Kansas City Music Blog

photo by Jerry Jaspar

At Camp Zoe

​I remember when the city of Morrison, Colorado, banned Phish from performing in the mountain town for 10 years, thus barring the band from Red Rocks Amphitheater, because of the legions of patchouli-scented, dog-toting, brownie-selling hoards that descended upon the town and its limited resources in 1996.

That's why I was surprised to hear that the deputy sheriff of Shannon County, Dewayne Skaggs, has very few negative things to say about Shwagstock, the summer concerts that lure thousands of travelers through teensy Missouri towns like Eminence (population: around 550) and Salem (population 4850ish) on their way to Camp Zoe.

"For the three years I've been here, they haven't been a lot of trouble," says Skaggs of the Schwagstock fan base. "The staff at Camp Zoe is pretty alert. When we get a call that some kid didn't make it home on time the next day, we get the vehicle make and the name and give it to the Camp Zoe security staff and they hunt 'em down. They've had a 100 percent success rate so far."

Camp Zoe is nestled within an an Ozark valley, where Sinking Creek feeds into the Current River, hemmed in by national forest on one side and a private timber reserve on the other. The property is owned by Jimmy Tebeau, a founding member of The Schwag, the Grateful Dead cover band that's been playing since '91 (and boy are their fingers tired). He lives on the Camp Zoe property, which he bought six years ago from a Texas evangelist who had been using the grounds -- unsuccessfully -- for a church camp.


"The first year we were here, they (the residents of Salem and Eminence) freaked out a little bit because some of our people look pretty crazy," Tebeau says. "But we've been members of the Chambers of Commerce for both towns for six years now, and we pay a lot of taxes. Eventually they realized that no one's getting hurt, no one's stealing, people spend a lot of money around the towns and it's a beautiful thing. And we use as many local contractors as we can, so it works out really well."

Schwagstock 41, which takes place this weekend (Friday through Sunday), features bands that cover the "mega-monsters of classic rock," Tebeau says. There's Zoso, a Led Zeppelin tribute band; Think Floyd USA, which covers Pink Floyd; Moonlight Drive, a Doors cover band (from Wichita!); and a tribute to The Band called the Last Waltz Ensemble -- plus The Schwag themselves, of course. Tebeau expects to see more than 5,000 people in the audience throughout the weekend -- but there's room for 10,000.

Tickets are $60, which includes camping and parking, and most people buy theirs at the gate. "We've got a full medical staff, professional security, a board of directors, general managers," Tebeau says. "It didn't start out that way but it's grown to that. It's real organized now, for being a crazy rock 'n' roll party out in the woods."

Party on, you crazy Schwagsters.