Hardly Strictly Bluegrass VII
Sunday 7th October 2007
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Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
VII
Sunday 7th October 2007
Back to the Contents |
Bookmark this article |
HSB home page
| Our other sites
|
| Introduction | Saturday concerts | Sat night party | The menu | After numerous stresses and a very late night (blame the private party at Slim's!) Derek was too clapped-out to get up at 8 a.m. to put down our tarp so we stayed in the Friends and Family enclosure with our chairs, etc., though it's not a good place for photographs. It was a beautiful day, blue sky and not a cloud anywhere and much warmer than Saturday; one lady was even sporting a paper sun hat! We managed to hear the end of Hazel Dickens' set as we were coming down the slope from the car park - we got advance warning from the sound, coming from the trash cans, of glass bottles shattering . . .
We settled down to watch 88-year-old Curly Seckler, one of the grand old
performers in Old Timey Music along with something we hadn't expected seeing
at HSB, The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience. Grisman had his son
Sam (bass) with a star cast of Chad Manning (onetime Claus; fiddle), Jim
Nunally (lead guitar)
Above: Our friend Chad Manning
Links on this site to Chad and Grisman: Next came A Dream Of A Miners Child, featuring Keith Little's spine-chilling vocals followed by Little Girl In Caroline. At this point David Grisman introduced Curly Seckler who entertained us in fine old mountain style with Salty Dog Blues Curly then said that he'd asked the guy who wrote it why he'd called it Salty Dog and he said that it was named after a drink in Carolina. After a pause Curly said, "He told me a lie, and I've just told you one! "Yes, we knew. And it's not about an old sailor, either.
After a couple of anti-war songs written by Curly they finished their
set in a similar way to how they began it. "So long everybody, now it's time
to git, We'll be back again on your Internet," followed by their last number,
'Til The End Of The World Goes Round I'm not a great fan of David
Grisman but The David Grisman Bluegrass Experience did a good job
today, they were very entertaining and left me wanting more.
After this set, backstage, Warren Hellman received a Distinguished Achievement Award from the IBMA. It was presented by Ron Thomason and Warren's super-favourite, Hazel Dickens. Like all of us, Warren likes to think his contributions are appreciated, but I'm sure he's not happy in glorification; characteristically, he spread it around and included all the staff and security as well! In massive understatement, nowadays Warren 'only' pays for the event. The Earl Scruggs Band
As the band sees you.... Next up at 3 p.m. was Earl Scruggs with son Gary on guitar, Jennifer Kennedy (Dobro), Hoot Hester (fiddle), John Gardner (drums) (uh?), Keith Searle (electric guitar), Brian Sutton (acoustic guitar, vocals) and John Randle (bass).
Earl played his banjo standing up and sounded just as good as always.
His backing musicians were the same as last year, giving great supporting
sound as he played many of his well known, self-penned tunes including
Earl's Breakdown, The Ballad Of Jed
A young would-be rocker in the civilised Friends & Family enclosure. I spotted one young lad in our enclosure sitting in a genuine wooden rocking chair trying to keep up with the band but he had no chance; he couldn't keep time. Maybe he was hoping to become a rocker, or perhaps a banjo picker?
Up above the Blue Angels were passing over doing their thing while Gary Scruggs continued the set, dedicating his next number, You Ain't Goin' Nowhere, to George Bush. It being San Francisco, it was very well received, and the song too! This was followed by a cracking version of Soldier's Joy. Grand old stuff, this - it really made my blood sing! It was hard to believe we were sat there watching all these great acts again and for free. Well done again, Warren - and all the unsung staff.
A mixed bag of
The next number, Sittin' On Top Of The World suffered from the poor sound quality; the vocals just weren't 'out front' where they should be. They finished with The Ballad Of Jed Clampett and Foggy Mountain Breakdown in high gear with lots of energy and plenty of Scruggs style with a blistering lead guitar break from Brian Sutton with not a bum note anywhere. Great stuff - all the crowd loved it, me included!
