This coming Saturday, Aug. 23, local farmer/songwriter Brett McFarland is again swinging for the fences, this time in the form of a concert before the Humboldt County Fairgrounds grandstands, also featuring Huckleberry Flint and Luke Powell. As part of his local promotional tour, a barefoot McFarland was kind enough to wander into LoCOHQ for a li’l interview to discuss this weekend, his music, his crazy year, and, of course, Humboldt.

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LoCO: So, I think it’s fair to say you’re going for a big show feel with this with this Humboldt County Fair performance. What was the first big concert you saw as a kid and what do you remember about it?

McFARLAND: The first big concert I saw as a kid: I got to see Radiohead at Red Rocks in Colorado when I was 18. I remember watching the guys coming out of the rigging — like the people that were working on lighting stuff — and it was so trippy and psychedelic watching that band with all these lights and these people descending from ropes. And the music was was amazing. 

There was all kinds of magic that happened at that concert for me. I felt like I was the youngest person at this concert — I went with my older cousins — but somebody that knew me came and tapped me was like, “Hey, come over here.” And he had tickets like three rows back. So, thank you, Jason Weiss! Because, you know, he snuck me up front in that concert and that brought the magic in. I just remember being blown away by the music and how it brought everyone together. They played so many of the classics off Kid A and, you know, the whole thing was just like a psychedelic blur.

LoCO: I was looking at your press release you sent out to promote your upcoming show and you mention your desire to use the occasion to celebrate Humboldt’s heritage and working class roots. And one of the ways you’re going to do that is you plan to surround the stage with the vintage tractors and logging trucks, etc. Why does going to all that effort feel like an important gesture to make at this point in time?

McFARLAND: Well, there’s more that’s going to be on that stage that’s not in that press release, so let me just tell you that! We’ve hinted at it with the “surprise appearances” and “top secret shenanigans.” 

But yeah, I feel like Humboldt County right now is going through some changes. The perception is a lot of these industries have come and gone or have changed a lot. Like, there was timber and then timber kind of busted. There was fishing and fishing kind of busted. There was weed and weed kind of busted. All these things are still present. We still have fishermen, we still have loggers, there’s still people in the hills that are cultivating. But it’s all changed in a lot of ways. And to me, heritage is about remembering, “Where did you come from?”

Picture a logger in your mind. Now, picture a hippie pot grower. Do they look like the same person to you? In Humboldt County, they might very well be the same person, but that’s not normal in a lot of the country. We’re told there’s these more stark divides now more than ever. To me, celebrating those working class roots is really about celebrating what unites us and what unifies us here in Humboldt.

LoCO: It’s been almost a year since the release of the “Humboldt” music video, which seemed to lift you into a whole other level of public awareness here locally. When you were writing that song, were you consciously thinking about how you might connect with the widest Humboldt audience possible?

McFARLAND: When I wrote that song, I wrote the first line from a place of personal gratitude. The first line in the song says, “I built my home with my own two hands…” I worked my tail off doing a lot of the things that I’ve done, so I was feeling this sense of personal accomplishment. But then, I’m like, well, I can’t really say much more without looking around at all the help that I received, all the support I received, so the next lines in the song talk about “help from my friends and trees from the land.” After the first line — which I had kicking around for maybe a couple months — when I actually sat down and wrote it, it happened in less than 24 hours. It just happened so fast, so I wasn’t even thinking. I just thought, “What do I think about Humboldt,” you know? I wasn’t thinking, “How do I connect with Humboldt?” I’m writing a song about my appreciation of Humboldt. It wasn’t labored over. It just really came through and in that way, to me, I can’t take full credit for that song. When I think about the song “Humboldt,” I think of that song as a co-write between me and the community and all the conversations with people that I’ve had over two decades living here.

LoCO: Kind of in the same vein of talking about this kind of whirlwind year that you’ve had: Some months ago, it seemed like you kind of lucked into being this sort of de facto spokesman for Humboldt when you were featured in that Peter Santenello YouTube clip. That video has nearly 5 million views now. How did that encounter come to be and what kind of reaction have you received from it?

McFARLAND: Yeah, so I had never heard of Peter Santanello before he reached out to me. And Peter, I think he saw the “Humboldt” video! He had some local contact here, and I’m very grateful for that person because they bridged the gap. 

I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me from all these videos — I have to be careful about who I say yes to, you know? But I looked at Peter’s videos and I saw that he was somebody who went around and just met with different people. I saw this video he did of this farmer in Europe, and I was like, oh, [Humboldt] is going to be right up his alley. So, I kind of knew to say yes. But what surprised me was how much fun we had together! Like he’s a genuine, kind person. We remain in contact. I mean, he’s like messaging me before the gigs and stuff which has been really sweet and it’s been cool to see his journey. 

But the impact of that video was not insignificant. I had a sense when he was coming that it would be meaningful, that I was meeting with somebody who was worthy of my time. And I know I was worthy of his. 

What’s remarkable to me about that video is not just the fact that it has almost 5 million views, but that it’s over an hour long. You know, you can get 5 million views on nine-second TikTok and like, okay, good job, but people have tuned in and that documentary shows so much of the heart of Humboldt. 

But the impact has been tremendous. I mean, right when that video came out, our farm cidery got slammed with so many cider orders. We sold out of cider temporarily. I mean, we had product, we just didn’t have enough labeled and stuff. And we had to get it in the mail and it was new to us. So that was tremendous to have all these people from over the country send so many messages and emails. A lot of people were touched by the music. Because what Peter did, I don’t know if you watched to the end, but the end of that video, he actually put the entire “Humboldt” music video in there. He really showcased the music. All of a sudden it was like, whoa, we’re getting all these new listeners and there’s been all different people reaching out about opportunities to play at different festivals and stuff. So it’s kind of mind blowing how quickly things can change, how something like spending a day with this YouTuber who shows up at your front door can change your life.

LoCO: Going back to the Humboldt County Fair show you’re promoting here: Which song from your live shows do you feel connects with audiences in a way that surprises you?

McFARLAND: Well, first of all, the fact that the music connects with audiences to me is just a stinking miracle. It’s so beautiful. It’s the thing that draws me to it. Even like the song “Humboldt,” how it could connect with so many different people with different backgrounds. It would be easy to think they’d be in conflict with each other and yet they’re not, in so many cases. “Humboldt” is the song that, locally, when we play it, you feel this connection with the audience that’s unparalleled, because people feel so stoked. It’s not just the hit, it’s their hit. That’s what I think is so cool about it. When they’re there celebrating with us, it’s like, oh wow, this is this is all of our hit. We all get to share in this hit. So, that’s kind of the obvious one. 

But I guess the song that was probably the first one that came to mind, is there’s a song on this album called “Sing Son Sing.” It’s a song about about all the great cowboys I’ve known in my life. You know, one of which being my dad. And my neighbor Ken Jarvela, he’s a painter, he appeared in there. “Cowboy” is a loose term to me, because Ken, he don’t raise cows. But you look at Ken, he’s a mountain man. There’s a line in that song, it says “I knew an old cowboy. He used to paint the moon. You can find him by the river from June to June.”  There’s lines about my neighbor, Freddy, about the people I’ve lost. I think about the wisdom and advice they gave me. That’s the spirit of that song. It’s very personal in that way, so to hear other people going deep with it… you ask about surprising? I think that one has been pretty surprising, the way that’s touching people has been cool to hear.

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Tickets ($11) and more info about this weekend’s Brett McFarland and the Freedom Riders show can be found here. McFarland is hosting a meet-and-greet event the night before on Friday, Aug. 23 at 5:30 p.m., with the first 250 people in line set to receive a free t-shirt.