Last night in ithaca osft

[cmorbro]

I went the State Theater in Ithaca , NY last night to see Oldschool Freight Train and Sam Bush. What a great show ! OSFT were certainly lesser known but they rocked ! There mandolin player is Peter Frostic.. a very talented player indeed. His touch was so light but what a nice sound he gets ! Plays an Apitius Classic mando.. ( I am bias as I have had mine since 1996 ) What a nice sound he has . The entire band was excellent.. great vocals and instrumentalists !! and yes the drummer was excellent too !
BTW Sam Bush & company played a greqat show as well.. but hey we expect that right ? Sam's voice & chops were in top form.. he looked like he was sincerly enjoying the audience. One thing I did notice is that of all the instruments he had on stage . there was a couple he never played.. most notably the Sam Bush Gibson model.. I really wanted to hear that one in comparison to the "Hoss" . At one point in the show his bas player Bryon House broke into the Led Zepplin vocal of whole lotta love.. too funny.. and good BTW.. just a pleasurable evening in Ithaca.. deep freeze and all ! Just wanted to share.. any one else catch the show?

Chris

[johnnymando]

I wanted to go but had a conflict. Did Sammys set have any bluegrass content? Did he have a drummer?
You never know what you're going to get with Sam except a great show.

[cmorbro]

The Bush Man played some BG tunes.. and yes he had a drummer.. It was great.. He played a good handful of B grass tunes.. also selections from his recordings.. also played guitar.. very amazing too.. no surprise there..tonight is Jerry Douglas..

Chris

[swampstomper]

I was there!! by great good fortune I was visiting Ithaca during that week and discovered the show. #I did not care for OSFT at all. They are quite good musicians but the material left me cold, cold, cold. But, hey, it's a free country! They played 45 min, then there was a 20 min break, then Sam played non-stop for 1hr 45 min -- he must be in good shape to keep up that pace.

A nice mix of songs and instruments, a lot like an updated NGR but with Sam doing almost all the lead work (no John Cowan). Bandmembers: Byron House (bass), Chris Brown (drums), Scott Vestal (banjo and banjo-synthesizer -- you have to hear this to believe it), Steven Mougin (guitar and dynamite tenor vocals). At one point they threw in a dynamite "Your Love is Like a Flower" just to prove that it was a bluegrass show.

Sam seemed to be enjoying himself tremendously. He played the resonator mando, Hoss, one tune on guitar (with just bass accompanyment), and a bit of fiddle (Howling at the Moon a.o.). #The Gibson Sam Bush Signature just sat there in its stand, closest to the audience. #

This was my first time to see him live. That arm motion is "not recommended" I guess, and how he hits the strings cleanly I can not tell. But the drive and power are really something.

Finally there was a half-hour jam with OSFT which was not as painfal as I had feared. #Of course really good musicians but too many cooks etc. #The slow rocking version of Sitting on Top of the World down in G was pretty cool. Complete with a C#dim and a "Memphis" tag at the end of each verse to give a nice jazzy feel. Probably that's closer to the MS Sheiks version than Mon's.

I was impressed with the size of the crowd and its diversity. Old folkies, country fans (I recognized various local bluegrassers of the older generation), new age,....

$36 for good seats -- man I must be out of touch! But money well spent, the musicians really worked for us.

Any other cafe members there?

[Chris "Bucket" Thomas]

I saw them about two weeks ago in Williamsburg, VA with a fellow Café’er. A very good show also. I have two of their CD’s: “Live at the Ashland Tea & Coffee” & Run (produced by Grisman) and would recommend either of them. They have also supported Grisman as a band when it was not a DGQ show. Obviously, they keep good musical company.

Pete Frostic, the mandolin player, is a super nice guy, a great instructor and a talented player. He is on faculty at both University of Virginia and William & Mary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOjE5SSBB6s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1ruZXWEsVM Rider is here, very good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKn33wvQeAE

Also on WoodSongs, #364: http://www.woodsongs.com/showlist.asp the host is intent on “making” them say that they are a bluegrass band. Watch the cover of “Superstitious”