2009.04.30
Podcast: Funk Punch's Chris 'Chili' Eanes
Funk Punch and Red Weather play Martin's Downtown Bar & Grill on Friday. Get details and links here.
2009.04.29
Wirtz guy is among MerleFest instrument contest winners
Johnathan Dillon, of Wirtz, won second place at MerleFest's bluegrass banjo championship. Dillon received a Gibson RB-250 banjo, valued at $3300, one set of John Pearse strings and $200 cash, according to a MerleFest news release.
Read on for the full list of winners and judges.
2009.04.27
MerleCast: Emmylou Harris
Producers notes: Also present and asking better questions than mine are Jo Roberts, of The Age, Melbourne, Australia, Nashville-based freelance writer Deborah Douglas Wilbrink and Nashville-based photographer Evert Wilbrink.
Here, Harris discusses:
>Some of the songs she has recorded, written and performed over the years
>Her backyard dog rescue
>Her environmental activism (Robert F. Kennedy recently gave a speech at her home in Nashville)
>Her performance on Sunday of "Wild Horses," the Rolling Stones song that Gram Parsons covered, and on which she sang backup.
>And why Doc Watson should receive a Kennedy Center Honor.
Download it
More podcasts
MerleFest songwriting contest winners
Keep an eye out and an ear open for these names and songs.
Bluegrass Category
Carol Hausner and Colin McCaffrey- "Love Gone By" Montpelier, Vermont
Gospel Category
Brink Brinkman- "Beyond the Rain" Pickerington, Ohio
Country Category
Dennis K. Duff- "Man of Few Words" Kuttawa, Kentucky
General Category
Miles and Letha Costin- "Unmarked Pavement" Raleigh, North Carolina
Preliminary MerleFest attendance figures
MerleFest organizers estimate that 70,000 people came to the four-day event.
Attendance didn't break records this year, but it was respectable in a tough economy, according to a news release:
> Attendance on Thursday was the 5th highest on a Thursday in the festival's history. On Friday, MerleFest experienced the 4th highest Friday attendance, while Saturday's numbers were on par with Saturday of 2008. At the time of this release, Sunday's final numbers were not available.
2009.04.26
Parting shots from MerleFest
Froggy Mountain: Before
I've gotta go, but I had to get those photos online. Two guys have been making this big sand sculpture all weekend, and it's finished. I've heard that at least one of the guys is from Roanoke, but when I just went out to talk to him, the tent covering was gone and both guys were gone. My luck! But I'll find them this week and add more info to the blog. For now, enjoy. I'm headed back for Big Lick.
Froggy Mountain: After
Emmylou Harris at MerleFest main stage: Iconic voice is still strong, flexible
Emmylou Harris backstage at MerleFest
It was such a relief to hear Emmylou Harris hit those golden high notes last night.
I have only a few minutes for now, so Let me make an important point. This is the first time I've seen Harris since January 2008 at the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre. She was there with Three Girls and Their Buddy. Her voice broke a couple of times at the top of her range that night -- but that was just an off night.
She was amazing last night, nailing her high notes at full throat and falsetto.
I'm going to attempt to write a short review of this show, although I'm completely dazed right now -- I just got to interview Harris, along with a couple of other print reporters. You'll hear me have my version of a Chris Farley "you remember when you did that? ... That was cool" moment when I post the podcast tomorrow. She was absolutely cool and classy, so my objectivity feels shot.
Fortunately, her show last night did *not* suck. The tone was set from the opening number, Jesse Winchester's "My Songbird," with Harris' steely, sad voice so clear and under control. Behind her, multi-instrumentalists Rickie Simpkins and Phil Madeira played sparse but musical arrangements, with bassist Chris Donahue providing a very breathable pulse.
Both Simpkins and Madeira sang fine, sympathetic harmonies with her, but the harmony highlight came in the form of Sam Bush. The onetime New Grass Revival guy, who played a hot set later that night, was a member of Harris' Nash Ramblers, and the pair sound amazing together.
Side notes: Bush had performed with just about everyone yesterday, it seemed, including the Waybacks' "Sticky Fingers" set. He and fellow NGR vet John Cowan reminded those who heard them back then of how great they sang together. And of course, Harris had stolen that set with "Wild Horses" -- she had sung it with the late Gram Parsons, but told reporters this afternoon that she had never sung the lead in front of an audience before yesterday afternoon.
Bush started up sawing fiddle on Bill Monroe's "Get Up John," featuring the lyrics Marty Stuart and Jerry Sullivan wrote, then dug into her album catalog for "Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight." Again, Bush's harmonies were seamless, and their voices are so well-suited.
Harris returned the favor during Bush's set, joining him for more killer harmonies on Julie Miller's "The River's Gonna Run."
Speaking of Julie Miller, her husband, Buddy Miller, is doing very well two months after having triple-bypass surgery while on tour with Three Girls and Their Buddy, Harris said in the interview.
