The Station Inn Photo Gallery 
Featuring Photography by David Schenk
A Great Night of Music
March 26, 1997
originally posted to bgrass-l
This old Ralph Stanley dyed-in-the-wool curmudgeon had a great time last night at the Station Inn. Tony Furtado called to say he was having his album release party, and that Dirk Powell, Kester Smith and Dave Grant would be playing with him. Sounded intriguing, so I headed down, expecting some musical diversity, knowing there would be "percussion" instruments at play, and was I richly rewarded!
Now, I stayed up way late last night and had to get up way early this morning, but the show was well worth the $7 admission price. I don't know if it was the fact that the next three nights feature some of acoustic music's finest Nashvillians, coming together for the benefit of raising some serious money toward Charles Sawtelle's medical bills (at $25 per ticket per night), but the crowd was thin last night.
You guys missed a great show! If you like Celtic music, there was something for you, and if you like slide guitar, you'd have been in heaven; if you love Cajun, well, you'll look far to beat the gifted Dirk Powell, and if you like old-time or bluegrass, you'd have been grinning from ear-to-ear along with me and most of the other folks there. If it's blues you like, or sensitive, moody ballads, well, you'd have had tears in your eyes.
Now, if you're going to start griping about "that ain't bluegrass" or whatever, well, go ahead, talk to yourself or hit delete now. True enough, I'm not a large fan of most "pop", progressive or contemporary music, lean heavily toward the hard-core rootsy stuff, but Furtado's musical program last night was warm, tasteful, eclectic, and full of surprises. To think they played that well and obviously enjoyed themselves that much despite a very small crowd, and having been on the road criss-crossing the country for the past two weeks, having driven from Boone, NC to Nashville yesterday after staying up very late, well, you just never would've guessed it.
Of course most of you are probably familiar with Furtado's talent from his time with Laurie Lewis, the Rounder Banjo Extravaganza and his solo career. This teaming with multi-instrumentalist Dirk Powell, the ever-delightful Kester Smith (who's played with Taj Mahal and Peter Rowan, among others) and Dave Grant, who's very well-respected in old-time circles, is phenomenal. The energy, the creativity and the diversity will suck you in and hold you tight all night, I guarantee.
Tony played his "bluegrass" instrument, the 5-string banjo, much of the evening, mostly with fingerpicks and a slide on his left pinky finger. Wow! Now maybe I've just been under an old-time rock for too long, but that sound is fantastic, ooooooooooo, it'll really move you, man, and I'd never heard that done on a banjo before. And that Dirk Powell, well, I'd listen to him play in a port-o-let or stand in water up to my neck while piranhas viciously bit into me, or whatever. Can't get enough. He whipped out his Cajun accordion pretty early on and played a 2-step about a perch, the English translation being "Perch Two-Step," accompanied by Tony on guitar and the other guys, too. Dirk led into the song saying, "The good thing about an accordian is that everyone has to tune to you." Next they played a Tommy Jarrell tune with Dirk clawhammering an open-back banjer and Tony playing slide guitar, and Tony singing lead.
Dirk hopped over to the upright piano and accompanied Tony and the boys on a sensitive ballad Tony had written in response to a news clip he'd seen about a little girl who'd died; her last words to her mother had been "listen to the rain," which was the title of the piece. During this instrumental, I began listening to Kester's tasteful percussion fills, and appreciating his complete immersion in the feeling of the song; his body language was in itself a song, and the energy flowing and weaving among the guys on stage was powerful.
"The Ghost of Blind Willie Johnson" followed, with Dirk on clawhammer, which, by the way was plugged in, giving it a really, really cool sound; don't believe I've ever heard a clawhammer with a pickup! This particular banjo, which had a very large head, had a deep voice that got right down to the heart of things, and something between Dirk's deft movements, the quality of the instrument, the amplification and the percolating percussion just did it for me. There were some seriously syncopated African rhythms bouncing around the dark walls and low ceiling of the Station Inn last evening, and people were really digging it. No matter that this wasn't just bluegrass, it was the blues, it was old-time, it was Cajun, it was Celtic, and it was all just delightful rolled together and taken apart, too.
Open-back Dirk and 5-string Tony launched into some Irish reels, percussion then joining in along with the booming bass. Tim O'Brien hopped up to join them on a couple of fiddle tunes, there was excitement and lots of gleeful grins, with Tim and Dirk twinning on fiddles. Tim then sang "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning," Tim on fiddle, Dirk on guitar and Tony on 5-string. Then Dirk hit the piano and Tony played slide on some kind of dobro-banjo thing to slow things down a bit.
Tony's new project, which I purchased but haven't had a chance to hear, includes many of the tunes they played last night, which leads me to believe that I'll be loving it.
On the next set, they played other musical delights, Dirk and Tony switching around on instruments, Kester radiating his powerful, positive energy. Dave got kind of tired I guess, because he sat down holding his big bass fiddle across his lap and playing the fire out of it, like fiddle tunes on the bass, no boom-boom there. I can't wait to hear him at Mount Airy later this year playing old time.
There was again the mixture of Cajun tunes with accordion, ballads with piano, some open-back and 5-string duels, etc. They played "Bolinas" and "Vigilante Man", a Cajun number, "Broken Family Waltz"; the syncopation, particularly on the Irish and old-time tunes was breathtaking, grabbing my pulse and attention, speeding it up on this tune, slowing it down on that. Tim came up and sang "Oh My Little Darling"; Tim on mandolin, Dirk open-back and Tony 5-string. Just Tim and Dirk did "Jonah and the Whale" on mandolin and clawhammer. Then just Kester and Tony did a ballad Tony wrote for a little baby, a song called "Early." They concluded the musical portion of the evening with "Home Sweet Home," and, for your bluegrass snobs, Tony donned ALL his fingerpicks, and really laid into that number.
A great night; I had planned to stop in for a few songs but stayed for the entire program; enjoyed myself so much; just another example of what great discoveries you can enjoy by keeping an open mind and branching out a bit.
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