Molly Tuttle (as Shania Twang) sits in with Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers – photo © Tara Linhardt
Friday at Grey Fox had all sorts of great music, as well as insightful and often hilarious stories and tributes to some of the greats of bluegrass music. There is way too much music to mention everyone and everything on any festival day, but I will share a few that really stood out for me.
There was a John Duffey Tribute headed up by Akira Otsuka who recently finished his John Duffey tribute CD with all sorts of great bluegrass luminaries on the project. The John Duffey story telling was a highlight for me as many of the stories that were shared had people rolling with laughter.
There was also a Doc Watson Tribute with Bryan Sutton, Billy Strings, and Joe Newberry with interesting stories, technique tidbits and pickin.
Molly Tuttle’s band was a true crowd pleaser. Wes Corbett wrote this instrumental tune called Dinosaur Birthday to commemorate his 30th birthday.
Songs from the Road band did a great mix of traditionals, originals, and some funny songs too like this cover song that one might not expect at the average bluegrass festival.
Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers had all sorts of fun with a variety of new folks sitting in with them, like Miss Shania Twang (Molly Tuttle) and Sierrendipidy (Sierra Hull). Elmo Otto (Chris Brashear) was on fiddle, Leftie McSquirt (Mike Seal) was on guitar, and they were also joined on stage through the show by their non-speaking, but very helpful suggestion-making “manager” personality of Colonel Mel Sharpie (Jerry Douglas).
The D’Addario and Ear Trumpet partnership also ran their live stream Yurt Sessions videos from their beautiful yurt set up in the campground as they did each night, giving folks at home a chance for a litte taste of a few of the bands.
