Friday at Grey Fox was another action-packed day. One of the hardest things about this festival is deciding what to do with so many great activities happening at the same time. There were workshops on dance, songwriting, and all kinds of instruments. Then there was the huge diversity of musicians performing – too many to name them all here.
There was the always fun and inspiring Joe Craven, local favorites like Michael Daves and friends, the Berklee All Stars, Della Mae, Frank Solivan… the list goes on and on. Abigail Washburn and Béla Fleck were a huge favorite of the day as well.
You could also find some interesting new flavors to add in to the bluegrass palette. There was the rockin’ dance band with Gypsy and Gaelic influences called Sythian, and a show of mountain music debuting the Nepali fiddle to Grey Fox. Shyam Nepali had performed with me in Nepal in the past, and arrived in the US with his sarangi (Nepali fiddle) this year with a great interest in collaborating and blending with bluegrass and old time music. There was a set of mountain music adventure with Abigail Washburn, Shyam Nepali, myself, Mary Simpson, Tony Trischka, Raj Kapoor, and Christian Apuzzo in which the sounds of the American Appalachians, the Nepali Himalaya, and the highlands of China were woven together in a fun musical odyssey.
An historic gathering of banjo players, tunes and stories also was on the roster to honor and celebrate the many contributions to bluegrass music and banjo playing from the legendary Bill Keith. He told many a good story as did folks like Béla Fleck, Tony Trischka, Mike Mumford, and Ryan Cavanaugh, and many a tune was played that Bill Keith made into banjo tunes.
Here is a little clip of them jamming on Caravan.
At the end of the night was Darol Anger and Friends, which was a veritable on-stage music party with a rotating all star cast, great tunes, and zany antics.
