mcdougle
07-19-2002, 12:57 PM
Again, Nickel Creek played on opening night of the Grey Fox(previously Winter Hawk)Bluegrass Festival in Ancramdale, NY.
They played a similar set to the one that they performed in Lancaster, and as always, their musicianship was fantastic. The sound system was quite good but the crowd vibe was merely okay. While I love NC, almost all of their new stuff has strayed far from any bluegrass roots and perhaps that was the reason for the crowd vibe.
That, and they performed only one encore, though the hardcore NC fans were clamoring for more. Natalie McMaster followed NC, and I am sure the festival organizers considered it very important to have her on stage at the scheduled time.
HOWEVER, Chris, together with Sean performed for an hour in the workshop tent and it was totally amazing. Better that the main stage performance. Because it was Chris's mandolin workshop, almost all of the questions were addressed to him. But it was nice to see him involve Sean in answereing as many questions as possible. There were asked about improvization and a person mentioned a tune called Jerusalem Ridge. Man, Chris and Sean tore into it and improvized on that tune for about 5 minutes. Amazing. Chris played a solo Bach fugue that had everyone shaking their heads in amazment. Just a great hour up close and personal.
Sara and Natalie followed with an hour wokshop hour as well. It was also very good. But because they had never played together, it was impossible for them to do the same types of things.\
All in all, a great day in the upper NY countryside. I would love to camp out there next year for the 4 day duration, but alas, my wife is a Marriott kind of gal.
They played a similar set to the one that they performed in Lancaster, and as always, their musicianship was fantastic. The sound system was quite good but the crowd vibe was merely okay. While I love NC, almost all of their new stuff has strayed far from any bluegrass roots and perhaps that was the reason for the crowd vibe.
That, and they performed only one encore, though the hardcore NC fans were clamoring for more. Natalie McMaster followed NC, and I am sure the festival organizers considered it very important to have her on stage at the scheduled time.
HOWEVER, Chris, together with Sean performed for an hour in the workshop tent and it was totally amazing. Better that the main stage performance. Because it was Chris's mandolin workshop, almost all of the questions were addressed to him. But it was nice to see him involve Sean in answereing as many questions as possible. There were asked about improvization and a person mentioned a tune called Jerusalem Ridge. Man, Chris and Sean tore into it and improvized on that tune for about 5 minutes. Amazing. Chris played a solo Bach fugue that had everyone shaking their heads in amazment. Just a great hour up close and personal.
Sara and Natalie followed with an hour wokshop hour as well. It was also very good. But because they had never played together, it was impossible for them to do the same types of things.\
All in all, a great day in the upper NY countryside. I would love to camp out there next year for the 4 day duration, but alas, my wife is a Marriott kind of gal.