Maple House festival was a good time (despite the evacuation)

HAMPTON TWP. − Everything went smoothly until we were told to evacuate to our cars to wait out the lightning and potentially dangerous winds and rain.

Turned out to be just a temporary and uncontrollable setback.

Otherwise, Maple House Music & Arts Festival was a good ol' time Saturday at Hartwood Acres park; a daylong concert with nonstop music from a diverse sampling of national acts enjoyed by people of all ages sprawled on blankets, dancing in the sweltering heat, or propped up in Adirondack chairs and lounge furniture in the VIP area.

Pittsburgh blues-rockers Ghost Hounds hosted the show, named after their Maple House records label. The clout of Ghost Hounds founder/billionaire Thomas Tull was evident in the festival securing Grammy Award honored acts like Jason Isbell, The Black Pumas and Elle King.

Festival organizers thought of just about everything, including notifying concertgoers ahead of time that there would be free water all day for those who brought an empty plastic water bottle. From huge electrical fans blowing hydrating mists, to ample portable potties with outdoor sinks, to a line of food and drink vendors spread out along the perimeter to reduce crowd congestion, somebody did their homework.

Arriving a bit before 2 p.m., I found parking lot entrance access into Hartwood Acres to be easier than a normal Sunday summer night concert. The stage always used for those Allegheny County concert series sat idle, as Maple House arranged its two stages in a grassy area slightly to the north.

As soon as each main stage band finished its 45-minute-to-one-hour set, the next band on the smaller Gibson guitar-sponsored stage started playing, so there was very little downtime between music.

I caught the last several songs by blues-rocker Eric Gales, whose fiery guitar style suggested influences like Jimi Hendrix and Albert King. The matinee crowd danced and grooved along, beaming and blissful.

Next on the main stage came a revelatory performance by Welshly Arms, a Cleveland alt-rock band with soulfully testifying vocals. Their adrenalized performance made me want to see them headline a Pittsburgh show soon.

The venue's layout, and large video screens on both sides of each stage, enabled many people to stand or sit in the same basic spot to watch both stages.

Portland, Oregon folk trio Joseph — sisters Natalie, Meegan and Allison — mellowed the pace with their sweet harmonies and acoustic strumming.

Boston funk-jam band Ripe kicked it back into party mode with a horn-driven set that weaved in a brief Abba cover and some fuller-length U2. Vocalist Robbie Wulfsohn acknowledged the upper 80s temperatures were a challenge, but said he purposely wore jeans instead of shorts to show how hard-core Ripe is. Their vibe fit the outdoor festival mood.

Vermont singer-songwriter Noah Kahan slowed things down but connected with the crowd in his Pittsburgh area debut. Front row fans knew him enough to sing along with each song. His melodies and vocals, regularly reaching a high register, sounded like a mishmash of artists like The Lumineers, X-Ambassadors and Ben Howard. Kahan thanked the people who stopped in their tracks to check out a bit of his set amid their beer runs. His lead mic sound dipped and cut out for one of his songs, for which he seemed to blame himself, playfully telling the crowd that would haunt him the next 15 years.

By then, most of the 6,200 spectators were inside the gates, ready for the rollicking fun of Elle King. Wearing a black ballcap, sunglasses and a football jersey numbered 87 (with an upside-down 7) King was a blast, cracking jokes and leading her band through a stomping set of alternative-country drinking songs with nods to the blues and pop. She convincingly covered Charlie Daniels' "Long Haired Country Boy." Women in their 20s packed the front of the stage, and got a great view of the 32-year-old Ohio native belting out her bouncy 2014 hit "Ex's and Oh's."

Back on the Gibson stage, Lake Street Dive sailed through a well-received set of throwback jazzy pop given a warm hug of upright bass. Rachael Price's pretty and potent lead vocals powered soulful versions of Burt Bacharach's "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and Carole King's "So Far Away."

Pittsburgh's Ghost Hounds hit the main stage next, blazing through a batch of rocking blues songs and their always show-stopping cover of Cliff Richard's "Devil Woman." From opening a stadium show recently for Garth Brooks, to touring with the Rolling Stones, Ghost Hounds have turned into a well-oiled machine. Guitarists Johnny Baab and Thomas Tull, and the drummer-bassist tandem of Blaise Lanzetta and Bennett Miller locked into tight, propulsive grooves.

One Ghost Hounds song has a chorus of "Bad news travels fast." Ah, but not as fast as the fingers of Joe Munroe, the Beaver County mainstay whose top-flight keyboard wizardry is the Ghost Hounds' special sauce. "How many people here know Joe Munroe?" Ghost Hounds' lively singer Tre Nation queried the crowd. (Many of us raised our hands.) Nation later called Munroe a "local legend."

Alas, reports of lightning prompted Ghost Hounds to cut their set 20 minutes early.

A public address announcement urged spectators to orderly evacuate to their vehicles to wait out an approaching storm, and that they'd be notified by social media posts when it was time to safely return. People filed out of the venue calmly though maybe 20-25 percent of the crowd fired up their engines and headed home. At least some of them heeded concerned messages from family or friends in the Beaver Valley warning them about the storm that had hit hard there.

But outside of strong winds whipping dust and pollen in peoples' eyes, the feared storm didn't do much at Hartwood Acres. A Facebook alert told fans the show would resume after 9 p.m., so just about a half-hour delay.Fans filed back in and the show continued with the top-two billed acts, Black Pumas and Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit. Yeah, many of us are kicking ourselves for pessimistically not sticking around. Lesson learned.

Anyway, here's my major takeaway: As a debut event, Maple House Music + Art Festival was a success that deserves to become an annual event.

Constructive criticism would be to increase the space for spectators in front of the secondary stage, which got very crowded, maybe by moving the VIP area a bit further away. And bring in more local arts vendors, or drop the "art" from the name Maple House Music + Art Festival.

As a concert experience? It was well-planned and fun.

Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Times and easy to reach at stady@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Maple House Music festival was a good time (despite the evacuation)