Pt. 1 - BLUEGRASS - The Best Bands You've Never Heard in Your Life!

http://www.barnesbluegrass.com
www.ashleylewis.net

          Friday night, and all day Saturday. Labor Day Weekend, I attended The 39^th Annual Barnes Family Bluegrass Festival in Aledo Illinois. It was excellent as always. The acts were; Ashley Lewis, The Bankesters, The Harmans, The Expedition Show & Monroe Crossing. All week long, I’ve been facing the daunting task of trying to write a review that would cover five bands, each performing three times, plus reviews of their CDs I bought. This flies in the face of my goal, which is to create this web log using little or no effort. The above video of Ashley Lewis goes a long way towards relieving me of my writing duties. “Haunted” is one of her original compositions. Her live act also included some Django Reinhardt / Stephane Grappelli style swing jazz numbers, traditional bluegrass, and fine bluegrass arrangements of “Johnny B. Goode” & “Burning Love”. Funny – I’ve heard Elvis sing that song a million times, but it’s as if I’d never heard the lyrics until I heard Ashley sing it, (ie; “my chest is heaving… higher & higher the flames are licking my body, ‘til I’m a hunka hunka burnin’ love.”  Yow! (She’s even cuter in real life than on the above video.)

          She provided the weekend’s most impressive moment of showmanship. On the first song of her second show, her mike was creating horrible feedback any time she got anywhere near it. Undaunted, she walked down in front of the front row of the audience, unmiked, playing what must have been a minute-and-a half long, ferocious  mandolin solo, stopping walking several times to play for whoever she was standing in front of. This fearless improvisation really won over the audience.

          Her CD “Here I Stand” is excellent. Most of the songs on it are her original compositions, & they reflect an artistic maturity beyond her years. (I would have guessed she was 18, but apparently she is a few years older.) Unfortunately, only two songs from it are available on iTunes.         

          I’ll be writing about the other groups soon.