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* Merlefest moments

Just back from an eighth straight year of attending Merlefest in Wilkesboro, North Carolina....a few scattered thoughts on this year's festival:

It's tempting to call this Merlefest "The Year of the Piano" in that keyboards seemed to figure fairly prominently in many of the most memorable performances. None were better than Ollabelle, whosek keyboardist, Glenn Patscha, repeatedly cast mesmerizing trances and tones with his organ work during the band's stellar Saturday-afternoon set in the drizzle at the Americana stage. Their version of the Grateful Dead's "Ripple" on the Cabin Stage later that night was a show-stopping beauty. Merlefest may generally be all about the banjos and fiddles and guitars and mandolins, but when you hear a good keyboardist in the midst of all that, it ends to stand out like a clarion call.

A more spotlighted piano-centric highlight was Saturday night's mainstage performance by Bruce Hornsby with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder. The two played material they recorded together on last year's duo album, plus the obvious hits reworked for the format (Hornsby taking a lead vocal on the Bill Monroe staple "Uncle Pen", Skaggs' band Kentucky Thunder driving the tempo and feel of Hornsby's "The Way It Is"). Hornsby's an interesting cat, in that the runaway pop success of "The Way It Is" in the '80s allowed him the opportunity to do many things with his stardom -- and he parlayed it into such seemingly unexpected ventures as joining the Grateful Dead and teaming up with Skaggs. His musical talent is unassailable, as he showed most especially on wondrously complex yet poignant minor-key piano runs during "Mandolin Rain".

Piano also played a significant role in Tift Merritt's packed-house performance at the Walker Center on Saturday afternoon -- or at least it sounded that way from the lobby. The house was so packed -- after a sudden torrential thunderstorm sent everyone scurrying to the festival's scant few indoor venues -- that we never did actually get in to see, though it sounded good from outside the theater doors.

Finally, a rather brief but highly affecting piano interlude came during the Avett Brothers' Friday-night headlining set. "Salina", an ambitious track from the band's 2007 breakthrough disc Emotionalism, went from serene to sublime when guitarist Seth Avett switched midsong to piano, emphasizing the tune's quasi-classical references. The Avetts' legions of fans still respond most voraciously to their high-intensity numbers -- on this night, they caused a minor but lovable ruckus when they began passing the reserved-seat chairs overhead behind them to create a mosh-pit up front -- but it's those moments of melodic magic that continue to set the band apart from others in the punk-trad realm.

adios,
peter

Posted by peter on April 28, 2008 1:55 PM | Permalink