RootsFest 2009 - Leo and Hot Rize were amazine...Shawn Colvin was missed

This was a pretty crazy night. My overall impression is that putting a "festival" style event into an Opera House is a flawed concept and that they would be better off either shrinking the performer list or holding it at a more typical festival venue with a more typical festival feeling. Either Swallow Hill or the artists or Ellie Caulkins doesn't allow photos at their shows, so nothing new on the Photo Stream.

Next, I'll break it down artist by artist.

Boulder Acoustic Society

I've heard of these guys from when one of them lived in my neighborhood a few years ago. I really enjoyed their music which could be described as a combination of bluegrass-folk-gospel-world. They are still a small enough group to do small shows which I'm sure are really great. I'll be looking for more tickets to their events.

Boulder Acoustic Society - playing at the Walnut Room on May 30th

Joe Pug - One man guitar + harmonica

Tom was pretty solid. I enjoyed his music, though it has faded from my memory faster than everyone else. Given that I disliked some of the artists at the show, I'll call this temporary nature a good thing. It seemed like a mix of Bob Dylan and John Mayer.

Joe Pug

Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams

Of the three acts I disliked, I disliked GMSCD the least. They wererated by Hudson River Valley news to be the best band in the river valley for the past three years. I feel sorry for the Hudson River Valley. They seemed to consistently provide the worst of both worlds. For example, on one song they brought out their slide-mandolin. Sometimes it's a great idea to mix together two styles - when you see mixmaster mike do things like blending blues, hiphop, and a wahwah pedal it's amazing - but a slide-mandolin was just pure guitar porn. And it was not enjoyable.

In the lead up to "Tink" we heard some backstory about how every woman has the dual personalities of Tink and Wendy. It seemed a little insulting on a male dominated night to reduce all women into a single description.

In the end the Slambovians played a "mummer's song" to ward off evil spirits from our lives. The tune was very catchy and got the crowd really excited. It was great and enough to get them a standing ovation. Beyond that, though, I'm not sure if the crowd really would have liked them.

Kristian Matsson - aka the Tallest Man On Earth

Kristian had a fun style, a novel but interesting performance style (getting really passionate with a song and then climaxing and walking away from the mic still playing only to return and build again), and a refreshing style of singing. However, like many artists, every song sounded very similar. I couldn't really tell you if he plaid 5 songs or the same song 5 times.

Nikki's suggestion was to personalize the performance a bit with some stories of his homeland Sweden and a Swedish lullaby. Anything that would provide variety to the performance would be welcome.

Slambovians

At this point we got an intermission. Which was nice. The Chihuly chandelier over the entrance and large painting above the bar in the lobby both provided interesting diversions.

Leo Kottke

Leo is the reason I came to this show, and no surprise he was awesome. I can only compare this to Wainwright / Kottke Botanic Gardens show. The song selection and stories at the Botanic Gardens seemed better. However, the sound was so much better (obviously) here at the Ellie Caulkins opera house that I enjoyed it a bit more.

As a bonus, Kottke did an encore performance with Nick Forster (Hot Rize bassist, e-town host) which was great. When Kottke walked on stage with his two guitars and a third was waiting for him I was fairly certain we'd see a duet - I was glad it was with Forster.

He once again told the story of the ant book, with an additional intro about a run-in he had with ants at age 6, as the lead-in to his famous but unpublished song Ants. I'd love to know which book is Kottke's ants book.

Ricky Lee Jones

Shawn Colvin was supposed to play in this slot, but she had a family emergency so Ricky Lee Jones filled in.

I'm sure Ricky Lee Jones has the ability to be a good performer. However, her performance, especially as a follow-up to Kottke's powerful precision, did not work. The audience around me was literally booing and in-between songs it was clear that people were leaving the performance either to go home or just to stand around in the lobby.

Some of Ricky's songs were nice, and her voice is quite good, but she also forgot her own lyrics and didn't know the names of her songs. This just sucked the energy right out of the night. We would have been better without her addition to the lineup.

Hot Rize

At the end of the night we had a real treat. I first heard of Hot Rize at a Punch Brothers performance in New York where they covered Colleen Malone. Thankfully Hot Rize did their version of Colleen Malone here at the Rootsfest so I got to hear both versions within a month - it was really musical nirvana.

The performance was really solid, but I have a slight dislike for the sound of a banjo. Ironically they spent a few minutes at the beginning of the set fixing the banjo-mic...I would have been fine if it never worked. That said, Pete Wernick (Dr. Banjo) was pretty funny on-stage which is an attribute I really appreciate in performers. Pete Wernick will be playing with his band Flexigrass at Swallow Hill on April 10th, which should be good.

Final Impressions of Roots Fest

Overal the night was great. I'll probably head back next year and am scouring the Swallow Hill calendar for more concerts to attend.