Bluegrass Festival Spotlight: Red Dog Ash
Red Dog Ash is an award-winning bluegrass band from California’s central valley. The quintet is known for its original compositions, hard-driving tunes, tight harmonies, and authentic high-lonesome vocals. Inspired by the bluegrass tradition, smart and passionate in its performance, the band’s unique sound has recently, and aptly, been called — Soulgrass.
Band Members
Dixon Smith
Banjo player Dixon Smith began his bluegrass career in Connecticut in 1964, moved to Minnesota in 1968, and began making his living playing bluegrass in 1977. He bought his Gibson Mastertone banjo new from Gibson in 1964 and has played the same instrument ever since. The banjo players who have influenced him the most are Bill Emerson and Allen Shelton, whose drive and bounce he has always admired. Dixon recorded the soundtrack for a feature motion picture, Wilderness Calling, in 1970. Full-time work came with The String Drifters (1977), who performed for Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion, broadcast live every Saturday on American Public Radio; their bassist, Tim O’Brien, joined Hot Rize the following year. Dixon worked as a studio musician in Minneapolis recording studios from 1969 through the 1980s. He moved to England in 1994 and joined The New Essex Bluegrass Band, with whom he travelled as far afield as Holland. He moved to Fresno, California, in November 2007. Master of the five-string, Dixon channels the bluegrass tradition.
Elijah Arrigotti
“And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” Hailing from the City of Angels, Elijah Arrigotti grew up steeped in a melting pot of cultures and musical styles. Providence brought him together with the members of Red Dog Ash where his musical journey continues in the world of bluegrass and acoustic music. Just as the ancient prophet of his namesake was carried to heaven by a chariot of fire, so does Elijah have a calling to bring that same fire of redemption, passion, and soul to this world through the beckoning sounds of voice and vibrating strings.
Ron Cotnam
Born and raised in southern California, Ron has been playing bass since the late 70s. Be it rock, country, pop, jazz, blues, avant-garde, reggae, or bluegrass, Ron has played it. After playing reggae in the San Francisco bay area for 10 years, Ron decided to start a new musical chapter in his life so he bought an upright bass in 2001 and entered the bluegrass scene. Ron says he enjoys bluegrass music because like reggae, you can sing a song about hardship and pain and still have a positive vibe; it’s “feel good” music. When Ron isn’t playing music, he uses his other creative abilities to design and build sets for a local community theater. Ron believes that we all have certain gifts and that sharing our gifts with others is what life is all about.
Gary Vessel
Gary Vessel grew up steeped in the sounds of bluegrass and classic country music, but he paid his dues with the classical traditions as well beginning at age ten when he started playing violin. Seven years later, Gary enrolled in the Violin Making School of America in Salt Lake City, graduating in 1988. After apprenticing for two years in Germany and another two in Seattle, he opened his first shop in 1991 in Salt Lake City. While in SLC, Gary built award-winning violins, violas, and cellos, judged by The Violin Society of America. Then in 2001 he returned to his musical roots, picking up the mandolin for fun—and of course, building one as well. What started out as a hobby turned into an auspicious beginning when David Grisman bought Gary’s first mandolin. And it turned out to bode well for Red Dog Ash, too, where his fine luthier work is matched by tasteful, distinguished playing. Gary now divides his time between mandolin building, running his violin shop in Modesto, and conversations with John Duffey.
Jason Winfree
Jason Winfree grew up in West Virginia and eventually moved to Nashville, TN, where he cultivated a love for bluegrass music. Evenings at the Station Inn (where he regularly saw Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings, Roland White, Tim O’Brien, Darrell Scott, and the McCoury brothers) and the Ryman Auditorium were hard habits to break when he left Nashville for Berlin, Germany in 1999. Much to his surprise, one cool October night he heard the ancient tones emanating from Monadis Kneipe, a bar on Leibnizstraße that has since become a swinger’s club. Fortune smiled on him that night as he was befriended by the Sieker Band, who invited him to pick some tunes and encouraged him to cultivate his own singing and playing. In 2004 Jason co-founded Bluegrass Conspiracy in Turlock, CA, which morphed into Red Dog Ash in 2010. Jason plays rhythm and lead guitar and sings a high, lonesome lead vocal.
Catch Red Dog Ash in performance at the Susanville Bluegrass Festival; June 26th from 6:30 to 7:30p.m.; June 27th from 3:00 to 3:50p.m. and June 28th from 12:00 to 12:50p.m.
Other performances at this week’s festival include; Hossetts, Karl Shiftlett and Big Country, the Grass Kickers, the Get Down Boys, James Ream and the Barnstormers, Ron Spears and Within Tradition, Larry Gillis and West Coast Swampgrass, and Lonesome Otis.
Admission to the Festival is $20 per day or you can purchase a three-day pass at the gate for $55.
Friday
- 12:00 pm ~ 12:50 pm Lonesome Otis
- 1:00 pm ~ 1:50 pm Hossetts
- 2:00 pm ~ 2:50 pm Karl Shiflett & Big Country Show
- 3:00 pm ~ 3:50 pm Music Camp
- 4:00 pm ~ 4:50 pm Grass Kickers
- 5:00 pm ~ 6:15 pm Workshops / Dinner Break
- 6:30 pm ~ 7:30 pm Red Dog Ash
- 7:40 pm ~ 9:00 pm Karl Shiflett & Big Country Show
Saturday
- 12:00 pm ~ 12:50 pm Hossetts
- 1:00 pm ~ 1:50 pm Lonesome Otis
- 2:00 pm ~ 2:50 pm Get Down Boys
- 3:00 pm ~ 3:50 pm Red Dog Ash
- 4:00 pm ~ 4:50 pm James Reams & The Barnstormers
- 5:00 pm ~ 6:00 pm Workshops / Dinner Break
- 6:00 pm ~ 6:50 pm Ron Spears & Within Tradition
- 7:00 pm ~ 7:50 pm Karl Shiflett & Big Country Show
- 8:00 pm~ 9:00 pm Larry Gillis & West Coast Swampgrass
Sunday
- 10:00 am ~ 10:50 am Ron Spears & Within Tradition (Gospel)
- 11:00 am ~ 11:50 am James Reams & The Barnstormers
- 12:00 pm ~ 12:50 pm Red Dog Ash
- 1:00 pm ~ 1:50 pm GrassKickers
- 2:00 pm ~ 2:50 pm Get Down Boys
- 3:00 pm ~ 4:00 pm Larry Gillis & West Coast Swampgrass
For more information about the big Susanville Bluegrass Festival you can call the Lassen County Fair office at 530.251.8900.
