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Both were recorded at The Livery in Harbor Springs, MI on July 13. Listen closely for Critter’s (Chris Eldridge) reaction to the end of his guitar solo on This Weary Heart.
The Dusters have now bidden farewell to Eldridge. This past weekend marked his last show with the band, commemorated on YouTube with video of a mega jam with both The Infamous Stringdusters and The Sam Bush Band on a rousing version of Rolling In My Sweet Baby’s Arms.
Last night here in Roanoke, they packed a trendy, downtown nightspot and proceeded to demolish the assembled throng of music lovers and fans. The two sets mixed cuts from their Sugar Hill debut, Fork In The Road, with new band compositions, some bluegrass classics, and even a few songs they had just been working up backstage.
What strikes me as rare with this bunch is their ability to mix genres so smoothly, with enough progressive/modern/newgrass edge to attract younger listeners, and a sufficient amount of unadulterated grass to please the hard core purists. I saw them go from a long, jammy instrumental with a rock flavor, to a smooth and wholly traditional take on The Stanley Brothers Lonesome River.
They are clearly comfortable in this small club environment, and worked both the early evening “meet and greet” bunch and the late night stragglers with just the right vibe. The highlight for me was the very end of the show, where they encouraged everyone to leave their seats and join the band in front of the stage for a three song, unamplified conclusion. This kicked with Uncle Pen and closed with Blue Night, both showing that despite their occasional wandering from the trail Bill Monroe blazed, they are right at home with his music in a straightahead style.
The Infamous Stringdusters are Chris Pandolfi (Panda) on banjo, Jeremy Garrett on fiddle/vocals, Chris Eldridge (Critter) on guitar, Travis Book on bass/vocals, Jesse Cobb on mandolin and Andy Hall on Dobro/vocals.
Each is a superb musician, worthy of a good many pixels of praise, but I am consistently impressed in particular by the ChrisDusters – Eldridge and Pandolfi. Chris Eldridge is already an important voice in the flatpick guitar world, and is likely to be even more of one as he continues to develop as an artist. We saw him last fall as a member of Chris Thile’s How To Grow A Band, and he shone there among some of the most exceptional string musicians ever assembled.
Pandolfi is a master of understated banjo, and excels on his instrument in ways that may escape an uninformed observer. He and I talked last night about our mutual distaste for flashy, “look at me” banjo playing, so I don’t suppose it’s surprising that I enjoy his picking. With so much of what he adds to the band being designed to hold things together rhythmically, he doesn’t stand out as much as the other first rate soloists in the band, but be sure to keep an ear and an eye on the banjo when you see them live.
All three vocalists are terrific, with different styles that complement one another perfectly. I especially enjoyed Travis Book’s singing last night, as well as wondering when Jeremy Garrett’s face would explode when got to soaring in the ether. Andy Hall’s dobro work is always a joy, as is Jesse Cobb’s mandolin – both in accompaniment and taking the lead.
The band is about to embark on a whirlwind six-week tour, taking them all over the US from late June through early August, including a show at the North Shore Jazz Festival in Vancouver, BC and the Telluride fest in Colorado.
Check their schedule online, and catch this exciting young band if the opportunity arises.
This morning I’m on my way to Nashville for the concert DVD shoot I told you about a while back. This show features Josh Williams, Chris Eldridge, and Andy Falco. A few special guests are going to help the guys out as well, including Cody Kilby, and Mike Bub.
If you are in Nashville today be sure to stop by the Station Inn at 7pm or 9pm to catch one of the sets. I you can’t make to the show, you’ll be able to buy the DVD from Flatpicking Guitar Magazine here in a month or two.
The show will be held at the world famous Station Inn (It’s not on their calendar yet, but it was just confirmed.) in Nashville, TN on February 19, 2007. That’s a Monday night, so if you’re in Nashville that week, be sure to come out. Who knows, you might end up on video!
We’ll be recording two shows that evening, one at 7PM and the other at 9PM. Tickets are $10 per show or $15 for both. I don’t believe there is any advance ticketing, it’s just pay at the door and first come, first serve.
The concert is being produced by Dan Miller at Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, and is the fourth in a series of concert DVD productions he and I have done together. The first three are available from Flatpicking Mercantile and feature the “A list” of bluegrass flatpicking guitarists. Here’s a clip from the last one in the series, Live In Kansas City, featuring Cody Kilby, Brad Davis, and Tim May.
The first is a montage of clips showing the band arriving at the show, doing sound checks and preparing for the performance at the Belcourt Theater, set to the music of Watch ‘at Breakdown, the opening track of Thile’s How To Grow A Woman From The Ground CD.
The second is the band rehearsing in a dressing room backstage, running over Cazadero, with Bryan Sutton on guitar.
Oddly enough, towards the end of this second video, the camera pulls back to show regular guitarist Chris Eldridge sitting on the couch, grooving to the tune. Eldridge was thought to have been previously obligated on a Stringdusters show that evening, so Sutton got the call, even though Chris ended up being free that evening after all.
In any event, both videos should be of interest to fans of Chris Thile and the fine musicians he has assembled for this new CD.
I was as impressed as John was with the concert. The technical mastery these guys display is truly astonishing. And what’s more, the music is thoroughly enjoyable. Chris has a knack for selecting great songs a la, Wayside (Back In Time), Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, O Santo De Polvora, not to mention the classic Brakeman’s Blues. His own compositions are equally impressive in their own right.
Chris Eldridge has become one of my favorite guitar players over the last couple of years before ever hearing him with Thile. After hearing him in this setting I’ve got to say that he possesses a breadth of stylistic ability that is quite impressive. The show moved from hard core bluegrass to rock and then classical or jazz influenced pieces and Eldridge shone on them all.
