Tag: Largo

Sara and Sean Watkins Strengthen Watkins Family Hour Ties on ‘Vol. II’

Posted on by Editor

Sara and Sean Watkins were still children when they began playing bluegrass festivals, where the siblings often performed songs arranged on the fly with people they’d met just minutes before. When the Vista, California, natives began exploring Los Angeles’ music scene, they were delighted to discover infusions of that same collaborative spirit — particularly at Largo, the club where composer/producer Jon Brion often mixed and matched players and songs of seemingly incongruous musical styles at his Friday night shows. When the Watkins Family Hour residency began in 2002, Brion encouraged them to create their own adventurous pairings. Twenty years later, they’re still at it, and credit his inspiration for their approach to Vol. II, the latest chronicle of their now-legendary monthly gatherings.

While their 2020 Watkins Family Hour release, Brother Sister, focused on Sean and Sara’s vocal and instrumental interplay (on guitar and violin, respectively) and original compositions, the new album returns to the collaborative approach used on 2015’s Watkins Family Hour.

Recorded in three days, Vol. II is full of inspired combinations: The Zombies’ “The Way I Feel Inside” features a heavenly near-a cappella quartet of Watkins and Lucius voices; on the Charlie Rich-penned Ernest Tubb classic “Thanks a Lot,” Sean evokes Teddy Thompson as he and Sara channel the Everlys — to a Bo Diddley beat and some Brion chicken-pickin’. On Elliott Smith’s “Pitseleh,” Madison Cunningham’s twinkling high-strung Telecaster notes gorgeously counterpoint Sean’s lovely vocals and Sara’s sweeping violin parts.

While the range of material is impressive enough — they might be the first artists to cover a Tune-Yards song (“Hypnotized”), which certainly stands as a testament to their boldness — it’s the mind-boggling list of contributors that confirms Sara and Sean Watkins really have built a family. One they look forward to expanding.

BGS: Twenty years — that’s literally half your lives, and most clubs aren’t even around that long. You mentioned wanting to pay homage to Largo as well as the scene and the music, which you do by delving into history, yet also drawing on current styles. How do you make it all fit together so well?

Sara: One of the things we love about bluegrass is how it’s a living history, and how there was a bit of a perspective of, like, built to last — the idea that a song is built to last, and old songs and musicians from earlier generations are all that much more respected and admired for how much they have contributed over the years. And if it’s a song, how many people this song has touched and affected, and it’s still alive, and people love playing it still. Playing that material, and respecting the heritage, is a big part of what we grew up with. We didn’t really grow up (thinking), “What’s new, that’s the best stuff.” We grew up with “what’s old, that’s the best stuff.” So in our repertoire, there’s always been older songs. That respect is common to all roots music. … There’s so much older stuff that we already know; we were really happy and eager to include some of the new material we’ve been turned on to by friends like Glen Phillips (“Grief and Praise”), Tom Brosseau (“We Were Meant to Be Together”), Ethan Gruska (“On the Outside”) and Tune-Yards.

Sean: We chose old songs that we played early on, like “She Left Me Standing on the Mountain” and “Tennessee Waltz,” but we also tried to highlight some of our favorite songwriters that are part of the community, or Largo specifically, like Glen. He’s the reason we play at Largo; he’s the one that vetted us to play there and introduced us to that whole community. We picked songs based on how they related to Largo and the Family Hour, rather than just random songs we like to play.

Old songs that we’re able to do with the Watkins Family Hour band, like “Tennessee Waltz,” we wouldn’t do at a bluegrass festival because it’s been done a million times, and in probably a similar way. But for us to do it with Benmont Tench playing beautiful piano voicings, I mean, piano is not a bluegrass instrument, and the voicings he’s using are not bluegrass voicings, so it enables us to play an old song that we might write off as being overdone, and give it some new life because of the people we’re playing it with. It doesn’t modernize “Tennessee Waltz,” but it’s a new twist on it.

Sara: Equally relevant to the Family Hour in a lot of ways, I think, is that’s a song that has been a part of so many generations and so many people’s lives. We don’t play it a lot, but I think that’s what made that performance on the album so special.

Sean: One of the things that we discovered early on at Largo that made it really exciting for us is that we can do these songs for people that maybe have never even heard bluegrass before, and if they have, it’s totally fine to do “Tennessee Waltz.”

BGS: You’ve played with a lot of people in 20 years. Just reading the list of backing vocalists on “Grief and Praise,” I was like, “Damn, that’s all the cool kids in L.A.” — including the co-founder of the Bluegrass Situation. Would you say that you discovered more of those artists from playing at Largo, or that they discovered you and wanted to jump in because of Largo?

Sean: In the beginning, it was certainly us being introduced to people, and then once we got going, people knew about it. When it got to a point where people would ask us if they could play a show, we felt very honored. Sometimes Flanagan, who owns and runs Largo, would ask us to sit in and play with a comedian or another musician as part of their show, and then we would tell them about our show. It’s a lot of that back and forth.

Sara: When we started doing this show regularly, we were seeing a bunch of shows and being inspired by tons of new music and new artists. Occasionally, we would ask if they would want to do our show, and sometimes they would ask if we wanted to open for them or play a song in their show, and you just meet each other. When you move to a new town, you go out and meet new friends, and that’s what we did.

You started that residency pretty young, but when you stepped into it, you must have already had the respect of the community.

Sara: I don’t think we did, honestly.

Sean: Not that community.

Sara: One of the best things that I learned from the Family Hour is how important it is to give people a chance to develop and grow, because when Flanagan offered us this residency, it could have lasted six months or a year. But it lasted 20. I think he just wanted to give us a chance to interact with the scene in Los Angeles and introduce us to some of his musician friends and people that play Largo, and by opening the door to that, we were just completely blown away by the people we got to perform with and to become friends and sit in with, and the people who were interested in sitting in with us. It was like Flanagan was vouching for us by inviting us to do this residency. And as Sean was saying, over time, as it became something that was pretty consistent, we’ve been able to expand the group of friends and also have an opportunity to write with people. It opened the doors for all kinds of other collaborations.

Sean: When we started doing these shows at Largo in our early 20s, there was a lot of stuff happening in Nashville with our kinds of music. We thought about moving there and starting something, but when we started going to Largo and playing these shows, it felt really good to be a little different than the average musician in Los Angeles. It was more fun and more of a challenge to dive into a scene like Largo that’s really big and heavy in different ways, and new and challenging. I’ve had to learn so many songs and so many styles of music that really pushed me, and I’m really grateful for that. And that’s partly why we made this album. It’s a past that we’re celebrating, but it’s not just nostalgic; it’s continued to be this way, much to all of our surprise. We didn’t expect it to feel this exciting still. But that’s because there’s new people all the time, and new songs, and like Sara says, because it’s a monthly show and we have such a regular audience, it makes us realize that we need to mix it up and present new songs.

It was an unexpected treat to hear Fiona Apple on what’s almost a Western swing tune.

