18 Mile Radius - Western State Colorado University Folksong Coffee House, Gunnison CO - March 28, 2012
[Gunnison Valley] after sitting next
to their skilled guitar player during the bluegrass workshop, and seeing the
respect he was paid, and hearing that they gig all over, I was expecting something
great – well, I’ve never seen four men destroy such promising instruments like
these four men did: upright bass, guitar, guitar, mandolin/fiddle – it was the
weakest ass shit I had ever done seen in my life – the Yo La Tengo of
whatever-you-want-to-call-their-music – I heard recently that the difference
between the young and the old is that the old understand restraint, well the
degree to which these guys have restraint mastered suggests they must be one
step from the grave – they were particularly bad when they sang the lead
vocalist’s own songs – he’d simper as he described them and they were these
cheesy trite bland horrors – I swear he’s trying to turn a church band into a
pop band – his voice is weak too, sometimes John Denver, usually church folk –
it was the ultimate irony when he was trying to express how he’s changing the
world with his music and stated “Nothing speaks louder than music” - the one
time they were tolerable was when my guitar man sang – ironically, I feel like
their sound has some promise if they would only play more interesting songs–
I’ve honestly never seen these instruments handled like they did – they could
do ambient bluegrass or something – and they played the song that I hear
everywhere I go in Gunnison and will forever consider the theme song of
Gunnison: “Wagonwheel” – turns out it’s a song for which Dylan wrote the chorus
and never recorded, and then Old Crow Medicine Show wrote verses around it and
made it hugely famous… in Gunnison. (Photo courtesy of
Comments
Post a Comment