Sure Sign Of Fall

If there's one act that defines Yonder Mountain String Band's Harvest Festival, perhaps that band is the Everyone Orchestra. Sure, Yonder Mountain String Band maintains a major role in the festival, supplying the name and providing three sets. But as for "defining," the collaborative spirit of the Everyone Orchestra might be the one.

There's only one official member of the Everyone Orchestra. That's Mutt Butler, and he's less of a musician and more of a hype man. He looks through the roster of the festivals he attends, then culls a list of musicians from the bands assembled there. Add a guitarist from one band to a mandolin player from another and a drummer from a third and it becomes a starting point.

"He hand-selects people from here and there," says Brett Mosiman, principal organizer of Harvest Festival. "It's never happened that way before, and it will never happen that way again."

The Yonder Mountain String Band's Harvest Music Festival returns to Mulberry Mountain north of Ozark for a ninth consecutive year beginning Thursday and continuing into the morning hours of Oct. 19. It's in such a collaborative spirit that the Harvest Festival operates. Festival bands often join each others' sets for improvised jam sessions. Mosiman believes that comes from the historic traditions of bluegrass, with its acoustic, single-microphone style.

Indeed, bluegrass -- or maybe more specifically newgrass -- is represented in mass quantity at the festival. Practitioners such as Trampled by Turtles and the Carolina Chocolate Drops play bluegrass in a very traditional sense with acoustic instruments and harmonized vocals.

What main stage bands such as Mountain Sprout and Split Lip Rayfield play is technically bluegrass, but it is just as bawdy as any comic work. Headliners Yonder Mountain String Band play a hyped-up, wildly improvisational mix and may not play any song twice during the eight or so hours the band is booked for stage time. Other acts fall on the edges of what's considered "traditional" bluegrass, adding layers of electric guitar or drums or punk attitude. There's even a bit of New Orleans traditional music on the bill, courtesy of Ivan Neville and Lettuce. Mosiman says the 2014 lineup is the deepest and most diverse he's assembled for Harvest Festival.

Mosiman suggests checking out the sets of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who make traditional songs in the truest sense of the word; the Devil Makes Three, an outfit selling out venues on the East and West coasts but still relatively unknown in the middle of the country; The Jayhawks, the alternative country pioneers who were scheduled to perform at Harvest in 2012 but canceled; and The Oh Hellos, a Texas-based folk pop act that rarely plays together.

Music makes up the bulk of the entertainment at Harvest Fest, but plenty of other options exist as well. A hiking trail leads participants down to a remote waterfall in the surrounding national forest area. There's also a disc golf course and fishing holes on site. It's a great opportunity to get the camping gear out one last time before storing it for the year while enjoying a backdrop of changing leaves and a soundtrack of acoustic tunes.

"It fits perfectly into the winding down of the year," Mosiman says.