Sara: That was one of the first examples of what Sean was saying about things we learned from Jon Brion putting people together and finding common material. When we first met, Fiona was onstage; I think Jon knew that we probably grew up with some classic country stuff, and that Fiona also loved a lot of that. One of the first things we played with her was “Walkin’ After Midnight,” and we got to experience the power of how she embodies every song that she sings. For us, “Walkin’ After Midnight” is a clichéd song that very few people would take on. It’s been done very well; we don’t really need to do it a lot more. But for us to hear her sing that gave it this new relevancy and a completely transformative power. That is another example of the context affecting the message.

I’ll never forget hearing Gaby Moreno sing at your Watkins Family Hour session during the 2017 Folk Alliance International conference. She just blew me away. She seems like the perfect example of a deserving artist you can draw attention to with a project like this one.

Sean: I’m in a band called Fiction Family. We used to play this show on Sunday nights. There’d be like four bands a night, and Gaby was doing a bunch of songs that were like poppy, kind of raucous rock songs. Then she did a traditional Guatemalan song and played guitar. And it was like, “Oh, we could totally do music together.” So I invited her to one of our shows. It was that moment of hearing a commonality that opened the door to a great musical relationship. She’s taught us so much about her style of music and even, just, rhythm. We played a show with her in Aspen, Colorado, and she was showing me these different traditional mariachi guitar-strumming patterns that I videotaped on my phone because it’s just so cool. So it’s a really great relationship; it’s not only fun, but we get to learn from each other.

On the flip side of that, you have some legends on here. But since you’ve been doing this all your life, it probably doesn’t feel as goose-bumpy.

Sean: Oh, it does.

Sara, how do you take a song that you’re performing with Jackson Browne and let him be the background vocalist and you take the lead?

Sara: We’ve gotten to know Jackson over the years quite well. We played “The Late Show” with him on his tour a long time ago, singing the background parts. We love the song, but it’s best done with two harmony singers that can sing those beautiful answering parts. Jackson was doing the show, so we just on a lark thought, “Well, we should do ‘The Late Show.’ Why don’t we see if he’d sing the harmony part?” And so we worked it up, and it was great. He was gracious enough to sing harmony on it at a live show, and then shortly after, we were planning the album and we asked if he would sing a song or maybe we could do one together. And he’s like, “Right. Should we do ‘The Late Show?’” So we did.

You two have a long list of projects and collaborations that have always kept you busy, but you’ve stayed by each other’s sides since Nickel Creek (formed with Chris Thile when he and Sara were 9 and Sean was 12). I’m sure you get asked this a lot, but how do you make it work?

Sean: (Laughs.) I mean, we’ve just done it since we were kids, and it’s always been fun. We’ve always been great friends and love playing with each other. The older we get, the more we realize how rare it is. There are a lot of bands of siblings, but the thing that I’m grateful for is that we’re both driven, musically, pretty much the same way and amount. We both enjoy it the same amount and are able to step in and out of different roles.

Sara: It is a nice partnership. There has been a good give and take between us over the years. If there’s a time when one of us feels more capable of taking the helm, it’s really nice to let that happen. Like in bicycle races, there’s somebody in front that takes the wind and the other person just rests for a minute, then the other person goes. It feels like that sometimes. Because we’re a team in Family Hour and Nickel Creek, we’ve learned how to support each other. But it’s also really great that we have other individual projects. Sean works on scoring and writing a lot, and I’ll do things here and there. It’s good to be able to have your own zone; your own corner, as well as to bring things to the table for all the other projects.

Photo Credit: Jacob Boll

Seeking Bluegrass in LA, Ed Helms & Amy Reitnouer Jacobs Made a Scene With BGS

Posted on by Editor

To commemorate the 10th birthday of the Bluegrass Situation, co-founders Ed Helms and Amy Reitnouer Jacobs are taking it all the way back to the beginning. In the first installment of an ongoing interview series, the enthusiastic bluegrass fans reveal how they first met, their shared vision for a modern aesthetic, and the meaning behind the unexpected (yet appropriate) name.

Amy: As we’re looking back on 10 years of The Bluegrass Situation, it occurred to me that you and I have never really reflected on how all of this started and how this thing kind of built up. So I wanted to get our own take on it and… reminisce, stroll down memory lane a bit, and think about it.

Ed: We need a little oral history for the archives! [laughs] And for our own… ’cause it’s exciting to reminisce a little bit.

Amy: I’ll kick it off and ask, what was your intro to bluegrass? Why do you care about this music to begin with and what drew you into it?

Ed: The earliest I can trace back would be growing up in Atlanta, Georgia. My mom’s from Nashville, so we would take road trips from Atlanta to Nashville all the time. In addition to that, I spent many, many summers at a summer camp in the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. That’s another road trip that’s about a three or four-hour drive from Atlanta.

So, on those drives, we’re always pulling off at truck stops and whatever, and we would pick up cassette tapes at the checkout counter. And my dad, who grew up in Alabama, was always a big fan of opera and classical music. He would grab these string band tapes for some reason. And I started listening to these very generic, early string band tapes when I was 8 years old in the car. They didn’t resonate with me as artists, but the music connected with me somehow. And I associated it with those places — Nashville and the North Carolina mountains.

Then as I got older, I was one of those kids that kind of thought everybody was fake, you know, like Holden Caulfield. Just distressed by all the artificiality of our world and of the people around me and like, “Oh, everyone at school, everything is so performative. Like, who’s real? Who’s the real deal?” And that kind of drew me, musically, into older and older music. I got obsessed with authenticity and where are the roots of things. … I think it scratched some itch that I had for authenticity-seeking, and probably allowed me to feel superior to all my classmates in junior high.

Then when I could actually get to a record store, I remember the very first bluegrass album that I bought was the Bluegrass Album Band. I didn’t know who J.D. Crowe and Vassar Clements and Jerry Douglas were, but all I knew was that on the cover of this CD at Turtle’s Records & Tapes in Atlanta was guys holding banjos and guitars and mandolins. So I bought that album and to this day it’s one of my favorite albums. I’ve never asked Jerry Douglas about this, I should, but it felt like the intention of those albums was to kind of just be the ultimate catalog of, you know…

Amy: I mean, it’s called the Bluegrass Album Band.

Ed: Right. They just called themselves the most generic name. And it’s almost like they were just trying to create a library of excellent bluegrass artists playing the canon or something. Or maybe they were really ahead of their time with like meta irony and they were just like, “We’re going to call ourselves the Bluegrass Album Band, ’cause it’s hilarious.”

And of course Tony Rice’s guitar playing on that – I was very much into guitar at the time, I later picked up a banjo – Tony’s guitar playing was so magical to me. I could not understand how human hands could play what he was doing. I would just pour over these solos. I remember the solo to “Your Love Is Like a Flower,” it just was like, how the hell is that being played? I could not wrap my head around it. And I listened to it a million times, and I didn’t have the technology to slow it down, so I couldn’t do that.

