Some time along the way from his home in Udall to his campsite at the Walnut Valley Festival, Joe Taverner transforms from mild mannered family man into Eddy Backwater ? tie-dye clad Internet radio proprietor and acoustic music fanatic.
“That’s the name everybody knows me by here,” he says, with a broad smile that indicates he’s taken with the name he’s given himself. “Just a little pseudonym I made up.”
And Eddy Backwater is offering a little something a number of campground pickers are looking for: thirty minutes of fame, live on stage and free of charge.
In its second year, www.frontporchradio.net offers half an hour of time on the stage, made to look like a small porch, to any musician or group brave enough to sign up. Performers play to whoever happens to be sitting in the five or six rows of chairs that sit under a white canopy.
Shows began on Monday and will run through Saturday. More than 70 groups will grace the stage over those six days, organizers say.
The music made here is also piped live onto Taverner’s website, where anyone with a computer can have a listen, for free. He keeps the site going through donations and the sell of merchandise.
“This is my way of giving back to the festival,” says Taverner, a computer network engineer who’s been showing up at the festival since 1989. “I wanted to bring something to Winfield.”
Taverner, 52, says he struggled for awhile about the use of all the technology at a festival where unaltered acoustic tunes straight from instrument to ear is coveted. But he figures if a computer, wireless Internet connection and microphone are all that is needed to share the festival experience, it couldn’t hurt.
“Anything to get the music out there,” he says.
On Thursday afternoon, the family band Scenic Roots took the Front Porch stage in front of an audience of about 20 people. The trio consists of Doug Rogers and his daughters, Erin and Amber. Doug led the group through a half hour of one-line jokes and songs that included a humorous tune detailing Doug’s preference to skip a casket and be buried in a trash bag when he dies.
Rogers said his group was “just happy to have the opportunity to perform” as the set ended.
Performers are never screened and are allowed to sign up for time on a first come, first served basis, says organizer Steve McCartney. Artists of varying skill levels are welcomed.
McCartney, who lives in Denver, is part of the camp Group Therapy where Front Porch Radio sets up at the Winfield Fairground. The camp has hosted a stage for performers for five years.
It didn’t take McCartney long to say yes when Joe Taverner and his wife, Dee Dee, came around to ask if they could setup the front porch at Group Therapy Camp.
“They were going to move back and forth from one camp to this camp but I said they should just set up here full time, it’ll be easier,” McCartney says. “I’m a real believer in KIS ? keep it simple.”
Taverner ? or should it be Backwater? – won’t get specific about how many people have visited his online radio site but says traffic has increased noticeably. But both he and McCartney agree momentum is on the upswing.
“It’s really grown and is growing,” McCartney says. “People really like it.”
Taverner shoots some video that is available online but doesn’t offer live video yet. That could come later but he’ll need “a lot more bandwidth,” he says. The radio and video project has eaten up a lot of Joe and Dee Dee Taverner’s time.
“She’s in it up to her neck just like I am,” Joe Taverner says, laughing.
Winfield’s KPM Computers provides the wireless connection Front Porch Radio uses.
Front Porch Radio is broadcasting live from the fairground from noon to 5:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and broadcasts four one-hour shows each night. Performers for those shows are selected by invitation only.