Psycograss in Winston-Salem last night
What a rare and exquisite show Mike Marshall, Darol Anger, Todd Phillips, Tony Trischa, and David Grier put on last night. They performed one set, approximately two to two and a half hours. They came out subtly playing a reserved and tasteful version of Nine Pound Hammer, then they moved into more eclectic material; other tunes included Hot Nickels, a tune written by Tony entitled Doggy Salt, he said his inspiration was taking the chord progression to Salty Dog and essentially reversing it, what a hoot!! There were some individual performances by first, a very bearded David Grier who performed a tune called Down to the C, played out of the fourth position, or capo on the fourth fret out of the C chord. Mike and Darol came out to play a choro tune and thank the crowd for following their careers for the past 32 years +/-. They played Big Monk describing its inception as the imagining of what music might come of the meeting of Bill Monroe and Thelonious Monk. Todd Phillips is so relaxed and tasteful in his bass lines and through out the night, I was mesmerised by the way in which these musicians played with timing, tone and taste. The sound was done very well and all the nuances of the instruments was apparent. Greer was playing an older Martin D-28 and Mike held forth with his old Gibson, but then at the end of the evening brought out an Altman F-5 that Gary had apparently brought with him to ask Mike to play. They ended the evening with the Hendrix tune 3rd Stone from the Sun, with Tony doing the intro on bowed banjo, who knew? That's right he bows the opening lines in unison with Darol on violin bowing his fifth or lowest on the fretboard banjo string. WOW! They then gave us a rousing rendition of Ride the Wild Turkey. After the concert, the musicians were gracious enough to come out to the lobby to greet the FANatics like me, and sign autographs, etc. I was honored to shake Mike's hand and reminesce about a time back in 1980 when I had the priviledge of standing on the stage at Memorial Hall before a concert by the David Grisman Quintet and pick some mandolins with David, Mike, Mark O'Conner, a young Alan Bibey, myself and another tall guy who I think brought a Loar to the circle. We played a tune, and passed the mandolins around in a circle. Later that night, during the intermission, myself and another tech crew member were standing out by the door leading backstage and out came Stephane Grapelli who, in his broken but adequate English, asked one of us to please run up to Franklin Street and buy a carolina blue tshirt for a young relative back home who was crazy about the UNC-Chapel Hill basketball team. We had to inform Stephane that the stores would be closed at that time and that such a dash up town would be fruitless.
These guys don't get together and tour very often, but if they come your way don't miss them!!
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by SternART
Bookmarks