Amy: That album and that band really represent a generational shift. It’s not newgrass. It’s playing the canon, but with this mix of the new guard and some folks with some real cred from the second generation.

Ed: You’re right. It isn’t an old sound, what they’re doing. It’s a new sound at that time, because no one was doing Tony Rice licks before Tony Rice. But the harmonies are timeless and the structure of the songs is very traditional. That album means so much to me and I listen to it to this day and I’m still blown away! I actually can play that solo from “Love Is Like a Flower” now, but only at about half speed. And it’s one of the proudest things, when I finally found – someone had transcribed it in tablature, and I was like, “This is string theory explained. This is like if you had Carl Sagan sit you down and explain the mysteries of the universe.” I was like, “Holy shit, I got it! The holy grail!”

Amy: Yeah. To me, it’s still magic. ‘Cause I am not someone who can play an instrument, at least very well, so when I first heard bluegrass, I was just like, “How does that happen? How do you even get the notes from your brain to your fingers and do it so well, and in a way that I’ve just never heard before?” It still kind of blows me away.

Ed: Can I ask you the same question? Where did you first connect to bluegrass music?

Amy: I grew up in rural Pennsylvania, and there was a lot of country and bluegrass around there. Admittedly, I didn’t like it because to me it represented… I mean, I was really busy listening to showtunes and learning Sondheim lyrics and stuff. I was that kid. And I just thought country and roots music was inherently uncool and representative of this place that I felt like I was stuck in.

It wasn’t until I went to college in North Carolina… It was probably the first few weeks of school, one of my housemates who is still a very dear friend of mine invited me to a show, and it was Nickel Creek. I had never heard of them. I had no idea what I was going in to and Erin said, “I just think you’re going to like this. Just come with me to the show. I’ll drive. We’ll go.” And I can honestly say, that show changed my life. I can still remember the whole show so clearly.

Ed: What year are we talkin’?

Amy: 2005? Somewhere around there. I was kind of reeling from it, because it had been a really long time since I felt like I had been challenged by music that was being played by young people, that I really connected with, but also was just kind of flummoxed by. From there it became a deep dive. I was really fortunate going to school where I did, that there was great bluegrass around. I mean, there was this bar about 30 minutes away called The Cave in Chapel Hill, and we used to go see the Steep Canyon Rangers play there every month. And I mean, this is a tiny underground basement bar, maybe holds 50 people, and they would just have bluegrass jams.

Ed: How close were you to Asheville?

Amy: It was about three hours from Asheville. Asheville is where we went for, like, fall break and our little weekend trips and stuff. We would go to Boone and Asheville, and even Mount Airy had a bluegrass fest that we went to. So that’s when I really started getting into it. And I could say, I think my first significant album purchase was pretty soon after that first concert. It was Why Should the Fire Die? by Nickel Creek. I played that into oblivion and had it in my car for like, 10 years, back when we kept stacks of CDs in our cars.

From there it kind of fell into the background, because I was studying film and I moved to New York. I was working all the time and didn’t really make space in my life for music. By the time I moved out to LA, I was working for a producer and I had one or two friends out here that I knew. Again, working a lot, not making any money and trying to find my place in the city, and not really connecting with a lot of the other assistants that I was meeting at the agencies. And I remember going to see the Get Down Boys at some bar on the west side of LA and having this thing reignited in me that I had felt back in college and was like, “OK, I think these are my people.” There was this momentum happening in LA at that particular time. And that’s how I started getting to know the scene out here and had the idea for the BGLA blog.

Ed: Tell us about BGLA.

Amy: I admittedly was a little bored at work. I was working at the Academy of Motion Pictures at this point, which was exciting, especially for three months of the year around the Awards, but the rest of the time was kind of slow. So I started this Blogspot and wrote about what was happening on the scene in Los Angeles. And then people started pitching me, cause I don’t think anybody was really covering it out here. So suddenly I was getting inquiries to interview these people… I mean, I started going really deep in the music and the history and background and getting to know the scene out here. But I remember getting connected to Sean Watkins (of Nickel Creek), and it was this beautiful, full-circle moment. It was the first time I met Sean and got to talk to him, and we became friends and kind of opened a whole other door to the roots music scene and what it could be. And then I think I met you pretty soon after that.

Ed: So when did we meet? I cannot remember.

Amy: Well, I remember when we first met, but I doubt you remember when we first met. I remember this because it was probably the most nervous I’ve been in my whole life. I saw you at a Sarah Jarosz show at Hotel Cafe. And I walked up to you and gave you one of my business cards for Bluegrass LA. And I was like, “I think you’ll like my blog.” That was it! And I don’t imagine you remember that, but that is technically the first time I met you.

Ed: At some point we had a cup of coffee to talk about possibilities.

Amy: Yes, that’s true.

Ed: But then maybe we bumped into each other… I assumed it was Largo, but I have the vaguest memory of getting a business card from you. So yeah, that part tracks.

Amy: Why don’t you talk about the LA Bluegrass Situation, because that predates me.

Ed: You weren’t even a part of the first LA Bluegrass Situation?

Amy: No. I was there. I went one night. But we didn’t know each other at that point. I just went as a fan.

Ed: The first time I ever went to Largo was when John Krasinski took me to see Aimee Mann playing at the Fairfax Largo. We went in through the back and I just was like, “Whoa, what is this incredible vibe?” This whole place is just so, so cool. And eventually Flanny (the owner of Largo) invited me to do stand-up on some people’s shows, and one night he said, “Why don’t you do a show?” And I thought, “OK, cool. It’d be fun to mix music and comedy.” So I think the first show that I did at Largo was called “Hams and Jams.” [Laughs] The idea was like, “Oh, it’s hams, like comedy people, and jams, music people!” And I just mixed up some comedians and musicians with a terrible name that Flanny was so gracious about rolling with.

We really loved that combination, but I was really struggling to wrap my head around the LA bluegrass scene. It just was so disparate, but somehow we managed to get excited about trying to cultivate the scene and coalesce things a little bit more. And I think that was the idea… that was the sort of original inertia behind the first LA Bluegrass Situation. The name literally just came from Flanny talking about it before we named it. He just kept talking about it as the bluegrass situation that we were dealing with. So then when it came time to be like, “What are we going to call it?” I was like, “Well, you’ve been saying this awesome thing because there’s something a little cheeky about a ‘situation.'” Like, it feels like, you know, “We got ourselves a situation, here!” Like it just kind of has some irreverence built into it.

So that’s what we named it, and Flanny and I both pulled as many strings as we could with whatever relationships we had at the time and put a totally magical lineup together. Like I still can’t wrap my head around it. I mean, it was Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch and Steve Martin and Steep Canyon Rangers and Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers and the Infamous Stringdusters… Oh, and of course the Lonesome Trio, my crew, with my friends Ian and Jake. We were sort of the hosts.

Amy: I remember I got an email from you not long after that, which was pretty shocking. What was the impetus of that, do you remember?

