Sunday, July 22, 2018

Green River Festival 7/15/18 Grenfield MA

Day two of this weekend affair:
Ballroom Thieves: Duo with young man on guitar and vocals with young female on cello/ vocals.
Trailer Park w/ Samirah Evans: Tight Nawlins funk outfit with spark plug Evans on vocals.
The Brother Brothers: Dumb name for duo of cello and fiddle in the small tent.
Chuck Prophet w/ Strings: Chuck trying to outdo previous day's performance by playing acoustic in front of a string quartet. Did a reprise of "The Left Hand And The Right Hand" and an amazing cover of John Prine's Classic "Angel From Montgomery". This quartet had to be local musicians who learned the charts quickly to back Prophet. Great banter about Halloween in the Castro section of San Francisco, where he hails from.
I'm With Her: Allstar female trio with Sarah Jarosz on fiddle and mandolin, Sarah Watkins (of Nickel Creek fame) on fiddle and acoustic, and Aoife O'Donovan ( of Crooked Still fame) on acoustic. Great three part vocal harmony with a true democratic supergroup. Worth digging deeper into all three women's output, recently heard Jarosz doing an excellent re-work of Joanna Newsom's "The Book of Right On". I'm pretty sure I heard an Adelle song in this set.
James Hunter Six: Looked forward to hearing this Brit-soul singer and his Van Morrison-like renderings of pop chestnuts. Great band and smoking guitar work from Hunter made for an enjoyable set. Good cover of "Bonie Maronie".
Robert Earl Keen: Veteran country/folk singer songwriter thought it would be a good idea to wear white jeans and a green shiny shirt that looked like the material came from a parachute. Tight band and some classics to pull from made up for the fashion blunder.
Ana Tijoux: Chilean rap singer Tijoux closed out the second stage. Her sultry rhymes were all in her native tongue. Ana's limited English took a dimension of this music away from non-Latin speakers like myself.
Old Crow Medicine Show: I remember seeing this group when they just started, but now have to call them a veteran folk-bluegrass outfit. OCMS  was a good close-out to this wonderful weekend. Their hit "Wagon Wheel" is always a show stopper. I highly recommend this festival for its size, selection of acts, and overall logistics. As you can see, I got a lot of music in these two days.

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