An all-female bluegrass band by the name of “Big Richard” will bring dynamic music and a rather cheeky sense of humor to the The Arts Campus at Willits (TACAW) on Saturday night.
The group started with a festival gig a few years ago, bringing together several musical talents with impressive resumes in different bands.
But unlike other groups, where one might be the only woman on the bill, the members of “Big Richard” say this one feels different.
Fiddler Eve Panning says that with this group, it’s easier to be vulnerable, both emotionally and musically.
“It’s just been so freeing to play in a group where we have these shared experiences, as far as what it's like to be a woman in the industry — and with other people who can relate to a story I tell, and don't feel like they need to, like, step in and save the day,” Panning said.
That’s a sentiment shared by bassist and guitarist Hazel Royer. She said she feels remarkably comfortable with this group, as if “trying things is not as scary or risky somehow.”
“And that's cool — that's really cool,” Royer said.
It also translates to better music, according to Royer’s bandmate Joy Adams.
“I feel like there's no competitive undercurrent at all,” said Adams, who plays bass, cello and mandolin. “It's just friends supporting friends, and I feel like I play my best in that environment.”
The warmth of that friendship radiates from the group even through the screen of a Zoom interview.
Bonnie Sims, who plays mandolin and guitar, cracked jokes about “Dawson’s Creek” and Steven Spielberg as she held the camera in front of the huddled foursome. And while they allow one another to finish their own sentences, it often seems as if the group is sharing the same complete thought — communicated through knowing looks across the sofa in a mountain cabin. The name of the band is itself an inside joke, referring to a kind of bravado that can’t be said on the radio.
“It came from a “Big Richard energy,” will you, that we all … bonded over having to kind of inhabit and possess when we are in these male-dominated spaces,” Sims said.
“Big Richard” will bring that sense of humor to the stage on Saturday night. But the audience can also expect “cool and groovy” old-time songs, “all-out rage fiddle tunes” and more “sensitive” numbers, according to Adams.
Or, as Sims put it: “‘Big Richard, big feelings’ — that’s what we like to say.”
