Mammoth Festival of Beers & Bluesapalooza
Mammoth Lakes
August 1 – 4, 2024
Photos by Paul Piazza
The 28th annual Mammoth Festival of Beers and Bluesapalooza recently finished another amazing four-day run of amazing music, craft beer tasting, and great human interactions in the beautiful Mammoth Mountain area. The festival, which was established in 1986 has gotten better and better each year. And 2024 was a stellar one, which will be remembered for years to come.
The festival’s four headliners were amazing. There was East LA’s Los Lobos celebrating their 50th anniversary, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Ave. bringing a Friday night New Orleans style threauxdown, Devon Allman laying down some killer Southern charm and tunes, and the East Bay’s California Honeydrops, who seem to do it all, closing out like champs.
There were many amazing supporting acts. Ozomatli played a massively crowd engaging set that featured funk, cumbria, and hip hop, and took it into the audience at the end of their set. Elsewhere, Sugaray Rayford brought a party to the stage as he and his band are prone to do, Eric Lindell served up some swampy bayou blues, Joanne Shaw-Taylor brought British wit and a smokin’ lead guitar, and Ron Artis II brought spiritual love, light, and connectivity and some killer jams during his great sets.
But perhaps one of the more astonishing musicians that had people buzzing all weekend was the young guitar prodigy Grace Bowers. The guitarist has been considered an emerging sensation for quite some time and she only recently turned 18. She picked up a guitar at the age of nine and had a Gibson endorsement by the time she was fourteen.
She and her band, who are called Grace Bowers and the Hodge Lodge blew the Mammoth crowd away with a couple of sets that featured soulful rock jams that featured absolutely searing guitar. Later, Bowers sat in with Devon Allmon’s band for a scorching version of “Midnight Rider.” The young musician has gotten some serious attention. Bowers has been invited by Dolly Parton to participate in a television special and recently headlined the Grand Ole Opry for the first time. The band released a new record a few days after Bluesapalooza called “Wine on Venus” and it’s definitely worth a deep listen.
Of course, musical discoveries weren’t the only thing to get a taste of at Bluesapalooza. Many world class breweries from California were there pouring some amazing craft beer tastes. 71 brewers were on hand offering pours of their work. Many are from adjacent Southern California, but there were also a few solid Northern California breweries represented. Berryessa Brewing of Winters (near Sacramento) was one of them.
“We’re a little brewery with a big music problem,” said brewmaster/co-founder Chris Miller as he greeted patrons in an overflowing line at the brewery’s booth. Berryessa recently was awarded Brewery of the Year in the California Brewers Cup. “Mammoth is a good opportunity for us to connect with people directly,” said Miller. The brewery, which has a permanent stage on the patio, will celebrate their 13th Anniversary this October with a music-filled bash that will feature Orchestra Gold and the Achilles Wheel.
Bluesapalooza featured two stages, a main stage and the smaller Minaret Stage. As soon as one act would finish on one stage, another act would start on the other. The Minaret Stage sets were shorter, but always full of punch. The Delgado Brothers are a Los Angeles band made up of four members, three of whom are brothers. After a fiery set on the Minaret Stage, guitarist Joey Delgado joined Ozomatali on the big stage for a jam. The Minaret Stage was also the evening’s closing stage and exceptional there late sets were played there by Ron Artis II, Eric Lindell and Sugaray Rayford and Dennis Jones.
As the festival approaches its 29th year, everything about the event seems to be firing on all cylinders. Festival goers were already planning their next year at Bluesapalooza as the festival was wrapping and bands were preparing to navigate on to their next tour stops.
By the following weekend, the Sugaray Rayford band was playing in Detroit. Guitarist Danny Avila took a moment to check in with SF Sonic about his Mammoth experience and the band’s tour. “I love having the opportunity to play a festival in my home state and Mammoth always provides an amazing experience overall,” said Avila, who has played the festival a total of six times – three with Sugaray Rayford and three with Walter Trout’s band. “It’s quality over quantity, and I can say that people, both in the audience and the staff, always give such vibrant energy.”
The band is on their Human Decency Tour, promoting their album by the same name. “The Human Decency Tour has us tapping into those old school sounds,” said Avila, “and the band just puts all our funky groove on it,” said Avila.
As bands like Sugary Rayford were heading out and crossing the country, fans were taking their musical epiphanies from the festival and checking to see where they could catch the groups they liked the best near to where they live. And possibly visit their favorite new brewery as well. This was just another testament to the inspiration and staying power of the great music and good tasty brews served up at Bluesapalooza. And it doesn’t hurt that it all takes place in such a gorgeous setting as the Eastern Sierras.