FMB guitar break video clips: |
clip 1 |
clip 2 | All the time the Blue Angels had been doing their aerobatics up above adding to the excitement or detracting from your pleasure (according to your view). We decided to stay put at the Main Stage for the time being as it was difficult to cover all the events we wanted to - we're getting too old. So we were hoping that we could rely on some friends to take in some of the other attractions for us and report back. It didn't happen, of course.
Next it was time for Doc Watson, with his grandson and David Holt, to give us some country blues and guitar tunes.
He finished with a very laid back, bluesy version of Sitting On Top Of The World and Mississippi John Hurt's I Got The Blues And I Can't Be Satisfied by with banjo and two guitars. It was all very, very Doc Watson!!
Doc links on this site:
With Jack Lawrence,
S.F. Video clips of Doc Watson Clip 1 | Clip 2: John Hardy
This year we said that we would take in another stage for a change at the end of the weekend because we've heard Emmylou so many times. So, after another marathon trek we ended up at the Star stage watching Del McCoury and the Boys. Wow! I'd forgotten how good they were. They did all their good stuff, including Nashville Cats some great fiddle tunes from Jason Carter, High On A Mountain, Are You Leaving Me and Thanks A Lot
Next, Del wailed away Workin' On A Building in a high falsetto that would've cracked glass, if Hazel hadn't already beaten him to it. Before the final song, Peter Rowan joined them for The First Whippoorwill before they finished with My Love Will Not Change. Video clip: Whippoorwill
The McCourys always give an awesome performance, but enhanced this year
by Peter. Further, there didn't seem to have been any of the sound problems
on this stage that had plagued the Main stage during the weekend.
This was for us a fitting finish to a great weekend of some of the best Bluegrass music around. Jason Carter whips that fiddle! We left the Star Stage a little early otherwise we would never have got back to the Main Stage. We did in fact make it in time to catch the last few numbers from Emmylou Harris. Her set had included Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and The Angels Rejoiced Last Night; was this a cryptic reference to the noisy things in the sky that had detracted from several performances? Whatever, Emmylou brought to an end yet another fantastic, now traditional, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival. Thanks again to Warren Hellman… If I were permitted by the Editor to speak in the 'first person' I would say, "See you October 2008, Warren, all being well!"
Derek & Jean Brandon, Chester, England.
Sunday Artists/Bandlist:
Bill Callahan |
By Derek & Jean Brandon
Curly Seckler & the David Grisman Bluegrass
Experience
and Keith Little (banjo). "Hello everybody, How do you do, we
are here to sing and play for you," was the lead in to the obligatory Home
Is Where The Heart Is which they followed with Train 45 (aka
Ruben's Train) with superb harmony vocals and a great break from Jim.
The dancing fools were back in the Mosh Pit for this great dancing music.
Our main man, Main Stage MC, Paul Mann
Clampett and Foggy Mountain Breakdown in
his own inimitable, though frequently imitated, style, sounding as good as
ever and smiling around when he knew he'd done good! Derek said, "I thought
I was the only banjo player who stopped picking during guitar breaks, etc,
but I was wrong. Earl scruggs does exactly the same, so I must be doing something
right!"
Gary and Erarl Scruggs
The sound problems that plagued this stage yesterday were still with us,
taking the shine off what was otherwise a superb set.
Country and Bluegrass tunes and songs followed including
Dim Lights, Thick Smoke And Loud, Loud Music, Doing My Time,
Someday We'll Meet Again Sweetheart, Foggy Mountain Rock, John
Hardy and Sally Goodin; all classic gems.
Earl Scruggs
Jennifer Kennedy
Doc Watson
Doc
was in great voice, beginning with In The Pines followed by a masterful
version of Summertime and a couple of guitar blues tunes followed
by Waiting For The Robert E. Lee played on two guitars.
The Del McCoury Band - on The Star Stage
Del has said that he hates performing Richard Thompson's Vincent (a
song about the legendary British Vincent Black Lightning motorcycle) but
there are times when the audience (paying or not) comes first and they did
a superb version of it with a rolling Banjo, on it's own, behind the last
verse after which the rest of the band re-joined one by one; it was very,
very effective. 
Peter Rowan and del McCoury
This was a powerhouse of a performance from the Del McCoury
Band! For me they just seem, just like a good wine, to improve
with age...