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One hairy country festival

The Hairfarmers giddy up to the inaugural Campground C Country Rock Music Festival
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Old School Chums The Campground Country C Rock Music Festival wil be a high school reunion for Grateful Greg Reamsbottom of Hairfarmers (pictured) and Aaron Pritchett, a multiple Canadian Country Music Award winner.

What: Campground C Country-Rock Music Festival

When: Saturday, Aug. 25, 1 p.m.

Where: Whistler driving range

Tickets: $45

“Grateful” Greg Reamsbottom of The Hairfarmers looks forward to a high school reunion at the first Campground C Country-Rock Music Festival Aug. 25 at the Whistler Golf Driving Range.

Who knew a high school hippie — the first to grow a beard in his school — and a clean-cut sports enthusiast would ever find themselves on one stage as professional musicians.

“I’m sure we both loved music at the time, but neither one of us were musicians,” Grateful Greg recounts. “I never saw him play a note, or him me, and now we are both playing music for a living. It’s kind of funny.”

“Him” is Aaron Pritchett, a 2007 Juno nominee for country recording of the year and the headliner for Campground C.

The hockey rink was the common ground for the then grade school students from Seaquam High School in North Delta. Now, the festival mainstage brings the Canadian Country Music Award winner and one of the world’s most famous après entertainers together on one bucking bronco of a ride for Whistler’s first country rock festival.

Just as the name implies, the music lineup places country music first and foremost, but a healthy dose of rock is also thrown in. Festival founder Byron James of Eco One Productions took the double playbill approach hoping the festival will appeal to both cowboy hat and tattoo toting listeners.

“We’ve got an eclectic mix of country and rock,” James said. “Ideally that is what we want to do, so people who love country want to come, but people who like rock but aren’t sure about country will still want to come out… We wanted to make sure we weren’t leaving anyone out.”

The festival also touts a lot of country-rock hybrids. The Hairfarmers and Pritchett are no exception.

The Hairfarmers, made up of duo Grateful Greg and “Guitar” Doug Craig, are après legends in Whistler. Thanks to their spirited, contagious and absolutely crazy shows — these guys have got more blackmail stories on their audiences than the C.I.A. — they are internationally-recognized talents with resort audiences coming from all corners of the globe for their music/stand-up-comedy/magnetism that can only come from an equation of hippie hair and jugs of beer. From barely-legal partiers to young-at-heart grey hairs, the Hairfarmers have won over audiences at the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival mainstage (too many times to count) as well as the Kokanee Summit party, Whistler’s 2010 winning bid celebration, the War Child benefit, and more ski town stages than you can shake a ski pole at.

These two powder hounds play everything, but Grateful Greg is looking forward to a country-motivated set.

“Country music is awesome,” he said. “It gets to a certain point where you need to distill music down to where it started. Rock and roll came out of blues and country. I especially love older, timeless country. They’ve got solid harmonies and a good hook.”

The list of cover material will come from greats such as Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merl Haggard and Kris Kristofferson, as well as new talent such as Old Crow Medicine Show and Alberta’s Corb Lund.

Originals will also twang themselves in, including the country, blue-grass-inspired Going to Kamloops that brings down the house every time.

“It’s a song Doug and Franco wrote about a hippie road trip,” Grateful Greg said, laughing. “We can leave it at that.”

With lyrics such as “Gonna raid a ginseng farm, eat a root as long as my arm and baby we’ll be loving all night long”, audiences privy to Whistler’s hairiest experience know these boys can create a good time even for those who cringe at country. The Whistler boys rock out at 3 and 4:55 p.m.

As well as a high school yearbook, Pritchett also shares Grateful Greg’s talents for getting people hooked on something new.

“Young to old come out to my show and so many people who hadn’t seen my show before will say, ‘I’m not a big country fan, but I am really into your music,’” Pritchett said. “It’s nice to hear people want the different country sound we offer.”

Pritchett was recently nominated for two 2007 Canadian Country Music Awards, including Best Male Artist and Best Song. He set a record last year with six nominations, all for his album Big Wheel . The title track hit number three on Canadian Country Radio for eight weeks. The cheeky Hold My Beer (While I Kiss Your Girlfriend) track is also keeping Pritchett’s name on national charts. His show closes the festival at 8 p.m.

The festival’s nine-band lineup also includes the Celtic-folk music of Spirit of the West starting at 6:30 p.m. With four gold and two platinum albums to the Canadian band’s credit, hits such as Home for A Rest, Save This House and If Venice is Sinking have almost become Canadian anthems for West Coasters.

On at 5:15 p.m., The Cruzeros, who were nominated for a Juno and a Canadian Country Music Award this year, cross over roots and Americana sounds with their Tex-Mex infusion.

On at 4:15 p.m., Damian Marshall, a nominee for the 2006 CCMA country rising star award, is a regular on Country Music Television with hits such as Built to Last and Why Don’t We.

On at 3:20 p.m., Kelly Brock carries on the rock country belt buckle with hits from her fourth album, Rebel Kind , including Cowboy Boots and Levis, and High on the Sunshine.

On at 2:30 p.m., Dustin Bentall is all about dusty diner alternative country rock, a cross between Bob Dylan and Blue Rodeo.

On at 1:45 p.m., Smith and Jones’ country rock travels from the Queen’s palace to Queensland shifting from laidback country to high-octane rock, and on at 1 p.m., Steel Toe Boots is a regular sound at the Campground C nights at the Longhorn Saloon in Whistler.

Offstage distractions for festival goers include a mechanical bull, jumbo boxing, sumo wrestling suits and a Velcro wall. Beer gardens and food vendors will also be on site.

Tickets are $45. For tickets, visit campgroundc.com or ticketmaster.ca.