The Del McCoury Band
Delfest is our first camping festival this year and this is also our first time camping with a baby, so I have a lot of de-wintering and packing still to do. However if all goes well, my next post will come to you live from the fairgrounds in Allegheny County, MD where I will send photo, video and blog updates as often as I can while still enjoying my vacation. I already feel the excitement for pickers in the Delfest Academy who are about to have a great experience learning music from their heroes in the Del McCoury Band, just as I did in 2009. The Thursday night kickoff with Donna The Buffalo and The Infamous Stringdusters is bound to be amazing, and are many bands that I am excited to see this year, both new and familiar to me:
Del and I sing "The Bluebirds Are Singing For Me" at the first Delfest Academy in 2009.
Old Favorites: Our hosts The Del McCoury Band, of course, Yonder Mountain String Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Railroad Earth, Punch Brothers, Emmit-Nershi and Sierra Hull.
New Sounds: These are not all new bands, but also those who I will be getting to see for the first time, like the great mandolin legend Jesse McReynolds, blues rocker Warren Haynes, the Black Crowes‘ Chris Robinson and the jamgrass supergroup Physchograss . Others include The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Dailey & Vincent, Hoots & Hellmouth, The Sweetback Sisters, Rockin’ Acoustic Circus, and more. We always come home with a stack of new CD’s due to the wide variety and high talent on the Delfest stages.
Delfest
Delfest also provides kids play shops that we look forward to attending with our baby: Kids Jamboree w/ Ronnie McCoury and Music in the Moment w/ Joe Craven. There are also some exciting musician workshops on the schedule, like songwriting with Nathan Moore, Todd Shaeffer and Bill Nershi, a fiddle workshop with Jason Carter, Tim Carbone and Darrol Anger and a banjo workshop with Rob McCoury and Tony Trischka.
I love these one-of-a-kind of experiences that you can only get at a festival, and will try to share them with you in words and pictures. With all those great bands on stage, I hope that I can squeeze in some jamming around the campfire as well!
If you are as excited for Delfest as I am and can’t get enough, here is another preview from Cosmic Vibes Live. If you can’t go to Delfest but are happy for the arrival of festival season, here is one from the archives – Roots to Branches: Tips For Growing a Festival Community.
