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Four Sets in 19 Hours: A Musician Look Back at Summer Camp

Nat with Al Schnier and the Everyone Orchestra

3pm. After finishing the set and bowing to our wonderful audience, we jump into the van and drive to the Soulshine tent to do our set with Conscious Alliance. This is going to be a more chill scene, so we make the call to have it be a stripped-down, sit-down set. Lucas plays just a snare drum with brushes and a tambourine under his foot. This is low-pressure, so we try a bunch of very new songs like “Beyond the Sky” and “Diamonds in the Wind.” Conscious Alliance is a great old friend of ours. Their mission is to feed those in need and they do this with food drives and donations. I sit on their Advisory Board and we support them whenever we can. With Alliance director BJ Cochran, we talk about our food drive and visit to the Lakota Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

4:47pm. After a quick bite we meet Matt Butler and the crew he’s assembled for the Everyone Orchestra set. It’s a heavy-hitting group: Al Schnier & Vinny Amico from moe., Jennifer Hartswick and Natalie Cressman from Trey Anastasio Band, Black Nature from the Sierra Leone All-Stars, Robert Mercurio from Galactic, Joel Cummins from Umphrey’s, as well as Aaron, Erik, and me. Everyone Orchestra assembles a different group every show, and with no rehearsal, conductor Matt Butler leads the group in making music. I sometimes feel intimidated by the huge talent Matt drops me next to. But I love it and after doing perhaps 20 EO sets I’m comfortable with the context and what I have to contribute.

5pm. The Everyone Orchestra set is in an air-conditioned barn, and the musicians and fans all perk up. This huge ensemble comes to life. There’s room for everybody there to express their thing, but no one needs to try too hard. There’s form and discipline, but everyone is relaxed and playful. I especially enjoy trading licks and playing complementary rhythm parts with Al — such a great electric guitarist. Jennifer and Natalie throw down some tasty improvised horn section lines, you can tell they play a lot together. Jennifer plays a trumpet solo with a couple nasty phrases way behind the beat. When it’s my turn to take the lead, I take this to heart and play around with lagging behind the beat. Bluegrass is often played ahead of or right on the beat, so I have to break some trained habits…

6:16pm. We’re getting towards the end of the set and Matt writes “Limbs Akimbo” —my song — on the dry erase board. I have a quick heads-together with the rhythm section and basically say “highlife/afrobeat with clave and 4 on the floor, in D, watch me for the changes.” I didn’t know until later that percussionist Black Nature is from Sierra Leone and probably grew up listening to highlife. The groove comes together in a big way. I think this song works better here than in an HBR set. The crowd puts their arms in the air. “Arms outstretched, limbs akimbo…”

7:15pm. High fives all around backstage. And I’m done. 4 sets in 19 hours. I love music. I love my bandmates. I can’t believe I get to do this for a living. The world is a good place. Soundman Andy Whilden and I fill up beers and walk to see some Pretty Lights and Jane’s Addiction and party with Greensky Bluegrass. But that’s another story…