The Bluegrass Ball @ The Old Rock House, March 12-13
Fellow music junkie Rex Thomson, a photographer and journalist, has made quite a name for himself over the past few years shooting and writing about bands from the jam, bluegrass, Americana and rock scenes for various publications and his own Rex-A-Vision Facebook page. We’re honored to welcome Rex to the HT Team for the occasional review and photo set starting with this piece on The Bluegrass Ball…
We can all use a little help from our friends from time to time, and when you’ve been in the music business from birth, as Ronnie and Robbie McCoury have been, you make some fairly interesting friends. So when the brothers and the rest of their band, along with guest guitarist Cody Kilby, alongside Travelin’ regulars fiddler Jason Carter and bassist Alan Bartram decided to do a four-night, two-city barn storm run, they went thru their phone lists and called the finest players they could think of to help make it a special weekend for all lucky enough to witness the collection of talent on the stage.
[All photos by Rex Thomson]
Multiple award winning mandolin player Ronnie McCoury was joined on his beloved instrument by fellow wizards of the mando Drew Emmitt, of Leftover Salmon and The Emmitt-Nershi Band, and Jeff Austin of the Yonder Mountain String Band took the stage alongside Robbie McCoury and his five-string banjo. To help keep Jason Carter from feeling left out on the far side of the stage, fiery fiddler Allie Kral, of the band Cornmeal, was brought in to bring an element of grandeur and the lineup for the run was complete.
After two nights in the windy city of Chicago, the ensemble took to the road for a two night stand at the Old Rock House in St. Louis, a beautifully restored room with a variety of tiers to watch the action from, including a well situated U-Shaped balcony/second floor. The multiple vantage points gave viewers excellent angles to see the impressive light rigging in use. In fact, the clubs presentation reminds one of something far more like a concert hall than the classic façade would lead you to believe.
READ ON for more on The Bluegrass Ball…
With the football season wrapping up this past weekend, many of us around the HT HQ are eagerly anticipating the return of baseball, which officially gets underway this weekend as
December 31st is the biggest night for live music of the year. An argument might be made for Halloween, but I’m not buying it. Your non-live-music-loving-friends don’t say things like, “Halloween is the most anti-climactic day of the year” while you sit there and just snicker. We’ve been a little Phish heavy this week so let’s take a look at how 24 other bands rang in 2011.
Side Note: This was my first time using embedded images from setlist.fm and I must say it looks super slick. That site has really got it going on, I hope the quality of data improves as more people use it, because with better information – statistics like “What songs did LCD Soundsystem play in 2010” will be really useful to have for a wide variety of bands.
READ ON for lots more New Year’s Eve Setlists
On July 20 and 21 of 1991, Phish played a two-day stand at Arrowhead Ranch in Parksville, NY, which was part of a short tour where the band was joined
As summer begins to wind down, we’re getting excited about all the great shows on the horizon this fall, especially when we found out about the first ever Paste Tour.
Words and Images: Allison Taich
Northwest String Summit @ Horning’s Hideout, July 16-18
The Northwest String Summit (NWSS) celebrated its ninth anniversary July 16-18, 2010 at Horning’s Hideout in North Plains, Oregon. The three day music festival hosted by Yonder Mountain String Band (YMSB) included a cumulative nine hours worth of live YMSB, plus an outstanding roundup of string musicians including: Danny Barnes, Darol Anger and Great American Taxi. The Rhythm Devils and moe. both joined the fun electrifying the otherwise acoustic lineup.
There were several factors that set the NWSS apart from all other music festivals I have attended. For starters the grounds of Horning’s Hideout were immaculate. The layout was full of rolling hills, thick forests of lush browns and greens, a streaming river, pleasant lakes, wooded camp grounds, fearless wild peacocks and the list goes on. Every personality I crossed was more exceptional than the next; fans who attended wanted to be there, they were there for the music. There was no seedy scene, no pushy or undesirable individuals, simply people looking to celebrate acoustic music and have a good time. At nighttime the forests echoed with the plucking of strings from varying campsite jams, followed by the hoots and hollers of excited festival goers.
Music wise there was only one stage meaning one band played at a time. There was no overlapping, no running back and forth, no missing portions of sets and no need to leave sets early in order to catch another band. Each band laid down a winning performance making it hard to select a favorite. It seemed that every performance was charged by audience enthusiasm and energy. Bands reciprocated by churning out some of the wildest sets of acoustic music. READ ON for more from Allison on the NWSS…
For nine years now, summer time in the Pacific Northwest has been graced with the musical bounty that is Yonder Mountain String Band’s annual Northwest String Summit. Not only has this festival brought some of the most influential bluegrass pickers of both national and international fame together in Oregon, but this conflux of incredible talent has continued to grace the northwest at one of the most intimate and beautiful venues in the nation, Horning's Hideout. Glide had a chance to talk to Jeff Austin about String Summit's of past and present.
While traditional print media seems slowly to be going the way of the 8-track, we’re happy to note that Spin Magazine is in the midst of celebrating its 25th Anniversary.
For most of the 1980s and ’90s, it wasn’t officially summer until the Grateful Dead came through town. The same can be said for a new generation of music fans
In our never ending quest to keep you up to date on the latest and greatest festival news comes the announcement of the initial lineup for Warren Haynes’ Mountain Jam.