Ed: Yeah, I think that I was feeling pretty heady after that first LA Bluegrass Situation and probably getting over my skis a little bit and being like, “We can create the ultimate hub of bluegrass for Los Angeles and it will be this Tower of Babel that everyone will flock to!” I had so many ideas. There were so many things that I found lacking in Los Angeles that I had taken for granted in New York. There are just so many website resources. “You want a banjo teacher? Look here, there’s tons in New York City. You want to see what shows are happening? Look here!” You could just find stuff in New York City and you couldn’t find stuff in Los Angeles.

Amy: I look at the branding of that initial site and that first logo — I think DKNG did our first logo in Santa Monica — and I remember being really proud of the fact that we didn’t look stereotypical of the era.

Ed: You’re so right. And I give you so much credit for that because the very first LA Bluegrass Situation, Hatch Show Print did a bunch of posters for us. And they were so cool. I still have a bunch and I’m really proud of that, but it was also leaning really hard into a very conventional, stereotypical bluegrass aesthetic. It was a funny wake-up call for me – that plus your input. It helped me realize that what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go as fans and supporters of this idiom was not retro, like it was…

Amy: Forward-thinking.

Ed: Forward. And that artists like Chris Thile were doing that musically, right? But there was a little bit of a reckoning of “What’s our brand going to feel like? What do we want it to evoke? And who do we want to connect with? Do we want to connect with young people who are finding this stuff for the first time and finding it really fresh and exciting?”

Amy: That was always the crux of it for me. To a large extent, that aesthetic is still very alive and well within the roots music community. I had an inkling that there was an audience that had different tastes, but still could love this music and that it didn’t all have to look the same way. I could have never predicted where it went and what we’ve worked on since, but I think at the beginning we were very “of the moment.” It was the same time that Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers were on the top of the charts, and there was this kind of “authenticity” movement taking place.

Ed: I remember going to business meetings with Hollywood producers and one guy had a banjo in his office. And I was like, “You play the banjo?” And he’s like, “No, no, but I want to learn!” But you’re right. It was a moment. I’ve felt like an old fuddy duddy since I was 12 years old, but I was like, “Was I ahead of the curve here?”

Amy: Yeah, similarly, I’ve kind of always felt like an old soul; I never really felt like I truly fit in to my time, so I think there was something that really drew me in to that zeitgeist, but what amazed me was that once we really got into it, it was so much more complex and modern and exciting than I ever expected.

Editor’s Note: Look for the next part of this conversation with Ed Helms and Amy Reitnouer Jacobs in the weeks ahead.

BGS Top 50 Moments: The LA Bluegrass Situation at Largo

Posted on by Amy Reitnouer

It was 2010 when the true origins of “The Sitch” first materialized.  For five days in May, BGS founder Ed Helms congregated a lauded lineup of roots artists at the storied Largo at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles.  That first annual LA Bluegrass Situation festival included the likes of Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, The Watkins Family Hour, Gillian Welch, Will Ferrell, Jackson Browne, The Infamous Stringdusters, and Ed’s Whiskey Sour Radio Hour variety showcase.

In the festivals that followed, LABS brought in the likes of Nickel Creek, John C. Reilly, the Punch Brothers, Willie Watson, and many others before broadening to bigger venues across Los Angeles.  The online iteration of “The Bluegrass Sitch” wouldn’t come to fruition for another two years, but the heart of it was all there, on stage at Largo, from the very start.

Photo Credit: Lincoln Andrew Defour

BGS10: We’re Celebrating Ten Years of the Bluegrass Situation in 2022

Posted on by Editor

It’s hard to believe that the better part of a decade has passed since the original BGS website went live. That humble iteration was the brainchild of myself and Ed Helms back in 2012, when we merged our two passion projects – Ed’s LA Bluegrass Situation festival at the city’s famed Largo at the Coronet Theatre, and my humble BluegrassLA blog. Back then, we posted stories and interviews once or twice a week and featured show listings for bluegrass and Americana bands along the West Coast. I was serving as editor, writer, AND brand manager at the time, while still working a full time job in the film industry!

From that first incarnation to the multi-faceted, inclusive, international brand BGS is today, our entire team is so excited to celebrate ten years (!) of amazing musical moments and memories all year long. Each week, we’ll be unveiling one of the “Top 50 BGS Moments” — highlights, milestones, and other things you might have missed — and we also have a whole host of special BGS10 live and virtual events that we’ll be announcing over the next few months.

At the end of the day, we wouldn’t be who we are or WHERE we are without you, our amazing community. You have shown us what we suspected all along: that roots music fans and artists are more different, diverse, and discerning than has ever been reflected in modern music media, and we promise to continue to represent the full spectrum — past traditions, present trends, and future talent — of bluegrass, folk, Americana, blues, trad, country, and beyond.

Whiskey Sour Happy Hour With Ed Helms: View All the Episodes & Donate Here

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

As the enormous, ever-turning wheels of the music industry ground to a halt and the coronavirus crisis first came to a head, BGS co-founders Amy Reitnouer and Ed Helms were already brainstorming what would become the Whiskey Sour Happy Hour.

“MusiCares felt like a really natural fit,” Helms told the Recording Academy in a recent interview. “I hosted their gala a couple of years ago. I’m a big fan of that organization. And then more directly on the medical front, Direct Relief was also just a no-brainer because they’re doing incredible work [to make] sure frontline workers are properly protected and supplied.”

The mission was pretty simple: Support the music industry and our BGS family, while also bolstering first line responders doing the difficult, vital work of fighting this virus in hospitals and clinics across the country and around the world.

Here’s the great thing — although the show concluded on May 13 with a no-holds-barred, star-studded finale show, each episode is still available for viewing right here on BGS (as well as on our YouTube channel). Why? Because we’re still raising money! At this point, our generous fans, listeners, and supporters, have given more than $54,000, so we’re keeping Whiskey Sour Happy Hour online until May 25 to give you the chance to not only rewatch and experience these wonderful shows, but also to give you the chance to contribute, if you can. Your gift will be split half and half between MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund and Direct Relief.

DONATE HERE! And as you do, you can also check out each of the four prior episodes of Whiskey Sour Happy Hour below! No donation is too small in making a difference, any amount helps:

Special thanks to the Americana Music Association, TX Whiskey, and Allbirds for their support.

You can also give by PRE-ORDERING WHISKEY SOUR HAPPY HOUR MERCH, also to benefit MusiCares and Direct Relief.

Episode 1:

Our inaugural episode got off to a bit of a rocky start when our entire website CRASHED because you turned out in such huge numbers. An excellent problem to have. We’re all in this socially distant boat together, aren’t we?

So, we weathered the technical difficulties, exercised patience, and landed with a gorgeous, heartfelt, and tender first episode — complete with a surprise appearance by comedian and actor Jenny Slate (who has been visiting a pet cemetery a lot during her confinement) and a mother/daughter duet of “Keep On the Sunny Side” by modern country queen Lee Ann Womack and her Americana rocker daughter, Aubrie Sellers. Fresh off the release of Fiona Apple’s critically acclaimed pandemic-perfect album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, producer Davíd Garza played us a little number, too.

