Beer, bluegrass, occasional other stuff
Somewhere around 10:43 p.m. Sunday night, Del McCoury walked off the grandstand stage at DelFest 11, and what was an amazing weekend of eclectic music shifted into neutral. Yeah, Old Crow Medicine Show would play for another hour or so, but after they gathered around a single mic with the host of the party for a singing lesson on “Lost Highway,” Del left that stage, and we could coast. It was all downhill from there.[…]
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“This is not a show. It’s just the soundcheck.” Del McCoury kept telling the fans that Thursday afternoon as he and his band opened the 11th Annual DelFest with what has become a tradition along the banks of the Potomac. And yes, technically it is labeled on the festival schedule as “The Del McCoury Band Soundcheck.” That mattered not to the DelFestarians who flocked the infield of the Allegany County Fairgrounds racetrack, aka the Music[…]
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There are few things in bluegrass that have stood the test of time the way the Seldom Scene has. What began as a weekly jam session in founding member Ben Eldridge’s basement made what current lead singer and guitarist Dudley Connell estimates was its 76th appearance at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival last weekend. Held twice each year — in May and in August — this was the 76th edition of the Gettysburg festival. It was[…]
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When Charles Humphrey III suddenly announced last fall that he was leaving the Steep Canyon Rangers, the musical home he helped to build and his main musical focus for 18 years, it caught a lot of fans by surprise. The timing seemed a little odd. The Steeps were about to release a new album, one that included three songs written by Humphries. In a Facebook post announcing his decision, Humphrey wrote: “I’m excited to let[…]
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Thought we’d try a different way of reviewing a festival by handing out some awards following this weekend’s 76th Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival. The idea is pretty simple — after each festival we cover, we will hand out our best of show honors and at the end of festival season we will bestow Brewskis (or maybe we will come up with a better name) to the bests we experience during festival season. Or maybe we will[…]
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Here is a look back at Saturday at the 76th Gettysburg Bluegrass festival. (Click on the image to see it full size, use the arrows to navigate to other photos.)
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Chris Luquette may not be a household name with bluegrass fans, but anybody who has seen the 27-year-old Seattle native pick a guitar will tell you that thought should include the word “yet.” The 2013 International Bluegrass Music Association Momentum Award winner tore it up at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival this weekend. A member of Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen since 2012, his blistering solos and adept interplay with Solivan on mandolin and banjoman Mike[…]
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It was stretch day Friday at the 76th Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival. The bi-annual festival, which has been happening since 1979, has a reputation as one of the top traditional bluegrass festivals in the country.The McCoury brothers tell stories about chasing girls there when they were teenagers tagging along to their dad’s gigs. All the greats have played there, including Bill himself. The promoters are not afraid to push the envelope now and again, though. A[…]
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It rained most of the day, but that hardly dampened the spirits of the bluegrass fans gathered at the Granite Hill Camping Resort near Gettysburg for Day One of the 76th Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival. Of course with an opening day lineup filled with IBMA award winners and a couple of fine emerging acts, who was about to let rain dampen their spirits. Eric Avey, of local favorites Mountain Ride, talks about the thrill of playing[…]
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Call it a rookie mistake. It was our first visit to DelFest. We’d never heard of Trampled by Turtles. You might say we didn’t know any better. Lame excuse, to be sure. But we were heading home Sunday night. We’d not known about the magical late night sets at DelFest, so we didn’t have tickets for the Traveling McCourys’ customary sendoff. So we figured we’d skip the last act on the main stage and get[…]
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