Fruition & Grant Farm – Meeting on the Mountain
Fruition is starting to make a name for themselves. Even a few years ago, they were the surprise hit of the String Summit. Local to the area, they brought their own fan base, swarming the afternoon set with costumed dancers. Since then they’ve received better times and more extended sets, have started national tours – they’re even on Jam Cruise this year – and are definitely becoming a force to be reckoned with. Grant Farm is a more recent creation. Like many bands in the bluegrass scene, they formed out of players from other outfits. They’re only a few years old as a band, but since they’ve been around longer as musicians, they’re much stronger than that history would usually imply.
The two bands joined forces to create a four song EP. In some ways they might have explained the festival in four tracks. “Random Lee” sounds so much like a missing classic rock song, that I actually Googled it to see if was a cover. Instead it’s a contagious original about a couple from Big Sky country. “Meet Me on the Mountain” falls out of the gospel side of bluegrass. Mountains always bring to mind gods and sacred texts especially when you have lines like, “Come that dying day/When I’ll be on my while/I’m gonna lose these chains and leave this old world behind,” but this mountain is largely a-metaphorical. The appeal of the mountain is the wind that blows off the side, not the entities that could be met. As anyone who has driven by Mt. Shasta at sunset knows, even that can be quite mystical.
While the spiritual side might be invoked early one, the final song has no such illusions. Titled “Spliff” and with the opening line of “You’ve got the spliff and I got the vial honey,” this is going to be a party anthem. It’s silly, but – let’s face it – sometimes the festival environment is about seeing who can fill up your empty jug with some alcohol and combining your forces; “Let’s get together. Get everyone higher,” is a guaranteed raucous cheer line.
Sure this release is short, but the playing is tight, the songs have a timeless feel, and it’s very cool to hear Fruition’s singers in a slightly different context. This shows that less is more sometimes is true.
Greensky Bluegrass – If Sorrows Swim
While Anna Tivel and Absynth Quintet are just starting to create their careers, and Fruition, while on the upside of the career slope, is still largely unknown outside of the northwest and festival circuits, Greensky Bluegrass has already arrived. They are rapidly becoming a second headliner for the String Summit – this past year they had both the Thursday night headlining set and a late night show on Friday – and are starting to develop a mainstream reputation. As a result, it’s a little tempting to grade their new album on a bit of a curve, giving more credit to the newer bands. Fortunately, the earlier bands most definitely didn’t need the boost, as this album should not be shortchanged.
One of Greensky’s biggest strengths is to build up moments of incredible intensity in short periods. The opening “Windshield” starts out normally enough but takes a sudden jump, appropriately enough under the lyrics, “Someone better hide the children/I think things are getting out of hand,” which continues throughout the rest of the track. The technique is used sparingly, preventing it from getting too old.
This is the most traditional bluegrass release of the four. It’s about tight harmonies, beautiful songs, and great picking. That itself makes for a great release. But then there are the moments, the music breaks in “Kerosense” and “Leap Year” or the bridge of “Burn Them,” where without leaving the idea of bluegrass in anyway, they somehow still manage to transcend the genre and create incredible peaks. They’re the bluegrass band for people who aren’t sure if they like bluegrass.
What makes this new set of bands so interesting? They all can play the same genred festival, but still have sounds that are this different. Like all things, the jamgrass revolution will peak at some point and then slowly fade away, but for now, there’s a bit of a golden age. Enjoy them when they’re happening because you never know when the next one will come.
*****
David Steinberg got his Masters Degree in mathematics from New Mexico State University in 1994. He first discovered the power of live music at the Capital Centre in 1988 and never has been the same. His Phish stats website is at http://www.ihoz.com/PhishStats.html and he’s on the board of directors for The Mockingbird Foundation. He occasionally posts at the Phish.net blog and has a daily update on the Phish Stats Facebook page
His book This Has All Been Wonderful is available on Amazon, the Kindle Store, and his Create Space store.
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