Yebin Kim with Country Gongbang at Grey Fox ’24 – photo © Tara Linhardt
Once again it was a magical time at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in the mountains of New York. Every July the hills truly come alive with the sound of music as multiple stages host all sorts of fantastic music and dance. The campgrounds are home to jamming, the making of new friends and reuniting of old ones.
This festival really has a unique feel as it has a great variety of stages, each with their own feel, able to showcase artists in large and small environments, along with workshops and led jam sessions. I applaud Grey Fox for providing such a broad range of fantastic musicians, celebrating the roots of our traditional music, as well as some of the freshest ideas of how it is growing and evolving, both from the region and around the world.
Grey Fox also has really cool vendors with all sorts interesting crafts, and a large variety of foods and great coffee keeping even a discerning palate happy.
The festival stages opened with a showcase from the students at the Berklee College of Music, led by Bruce Molsky. The acts included tunes from traditional bluegrass to jazzy grass, and even Shakti style Asian-influenced fusion with a mind-blowing percussive dancer. This festival does a fantastic job of presenting a mix of very traditional music, as well as those pioneering new branches growing out of those traditional roots.
Here is a little taste of the band from Berklee called Lotus Feet. These guys are amazing, and I look forward to seeing loads more of them in various forms in years to come.
Country Gongbang from South Korea at the High Meadow Stage
The band Cat Fish in the Sky at the Creekside Stage
Le Vent du Nord- an stupendous band from Quebec, Canada
Bruce Molsky and Darol Anger celebrating their “must have” latest recording which has recently been released.
And spontaneous on-stage musical adventures with an all star lineup headed up by the great Casey Driessen.
Shadow Grass rocking the Catskill Stage Thursday night
And a collection of Thursday photos
