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Rockygrass 2003 - A Collaborative Effort
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Friday July 25:
Saturday July 26:
Sunday July 27
Rockygrass 2003 provided more than ample proof that this musical extravaganza reins supreme as the best Bluegrass Festival on the Planet. The aptly named "Planet Bluegrass," organization coordinates this weeklong academy and festival and did an astounding job at setting the best of all possible vibes. Everything from the setting along the palisades of the St. Vrain River to the gathering of the cream of bluegrass acts who serve as entertainers, historians and community leaders, to the first rate sound system and stage crews, every detail has been well considered by the Planet Bluegrass crew. This writer managed to catch most of the action but ,as with any lengthy festival, not every band can be reasonably reviewed. Below is my take on the proceedings I managed to witness. FRIDAY: Following a weeks worth of Rockygrass Academy the Rockygrass Festival got off to a smoking start with last year's band contest winners, "Hit and Run," featuring a well polished band led by the hot picking Rebecca Hoggan on guitar and vocals. Bassist and singer Erin Coats did a marvelous job backing the group and leading a couple of tunes complimented by the remarkably strong musicianship of Rockygrass Acadamy dobro instructor Todd Livingston, the hot picking Aaron Youngberg on Banjo and the head-spinning fast and accurate mandolin picker John Frazier. It's easy to see why this quintet stole the band contest last year and it seems they have only improved with time on all fronts as their musicianship, stagecraft and performance were as strong as most of the pro bands on the Rockygrass stage. Following Hit and Run came another Rockygrass Favorite, 2001 Telluride Bluegrass Festival winners "Bearfoot Bluegrass," a Cordova, Alaska based quintet featuring twin fiddles, and led by a trio of wonderful female singers. Annalisa Woodlee and Angela Oudean do a terrific job with harmony string lines that mimic close vocal harmonies. Kate Hamre on upright chimes right in with a warm and complimentary voice and the three of them are the latest hot young sirens of bluegrass harmony singing. The band also features two extremely competent guys, Michael Mickelson on Guitar and Jason Norris on Mandolin. When not performing as Bearfoot Bluegrass the quintet tours the country hosting bluegrass camps and getting kids involved in the rich history of this tradition. Midway through the day the first taste of pedigreed musical experience emerged with Darol Anger and Mike Marshall joined by the incendiary guitar player Bryan Sutton. This surprise guest appearance by Bryan Sutton signaled a trend that would pop up throughout the festival. The highlight of their set, aside from the tremendous level of improvisation built layer upon layer through the performance was the encore of Mike Marshall's opus, "Gator Strut," which he played on his gorgeous Monteleone Mandocello alongside Anger and Sutton. His low "C" string served as the bass driving his cohorts to ecstatic levels of melodic invention.
The Laurie Lewis Band Another crop of "A," list musicians who served as instructors at Rockygrass Academy appeared next with songwriter, fiddler and singer Laurie Lewis joined by her longtime cohort, mandolinist, songwriter and singer Tom Rozum along with Todd Sickaphoose on electric upright bass. Laurie and Tom's lengthy history together guarantees an audience a wonderful and heartfelt performance that was reinforced with the presence of their pals, Mike Marshall on guitar and Darol Anger on fiddle sitting in for the balance of the set. Later during the show Bryan Sutton appeared and wowed the crowd with blazing guitar leads. The Seldom Scene, onetime leading second-generation legends of East Coast Bluegrass, put on a high energy performance that really had the crowd in the palm of it's hand. Sole original member, banjoist Ben Eldridge tore it up with the kind of energy reserved for younger pickers. Guitarist and singer Dudley Connell pushed the energy envelope with great lead vocals and driving rhythms on songs such as "Lay Down Sally," "Rollin' and Tumblin," and "I Know You Rider," which was stretched out to lengths made famous by the late great mandolinist, John Duffey. Filling in ably for Duffey was Lou Reid whose mando breaks were pretty close to the fire of his predecessor and whose voice is the very definition of a high lonesome bluegrass tenor. Ronnie Simpkins on bass and Fred Travers on dobro rounded out the 'Scene's sound and as a unit they really got the audience up on it's feet.
