greensky bluegrass

Greensky Bluegrass: Handguns

Handguns, the 4th studio album from Greensky Bluegrass, is one of the most stirring acoustic releases of the year.  The five-man Michigan band has taken strands of bluegrass, country, folk, and engineered a lyrically blunt, musically sophisticated strain of acoustic art.  The songs have an honesty that harkens back to the glory days of confessional country music as perfected by Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, and the like. 

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Greensky Bluegrass- Hardly Strictly Newgrass

So take a listen to the bluesy Stomp of “Bring Out Your Dead” from Greensky Bluegrass’ fourth studio effort Handguns and you get something that sounds like The Black Keys gone Telluride.   Yes, Greensky Bluegrass are hardly strictly bluegrass, as the Kalamazoo, MI band has won over crowds from Bonnaroo to the Northwest String Summit.  The 14 tracks on Handguns stretch from the 11 minute jam vehicle “All Four” to the old timey flavors of “Hot Dogs (On Parade)” to the anthemic qualities of “Don’t Lie.”  On the heels of the release of Handguns, Glide had a chance to get some very personal and revealing answers from band members : Paul Hofffman (mandolin), Anders Beck (dobro), Dave Bruzza (guitar), Mike Devol (upright bass) and Mike Bont (banjo).

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Review: Northwest String Summit

Northwest String Summit @ Horning’s Hideout – July 21-24

In 2002 the Horning Family of North Plains, Oregon welcomed roughly 1,000 guests to their breath-taking Horning’s Hideout for the inaugural Northwest String Summit (NWSS), hosted by Yonder Mountain String Band (YMSB). Now, 10 festivals later the NWSS has become the Pacific Northwest’s go-to acoustic music festival.


The 10th annual “Strummit” ran July 21-24, 2011 featuring over 15 bands on one stage, including three three-hour headlining sets by YMSB. This year marked the largest Strummit yet welcoming: the first official Thursday opening, the Cascadia Coffee House, a new forest hollow acoustic stage, free late night sets and an official Kinfolk Hall of Fame induction. Between the rolling green trails, sky-scraping trees, peacocks and endless acoustic jams the NWSS was truly a picker’s paradise that can only be summed up as “You had to be there.”

The gates to bluegrass Eden opened on Thursday, July 21 to the tune of Pete Kartsounes and Benny “Burle” Galloway. At dusk the evening turned into a Midwestern jamgrass haven featuring Chicago’s Cornmeal followed by Greensky Bluegrass from Kalamazoo, Michigan.

READ ON for more from Northwest String Summit…

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All Good Diary: Sunday FestivaLog

After a Saturday jam-packed with music at the 15th annual All Good Music Festival, I was looking forward to Sunday’s lighter lineup. One of the biggest challenges of open field tent camping at a music festival is partying  into the wee hours and trying to get adequate sleep, without being cooked alive in your tent in the morning summer sun like broccoli in a bamboo steamer.


After waking up in my own personal sauna and cooling off in the West Virginia mountain air I headed up to the stage area where Sunday openers All Mighty Senators were already on the main Dragon Stage. The Baltimore-based funk-soul quintet was working hard to bring their P-Funkesque sound to the noontime set; unfortunately, their set was one of the less well attended of the weekend, probably because so many folks had taken full advantage of Saturday’s final All Good late night sets – or they were still in their tents, being braised in their own juices.


Following the Senators on the Dragon Stage were Michigan-based stringsters Greensky Bluegrass whose Saturday Rock n’ Roll in Disguise playshop set at the Grassroots Stage showed one reason why they continue to garner attention. Unlike the previous day that featured covers of songs by Talking Heads, Prince and Traffic, Sunday’s set featured mostly originals and roots covers. A sizeable audience was on hand to see GB play mostly older tunes like All Four, the Reverend and No Idea which were supplemented by a strong cover of Townes Van Zandt’s White Freightliner Blues. Closing our their hour long set mandolin player Paul Hoffman took lead vocals on a newer original tune Don’t Lie (not to be confused with the Black Eyed Peas song of the same name) that demonstrated even greater maturity in their consistently skillful songwriting.

READ ON for more from Sunday at the All Good fest…

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All Good Diary: Saturday FestivalLog + New Artist Fletcher’s Grove Spotlight

I made a point of getting up early on Saturday morning of the 15th Annual All Good Music Festival to catch some of the local talent at the Grassroots Stage. Having been told by numerous local media sources that they were a hot ticket, I made a point of seeing a bit of Fletcher’s Grove from nearby Morgantown. As usual, I was not as quick making the trek as I’d hoped and arrived about halfway through the fledgling jamband’s first set, just as they were finishing a very strong cover of Buddy Holly’s classic Not Fade Away.


The next few songs in the quintet’s inaugural All Good set proved once again that festivals are a great place to check out fresh talent. See more about Fletcher’s Grove in the All Good New Artist Spotlight below. As local favorites, Fletcher’s Grove brought a sizable audience to the campground stage that quckly cleared after their set. I waited around to see a bit of Chicago’s Lubriphonic whose funk and horns also proved danceable and fun, although it was a shame there wasn’t a larger audience.

Opening the main stage on Saturday was self-contained band Zach Deputy whose soulful vocals and looping guitar and beat lines made for a more relaxed set under the West Virginia hills’ intense mid-day sun. After Deputy, I caught only the first couple of songs by The Werks (which the audience seemed to enjoy) and headed back to the Grassroots Stage to see Michigan’s Greensky Bluegrass, where they performed only bluegrass covers of rock songs including Traffic’s Light Up or Leave Me Alone, Talking Heads’ Road to Nowhere, Arcade Fire’s City With No Children and Prince’s When Doves Cry.

READ ON for more thoughts and photos from Saturday at All Good…

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