While anybody who was anybody headed east to Philadelphia on Friday night for Bruce Springsteen's "The River" concert, we headed south to Newark to hear Dry Branch Fire Squad, a venerable bluegrass quartet, as part of the Brandywine Friends of Old Time Music series.
The band's founder, mandolin player Ron Thomason, has a dry sense of humor and an exceptionally easy stage presence. At one point he mentioned that he'd received several requests from the audience -- as well as a request NOT to play a certain song.
He declared himself baffled.
"How do you NOT play a song?" he wondered aloud, claiming he was experiencing "existential angst" at the very prospect.
He told an anecdote about being asked to host a workshop at a music festival. He said he didn't know what a "workshop," was and in fact had become a musician expressly to avoid both parts of the word.
Later in the anecdote he asked the audience what the late folk singer Utah Phillips' real first name was.
"Bruce," replied several in the audience.
"That is a common error," he said.
"Zipper," one man suggested.
Ron cracked up. "That is an uncommon error," he said, his voice shaking with amusement.
Although his stage persona is that of a Virginia redneck with, as he put it, a one-digit genetic code, a family tree that doesn't fork, and only a single helix in his DNA, his skill on the mandolin quickly put the lie to that. The band members (Tom Boyd on banjo and dobro; Jeff Byrd on bass; Adam McIntosh on guitar and mandolin) took turns stepping up to the mike for their instrumental solos, and they created magical vocal harmonies.
No comments:
Post a Comment