Between Watkins Family Hour dueting through a window (rockin’ the at least six-feet-apart rule!), cartoonist Matt Diffee’s dry, dry goods, Yola’s undeniable effervescent power, and our ringmaster Ed Helms choreographing the entire thing, Episode 1 was the perfect first effort for WSHH.

Episode 2:

April 29 brought a much less dramatic downbeat, as Episode 2 kicked off just as planned — and with a cameo from a very stern, nocturnal friend. Who we miss very dearly, already.

Ed may have seemed a little enamored with Texan piano man Robert Ellis’ robe, but we all were so who can blame him? Julian Lage and Margaret Glaspy massaged every last strand of tension from our weary bodies and ears with two simple, resplendent duets together, a rare treat that may not have happened if it weren’t for good ol’ shelter-in-place. Raw, virtuosic, genius musical talent was on display by mandolinist Sierra Hull, Americana godfather Rodney Crowell, and Ed’s buddy Ben Harper — who may have elicited a few tears with a John Prine tribute we all needed badly at that point.

The comedy was not in short supply either on week two, viewers found themselves temptingly influenced by Nick Kroll and given a literally unbelievable bicycle tour by Rob Huebel.

Episode 3:

It felt like we really hit our stride on episode 3, packing in so many incredible performances there simply wasn’t a single frame to trim. With that being the case, right off the bat the show went zero to sixty with Avi Kaplan’s booming, resonant baritone melting all of us. Aoife O’Donovan called upon her husband, cellist Eric Jacobsen, and their housemate, Eric’s brother Colin Jacobsen, to form an impromptu trio of guitar, cello, and violin. It was the perfect make-do, isolation arrangement for “Red and White and Blue and Gold.”

Now, if you hadn’t tuned in specifically to catch the cameo of Jerry Douglas’ three matching katanas, you may have tuned in for one of the most prolific and well-loved comedians of the past decade or so, Jim Gaffigan. Ed and Jim spend some time catching up, talking about life in the time of COVID-19, and sharing laughs, too.

The evening was capped off by Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi doing what they do best, reminding us that the world is much smaller and we are all much more connected than we’re often led to believe. Who else besides Rhiannon would you want to hear cover Bessie Jones’ rendition of “O Death” right now? Exactly. No one.

Episode 4: 

We truly did not intend to “save the best for last,” because this is a how-could-you-ever-pick-a-favorite-child situation, here. Somehow, though, we landed in week four with an absolutely stacked, jaw-dropping lineup. Stephen Colbert stopped by — on his BIRTHDAY of all days — to visit with Ed. Yes, Broccoli Rob and the ‘Nard Dog are on speaking terms. But that wasn’t the only way The Office permeated episode four,as  the Indigo Girls also shared a song with the Whiskey Sour Happy Hour audience. It may not have included Jim Halpert and Andy Bernard tipsily singing along with “Closer To Fine,” but it was just as good, watch for yourself to confirm.

The Banjo House Lockdown crew of Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn made an appearance, Molly Tuttle once again wrestled a six-string into submission with her otherworldly clawhammer technique, Rosanne Cash covered Bob Dylan, Chris Thile brought in Bach, Buffy Sainte-Marie sang to us from the jungle of Hawaii — need we go on!?

Yes, actually, we do. Because as Bryan Sutton, Gabe Witcher, and Ed jammed a bit on the bluegrass tune, “Billy in the Lowground,” who should show up but… KENNY G!

That’s right, the king of sexy sax blazed through a solo on “Billy in the Lowground” and proceeded to trade bars with Bryan, Gabe, and Ed before sitting down for a chat. That wouldn’t have been satisfactory in and of itself, though, so Kenny played us an original before bidding adieu as well. Please have your lighters ready for waving at that selection, entitled, “Loving You.”

To cap off an already inconceivably perfect series, Ed, Gabe Witcher, and a host of our WSHH friends wrangled us a superjam. Admit it, you knew we would! Where the BGS team gathers, there a superjam will also be. Chris Eldridge, Madison Cunningham, Robert Ellis, Sierra Hull, Noam Pikelny, and so many others joined in on “The Weight.” There may have been a tear or two among viewers when the women of I’m With Her came on screen together in their matching yellow jumpsuits, but how could we ever confirm that?

Bonus Episode:

We just had to give y’all a bonus episode!

Our back-by-popular-demand show featured extra performances and footage from artists who had already graced the Whiskey Sour Happy Hour lineup including: Watkins Family Hour, Madison Cunningham, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Davíd Garza, Matt the Electrician, Valerie June, Ben Harper, Billy Strings, and Rodney Crowell.

Billy Strings played us a bluegrass gospel classic via one of his (and our) heroes, Doc Watson. Ben Harper treated all of us to a heartstrings-tugging rendition of an original, “Never Needed Anyone,” which was recorded by Mavis Staples on her most recent album, We Get By. And Rodney Crowell closed out the show with a dramatic solo performance of “Highway 17.” An extra week of music, an extra week of generosity, and an extra week of sharing WSHH with all of you!

Whiskey Sour Happy Hour has been a resounding success thanks to all of the artists, musicians, and creators involved, thanks to our generous supporters, thanks to the hardworking team who built it, but especially thanks to you for tuning in and for giving. (Which you can still do, by the way. Right here.)

While we as an industry face the most uncertain times to befall our community in our lifetimes, it’s comforting to have gathered with all of you for the past four weeks to enjoy this show, while taking direct action to lift up those around us and those fighting COVID-19 every day. Thank you for being a part of Whiskey Sour Happy Hour!

Special thanks to our sponsors: the Americana Music Association, TX Whiskey, and Allbirds.

Read the April 15 announcement:

The BGS team and our co-founder Ed Helms are excited to announce Whiskey Sour Happy Hour, a 21st-century online variety show to benefit MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund and Direct Relief.  Debuting on April 22 and presented in partnership with the Americana Music Association, TX Whiskey, and Allbirds, new editions of the event will be broadcast each Wednesday for the following three weeks — April 29, May 6, and May 13. The shows begin at 5 pm PT/8pm ET.

With Helms serving as host of the series, Whiskey Sour Happy Hour will draw on his long-running Whiskey Sour Radio Hour shows at LA’s Largo to bring world-class music, comedy, and interviews directly into homes across the country and world. 

The premiere edition of Whiskey Sour Happy Hour on April 22 will feature music from Lee Ann Womack, Aubrie Sellers, Billy Strings, Davíd Garza, Yola, Watkins Family Hour, and Madison Cunningham — plus an appearance by cartoonist and humorist Matt Diffee. 

Whiskey Sour Happy Hour can be streamed right here on The Bluegrass Situation, as well as on our YouTube channel. Other confirmed guests for the series include Chris Thile, Yola, Billy Strings, Sarah Jarosz, Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi, Rodney Crowell, Aoife O’Donovan, Robert Ellis, and our current Artist of the Month, Watkins Family Hour. Additional artists will be announced in the coming weeks. 

