There is nothing better to crack the ice dam of a
nagging winter than a few hours of live music so the DC Bluegrass Festival
arrived this weekend in the nick of time. My afternoon of musical delights
began with a band from Carbondale, Illinois. The Bankesters are a
family affair led by three sisters, ,Melissa on bass, Alysha on Mandolin, and Emily on fiddle, father Phil on guitar and Melissa's husband, Kyle Triplett on
banjo. They moved effortlessly from swinging romps to ballads like Carolina Rain
and Guardian Angel to the spiritual, The Master’s Garden.
The Winner of the Mid-Atlantic Band Contest, Grande Ole
Ditch did their best to bring the house down (not easy in a Sheraton ball room)
with their irreverent foot stomping blue grass band. “If loving you is killing me, what a way to go,” was for
openers.
Even lead
singer Jody Mosser had to admit their closer, Pigeon Eatin’ Catfish, was a
little weird:
When the preacher, told me son, “You need some Jesus in your
life,
I turned and left the chapel and went lookin’ for my wife,
I said “that pigeon-eating catfish, well he needs a drink or
two
Get on that moonshine, a swig or three ‘ll do.”
There was nothing weird about the way Mosser attacks his
dobro, at one point it reminded me of Jerry Lee Lewis. Grand Ole Ditch is named
after the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, a pet project of George Washington that
runs along the Potomac up to the Band’s hometown of Cumberland, Maryland. They
describe themselves as a band that “utilizes nickel-wound vibrations emanating
from historically pigeon-holed boxes composed of wires and wood.” My
description is more succinct: They are hot.
The group that really knocked me out was another family band
from nearby Winchester, Virginia. Gold Heart is the Gold sisters: Tori (mandolin),
Jocey (guitar) and Shelby (fiddle) with dad Trent on bass. They showcased their
own songs with Aint That Crazy and
O.K. Corral. But it wasn’t until they lowered their instruments and sang
a cappella that these ladies transported the audience with the magic of their
sibling harmony. During their rendition of Vince Gill’s Go Rest High on That
Mountain, you could have heard a pin drop. Ten years of singing and playing
together demonstrated that practice does make it sound perfect.
Later I dropped by a workshop where mandolin player Sierra
Hull was answering questions and demonstrating techniques to a rapt audience of
pickers and fans. When she finished playing one request, a silver haired
gentleman shook his head and announced, “It doesn’t sound like that when I play
it.”
Although I didn’t get a chance to hear some of the headline
acts like The Seldom Scene and Blue Highway, I got a look at some of tomorrow’s stars and the DC Bluegrass
Union’s message: Uncle Sam wants you to make more music.
