Tuesday, September 1, 2009

newgrass festival....day 3

After two days of excellent music and excellent weather, Day 3 was poised to rock!! Oh man....the excitement had been building, new friendships were popping up all over the place, and everyone in attendance was eagerly anticipating a big finish!

The day started out with a very sweet set led by Hazel Johnson, widow of the original New Grass Revival banjo picker, Courtney Johnson. Hazel is a wonderful person, who according to her bandmate, Mark Whitley, knows more fiddle tunes than anyone!



Hazel, Mark Whitley, and David Foster...



Safire Sun was the next group up on Sunday, and I was not at all familiar with them. The two fellows in the group were original members of the Bluegrass Alliance; this was a very fine band, handpicked by Curtis....

Safire Sun...



Unfortunately I have no photos of the Kentucky School of Bluegrass. Curtis Burch is an instructor at the college, and the performance by the students was super! I do wish my camera wasn't having battery issues at this time....

The Farewell Drifters were the last acoustic/newgrass/bluegrass kind of band at the festival. I have seen and heard these young fellows at a few different festivals now, including Merlefest, Greyfox, and Floydfest and I'm enjoying the heck out of their music. They also have a fine stage presence, and they obviously are having fun with their music. I expect to see them often in the future....




And then all blues/electric music broke out! This was started by the Michael Gough Band, joined by Mr. Curtis Burch himself. It was a fun set...I understand that Michael is a blues fixture in the area, and a great lead-in to the next band!

Curtis...laying on the steel!



I will be expounding on the final act of the festival, Duckbutter, in the next blog!

Peace, David

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