When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. ~Hunter S. Thompson
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| Evergreen Grass Band at Sheeley House |
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| Written by John Abbott | |||||
| Sunday, 04 April 2010 02:38 | |||||
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I don't often darken the doorways of the Sheeley House, here in Chippewa Falls. But, my friend Bill needed to get out. He is a huge bluegrass fan and he has been working too hard at one of life's more thankless jobs. He has been playing too little, with his nose to the grindstone. He has been stressed out and thinking about quitting his job. I figured a night out would be perfect for him. We talked early in the day and made some guy plans. …Those are the ones made to include our wives, but not actually consulting with each wife before making them.
Ok, caveat time. I have seen live bluegrass like three times in my life. I have never listened to it at home. I can say never, because anyone who loves bluegrass would tell you Dueling Banjos doesn't count. I am no kind of expert on the genre. So, with all of that behind us… There is no way to fully describe live bluegrass. There's absolutely no way that I could capture it on video tape. The energy level, the excitement, was just unable to be compressed. Its really, truly, wild. The musicians were primarily face down, intent on their instruments. The music, I would best describe by the word, careening. Hurdling down this path on the edge of control. You don't really know if everyone on stage knows where it is all going. But the end comes, and you realize you just had a hell of a ride. That was fun!  Now not every song was that way. There were some slow, easy going ones. But, many of them had a few elements of this feel. A few of them were of the wild ride variety. Those were my favorites. There were several cover songs, I guess. I didn't recognize the originals. There was one song that was particularly enjoyable that seemed to have the instrumental chorus of House of the Rising Sun. But, I know thats an extremely versatile song.I also don't really much understand the whole timing of music. I can usually sense when it is uneven, but I don't read music so I have no idea how to express just how fast these musicians hands are moving when they are playing. Their hands are flying. The beat of the music is incredibly fast. Vocally, the lead seems to be Tim Listcher, who has a great voice with lots of stregth. At other times it gets passed to Matt Jagow on banjo or Caleb Horne who plays Mandolin. Over the past year, on vocals, the band has also had Leiah Webb, who I bet made a great contribution, offsetting the male voices. But, she no longer plays with them.
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| Last Updated on Wednesday, 07 April 2010 04:51 |