Day one's penultimate act was the always mysterious and musical Peter Rowan joined by legendary guitarist Tony Rice with Billy Bright on mandolin and his lovely spouse Brynn Bright on a thunderous upright bass. Peter led the assemblage through a repertoire of his prolific originals catalog and several gems from the Monroe canon with plenty of historical asides in his delivery of the musical goods.
The hottest band in the bluegrass business concluded the day's music joined by the Godfather of new-acoustic music, David Grisman. Grisman's "Paganini-esque," mandolin gymnastics complimented the super-charged and already blazing hot Monroe style picking of Ronnie McCoury and elevated the delivery of the Del McCoury band's sound with sparkling harmony lines and double the rich tremolo of a standard DMB set. The set centered on the Dawg and Del's forty-year relationship as pickers and the live recording sessions that captured the tracks on the "Early Dawg," CD as well their respective musical relationships with Bill Monroe. SATURDAY: Day two of Rockygrass commenced with the finals of the instrumental competitions, which began in the workshop tent on Friday and featured the top three pickers on guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and dobro. The level of talent was noticeably high and the winners all walked away with high-end instruments in each category. Rockygrass instructors Jim Hurst and Missy Raines followed with a fabulous set of well delivered bluegrass, blues, folk and novelty songs from their repertoire featuring many tunes from their latest CD "Synergy." Jim Hurst is a confident and talented singer and guitar player who is more than ably backed by Missy Raines, 4-time IBMA Bass player of the year. This duo showed endearing song craft and delivery as strong as any larger band featured on the main stage and their duet performance provided ample proof of why these musicians also made excellent academy instructors. Drew Emmitt and John Cowan have by now become stalwarts of Planet Bluegrass Stages. Cowan of course emerged as co-front man, bassist and dynamic vocalist of the legendary Newgrass Revival. Drew Emmitt started out gracing many Colorado stages, including Telluride's with the Left Hand String Band, which ultimately merged with Vince Hermann's band of musical wing-nuts to become Leftover Salmon. Drew Emmitt can play just about anything with strings, but he stuck to the mandolin in this hot set with his band Freedom Ride and was joined by Matt Flinner, a fantastic mandolin stylist in his own right, but in this case Matt played banjo. Boulder guitar wizard, Ross Martin whipped it up on guitar with some strong breaks.
Drews Crew Picks Midway through the set the Emmitt-Cowan collaboration became ground-zero for a bout of mandolin madness with David Grisman and Ronnie McCoury Stepping out to support the band in it's delivery of several numbers from Drew's latest CD, Freedom Ride. At points during this epic set fiddler Darol Anger and banjoist Noam Pikelny also graced the stage to compliment the talent pool. This crew of pickers alone could have entertained for hours so the set was pumped up with so many hot players contributing to the musical mayhem. Guitar wunderkind Bryan Sutton also whipped up a froth with his hot picking ably abetted by a roster of great talents. In a reciprocal exchange with newfound friends Mike Marshall and Darol Anger, Bryan had them onstage from the get go playing tunes from his "Bluegrass Guitar," and "Ready to Go," CDs. Bryan's crew includes Tim and Dennis Crouch on fiddle and bass respectively, and the hot banjo picking of David Talbot (of Lonesome Standard Time). The set was further heated up by the appearance of Chris Thile whose legend looms large at Rockygrass. The synergy of all these fine players provided a remarkably deep level of jamming for Rockygrass fans. Following the previous evenings Grisman aided set; Del McCoury and band hit the stage yet again and received cascades of adulation from the crowd. The main man of bluegrass honored many requests and performed a litany of the best loved tunes from the band's repertoire including "Nashville Cats," "'52 Vincent Black Lightning," and "Bluest Man in Town." Not a bungled line, harmony note or squirrelly break occurred while listening to the guys who dominate the bluegrass industry, and this Saturday afternoon set was no exception. As if the roster wasn't wild enough, the David Grisman Quintet gave a demonstration of why they wrote the book on bluegrass inspired new-acoustic music, pulling rhythms and melodies from disperate blues, latin, classical, choro, samba, klezmer and bossa-nova influences, the DGQ can't help but put a festival crowd in awe of it's formidable talents. In keeping with the weekend's collaborative theme original DGQ members Marshall and Anger appeared yet again toward the end of the set, along with the Dawg's mando buddy Ronnie McCoury. The formidable assemblage including bassist Jim Kerwin, guitarist Enrique Coria, Floutist Matt Echols and multi-instrumentalist Joe Craven performed an encore that proved to be one of the wildest tunes of this orgy of musical excess. "Dawg's Bull was played with twin fiddles, twin guitars, mandolin and mandola and a huge head of steam and the audience was truly wowed.
