When I first concocted the idea of a monthly concert for the blog, I saw it as a way to highlight an artist whose performance moved me. It should be easy to recognize a concert as being a cut above the rest. Looking back at January, I have concluded that spotlighting one show was not going to do justice to the two other gems I saw this past month. Let me elaborate.

The year began at the Music Hall on the 4^th of January with a solo acoustic performance by country outlaw great, Travis Tritt. The stage was adorned by two acoustic guitars, a mic stand and a three-legged stool. The evening began with Travis reeling off five tunes before addressing the crowd. Once he started talking, he spun many tales of working and playing with some of the legends of Nashville. The show had a feel of the TV series, “Storytellers.” Over the last 30+ years making music, he has assembled quite the portfolio of hits, which he delivered with vigor.  He announced to the crowd that he was debuting a Beatles tune this night and then proceeded to transform, “Help!” into a slow country ballad of despair and dependence. You can see it on YouTube with the key words, “Help,” and ‘Travis Tritt’. Two and one half hours of Travis, center stage with no distractions or gimmicks made this a great way to start off the year.

Then on January 20^th, I ventured to the Music Farm, one block north of the Music Hall, for Yonder Mountain String Band. Yonder Mountain (YM) is in the forefront of the modern bluegrass scene. YM blends traditional bluegrass with a strong jamming style that can transform any song into a jazzy, rocking sound from nothing but stringed instruments (banjo, mandolin, stand-up bass, acoustic guitar and fiddle). They have been entertaining audiences for more than a decade and tonight was no exception. When they delve into their cadre of tunes, they sound like everything from hillbilly twang to jazz fusion. They found plenty of time for a surprising selection of cover tunes. During their two hour set the offered up New Grass adaptations of Jim Croce’s, “Rolling Down the Highway,” to the Grateful Dead’s, “Shakedown Street,” and then America’s, “Sister Golden Hair Surprise.” Later they rolled out their rendition of Dolly Parton’s, “Jolene,” and Dusty Springfield’s, “Son of a Preacher Man.” YM encored with Edgar Winter’s, “Frankenstein,” with the violin replicating the organ sounds of the original tune. If you’ve never seen them perform live and you like modern string (grass) music, put them on your To See list.

The month concluded back at the Music Hall on the 26th with a masterful performance by traditional Bluegrass ambassadors Del McCoury and Band. Del is sounding great and giving his all at 77. The band includes his sons, Ronnie on mandolin and Rob on banjo. Both are multiple Grammy Award winners as is their dad. His fiddle player has been with him for more than 25 years and Mrs. McCoury (Mom) was manning the merch booth! Talk about a family affair! Del has played with the legends of traditional Bluegrass sound and he can deliver everything from a twangy, nasal vocal to great harmonies from 3, 4 or 5 singers. They deliver a classic, original sound while dressing smart in suits and ties.  These fellows are all masters of their instruments and their sound is as fresh today as it must have been 50 years ago or longer. A hallmark of the performances by the Del McCoury Band is his practice of playing nothing but requests most of the night. As you can imagine, being able to pull off credible renditions for a plethora of tunes in a moment’s notice puts them in a class by themselves. See Del McCoury while you still can!

As my recollections demonstrate, I couldn’t single out one performance worthy of just praise. If you’re not a country music fan, too bad. But should any of these artists come to your fair city, you won’t be disappointed taking in any of their performances. It will surely put a smile on your face and a jump in your step.  #TravisTritt #YonderMountainStringBand #DelMcCoury #CharlestonMusicHall #MusicFarm #DoYouBelieveInMagic

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