For the Studio One team, one of the most welcome and surprising stories of the past year has been the success of the Lost Woods Festival, hosted by the Cedar Falls band Salt Fox. Their second year festival happened Saturday, Sept. 28. In addition to the terrific music, the first Lost Woods managed to capture the feel of a big music festival in a relatively small space, and the now-famous lighting turned the woods into a fall wonderland.
For 2024, instead of going bigger, Salt Fox and the rest of the Lost Woods team chose to focus on taking what worked last year and making it better in every way.
“Last year obviously was a blank canvas,” said Jacob Pauli, who plays keyboards in Salt Fox and is one of the festival organizers. “If you remember last year the concept was born on July 24, and we just learned as we went... it was like diving head first into water. I feel like we started from a really good place this year with meetings and knowing what to do, what to buy, what was important, what didn't work last year, what worked...”
Of course, “better” is a subjective term when it comes to musical taste. Despite how little time Salt Fox had to pull everything together in 2023, last year’s lineup was excellent, even if the artists weren’t 100% sure what they were getting into when they signed up.
“Last year, one of the younger bands from Iowa City showed up and I got a minute to chat with the bass player,” said Pauli. “He goes ‘Hey, I want to be honest about something. We thought this was a hoax until about 10 minutes ago. Like, we thought we might get murdered.’”
With a year to plan instead of six weeks, Salt Fox were able to point to the success of 2023 when building a lineup for this year.
“It was a little easier because we could show videos that proved that it wasn't just us and 12 sad people out in the forest,” said Salt Fox guitarist Andy Fuchtman. “And now some of these bands are people we've played with and we really have gotten to know them a little bit, and we've loved them personally as well as their music. So for us it's a treat to be able to invite them out.”
This year’s festival marked the return of rapper/producer Jim Swim, who played at the first Lost Woods and was a huge hit with pretty much everyone. Jim Swim actually played two sets this year: a solo set and one with his frequent collaborator, soul singer Alyx Rush. They’ve rebranded their duo as Sun Centauri, and this was one of their first public performances. Sun Centauri’s sound was perfect for the unseasonably warm afternoon, and Jim Swim managed to top his winning and charming performance from last year.
Halfloves are another band who have played with Salt Fox before. It’s been a busy year for Halfloves, who also played at 80/35 and the Des Moines Arts Festival. And like Salt Fox, Halfloves have produced some excellent music videos, including their latest for “Just Wanna Sleep.” I’m always happy to catch Halfloves, and their huge, keyboard-driven alternative rock sound was a perfect fit for Lost Woods.
New to this year’s lineup was Des Moines-based indie rock band Lady Revel, who used this fest to make their first appearance in Cedar Falls. Lady Revel were the first band of the day, and had a pretty great crowd considering the time of day (4:30 p.m.), including several folks who traveled from out of town specifically to hear them. They’re great performers, and they even said “Hinterland, Shminterland” at one point. Quick aside: The opinions expressed at Lost Woods are not necessarily those of Lost Woods, or Studio One.
Lost Woods also brought in a pretty big “get” (and old friend of Studio One): Elizabeth Moen, who now lives in Chicago. Not only did she and her band sound great, Moen managed to give a shout-out to IPR on stage, which we appreciated. In addition to her own music, which is as good as ever, Moen has toured as a member of Squirrel Flower’s band and has also opened for Jeff Tweedy and Kevin Morby. “We went after her pretty hard, to be honest,” said Pauli. “She was on our list of Midwest artists. She's so talented.”
The most fascinating addition to this year’s lineup by far was Everyday Astronaut, the project of photographer and blogger Tim Dodd, who’s making space travel an accessible and understandable topic for science-challenged folks like myself. It turns out Dodd is a pretty excellent guitar player too! He played an all-instrumental set backed by the members of Salt Fox on other instruments, with Everyday Astronaut’s videos featured on the big screen behind them.
Salt Fox wrapped up the night with their own set, including a couple of new singles from their upcoming album. Vocalist Michael Rogers was at the top of his game for this set, and even broke out an acoustic guitar for a take on Coldplay’s “Yellow.” The band’s good friend and producer Tim Rosenau was in town for the event, watching from the crowd like a proud dad. He described the band’s recording process as “a little unorthodox.”
“They come to Nashville and either stay in my house or in an Airbnb and then we just kind of record things as they come,” said Rosenau. “Their music is usually pretty much done, so we're mainly cutting live instruments and then doing some programming.”
“They brought me something and I just put the cherry on top,” said Rosenau. “It takes a village to make a record. Isn't that what they say? I think that's what they say. I'm very proud of these guys.”
In typical Salt Fox fashion, the band is already thinking ahead, and they have some big ideas for the future.
“It's stressful to think about, but we dream of having a big second stage and double acts happen at the same time, and you just trek further into the woods,” said Pauli. “Kind of a dream, but also kind of a nightmare. We do too much, man.”
The Lost Woods Festival is made possible by the hard work of its staff, who are almost all volunteers, and is supported by voluntary donations (just like IPR). Most of the bands who played at this year’s festival can be found on Bandcamp and streaming services.
