March roared into Charleston and brought with it nine performances of note. Beginning the month was the SC Blues Alliance at a local bar, a house concert by a renowned local folk artist and an enjoyable bluegrass ensemble from N. Carolina on the deck at the Pourhouse.  Edgy comedy from Englishman Jimmy Carr, Dawes and Lucius as a band performing the Tag Team Tour, Creed frontman Scott Snaap stepping out with his project and the 50^th anniversary tour by Spyro Gyra all at my Music Hall displayed a broad brush of artists. The month ended with an acoustic duo from the Infamous Stringdusters performing the music of Jerry Garcia one night and then screaming guitars from Joe Satriani and Steve Vai sharing the stage at the Performing Art Center another night.

Of note, Jimmy Carr gave two performances one night at the Music Hall. His dry British humor and measured delivery added to his unique perspective of life. There were no taboos to the topics he might discuss and his performance was 15 to 20 minutes shy of two hours. I’ve not seen a comedian perform for that length.

What captured my ear the most was the Tag Team tour of Dawes and Lucius. The two ladies who front Lucius lent their voices to the Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith and his drumming brother Griffin. They opened their show with a cover of Pink Floyd’s Shine on you Crazy Diamond and ended their show with a Joe Cocker rendition of the Beatles’ A little help from my friends. In between the artists covered many tunes from each band’s catalogue which made up the bulk of their performance. Taylor talked about being at Joni Mitchell’s house last year and getting to sing with her. He then played Mitchell’s Come in from the Cold. They also paid tribute to Warren Zevon with Desperados under the Eaves and a lovely vocal performance by Lucius on the Grateful Dead’s Uncle John Band. All told they played for more than two hours in two sets and left the capacity crowd in wonder of the breadth and scope of the the songs offered that night.

The other performance that really got my attention was Andy Falco and Travis Book of the new grass band, the Infamous Stringdusters, performing the music of Jerry Garcia at local club the Pourhouse. Their two voices floated above the riffs and beats of an acoustic guitar and a standup acoustic bass. The sounds that they churned out filled the room and made the crowd dance all night long. Even if you weren’t a Deadhead but appreciate the bluegrass sound, you would enjoy the show.  However, if you are a Head, you would appreciate the songs they chose to perform to a small (under 150) crowd one Saturday night. Their set list was ambitious and the sounds were magical. A good time was had by all.

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