“As soon as we realized the severity of the current crisis, Ed and I both knew we had to do something to support both our musical and medical community—and not just a one-time thing, but something that could promote more sustained giving through multiple shows,” says BGS co-founder Amy Reitnouer Jacobs. “In a short amount of time, our BGS family of artists has come together in such a big way to make this happen. It makes us feel like even though we’re all separated right now, we’re closer than ever before.” Fans will be able to donate to MusiCares and Direct Relief here, as well as via links provided wherever viewers watch the show.

In addition to supporting Whiskey Sour Happy Hour, TX Whiskey has already stepped up their efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting 100% of their production to making hand sanitizer. As of March 31, the TX team has produced 800 gallons of hand sanitizer for government agencies. With more raw materials inbound, TX Whiskey is currently positioned to make and bottle 5000 more gallons of sanitizer. On top of that, TX Whiskey continues to support local musicians by giving them an online stage and revenue generator through their Straight From the Couch Sessions — streaming every Friday night in April on IGTV. 

Also a presenting sponsor for Whiskey Sour Happy Hour, Allbirds have been working hard to lift up the healthcare community responding to COVID-19, having already donated $500,000 dollars worth of shoes to healthcare workers nationwide. While supplies last, customers are able to bundle any shoe purchase with a donation to immediately supply a pair of Wool Runners to a healthcare professional who’s already reached out to Allbirds for support. Don’t need a new pair yourself, but still want to help? That’s an option, too.

Special thanks to the Americana Music Association for their partnership and support.

 

Sean Watkins Heeds Good Advice (or Not) on Watkins Family Hour’s Second Album

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For brother sister, Watkins Family Hour’s sophomore album and first in five years, Sara and Sean Watkins decided to tighten their focus, writing songs that allowed them to shine as a duo. “It was an experiment, and it ended up being so fun and totally different from the first Watkins Family Hour record we did,” Sean says. “In this case, more than any other project, we were very deliberate about the style of the songs, how they came together, and how we recorded them.”

The effort paid off. Ringing in at ten tracks, including seven originals, brother sister ranges from glittering, harmony-driven folk (opener “The Cure”) to can’t-help-but-dance silliness (“Keep It Clean,” a Charley Jordan featuring vocals from David Garza, Gaby Moreno, and John C. Reilly). We caught up with Sara and Sean individually, chatting about the album and the forces in their careers that built them, including their early years with Nickel Creek. Read our Artist of the Month interview with Sean below, and catch Sara’s interview here.

BGS: You wrote a good portion of “Fake Badge, Real Gun” before you brought the idea to Sara. What inspired it?

Sean Watkins: I have a folder in my notes on my phone, Future Song Titles. I like to think about what a good song title is — you know, when you see a song title on a record and you’re like, “Oh, I really want to know, I want to hear that song.” A book title can be the same way. I heard the term “Fake Badge, Real Gun” in a hotel room on some kind of local news station. It was a headline, probably a story about a kid, or somebody who was pretending to be a police officer. When I heard that phrase, I put it in my phone, because I just thought, “There’s a lot more in there to be explored.”

There are plenty of people in power who don’t deserve to be. They have the power to destroy and create a lot of chaos, but they didn’t really earn it, or they don’t deserve to be there for one reason or another. Everybody comes into contact with authorities who affect you in profound ways, especially when you’re younger, without knowing how they’re affecting you negatively. At a certain age you get to a point where you unpack your childhood — what your teachers taught you, what you heard in church or what you heard in college — and you have to look at it objectively and figure out who gave you that advice, what they were meaning to get across, and whether you still believe it.

Did anything in your life specifically come to mind?

I went to a Baptist Christian school for a while. It wasn’t because my family was Baptist, but because it was the closest private school, and my parents were public school teachers and didn’t really like the way public school was going. The teachers were pretty strict, evangelical, and I remember this girl who was probably in seventh or eighth grade. She had a great voice, and she got vocal nodes on her vocal chords — it’s just something that happens when you don’t use the right singing technique. It happens to a lot of people. But she asked our Bible teacher, “Do you think God gave me these vocal nodes because I’ve been singing secular music?” I think she’d sang an Oasis song at a coffee shop or something.

And the teacher said, “Yeah, that’s probably why.” Like, in all seriousness, he told her that, because she sang a secular song, God gave her these vocal nodes. And he believed it! But who knows how long that stuck with her, that by singing a certain kind of song God will strike you. You can carry that with you for the rest of your life, whether you know it or not. So I try to think about that in my life: What are the things that I’m carrying around that I don’t need to carry around, because someone who had authority used their “gun” in a way that was, looking back, absolutely wrong? You can take the idea out to any number of places in the world.

The cover of the Charley Jordan song is so fun — what a way to end the record. Can you tell me about deciding to cover “Keep It Clean”?

A few weeks before going into the studio, and we were taking inventory of what we had, what kinds of things might be fun to add to the record, what was missing. We just thought it’d be fun to have one song that’s just a party song: what people know the Family Hour to be, which is kind of a wild, fun ruckus; a song that’s easy for anyone to jump in on, with different people singing verses. Something that sounds like what we do when we play our shows [in Los Angeles] at Largo.

Originally I heard this song when I did a month of shows with Lyle Lovett, playing in his band years ago filling in for a friend of mine who played guitar with him. He did that song every night, but totally different: His version was a bouncy, Texas-swing kind of vibe. I really liked it, and I asked him where it came from. He said it was a Charley Jordan song, but that he’d changed it a lot, and that I should check out the original. It’s so funny because it’s such an old song, but it has such a beautiful, almost current pop melody to it. The guitar line in the original version sounds like a Beach Boys melody. It doesn’t sound like ‘20s blues at all, and I thought that was a really cool element of it. So we based our version on that, although it evolved and sounds very different.

Another thing I like about it is that the lyrics are just quirky and weird; you can’t really tell what they are. The verses were based on popular off-color jokes at the time. So people hearing the song back then would have gotten these references that we’re not getting right now. [Laughs] And they might just be really dumb jokes! It’s like a museum piece. I thought it was so cool.

It’s been twenty years since Nickel Creek released its self-titled, breakout album. How do you feel like the success you had then influenced the way Americana and bluegrass are perceived now, or influenced the player you are now?

Every seven or ten years it seems like there’s a recurrence of some kind of music, and at that time, there was a confluence of things that happened that brought acoustic music way more to the forefront. A big one of those was the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack: a soundtrack for a movie that sells millions and millions of records, and is mostly old-time bluegrass, that’s a big deal. Alison Krauss was the only one selling millions of records playing anything related to bluegrass, and she wasn’t playing very traditional music. So that record came out, and Alison was — still is — just cranking away, hugely popular. We kind of got lumped in with all of that. People thought we were on the soundtrack a lot, which we weren’t. [Laughs]

There was just a wave. We have to give Alison credit because she saw the potential in what we could do. That first record is a very different record than we wanted it to be. We were so young, so green. We wanted to make a much more wild and aggressive type of record, and she was like, “Listen, that’s fine for your live shows. But it’s not gonna wear well. It’s going to be exciting to listen to the first couple of times, but people aren’t gonna want to listen to it a year from now — you’re not gonna want to listen to it a year from now.” She was really wise in restraining us in a lot of ways that we wouldn’t have.

