Pickin' Fool
08-01-2002, 11:43 AM
Well I am back at work at a well-needed vacation. I spent over a week traveling in Colorado, and ended my journey with a 4 day stay in beautiful Lyons, CO to attend the amazing Rockygrass Bluegrass Festival, I have been going this festival for several years now, and it is hands down my favorite festival. It's a good size, the location is amazing, the line up is the best in the biz, and the campground picking is always very hot. At the past festivals I have had the good fortune to sit around a campfire and listen to Chris pick tune after tune with Pete Wernick, pretty amazing to be 3 ft away from such a virtuoso. Last year there was some crazy picks going on, one I remember consisted of Chris, Ronnie McCoury, and Peter Rowan, that was very awesome. For me the main stage is what I do during the day until, it’s time for the after hour jams, that is where the real fun a festival lies. Anyway, specifically about Chris:
His only official mainstage set was with Bela Fleck. Just the two of the them. I would tell you what songs they did, but they did not do a real setlist. They both sat down and just started jamming this continued for their entire hour and half set. Seriously they might have stopped once about 45 minutes into it. I know this sort of situation appeals to a lot of people, but I found it to be rather tedious. Don't get me wrong it was quite awesome, but my attention span is only so long.
As with most bluegrass festival there is a lot of cross jamming, so Chris showed up during Tim O'Brien's set. Tim is by far my favorite bluegrass musician, his voice is perfect, and is a great multi-instrumentalist. They closed the set with Bob Dylan's Tombstone Blues with Chris sing harmony, quite awesome. For an encore they did When You Come Back Down. For those of you who don't know Tim co-wrote this song with Danny O'Keefe. Tim sang lead while Chris again sang harmony. While Tim was introducing the song he thanked Nickel Creek for recording it, now he was able to buy some new appliances for his house.
On Sunday night the closing act was The Rockygrass House Band which consisted of Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Tony Rice, Byron House, and Darol Anger. Chris came out for the last jam as did Drew Emmitt, Mike Marshall, Edgar Meyer, Todd Phillips, and lots of others that I can't quite remember. The did the Flatt and Scruggs tune “Groundspeed”, and also “Salty Dog”
On Sunday afternoon Chris did a workshop with Mike Marshall. It was very interesting. Just two guys and two mandolins. They did this on the mainstage last year so it was pretty similar. For those of you who don't know Mr. Marshall I encourage you to search him out, he is an absolute genius. He is also an original member of the David Grisman's Quintet.
On one last note, the surprise of the festival for me was a cello player named Rashad something. He is on the Four Fiddlers album, I know someone mentioned that album a while ago. The kid jammed with everyone, he is amazing.
Well I know this was pretty long, but I hope I might have shed a little light on what a great festival Rockygrass is. Now I am looking forward to the Ryman, and St. Louis.
His only official mainstage set was with Bela Fleck. Just the two of the them. I would tell you what songs they did, but they did not do a real setlist. They both sat down and just started jamming this continued for their entire hour and half set. Seriously they might have stopped once about 45 minutes into it. I know this sort of situation appeals to a lot of people, but I found it to be rather tedious. Don't get me wrong it was quite awesome, but my attention span is only so long.
As with most bluegrass festival there is a lot of cross jamming, so Chris showed up during Tim O'Brien's set. Tim is by far my favorite bluegrass musician, his voice is perfect, and is a great multi-instrumentalist. They closed the set with Bob Dylan's Tombstone Blues with Chris sing harmony, quite awesome. For an encore they did When You Come Back Down. For those of you who don't know Tim co-wrote this song with Danny O'Keefe. Tim sang lead while Chris again sang harmony. While Tim was introducing the song he thanked Nickel Creek for recording it, now he was able to buy some new appliances for his house.
On Sunday night the closing act was The Rockygrass House Band which consisted of Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Tony Rice, Byron House, and Darol Anger. Chris came out for the last jam as did Drew Emmitt, Mike Marshall, Edgar Meyer, Todd Phillips, and lots of others that I can't quite remember. The did the Flatt and Scruggs tune “Groundspeed”, and also “Salty Dog”
On Sunday afternoon Chris did a workshop with Mike Marshall. It was very interesting. Just two guys and two mandolins. They did this on the mainstage last year so it was pretty similar. For those of you who don't know Mr. Marshall I encourage you to search him out, he is an absolute genius. He is also an original member of the David Grisman's Quintet.
On one last note, the surprise of the festival for me was a cello player named Rashad something. He is on the Four Fiddlers album, I know someone mentioned that album a while ago. The kid jammed with everyone, he is amazing.
Well I know this was pretty long, but I hope I might have shed a little light on what a great festival Rockygrass is. Now I am looking forward to the Ryman, and St. Louis.