Mossy Headz 2007: Roping in the Best of the Area’s Original Bands
By Chris Manson February 22, 2006 Issue

Matt Braley describes the Mossy Headz Festival as a smaller version of the Suwanee music festivals he frequently attends. The initial Mossy Headz was held in the fall of 2005 and drew around 80 people — “kind of a glorified party,” Braley says. Braley’s Mossy Head property — about 25 miles north of Niceville, between Crestview and DeFuniak Springs — is a little over three acres and his neighbor down the road is happy to let people set up camp and park their RVs.

Last March, Mossy Headz II attracted bands from Jacksonville and Tallahassee. “The guys from Space Medicine were doing regional shows and found a lot of bands that were interested in being part of a great thing,” Braley says. Then Dread Clampitt signed on and “legitimized the event.” Nearly 600 music fans showed up.

“It’s a fun homecoming for all the bands,” Clampitt’s Kyle Ogle says. “We’re all friends. It’s incredible to be able to help out with this. It’s a family environment, a really cool place to throw a little regional festival—a good little spot.” The bluegrass powerhouse will headline Friday and Saturday nights.

“We’ve been getting everything prepped,” Braley tells me during a break from his day job running a local tree trimming and removal service. “The first one, we built a platform for the stage. The second one, a covered stage — we had one carpenter directing all these local bands.” This year Braley promises better shuttle service as well as an increase in the number of portable, um, facilities. Braley says interested vendors can apply at the website www.mossyheadz.com, but no mechanical bulls, please.

“We’re clearing underbrush in areas we couldn’t use before. We’re making it nice, like a big park where you can walk around barefoot.” Braley and his friends are also painting the stage, adding more lights, and removing all those “stumps and roots that can trip people up.” Another improvement is a centrally located merchandise area where fans can pick up official Mossy Headz T-shirts and CDs from the bands.

Braley’s band, the Mane Squeeze, no longer exists — the lead guitarist moved to Jacksonville, and the other members found work in groups like the WaCo Ramblers. Braley still likes to perform, though, and he’ll open this year’s Mossy Headz festival as Matt Braley and Friends. On Sunday night he’ll join several other players for a Grateful Dead jam — “a common denominator for this sort of thing,” he says.

Braley sums up the festival’s mission. “To promote original local music. There’s a really good connection between the bands and the fans. It’s a really good scene. I love having a place where people can camp out for a weekend and enjoy the music.” Mossy Headz happens March 30 through April 1, and at least 13 acts have signed on so far.

“We’ve got a great underground word-of-mouth movement,” Braley says of the local original music scene. He credits Sean Sullivan — currently kicking out the jams with Reed Waddle’s band — for all the work he has done to promote the show to everyone he meets. There’s also Dan Costello—“Danjo” from the WaCo Ramblers—who runs the electrical equipment and updates the Mossy Headz MySpace page. “Lastly, Dan Hall did the website—he got the domain name and does the updates.” Hall, formerly with Trailer, will appear at Mossy Headz as part of a jazz outfit.

I’m surprised—relieved, really—to learn there haven’t been any logistical or security nightmares for the Mossy Headz organizers. “Everyone wants it to be a success,” Braley says. “They’re always looking out to make sure there are no stupid people out to ruin it. The police were surprised that we didn’t have any trouble, but I wasn’t. At the Bonaroo Festival you don’t see people fighting, and there’s like 90,000 people there. We’re very fortunate to be surrounded by people with a positive attitude. It’s kind of a self-regulating crowd.”

“Everyone was really considerate of one another,” Sullivan says. “You see that a lot when you put a positive light on things. The potential for problems is there, but people know how to circumvent them or avoid them altogether. I think festivals that are run well know how to respond to this. Amazingly enough, we’ve had no problems. Well, not really amazing because there are a lot of forward-thinking people around here.”

SIDEBAR:
Dread Clampitt, Lyndsey Battle, and Reed Waddle are among the 2006 veterans coming back for this year’s Mossy Headz Festival, but there are quite a few unfamiliar names on the bill, too (in other words, acts I haven’t featured in The Beat).

The Green Hit. “They’re young kids, making mostly instrumental original music,” Matt Braley says. “I went and saw them in Grayton Beach and made a slot for them. They’re laid back, improvisational, kind of wandering around but on scale and in key with a real good tone.”

The Sweater Puppets. This all-female “folkie” quartet just celebrated their one-year anniversary. “We’re still very, very fresh,” singer Joleen Jones says, adding that she and her band mates are looking forward to playing their first festival crowd.

The Steenos. Husband-wife duo frequently seen and heard around South Walton. Local favorite Washboard Jackson’ll join them at Mossy Headz. “I tend to play up the hippie end, but there’s a lot of bluegrass during the day that attracts older crowds,” Braley says.

Looney Mill. A Birmingham band Sean Sullivan befriended while touring with Space Medicine. “Looney Mill has kind of a Frank Zappa prog-rock feel,” he says. “Musically speaking, I don’t think there are any other bands breaking ground on the regional level like these guys.”

Polyester Pimpstrap. The Tallahassee-based group is known for putting on “event-styled shows where the people are wholly involved in every note and breath taken,” Sullivan says. “They take elements popular in jam-band music and put it to music that’s never been laid on top of it. They call it Jam Band Booty Music.”

Chris Recommends:
Tom Waits: Orphans (Anti-)
Steve Earle: The Definitive Collection 1983-1997 (Hip-O)
The Hold Steady: Boys and Girls in America (Vagrant)
DVD—Tony Joe White: Live from Austin, TX (New West)
Lindsey Buckingham: Under the Skin (Reprise)
Sonny Rollins: Sonny, Please (Doxy)
Johnny Cash: Live from Austin, TX (New West)
Chicago: Chicago 17 (Expanded and Remastered) (Rhino)

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