throughout the weekend. On Friday, that means double shows by Russell Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out, The Malpass Brothers, the Amanda Cook Band, the Larry Stephenson Band and North Carolina’s Deeper Shade of Blue.
On Saturday, the Milan Music Festival comes to a head with a bill that features Rhonda Vincent and The Rage, the Dave Adkins Band, Breaking Grass, Crandall Creek and Alex Miller.
With the Milan Music Fest taking place on the grounds of the KC Campground, cabins and RV campsites are available but soon taken. But there will be primitive camping on the 20-acre grounds and plenty of hotels nearby. More information on camping can be found at kccampgroundmilan.com or 734-439-1076. Other accommodation information can be found at milanbluegrassfest.com/hotels.
For you travelers who may not be familiar with the beautiful state of Michigan, the Milan Music Fest takes place in an interesting part of the Heartland. While there, you will be within driving distance of the amazing inland seas—the Great Lakes. You will be a quick thirty minutes from Lake Erie and lakefront towns like Luna Pier and Grand View. Lake Erie is known for its excellent fishing opportunities.
Then, looking to the west and northwest, the shoreline of Lake Michigan appears. Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes is about four hours away and it a marvel of a national seashore as the biggest sand dune found in the eastern U.S. exists there and not on the Atlantic Ocean coast. Nearby are some quaint and cool lake towns such as Frankfort, with its small but real lighthouse and lake front port. Traverse City is also a favorite with tourists. About five hours to the north, however, is the impressive Mackinac Bridge which leads to the natural wonderland known as the Upper Peninsula, aka the “UP.” Once in the UP, everything changes as it is a place where arctic fauna flourishes, the sunsets last until almost 11 p.m., and the land is filled with over 1,000 waterfalls, all leading to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore that features 26 miles of 200-foot cliffs that dive into our inland ocean Lake Superior. Closer to the festival, the lauded Henry Ford Museum is located in nearby Detroit.
