Bloggin' From the Bluegrass Festival
If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I spent yesterday afternoon at the Country Bluegrass Show in North Platte. This is the 9th year for the festival and organizer Donna Mentzer and her crew have done a fantastic job of lining up great Bluegrass acts.
The Bluegrass Show is held in the Beef Barn at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds. There is some bleacher seating, but for the most part, you just bring your own lawn chairs. This photo was taken during the first set at noon on Thursday. Pretty good crowd to hear the opening acts.
Anyway, enough about North Platte. Here's the scoop about the band. It's always a treat to see a bluegrass band work a single mic, and Ozark Alliance, which consists of mom and dad Dennis and Robin and kids Alex and Jenny recently won first place in a single mic contest in Branson.
The youngest member of the band is four-year-old Allison. She didn't join the family on stage, but manned the sales table. She does have her own pint-sized fiddle and mandolin. I'm sure she'll be a powerhouse in years to come.
Goldwing Express has been to four straight Country Bluegrass Shows. Dad Bob Baldridge and sons Steven, Shawn and Paul hail from Oklahoma by way of Branson, Missouri. Shawn channels Conway Twitty, and had the ladies in the crowd screaming for more.
The last band to take the stage before the dinner break and the start of the evening of Gospel performances was Danny Paisley and Southern Grass. Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass play powerful, unadorned, and intense traditional bluegrass. There is no hybrid or genre-bending music here. It is music borne of the vibrant old time southern fiddle bands, as well as the lonesome moans of the backwoods mountain blues. The instruments blaze with energy while the songs reveal a paradoxical, desperate sadness anchoring the music squarely in the classic bluegrass tradition. Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass combine those forces with a drive and energy that takes over your senses. It is music you not only hear, but feel in your gut.
I didn't stay for the Gospel night performances, but Mark and I are back for the entire day today. Call me a pansy, but spending the day in the beef barn with 90 degree temperatures just wore me out - imagine what the performers felt like! Today's temperatures are in the 60's with a nice breeze. Now I'll probably have to have blankets!
Thanks for stopping by. Join me in the food building for a cup of coffee.
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