Tim O'Brien (photo, left); a musician of incredible skill, depth and showmanship performed a "Tweener," set featuring a very stripped down performance of a number of his original songs in a balladeer style with Tim accompanying himself on an old Gibson flat top guitar. The emotional depth and vulnerability of his delivery made for poignant listening and the respectful audience responded with great pleasure to his much loved repertoire. Shortly afterward, in a surprising twist of events, he led a sextet of fiddlers wearing goofy looking straw hats through a ribald and hilarious rendition of "Arkansas Traveler," complete with a collection of fresh, new, 'between the verses,' one-liners. The fiddlers included Casey Driesen, Darol Anger, John Doyle, Dirk Powell and Bryan Sutton and this short- sweet 30 minute fiddle blow-out got the place howling with laughter and up on its feet. This show-business trick really set up the audience for the power and energy of upcoming Ricky Skaggs show. Considered one of the most talented second generation bluegrass legends, Ricky Skaggs has consistently lead his band, "Kentucky Thunder," through surprising personnel changes and a repertoire of powerful traditional bluegrass and gospel music from the likes of Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, and the brothers Stanley. The latest incarnation of Kentucky Thunder featured the always-potent Jim Mills on Banjo with Cody Kilby on lead guitar. Former Monroe sideman, Bobby Hicks was conspicuously absent (without explanation) leaving the incredible young Andy Leftwich to handle the fiddlin on his own. The robust harmonies and strong ensemble playing of the balance of the band were as powerful as ever, but in away, the assemblage lacked the rawness and spontaneity of some of the other acts whose music relies on chance taking and improvisational dynamics. Nonetheless, Kentucky Thunder acquitted themselves with the kind of emphatic exclamation point that a band needs to produce in order to conclude a Saturday night at Rockygrass. The third and final day of commenced with the band competition finals. Preliminaries took place during main stage activities on Saturday and with a dozen acts competing, the judges wound up with four qualifying bands instead of the requisite three, as this year, the competition was remarkably strong. The winning band, "Broke Mountain Bluegrass Band," out of Durango stole the competition with precision playing from a number of ringers (the banjo picker and mandolinist both won the individual contests on Saturday morning) and a great singing bassist. Look for these up and coming kids to open at Rockygrass 2004. Pete Wernick of Hot Rize, joined by his wife and long time musical companion, singer and picker Joan Wernick, along with good friend Tony Rice on lead guitar performed many well arranged and executed songs from Pete's arcane canon of originals, traditional and country duets. This trio's output was solid and musical and the addition of Tony Rice gracing the music with his jazzier guitar runs really added a lot of spice and fire to the sound motivating Pete and Joan to play sweetly in order to provide Tony with a sonic canvas upon which to paint his special melodic lines.
As the sun began to set on this final night of Rockygrass, mandolinists Mike Marshall and Chris Thile took the large main stage in a face-to-face arrangement with nothing more than two comfortable chairs and a few microphones for support. These cats are about as dynamic and talented as musician's get; two of the purist virtuosos in the business and their repertoire ranged from be-bop to Bach, fiddle tunes to swing jazz, pure improvisation to strictly composed complexity. Dazzling degrees of precision, speed, energy, and tone mixed with grace, beauty and soul were all present in significant dosages during this very special set of music. Marshall's deft use of the Mandocello in this context added a great deal of color and depth to the musical proceedings. In the word's of Mike Marshall, "Chris Thile is a phenomenon that only comes around about every 100 years." Modest Mike Marshall has the kind of talent and skill that is equal to the task of serving as foil to the imagination and skills of Christ Thile.
