Beer, bluegrass, occasional other stuff
Even though he is a Grand Ole Opry member, enshrined in every hall of fame that exists for the music he plays, and widely acknowledged as the reigning king of bluegrass, it seems like Del McCoury is still surprised by his success. Friday evening he stepped on to the stage and his eyes got wide as he looked out and saw the crowd gathered for the festival he hosts. His smile got wide, too. It[…]
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DelFest 2019 started a day early this year, at least for us. We rolled into Cumberland on Wednesday in time to get to DelFest Academy in time for Bluegrass Karaoke, one of the highlights of the three-day, pre-festival, music camp for all ages that Rob McCoury’s wife, Lisa, runs each year. Bluegrass Karaoke is the final event of the academy, save the Thursday night opportunity for the Academy’s band scramble winners to play a song[…]
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For many music lovers, some of the highlights of festivals are always the sit-ins. It’s fun to see different artists collaborate musically. And it turns out, the musicians like it, too. Matter of fact, many of them say their favorite thing about DelFest is getting to pick with friends. That is especially the case for Ronnie McCoury, who says his best memories of DelFest over the years have been those chances to play music with[…]
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Sam Bush won’t be making it to DelFest this year. The mandolin monster is recuperating from abdominal surgery and had to bow out. Before that happened, though, we had a chance to talk with Sam for another pre-DelFest preview. We were talking about DelFest memories when he shared this story. It was headed for the written equivalent of the cutting room floor when a friend made a Facebook post reminding people not to be overly[…]
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We feel sorry for anybody who packed up and left the 78th Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival early.
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At its heart, the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival is a more traditional event, and Saturday evening’s slate sort of represented that.
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Wikipedia may not be the most authoritative source in the world, but where else are you going to go to find out a little about Weston, W. Va.? There is an official site for this “city” of 4,110 people. But it mostly deals with the local government. Wikipedia, though, tells us a little more about the town. For instance, Weston, which is about an hour south of Morgantown, was founded in 1818. Stonewall Jackson was[…]
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Seems like it was just last year. Probably because it was. It seemed to rain every weekend in the spring and summer of 2018. We called it “Festival Season,” but truth be told, it was more like monsoon season. Looking back, it seemed like there was only one truly perfect weather day — the Saturday of Grey Fox, when it was bright, sunny, dry, and perfect shirtsleeves weather. It was a Goldilocks day — not[…]
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Someday, a few years down the road, some of these songs will be standards in Stringdusters’ sets. And some will be forgotten . . .
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The new album is officially out on May 3, but the band is celebrating early with a string of album release shows that comes through Harrisburg Saturday night. The Flat Wheels will open that night upstairs at the Federal Taphouse on Second Street.
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