Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is trying something new for #11. Friday is a full-day and not half-day event, and the additional acts are not just filler.
Bill Kirchen & The Hammer of the Honky-Tonk Gods – Bill Kirchen – Ann Arbor native and “The Titan of The Telecaster” Kirchen was a guitarist with the original Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen from 1967 to the mid 1970s. Come see Kirchen bring the twang and show why he’s toured or recorded with Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Doug Sahm and Emmylou Harris. (Banjo Stage – 11:00am)
Blame Sally – Bay Area Americana is represented on Friday is the all female quartet Blame Sally. Known for their rollicking show and instrumental expertise the genre is great hands. (12:55 – Arrow Stage)
South Memphis String Band - ON EDIT- After I posted my Friday picks I was contacted about the South Memphis String Band and asked to reconsider. I did and I have. Go see ‘em, they’re great! (Star Stage – 1:20)
The Mekons – This veteran punk band is headed by sometime Chicago-based Brit-expat cowpunk Jon Langford (The Waco Brothers.) They are currently supporting their new release Ancient and Modern. (2:10 pm – Arrow Stage)
Jolie Holland – Like Gillan Welch Texan Jolie Holland has a vocal quality, and reflects subject matter, from another time. A distant, dusty and dark past. Her soulful roots and dreamy Ragtime sound is the reason she can count Tom Waits as a fan. (Star Stage – 2:50)
Del McCoury & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band – Legendary New Orleans Jazz and Bluegrass together? Like jambalaya and moonshine baby. (2:35 – Banjo Stage)
Southern Culture on the Skids – Formed in 1983 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina SCOTS shows what happens when you mix top-notch musical chops and white trash aesthetic. Namely a hootin’ hollerin’ time. ( Arrow Stage – 3:30)
The Felice Brothers – I have likened them to being the anti- Avett Brothers. From the Catskill Mountains to the New York City subways The Felice Brothers offer a brand of gritty junkyard Americana that is as engaging and sinister as a classic Scorsese movie. Their new release Celebration, Florida might be the first (or at least the best) example of techo-Americana. (Rooster Stage – 3:30 pm)
John Prine – A veteran on the country/folk scene since the early 70s when he was burdened with the “the next Dylan.” Dylan once even appeared at one of Prine’s first New York City club appearances unannounced and backed him on harmonica. Kris Kristofferson once remarked that Prine wrote songs so good that “we’ll have to break his thumbs” (Banjo Stage – 4:05pm)
Robert Plant & The Band of Joy – Years ago when I got wind that Plant was sniffing around Nashvile I expectedthe worse. Rock singers in Music City typically results in mediocrity. Then I heard he was in the studio with T. Bone Burnett and Alison Krauss and was intrigued that at least he was keeping good company. A zillion sales and awards with the resulting Raising Sand led Plant back to the promised land with band conductor and guitarist Buddy Miller and came back with more premium Americana performers Patty Griffin and Darrell Scott. (Banjo Stage – 5:45pm)
If you have kids or just want to set up a stationary spot your best best bang for your buck (for FREE!) would be the Banjo Stage. The recommendations for Saturday and Sunday are larger so there will be only a list and no description. You’ll just have to trust me, I’m a (semi) professional.
With their big label debut the Avett Brothers – Seth Avett and Scott Avett, who share vocals and play the guitar and banjo respectively, and Bob Crawford on stand-up bass – don’t take any extreme steps toward commercial success, quite the contrary given their situation. The band brings their sound and earnest, reflective and playful lyrics are taken to a more mature state and producer and label owner Rick Rubin does what he does best, focusing on subtleties and strengths. Piano and stings give even the nuanced piece an epic feel -The title cut, Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise, and a slices of giddy pop – Kick Drum Heart, Tin Man, Slight Figure of Speech, It Goes On and On – not frothy pop but the layered buoyancy of early Beatles, Kinks and Beach Boys. With others before them – Waco, Neko Case – the move from the rustic territories to town comes with a price, and the price in this case is facial hair. That’s the surprising thing about I and Love and You. It’s not the seismic shift of Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or Case’s Middle Cyclone or more representative of indie to big label REM’s Green. The songs are sharper, production crisper but if you loved the Avetts Autumnal odes before, you’ll love this album.
The Felice Brother’s newest release, Yonder Is The Clock , came out in April of this year and it also hold no surprises for long time fans. Released on indie label Team Love The Felice’s -Ian Felice guitar/vocal , James Felice – accordion, Simone Felice on drums, Christmas Clapton on bass, Greg Farley – fiddle and washboard – again channel the rollicking Big Pink-style Dylan/The Band front-porch jam with a dash of Tom Waits junkyard orchestra thrown in for good measure. Where the Avetts are dewy with wonder and innocence the Felice’s have an urbane, rough edge to their Catskill Mountain rearing (probably cultivated from busking in the streets of New York City.) Darkness abounds – There is nautical peril (the subtle album opener The Big Surprise and Waits-like ballad Sailor Song, dying homeless (in the rollicking stomp of Penn Station), reanimation from a frozen cocoon (the woozy waltz of Buried in Ice), Innocence lost – the deliriously beautiful All When We Were Young (sung with quivering elegance by drummer Simone Felice who recently left the band to start The Duke and The King with Robert “Chicken” Burke) and chickens (!) with the barn-burning bluesy bombast of Chicken Wire and the zydeco spiked Run Chicken Run.