Look for more from Harris, including discussion about the dog rescue program she has at her home and about some of the songs from her commercial apex in the mid-1970s. She did several of those songs last night, including "One of These Days," a song that was one of my favorite childhood earworms (and which brought on my semi-Chris Farley moment). That song is personally timeless for her, she said.
It showed.
2009.04.25
Hillside Album Hour at MerleFest: Emmylou Harris sings "Wild Horses"
Emmylou Harris sings
The Waybacks, John Cowan, Sam Bush (rocking an electric guitar) and Rob Ickes only had an hour, so they couldn't get through all of The Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers." But they rocked the first seven cuts, with a major assist from Emmylou Harris on "Wild Horses." I love Harris anyway, but this was a huge treat before her set tonight at MerleFest's main stage.
The Hillside Stage was kind of dusty and way sun-baked by 5 p.m. Saturday. I haven't mentioned, it's been hot today, surely in the low 90s for much of the afternoon. It was finally starting to cool by 5, and a stiff breeze blew right into the hill. Then the band kicked into "Brown Sugar," with Cowan rocking the vocals.
After "Sway," the band brought on Harris. Her voice is perfect for "Wild Horses." Cowan and Waybacks leader James Nash harmonized. Harris played rhythm guitar through melodic solos from Nash and Bush, who was playing a Gibson Explorer (I think -- I was way up the hill).
The rendition got a standing ovation.
"We're having a blast," Nash said. "And we still have some of the greatest riffs in rock 'n' roll history to play. Like this one ..."
He kicked into "Can't You Hear My Knockin'" featuring a hot Rob Ickes Dobro solo, and Watts-style drumming from Chuck Hamilton.
Soon, the hour was up. "You guys didn't want to hear 'Sister Morphine' anyhow," Nash said, joking. "It was just going to bum you out, make you itch."
They skipped it in favor of "Dead Flowers," with Cowan and Bush harmonizing. Man, I miss those two harmonizing. Maybe Cowan will join Bush for the latter's main stage set later.
Next up, some Doc Watson sets, Harris again, Bush and the midnight jam. The media room closes at 9 p.m., so this is it for me today.
At MerleFest, something for stringed instrument fetishists
Deering banjos
For some reason, I wasn't feeling Tift Merritt's set at the main stage. She was singing sweetly as usual, and the musicians were on and rocking it well, but it just wasn't doing it for me. So I wandered around for a while and found this big tent by the main stage that is just loaded with guitars, banjos, mandolins, etc.
The coolest thing about the tent was that there were plenty of instruments for people to play. So it was like a traveling music mall, with a whole bunch of different dealers.
Pickers try out some banjos.
There were Martins and Gibsons and Taylors and lots of strings, electronic gear, mandolins, resonator guitars. And they were all really nice. The only disturbing thing was to see a Martin ukelele with a $245 price tag on it. It's not that I don't take uke seriously -- there are some amazing players out there. I just imagine plunking down that kid of green for a little ol' ukelele. I'm sure it sounds better than any uke I've ever heard.
As I was posting these photos, Merritt's "Good Hearted Man" was establishing earworm dominance in my noggin. She did perform it really well. Maybe that show will sink in on me eventually. Or not -- after all, there are a lot of other potential earworm-inducing performers coming up.
Martin uke for $245
MerleFest afternoon: John Cowan, The Greencards (with Sam Bush), Dixie Bee-Liners
Bryan Larrance (left) and John Cowan
Good shows popping all over the place at MerleFest today. For the first time this weekend, I was able to catch an entire set, John Cowan Band at the Creekside stage. He's still got the voice, and the band was cooking.
The band pulled out the old New Grass Revival's "Hold To A Dream," with NGR harmonies intact on the Tim O'Brien song, then moved into a duet between Cowan and fiddler Shad Cobb -- "Black Wizard" -- about tornado wreckage and general hard times. Cobb is a fiddle wizard, moving seamlessly from classical to klezmer to hoedown.
The band's newest member, drummer Bryan Larrance, is a fine foil for Cowan's rock-solid bass playing, and he had plenty of tasty chops.
Larrance stomped four-on-the-floor for the band's version of "Jesus Gave Me Water," mostly a cappella, gospel quartet-style. The crowd loved it.
The Dixie Bee-Liners
More New Grass alumni: The Greencards were on the main stage, with NGR mandolinist/fiddler/singer Sam Bush sitting in on mandolin. Pretty hot stuff, but I had to keep moving over toward the Dixie Bee-Liners, at the Americana stage.
The Abingdon-based Bee-Liners, who have been working at least as hard as any performers on this festival, were still bringing the sweet harmonies and solid playing in their sixth set of the weekend. Guitarist Jonathan Maness is a young monster and Brandi Hart has such a sweet voice. Hart and Buddy Woodward keep writing good songs, and from the sounds I heard, the band fully deserves all the work it's getting at MerleFest.
