Our second-to-last installment of our DelFest Sessions features Birmingham, Alabama-based jamgrass group, Mountain Grass Unit. Videographers I Know We Should were on hand at this year’s DelFest in Cumberland, Maryland over Memorial Day Weekend to capture a collection of beautiful, fun, and engaging live sessions on the banks of the Potomac River. (See all of our DelFest Sessions here.) For their shoot, Mountain Grass Unit played a pair of exciting cover songs.
Their first selection, “Big River,” is a funky and charming re-imagination of a Johnny Cash classic with a mash-tastic, blues-inflected groove. Drury Anderson, the group’s mandolin picker and lead vocalist on the track, sings with a drawl seemingly from right down the proverbial road from Cash’s homeland (near Memphis, Tennessee). It fits the bluesy undertones of their rendition perfectly, equal parts Muscle Shoals and Bean Blossom. Cash is a common cover subject in bluegrass, and MGU’s version of “Big River” demonstrates exactly why that’s the case.
For their second number, fiddler Josiah Nelson kicks off “One Way Track,” a Ricky Skaggs cover that’s a blistering and fun throwback. As the mist rises over the Appalachian foothills of Maryland and West Virginia, Luke Black (guitar) and Sam Wilson (bass) jump in on harmony vocals on a chorus with a chord progression built on pop changes and mountain music’s lonesome tones.
DelFest campers watch from their hammocks in the shade as Mountain Grass Unit charge down their “One Way Track” with runaway locomotive energy. Ricky Skaggs, who co-wrote the song with Wes Golding, may have released its most popular version, but it was originally cut by Boone Creek, a bluegrass supergroup of the ’70s and ’80s that included Skaggs, Golding, Jerry Douglas, and the late Terry Baucom. Still, MGU hold their own and leave their unique fingerprints on the track.
Stay tuned, as we’ll have one more DelFest Session coming your way next week. Plus, Mountain Grass Unit may have shot an additional, bonus track from their upcoming EP that we’re excited to share with you at a later date. It will all be right here, on BGS! More to come…
Video Credit: Brad Wagner, I Know We Should
Drone Footage: Christopher Weist
Audio Credit: Juan Soria, I Know We Should