On that topic, I’ll say that the “show” was excellent. Chris seems to have that natural entertainer personality that allows him to be free on stage without seeming unprepared or unthoughtful. He kept the spirit of the show alive between songs and truly entertained the audience, which sadly is something you don’t always see when watching a band of players possessed of this kind of talent.
Brance and I had the opportunity this past weekend to catch Chris Thile and his How To Grow A Band show in concert at The Jefferson Center in Roanoke, VA. As the band name implies, they are on tour in support of Chris’ new release, How To Grow A Woman From The Ground.
Band members were the same as the CD: Thile on mandolin, Noam Pikelny on banjo, Chris Eldridge on guitar, Gabe Witcher on fiddle and Greg Garrison on bass. Chris handled the great bulk of the lead singing, and all band members sang harmony parts.
Over the course of the program, they performed each of the 14 songs from the CD, along with a few of Chris’ from other projects, and ones chosen to highlight the various members of the band. For instance, Gabe Witcher sang his bluesy version of The Band’s Ophelia, and Chris Eldridge offered up a grassy Don’t Give Your Heart To A Rambler.
The primary focus, of course, was on Thile and the songs from the new release. In addition to being perhaps the most technically gifted mandolinist to ever play American string music, he is also a natural entertainer and a gutsy vocalist. And by gutsy, I don’t mean a gritty, smoky-voiced singer – I mean an artist willing to take tremendous risks in styling the vocals for a song.
It takes a lot of confidence, and a sense of adventure to hop back and forth between natural and falsetto voice with such abandon, and Thile seems to have what it takes. It also takes an ability to find humor in the effort, and that part of watching this stellar young artist is as enjoyable for me as are his striking feats of fretboard acrobatics.
The song choices, and the arrangements were adventurous as well. Some of our readers could get stuck on the classic, “but that’s not bluegrass” mantra, and it would be a great shame if they did. This is sparkling, dynamic and powerful music. If large doses would be too rich for your palate, consider having a taste at the very least.
To conclude their three song encore, the band blistered Manchicken, a tune from Noam Pikelny’s In The Maze CD. As they were trading improv lines towards the end of the tune, Noam slipped back into the hook that brings the band into the main theme of Watch ‘at Breakdown, the tune that opens the new Thile CD. They reprised the ending of that tune, which had closed the first set, to wrap up the evening’s festivities.
If this show visits your part of the world, I would encourage you to make the effort to see it. Unless you are annoyed by the notion of a bluegrass band (banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, bass) playing music that might not suit Bill Monroe, I can’t imagine that their performance could fail to thrill and entertain you.
After the show, I spoke with bass player (and tour manager) Greg Garrison, who indicated that there aren’t many stops left on this current, brief tour – just the rest of this week before Chris prepares for a trip to the UK – but that more dates will be added in December. Another string of shows with this lineup is also in the works for February of 2007.
Hyperbole warning! Watching them on Saturday left me thinking that this was what it must have been like to have witnessed early performances by artists who truly redefined how a genre was conceived. Think Flatt & Scruggs when they were at the peak in the 1950s – or even jazz innovators like Charlie Parker when he took virtuosic young experimenters to the stage a few years earlier.
I haven’t been this excited by a stage show in quite some time. Hat’s off to Chris Thile and How To Grow A Band.
One of the folks I had a chance to speak with yesterday was Chris Pandolfi, banjo player with The Infamous Stringdusters. He told me that their new CD is on track for an early ’07 release on Sugar Hill Records, and was able to respond to some speculation that has been circulating about the status of Dusters guitarist Chris Eldridge.
Eldridge also filled the guitar chair on Chris Thile’s How To Grow A Woman From The Ground CD, and with Thile publicly stating that the band from the CD would become his touring band (including in his recent interview on The GrassCast), the notion that Eldridge would bolt for a gig with Thile seemed like a fair question.
Pandolfi assured me that Eldridge was in for the duration. Bryan Sutton has been playing guitar on any How To Grow A Band dates with Thile that conflict with Stringdusters shows, and all of the Dusters are excited about their long-term commitment with Sugar Hill (4 projects), and getting to record and perform as a band.
We have spoken on Bluegrass Today several times about this young band, and look forward to catching their main stage showcase on Wednesday night, or at one of their many other showcase appearances this week.
Here is Dan’s overview of the current issue:
The May/June issue of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine (Volume 10, Number 4) features Chris Eldridge of the Stringdusters. Chris is the son of banjo legend and Seldom Scene founding member Ben Eldridge. In addition to playing with the Stringdusters Chris is also currently working with Chris Thile on Thile’s next CD. Chris recorded his arrangement of Stoney Creek for this issue’s audio companion and a transcription of Chris’ solo appears in the magazine.
In addition to Chris Eldridge, the May/June issue features Keith Yoder, a music store owner and multi-instrumentalist from Iowa, and a lengthy interview with Bryan Sutton about his new CD Not Too Far From the Tree. Two of Bryan’s solos from Carroll County Blues are also transcribed in the magazine. Our guitar builder feature highlights Kentucky builder Neil Kendrick and our regular cast of talented columnists (which includes Brad Davis, Joe Carr, Orrin Star, Harold Streeter, Adam Granger, John McGann, Bill Bay, Steve Kaufman, Dan Huckabee, John Carlini, Chris Jones, Kathy Barwick, Mike Maddux, and Dix Bruce) also contribute audio and tablature to this new issue.
Find out more about the magazine on their web site.
