05/25/2007

Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
Dutch Henry, above, along with K Jones & The Benzie Playboyz, Nobody's Darlin', and Los Bandits, perform during the Beaver Creek Resort's first Family Americana Weekend.

A slice of Americana

Resort kicks off season with family-friendly concert

By
Record-Eagle staff writer

Special to the Record-Eagle/
Kevin Johnston
The main entrance to Gaylord's Beaver Creek Resort.

GAYLORD — Beaver Creek Resort hosted Bikestock, a four-band rock concert for motorcyclists last year, and decided it wanted to try something with broader appeal.

The resort's first Family Americana Weekend featuring Tex-Mex, alternative country, Cajun and other American musical styles is scheduled for Saturday. It's aimed at RV owners and the public coming in just for the day.

"We really have a very family-friendly resort,” co-owner Dave Ramsey said. "We don't sell alcohol or tobacco, but people can bring their own.”

Bob Farmer, owner of The Rose-Robert Agency, which is representing the talent, said a marketer who used to work at the resort had presented the idea to him. He's also doing the sound with his company, Wanderlust Light & Sound.

"This'll be a first, selling this to a group of people I never would've considered,” he said.

The event features:

n Northern Michigan Zydeco/Cajun band K Jones & The Benzie Playboyz from noon to 1 p.m. and from 4 to 5:15 p.m.

n Grand Rapids-based, all-female, old-time string band Nobody's Darlin' from 1:15 to 3:30 p.m. Farmer compared their music to that of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.

n Dutch Henry, an edgy, alternative country group from southwestern Michigan playing from 5:45 to 7 p.m.

n Tex-Mex band Los Bandits, also from Grand Rapids, playing from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

The event is intended to showcase the amenities at the resort, as well as the music itself. If it is a success, Ramsey said he'd like to begin doing more than one of them per summer.

"We plan to have two this year and build up to four per year,” he said. "We'll change the style of music to give our guests a variety.”

The 80-acre resort has 40 luxury log cabins, most along the fairways and greens of The Natural Golf Course.

The resort also has 64 RV campsites, half wooded and half sunny.

Other features include a water slide, a putt-putt golf course, a lake stocked with catfish, bluegill and trout for fishing, and paddle-boating.

Native Americans will also be there for a powwow as a demonstration and selling food and crafts.

Beaver Creek used to be a ski resort and plans are to erect the stage on the grounds' highest point, where a ski slope used to start.

The Ramseys spent much of the past winter handing out fliers to people attending RV events and trying to cross-market with other RV resorts.

Admission is $10, open to campers and non-campers alike.