The Tim O'Brien Band at Strictly Bluegrass 2002 (report w/more pix) Tim O'Brien's legacy in Colorado casts a long shadow and his latest musical endeavor showcased the same consistent quality, energy and beauty of his pedigreed past. Tim's quartet featuring Dirk Powell on button accordion and acoustic bass, Casey Driesen on fiddle and the highly energetic John Doyle on vocals and rhythm guitar puts out a huge, rollicking bluegrass / celtic, folk, country sound that is riddled with tinges of Irish balladry, turn of the century imagery and high energy vocal arrangements. Once again, in keeping with the collaborative tendencies of the assembled musicians, towards the back end of the set Tim invited out Mike Marshall and Chris Thile to grace the stage on a number songs. Hot from their duet stage shot these guys whipped it up with a frenzy of mandolins while Tim maintained the deep mid-range sonic register with his Italian bazouki and Dirk, Casey and John plugged along as if the sextet were on their last pint of Guinness in a late-night Dublin pub. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the much anticipated appearance of Norman and Nancy Blake was pre-empted due to a family emergency so the final Sunday acts got to stretch out a good long while to fill the empty slot. Ultimately, as darkness descended the festival's final act, "Old and In the Grey," took the stage. With Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers and Jimmy Martin as examples, the original "Old and in the Way," did a limited tour and produced a 1973 LP that served to introduce millions to bluegrass music. The only thing that has come close to having the same effect on the masses was the recent release of "Brother Where Art Thou," but this movie and CD came with a decidedly less-hip pedigree regardless of its inherent high quality. The surviving member's Of Old and in the Way have managed to maintain much of their original "mojo," and recently released a new eponymously titled disc, which features much of the same vibe as their initial effort.
Old And In The Grey Peter "Red," Rowan, David "The Dawg," Grisman and Vasser "Clem," Clements possess the collective drive and skill to keep Old and in the Grey a viable, musical entity that makes playing hot intricate bluegrass look easy. Assisted by Herb Pedersen on banjo, filling in for the late great Jerry "Spud-Boy," Garcia and Brynn Bright handling bass duties in place of John, "the Mule," Kahn, this quintet played the equivalent of bluegrass peanut butter in that the consistency, familiarity and pleasure of what they delivered made this the sonic comfort food of the entire festival. Their classic repertoire featuring many Rowan and Clements originals augmented by classics from Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers and others of their ilk has definitely stood the test of time and the fiery blend of their voices and the energy and drive of Grisman's mandolin and Vasser's fiddle was icing on the this three day musical cake. Sally Truitt, Craig Ferguson, Steve Samansky and the Planet Bluegrass organization have managed, through extensive promotional experience to consider every possible angle in putting together Rockygrass and making it the fun, comfortable and rewarding experience for every one who manages to obtain a ticket or is booked to play the main stage. The scene, sound, vibe, aesthetics, and overall atmosphere of Rockygrass make it perhaps the best Bluegrass Festival in the nation. This in turn contributes to a vibe where the assembled professionals feel comfortable enough to collaborate and create new twists on the folk music tradition in a place where fans can stretch out comfortably and appreciate all that is presented to them. Rockygrass is a many faceted gem, a rollicking juggernaut of energy, a pin drop in an echo chamber, a tidal wave of sound and a collaborative eco-system of highly skilled musician's who share a rich, multi-hued catalog of musical tradition. I can't recommend this Fest enough. It can fill you to the brim with music and memories that last forever. Ted Silverman, San Francisco. Write to Ted
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Review and all photos by Ted
Silverman
Peter
Rowan & Tony Rice
David Grisman
