For music festival fans and those who roadtrip in search of a special festival camping experience – with that stellar, once-in-a-lifetime musica performance – FloydFest has been home to some impressive musical collaborations. Dating back to the festival’s beginning in 2002, that’s been a mission. As co-founder Kris Hodges says, a successful collaboration can be priceless (check out this list of past lineups). These things don’t just happen. They take thought and detail, some aligning of the stars (both metaphorically speaking and the musicians themselves), and a heartfelt willingness to pivot when shit goes sideways. After all, the show must go on.
In the third of a three-part conversation with Hodges and COO Sam Calhoun, RoadtripMojo explored the role of musical collaborations in the 80-acre spread on the Blue Ridge plateau, how festival friends and family stepped up to avert what could have been a fan-disaster – and instead created the Buffalo Mountain Jam, FloydFest’s unique contribution to the collaboration scene. This year’s BMJ promises to be over the top, with this year’s Grammy winners Kacey Musgraves, Brandi Carlile, and Fantastic Negrito on the bill.
RoadtripMojo: You’ve had a host of collaborations, including Leftover Salmon, Keller Williams, Lindsay Lou, and Antibalas members doing a memorable version of the Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses. Discuss how you put your collaborations together.
Kris Hodges: It is priceless, man. And, you know what? I just want to say something. It’s a little cliché, it’s a little weird. I’m so proud to have Phil Lesh from the Grateful Dead onsite this year. Not to mention String Cheese, but Phil, to me, the Grateful Dead, to me, just was such an inspiration in so many ways on what is possible through music and idea. There’s that saying, ‘Without love and a dream, it’ll never come true.’ That has always been the foundational bed stone on which I, and this company, I think have walked upon to make sure that this thing remains authentic, remains original, and remains true to its core values. Yeah, man. Love. It’s all about the love, man.
RTM: When you’re curating the musical lineup, you have to amp your game every year.
Kris Hodges: We work closely with the musicians to make that work. Keller (Williams) is the one who has just befriended John and I, my partner John McBroom. In a profound way. We text back and forth. We call all year long. He’s the one who helps us with the Buffalo Mountain Jam. He’s the conductor behind this epic jam that we have now started since Gregg Allman missed out, and Sam can talk to that. Sam was kind of the brainchild behind Buff Jam. That’s what’s we refer to the Buffalo Mountain Jam. Keller Williams is a dear friend now. It’s all about relationships, dude. It’s amazing.
RTM: Talk about Buffalo Mountain Jam…
Sam Calhoun: It’s on Saturday night, and that whole kind of vibe, it just speaks to the FloydFest family. Basically, in a nutshell, what happened was, I guess now four years ago, Gregg Allman was slated to be our headliner at the festival. Gregg arrived in Roanoke and was at the hotel. We actually had all the stuff loaded in, and Gregg fell ill. Unfortunately, a few months later, he actually passed.
“But that night, we had one hour to right the ship. We had one hour. Our headliner was supposed to be on the stage, but he had to be airlifted. So, we went to our FloydFest family, if you will. We went to Keller Williams. We went to Leftover Salmon, and we said, ‘Guys, let’s try to turn this upside down. Let’s try to do something nice.’
“Buffalo Mountain is the mountain that kind of overshadows the FloydFest site in Floyd County. Then, of course, Mountain Jam was one of the Allman Brothers’ most famous jam. So, we kind of combined the two, and we made it a super jam. Now, it’s grown its own legs. It’s every Saturday night, every year, annually at our festival. They bring up new musicians, so it’s kind of a super jam of all the musicians that are there that day.”
RTM: That really seems to speak to what you’ve been describing about the FloydFest family and the collaborations fans have come to expect.
Sam Calhoun: We make a special programming just for it. It’s an incredible, indelible set, which now is one of the calling cards of our brand.