Three-day Ashfield event celebrates mid-winter with music, food
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Trick question: What's the connection between Mardi Gras, Teddy Boys and winkles?
If "winklepicker" doesn't immediately spring to mind, you're probably not alone. But if the organizers of an upcoming music and food festival in Ashfield have their way, that odd word will become synonymous with the idea of a good-time carnival designed to liven up the gray days of mid-winter in New England.
Winklepicker is the name of a three-day fete beginning Feb. 17 that will feature a New Orleans-flavored package of music, cooking classes, Mardi Gras costume displays and a "Gospel Brunch" - plus an after-hours party Feb. 18 to be hosted by the Primate Fiasco, the Valley-based Dixieland-influenced band.
Musical headliners on Feb. 18 will be veteran singer-songwriter and guitar picker Chris Smither, a New Orleans native who relocated to Amherst a few years ago, and Stanley Dural Jr., better known as Buckwheat Zydeco, who's credited with bringing Louisiana's distinctive zydeco music to world audiences.
On hand will be nationally known chef Michelle J. Nugent, who will lead afternoon classes on Feb. 17, 18 and 19 on Cajun and Creole cooking and other New Orleans-style edibles.
The carnival also includes a music workshop for children ages 10 to 15.
Annual event
Three friends and local music impresarios - Carol Young, Nan Parati and Jim Olsen - are the force behind Winklepicker, both the event and the name. Young is Smither's manager and a longtime concert promoter who runs a series of music-instruction workshops; Parati is a transplanted New Orleans resident who's done artwork for years for that city's legendary Jazz Fest; and Olsen is the co-owner of Signature Sounds, the Whately-based record label, and the talent buyer for the Green River Festival, an annual summertime music event in Greenfield.
Parati, who's also the owner of Elmer's General Store in Ashfield, says she and her colleagues hope to make Winklepicker an annual event. Though this year's festival has a New Orleans theme because it takes place right before Mardi Gras, the long-term goal is to give New Englanders a chance to shake off the winter blues by going "barnyard crazy," as the festival's tagline puts it, with a different event each February.
"This is different than doing a big festival with a serious budget and lots of sponsors and infrastructure already in place," Parati said last week at a meeting at Elmer's with her partners. "We're doing it on our own. ... I think the main thing is you just have to have guts and believe this is going to happen, that Buckwheat Zydeco is going to say 'yes' to coming here and you can actually afford him and you can sell enough tickets to make it work."
On that score, the three sponsors believe Winklepicker will be a success.
"Ticket sales have been really good so far," said Young, who is married to Smither. "Between the three of us, we have a lot of experience in putting on events, and we're sensible - we're not going to make crazy decisions, even if there is a bit of this element of 'Well, let's put on a festival in Ashfield in winter and see what happens.' "
"It is a financial leap of faith," Olsen added. "But I think the music lovers here know us and our reputation, that we put on good shows."
The organizers don't want to say what it's costing to put on the festival - "The budget keeps evolving," Olsen said with a laugh - but they said they've put up some funds from their own businesses, while also getting sponsorship from Hilltown Families, East Heaven Hot Tubs and advertising time on WMUA-FM.
"The important thing," Parati said, "is that if you show people a good enough time, they're going to come, and they'll bring the dollars with them. And we intend to show people a good time."
Catchy name
The festival traces its beginnings to last February, when Young organized guitar and songwriting workshops in Ashfield that were led by Smither and songwriter Peter Mulvey, who both record on the Signature Sounds label. Participants for those classes came from Montana, Georgia, even Scotland. Intrigued, Young and Parati, who met years ago through their work with music festivals like Jazz Fest, talked of doing a larger event this winter.
Olsen, meanwhile, was considering putting on a Mardi Gras festival of his own in Turners Falls. When the three friends realized they were thinking along the same lines, they combined forces last September to begin planning a mid-winter music fest.
First, though, they needed a name - a catchy one.
"We wanted something that would be fun and provocative," Young said. "We started with some pretty bad names, then I asked my 7-year-old daughter, Robin, to see what she might come up with, just putting some sounds together." That idea, she added with a laugh, hadn't really panned out, either.
But late one night, while Young was Googling subjects like "crazy names," winklepicker popped up. The word refers to a style of shoe in Great Britain characterized by a narrow, pointed toe that resembled picks used to pull winkles, or snails, from their shells. The shoes were popular in the 1950s and early 1960s with Britain's "Teddy Boys," teens who listened to American rock 'n' roll and wore tapered trousers, narrow jackets and greasy pompadours. The Beatles were big proponents of the look before they became lovable mop tops.
"I liked [the name] because it was rooted in the Teddy Boys, so it's got a rock 'n' roll history," Parati said. "We didn't want a name too linked to New Orleans because next year's festival might be different."
The organizers settled on Ashfield as the place to stage the festival, since they have access to several venues in town: Ashfield Town Hall, the local Congregational church, Elmer's Store and the Ashfield preschool, which will all host events.
Solid ground
In booking Smither and Buckwheat Zydeco, Olsen notes, the festival is on solid ground to start with. "They're national acts," he said. "Neither one gives concerts where no one shows up."
Smither, who grew up in New Orleans before moving to Boston in the 1960s, has long been hailed for his smooth fingerpicking on guitar and his gritty blues- and folk-based songs. The Associated Press has called him "an American original ... and one of the absolute best singer-songwriters in the world." Smither and Young moved to Amherst a few years ago in part so that their daughter, Robin, could attend the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School in Hadley.
According to The New York Times, Buckwheat Zydeco leads "one of the best bands in America, a down-home and high-powered celebration, meaty and muscular ..." He's shared stages and recording sessions with Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Dwight Yoakam and a host of other musical stars over the years.
Primate Fiasco, the Northampton-based band that blends New Orleans jazz and Dixieland music with more modern influences, will play at Elmer's for the Saturday-night "after-party" following the Buckwheat Zydeco show at Town Hall. That later celebration is scheduled to begin at about 9:30 p.m. and run to whenever.
"People outdoors after 10 p.m. in Ashfield," said Olsen. "It's going to be wild."
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.
Winklepicker takes place in Ashfield Feb. 17-19. Ticket prices range from $10 for a kid's ticket to $199 for an all-events package. For information about the lineup and ticket prices, or to purchase tickets online, visit winklepickerfest.com. Tickets may also be purchased at Elmer's Store, 396 Main St. in Ashfield, or by calling the store at 628-4003.
