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FLUSHING - Chris and Nina Dutton, the brother and sister act who came to the rescue when Jamboree in the Hills discontinued their run of yearly concerts, has not only filled a void with the replacement called Blame My Roots, but has higher expectations.
Those expectations are nothing earth shattering as they want to maintain what they are building on but certainly want to grow with bigger acts, as well as a concert size as a whole.
The influence that backed their ambition was the music itself, which was always a big part of their family.
"My dad was a big Elvis fan, and loved to sing along to the radio. I remember my mom had Garth Brooks tapes playing constantly in the car when we were young," Chris recalled. I think all of us kids were taken to Jamboree in the Hills at a very young age."
Chris also remembers how exciting it was to watch his brother Greg rising through the local ranks in Pittsburgh with his own band, which lasted around 10 years.
Raised on a cattle farm in Flushing, Ohio, his parents worked for his grandfather's coal company.
"But they were always active with side hustles; cattle farm being the main one. Growing up, I could never really answer clearly the question, 'what do your parents do?' because the company stopped mining coal when we were toddlers," Chris explained. His parents then turned to business ventures like asset management and real estate development, as an example. The key, though, to BMR and how they secured the concert to follow JITH was that his family already owned the property the concert is currently on. But it's not like there wasn't competition.
"There were a couple of other groups that were making a lot of waves," he said of that time but he and Nina laid low blending into the background while working very hard behind the scenes. But their timetable was becoming narrower as they approached the end of 2018 before the inaugural 2019 date.
Then with each month of the new year things began falling into place. But having the Valley View campgrounds, which his mother's family already owned, was the head start they needed. Their campgrounds worked to host the overflow JITH's crowd.
"Along with farming, this was our Summer gig for 28 years," Chris explained. "Valley View started as a parking lot, then grew to be the biggest off-site campground for Jamboree. My siblings and I started out as golf cart drivers and trash pickers, into managing some of the operations and marketing."
And the family threw great parties.
"My mom cooked all the food. We had live music, dancing, kegs, and even volleyball out on the lawn for 300 plus people. She did the same for a Christmas party every winter. So for as long as I can remember, I always had parties to look forward to," Chris described. "I suppose more than anything, when Jamboree left, I still wanted a party to look forward to. And I suppose I also learned that I really loved to throw parties. This is how I look at Blame My Roots Fest - it's a big Summer party for our friends and family.
Chris, who is a real estate Agent, and investor also manages the marketing and sales for the farm and restaurant: Dutton Cattle Co., and The Pike 40 Restaurant. Nina, a nurse practitioner, works in Oncology.
"With us both having full time careers, we are passionate about music and wanted to bring a music festival to our hometown," she said. On whether they plan on any twists to the future musical lineup Chris said they would let the market decide that.
"Country music changes about every 10 years, and we're in the middle of that change right now," he explained. "We want it to stay current, but also provide an homage to country music legacy and icons. I think we've done a great job of that so far given how new we are."
Curiously, Chris doesn't feel the need for country music festivals but feels there's a "festival fatigue happening across the country with festivals that are just about the music, rather than the experience." He feels, though the music is most important, that things are moving towards "wanting a unique experience."
"We don't have the luxury of just booking the same country bands from the fair circuit, and building a business from that," he said. "This is why we've invested so much in the installations and experiences at Blame My Roots Fest."
"We are building the festival around a genuine, intimate setting of a family farm in the rolling hills of Eastern Ohio," Chris explains. "This includes leaving the trees and as much grass in the natural rolling amphitheater, rather than massive gravel roadways."
What Chris and Nina want is for BMR to be looked at as one of the best live country music festivals in the United States.
"We're doing things out there that no other music festival is doing in our local area," Dutton said, naming the VIP section and country cabana set up as examples. And what does he see himself doing in ten years?
"Yeah, my goal in ten years is to still be able to have a festival that is still looked at as one of the best, unique experiences that you could have," Chris explained.