Hoedown alert: Boston’s Crooked Still is Tuesday night’s best bet
This weekend was packed with so many amazing shows, the average concert-goer probably had more music than they could handle. Did I go to any of them? Nope. I was off with the family celebrating a religious holiday (Happy belated Eid, everyone!).
So in place of a concert review, my friend and today’s guest blogger Phil Cauthon would like to tell you about an upcoming show Tuesday night at the Bottleneck in Lawrence.
Hoedown alert: Boston’s Crooked Still is Tuesday night’s best bet
Guest blog By Phil Cauthon
Being near the Arctic Circle around the summer solstice is like being in another world.
Your energy only dips down low as the sun — which is to say, not much at all. In Nome, Alaska, little kids play in the streets round midnight, making up for the nine months they’d just spent in darkness. At 2 a.m. outside the local music venue — The Board of Trade, or The BOT — everyone floods into the street and makes yet more plans, under sunlight that’s comparable to 8 p.m. in the Lower 48’s June.
One of those nights on the streets of Nome this summer was when I fell in love with Crooked Still — who’s playing Tuesday right here in Larry.
The 5-piece country/bluegrass combo was flown in from Boston by the tiny community to headline the Nome Midnight Sun Folk Fest.
The band played several high-energy shows on the local gradeschool stage (Nome’s biggest weatherproof venue). It seemed like the entire town was there and the band performed as if they were at Red Rocks.
And then they played the festival’s grand finale at The BOT. It was a soulful night of dancing and drinking with the entire town, who — unlike Lawrence — is seldom treated to out-of-town musicians of this caliber. And I think Crooked Still fully appreciated that.
When other road-weary bands may well have called it a night after such a long day, most of Crooked Still was out on the street at 2 a.m. with the rest of Nome, making more plans. The plan that night: a bonfire on the sound, with a view of the Ruskies.
Crooked Still is not so unlike some of the best old-timey bands from Lawrence. They have the chops of Split Lip Rayfield or Midday Ramblers, the energy of the Calamity Cubes or Deadman Flats, and the personality of Truckstop Honeymoon (well, they get close anyway 😀 ). And they’re reminiscent of Drakkar Sauna and the KC Bearfighters in this one respect: they sound like very few bands you’ve heard before. I know — every band does, right? But these guys pull it off even while sounding traditional. At base, it’s a country bluegrass sound, but played by masters of their instruments who, like Picasso, got bored with technical proficiency long ago.
On the streets outside the BOT, I accosted the members of the band to hound them about getting to Kansas, to Winfield where I knew they’d be right at home.
They haven’t performed there yet, but it turns out their cellist — Tristan Clarridge — won the Old Time Fiddle Championships there in 2004.
Crooked Still’s actual fiddle player — Brittany Haas — could give the same contest a heckuva run, no doubt. She’s like Jimi Hendrix on the violin — she absolutely sings through her instrument, and you can see it on her face with every bow stroke. On banjo, Gregory Liszt does his rare name justice — he wails with such four-finger abandon that you can’t help but feel every lick.
Bassist Corey DiMario anchors their potentially disparate parts into a solid whole. Not an easy task, no doubt, for such a constantly free-flowing group of masters. Aoife O’Donovan complements the lush stringed sound with a vocal range akin to Neko Case. And, same as Neko, she connects with the audience via rare bursts that let you know at once that the band is having as much fun as you are.
Together this is one of those bands that — if you’ve got any sorta Americana/bluegrass/country streak — you might well regret not seeing for $11 at The Bottleneck. I can imagine them coming back through Lawrence and packing Liberty for steeper ticket, anyway. I’d be there for that show, too~