Do you still take that advice to heart when you’re recording?

Absolutely. I have a mental bag of tricks that I’ve collected from different people over the years. A lot of the great producers will say something that really sticks with you, and it’s immediately like, “I’m gonna remember that and apply it the rest of my life.” I remember being in the studio one time for something that T-Bone Burnett was producing. We were in the control room, and he was musing and talking about the creative process, and he said, “People think about writing songs like writing songs. Don’t think about it that way. Think about writing a feeling. Like when you’re writing a movie, you’re writing a story. When you’re writing a song, just write a feeling — don’t write a song.” I was like, “That is soooo great.” Because that’s exactly what it is! A song’s supposed to make you feel something.

(Read our interview with Sara Watkins here.)

Photo credit: Jacob Boll

Artist of the Month: Watkins Family Hour

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Sean Watkins and Sara Watkins have factored into some of the most accomplished and creative ensembles of the last two decades, while building a cool catalog of their own solo albums, too. Familiar to many as co-founders of Nickel Creek (with Chris Thile), the California siblings are once again teaming up as a duo for brother sister, their second album as Watkins Family Hour.

“From the beginning, our goal was to work on these songs to be as strong as they could be, just the two of us,” Sara says. “And with a few exceptions on the record, that’s really how things were. It was a tight little group of us, working dense days where we could squeeze them in.”

Sara won a Grammy earlier this year for “Call My Name” as a member of I’m With Her (with Aoife O’Donovan and Sarah Jarosz). In addition to producing, Sean has recorded with collectives such as Fiction Family, Mutual Admiration Society, and Works Progress Administration. Their appearances at the Los Angeles club Largo have inspired a number of impromptu collaborations on stage as well. Together, however, the siblings make a powerful unit, capturing a band sound with essentially two people — but incorporating a fresh perspective through producer Mike Viola.

“Mike brings a diverse musical history to his production work,” Sean says. “He’s worked with a lot of people [from The Figgs to Fall Out Boy] that surpass just bluegrass or folk, but his sense of the songwriting craft and melody is right in line with us. He was bringing ideas that we would have never had, and vice versa.”

Enjoy new tracks from Watkins Family Hour in our BGS Essentials playlist, plus choice cuts from throughout their brilliant careers.

Our Artist of the Month interviews are here! (Read part one here. Read part two here.)

Photo credit: Jacob Boll

Watkins Family Hour Grows Up, Hits the Road With Star-Studded Variety Show

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Sean and Sara Watkins first gained a whole bunch of attention when Nickel Creek — their trio with Chris Thile — took to the bluegrass circuit in the 1990s and, eventually, caught Alison Krauss's ear. Their highly successful run lasted until 2007 and made them a lot of friends and fans along the way. Somewhere around 2002, the Watkins siblings gathered up some of those friends they'd collected and started a monthly variety show at Largo in Los Angeles. They dubbed it the Watkins Family Hour and, this summer, they decided to take the show into the studio and on the road … including a recent stop at the Newport Folk Festival. Below, Sean Watkins dishes on WFH's future, the Los Angeles folk scene and famous friends.

As the music business hurtles toward an unknown future, you guys have gone back to revive the lost art of the variety show. Have you found over the years you've been doing it that people are hungry for that simpler presentation and that communal vibe it brings?

Yeah. Yeah. I grew up playing bluegrass in San Diego — my sister and I. One of the things that really got us started and helped us learn was a weekly show that was at a pizza place. We always tell this story with regard to Nickel Creek because it's kind of how we started Nickel Creek. But, looking back, I realize that these weekly shows were a core band and people would step in and be guests. It was very casual. I look back and see a line between that and what we're doing now.

We started doing the Watkins Family Hour because we found ourselves in the middle of a really cool scene that revolved around a club called Largo in Los Angeles. We met some really great people, great musicians. Found a lot of people who just wanted to play — amazing musicians and session people who would cost thousands of dollars to play on your record just wanted to go out and play for fun in the evenings. We started meeting these people and gathering new friends. The owner of that club [Marc Flanagan] gave us the opportunity to start a monthly show. It was his idea. He just said, “Why don't you guys just have fun, try out new songs, do covers, have guests?” So we did. And it's just been really fun. Especially in a town like L.A., it's kind of a nice change. It's something different from the usual day-to-day stuff. I think it's relatively unique. We certainly have a lot of fun doing it.

I used to live in L.A. and booked clubs, so I know Flanny from way back. And he's always been supportive, brought people together, and had those cool scenes happening. But it was interesting to see him step out into this world, musically. It's a little bit different from the stuff he's pursued in the past.

He grew up in Ireland and is very familiar with that traditional music. And the music that we grew up playing has its roots in that, so I think he could get into it through that. But he really loves all kinds of music. If he feels it's good, it doesn't really matter what it actually sounds like.

Yeah, was it surprising to you guys to find such a welcoming audience in L.A.?

I don't know. We just stumbled into it. It was really great right off the bat. I didn't really have any expectations. I guess I was pleasantly surprised to find so many musicians — like Benmont Tench and Greg Liesz who are regulars in the band — so many people like that who just want to get out and play. In a big, huge, challenging city like Los Angeles, that can really make things a lot more warm. And it did.

I'd think, too, that the Largo audience-at-large trusts Flanny's taste and curation based on what he's always done.

Exactly. Yeah. There's a certain trust there. People go to see shows just because someone's playing there, not having heard them before.

You guys have had all sorts of folks on the show over the years. Who's been your favorite guest? Or maybe your favorite story would be more diplomatic.

There are so many. There have been a lot of nights when I looked around on stage and I couldn't believe that particular combination of musicians was there. People from all different backgrounds, from all different parts of my life. People I don't know. People I just met. That kind of thing happens a lot.

There was one night, in particular, at the old Largo on Fairfax … a lot of people were in town and a bunch of people showed up. On stage at one time were Benmont, Greg Leisz, David Rawlings playing electric guitar, Jim Keltner playing drums, and John Paul Jones playing bass. It was just ridiculous. I think Fiona Apple was there, too. It was a crazy band. Jon Brion was there, too.

There was one moment when I think we all … one night when Booker T. came down. He actually came to rehearsal, too, and we learned a couple songs. It was just amazing, the level of respect. Everybody in the band, you could tell they respected him and they listened to him, paid attention. It was like school. It was amazing. He's very gracious. And also very demanding. He has an amazing presence. Everyone was bringing their A game. He sang “Knockin' on Heaven's Door” — the Dylan tune.

It's so wonderful that all these amazing players just want to get out and have fun. We recently ran an interview with Rickie Lee Jones where she said that once she got famous, no one wanted to play with her for fun. They wanted to get paid or they want something from her. That was her experience in L.A. and New York, so it's really cool to see those guys coming out for the hell of it.

I think we've been doing the show long enough to where they've heard that we're not crazy and we're okay. The guys in the band have been around so long that, if people don't know Sara and me, they'll know them. And know that, if they are a part of something, it's probably okay. So we've been able to benefit from their personal clout over the years.

On the upcoming tour, you guys are playing multiple nights in a lot of the cities. Was that a product of audience or artist demand? Who wanted you more?

It was the initial idea that I had and mulled it over with Sara, to go to a few towns, pick a smaller venue, and set up camp there for a few days. We were having a conversation with Fiona Apple and she was saying she wanted to get out and play. She said, “Anything you guys want to do. If you want to do something, let me know.” So we thought, “Why don't we do some Family Hour shows? Just pick a few towns.” Initially, we thought we'd do New York, Nashville, Chicago, and San Francisco. We decided we'd book one or two shows and, if it sold out, we'd try to get a third. That happened in a couple cities and we added a bunch more dates just because it seemed like it was going to be fun and people seemed to respond in an encouraging way. It turned into a proper tour.

With the kind of talent that you guys all have, you could really do some creative arrangements, but you don't re-work the songs all that much. They stay pretty true to the originals. I mean, “Going Going Gone” still sounds like a Dylan tune even in your voice.

When we made the record, we did it in two-and-a-half days. We did it when we weren't even planning a tour. We weren't even planning to release it. We just had a friend who had a studio and he basically said, “Come on over and record. It'd be good to have this even just for you guys.” So we did. We just did covers. We didn't have any plan. We just showed up and said, “How about this song?” I think we started with “Not in Nottingham.” So we had that in the can and then, a few months later, we had the idea to do the tour. It worked out nicely that we had the record.

But, yeah, the record is … I like hearing what these guys do within the context of a simple song. And that's how they work best. That's how the Family Hour is. We don't really sit down and get crazy with the arrangements. It's more about being in the moment and listening to each other. Everybody's also in bands where they have to play these arrangements and they have to really be in a different headspace. This is a nice change from that.

Right. And, with such a wide array of songwriters are covered on the record … maybe there isn't a process for picking. Is it just that somebody says, “Hey, let's do 'Steal Your Heart Away,'” and boom?

Yeah. We've got good relationships with each other. If someone suggests a song, usually it works. That one was on a mixtape that David Garza gave us years ago. We just thought it was a cool song and the band thought it was great, too. You can tell when people aren't into a song. It won't have the enthusiasm. But we know the general idea of what we like in a song, so it's usually okay.

“Brokedown Palace” must be taking on a new bittersweetness after the recent Dead shows.

It's funny that we had that released right around the time that the shows were happening. It's just a really great song. That one, in particular, is so fun to play with that group of musicians. It's really fun.

Since Thile isn't a Watkins, he had to go and get himself that Prairie Home gig. Can we expect any sort of collaborations between the two projects?

[Laughs] I don't think so … but who knows?

Photo credit: Roman Cho

We Had Ourselves a Situation…

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I still can’t believe this weekend actually happened.

But it did.

This past Thursday through Sunday, May 3 – 6, the best in bluegrass, folk, roots and Americana gathered in Los Angeles, first at Largo on La Cienega, then amongst the trees of the Santa Monica mountains above the city at Tree People’s Mulholland/Coldwater park.

With the recent launch of the new site, things were already in a rather surreal state.  The site response alone has been overwhelming (not to mention all the great coverage via Ed’s Funny or Die video or the multiple articles that have been popping up).  But this weekend took things to another level.

Thursday night kicked things off with Sean and Sara Watkins, plus friends like Tom Brosseau, Willie Watson, Chris Thile, and others, after which John C Reilly did a special performance of An American Song Cycle with some of his own friends, and even featured LA-based old-time wunderkind Frank Fairfield.

Friday launched with Ed’s band The Lonesome Trio, featuring Jacob Tilove on mandolin and Ian Riggs on bass…. The Whiskey Sour Radio Hour was a true variety show, in the vein of a cracked out Prairie Home Companion, with appearances by Nick Kroll, Jenny Slate, Will Forte, and one incredible sketch involving New Yorker cartoonist Matt Diffee, the Punch Brothers, and Critter Eldridge doing his best hardcore rap.  The late show featured Chris, Noam, Critter, Gabe and Paul tearing up the stage, including rousing tributes to both Levon Helm and Earl Scruggs to round out the night.

Next, the Steep Canyon Rangers joined, along with the one and only Steve Martin on Saturday night.  I would say it’s hard to believe I was seeing the SCR guys only a few years back at The Cave in Chapel Hill, playing to a small but devoted crowd, and yet it’s not that hard to believe at all because they’re so damn good.

And as if anything could possibly top all of that, Sunday was a magical night under the stars, with acts from the three previous nights brought together on an outdoor stage, jamming to Foggy Mountain Breakdown for an encore.

To call it a Situation doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Since then, it’s been all about recovering, catching up on sleep (ha!), and getting back to work (be patient, we’ll have a brand new, updated cal available very soon).

If you were able to join us for the festival, I want to hear all about your favorite parts and any other comments you might have.  If you weren’t, well, we’re just getting started, and if this weekend was any indication, we’re on to something BIG, with plenty in store for you to join us next year.  I can’t wait.

(don’t worry… more festival photos to come soon….)

HAPPY WEEKEND: Ed Helms, Joy Kills Sorrow, The Be Good Tanyas…

Posted on by Editor

We have an exciting weekend ahead for you, Situation readers!

The Sitch’s own ED HELMS brings his mashup of bluegrass and comedy to the Largo stage at THE WHISKEY SOUR RADIO HOUR this Friday evening, 8/17.  Ed and his friends (and several special guests) take to the stage at 9pm

If you want to stay on the east side tonight, might we suggest checking out THE BE GOOD TANYAS, WILLIE WATSON (Old Crow Medecine Show) and LEFTOVER CUTIES at the Bootleg at 9pm (and don’t forget to check out our interview with the Tanyas by Engine 145’s Juli Thanki here…).

This Saturday evening, head on over to HM157 in Lincoln Heights for our favorite old-time trio, TRIPLE CHICKEN FOOT.  This riotous night of music and dancing starts at 7pm and features a number of bands of the bill.  Suggested donation is $10.

Finally, JOY KILLS SORROW, The Sitch’s ARTIST OF THE MONTH, perform at The Bootleg Bar on Sunday night, with local favorites THE WELL PENNIES opening the show. We’ve been playing tracks all week from their most recent album, This Unknown Science, in anticipation of their arrival…. hope you can join us for this special The Bluegrass Situation Presents event.

With so many amazing options this weekend, we want to make sure some of you get to see some great music FOR FREE.  Email [email protected] before Saturday at 3pm for your chance to win one of two pairs of tickets to see JOY KILLS SORROW!

Is there something we should add to the calendar?  Let us know!  Email all the details to [email protected].