Videos Archive - The Bluegrass Situation

DelFest Sessions: Sister Sadie

We are so excited to unveil the final installment of our DelFest Sessions, featuring Grammy-nominated bluegrass supergroup Sister Sadie. Over the course of the Memorial Day festival in Cumberland, Maryland, BGS contributors and videographers I Know We Should shot a half dozen superlative live performances on the gorgeous banks of the Potomac River. From festival hosts the Travelin’ McCourys, Big Richard, and Wood Belly to East Nash Grass, Mountain Grass Unit, and now the Sadies, each edition of our DelFest Sessions has been an audio swatch of the incredible national string band scene we all adore.

With a raucous “WOO!” shouted to the festival-goers floating by in their inner tubes and kayaks on the river, Sister Sadie stepped up to the mics to deliver two gentle, burning, emotive tracks pulled from their critically-acclaimed album, No Fear, which was released earlier this year. The first, “Blue As My Broken Heart,” was written by Dani Flowers – who sings lead on the number – with co-writers Victoria Banks and Rachel Proctor. Evocative imagery and detailed text painting here feel more than appropriate for the setting, in the verdant foothills of Appalachia on the cusp of spring and summer. You can almost feel the blue sky above and you can certainly grasp, immediately, why this group is up for eight IBMA Awards this year – including Entertainer of the Year and Vocal Group of the Year.

For their second selection, Female Vocalist of the Year nominee Jaelee Roberts renders “One’s Real Life,” a song she penned that stays within the decidedly bluegrass theme of heartbreak and longing. With a vocal trio rounded out by Flowers and banjoist Gena Britt – who is nominated for Banjo Player of the Year – they sing, “One’s a photo and one is real life/ Oh it hurts to know which one is right…”

All at once these lyrics bring to mind idiomatic songs in the bluegrass and roots canon – like Hazel Dickens’ “Just A Few Old Memories” and Guy Clark’s “My Favorite Picture of You” – as well as more mainstream string bands like The Chicks and Alison Krauss & Union Station. Sister Sadie combine it all, from Music Row songwriters and crisp and clean Nashville sounds to the grit and drive of straight ahead bluegrass and old-time. To wit, No Fear includes tracks written by country stars Cam (“Diane”) and Ashley McBryde (“Willow”).

Whatever the setting, from the Grand Ole Opry to the shady banks of the Potomac River, Sister Sadie shine. Thanks to the band, including Roberts, Flowers, Britt, Deanie Richardson, Maddie Dalton, and Tristan Scroggins, for taking the time. We couldn’t think of a better way to close our DelFest Sessions out.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this series of live performance videos – check out the full batch of impeccable songs by first-rate DelFest bands here. Special thanks to Brad Wagner and Juan Soria of I Know We Should, to Christopher Weist for the beautiful drone footage, to Ariel Rosemberg for production assistance, curation, and coordination, and to DelFest for their hospitality.

Video Credit: Brad Wagner, I Know We Should
Drone Footage: Christopher Weist
Audio Credit: Juan Soria, I Know We Should

DelFest Sessions: Mountain Grass Unit

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

DelFest Sessions: East Nash Grass

Our DelFest Sessions continue this week with East Nash Grass, as we relive the iconic Memorial Day weekend festival and return to the banks of the Potomac River for another stellar live performance. In the shade on the river’s banks, BGS contributors and videographers I Know We Should captured a high-quality handful of sessions with artists and bands from the DelFest lineup.

This time, we’re featuring an multiple IBMA Award-nominated band known for their long-running East Nashville residencies and their critically-acclaimed 2023 album, Last Chance to Win – from which they pulled their first selection, “Papa’s on the Housetop.” It’s a slinky and bluesy track that demonstrates just a few of the many styles synthesized and metamorphosed into bluegrass by these cracking players.

Featuring Harry Clark (mandolin), Maddie Denton (fiddle), James Kee (guitar), Gaven Largent (Dobro), Jeff Partin (bass), and Cory Walker (banjo), whether at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge in Nashville or on festival and venue stages around the country, this group is known for their party-level energy and charming-while-awkward old school stage patter. “Papa’s on the Housetop” is almost a kind of mission statement for this incredibly fun and carrousing lineup. Based on the reaction of the impromptu audience gathered for the live taping, this DelFest Session really felt like a party in person, too.

For their second song, Denton steps to the mic to sing “Following You,” a number that reminds of classic era Alison Krauss & Union Station with a mellow vibe and a forward-leaning tempo. While the lead vocal lays back, languid, on the verses, the chorus turns the chord progression on its ear and showcases three-part harmonies over beautiful changes.

East Nash Grass may be known for being barn burners and delightfully unpredictable entertainers, but “Following You” – as both of their full-length studio recordings – shows this talented roster of artists and musicians have limitless range and access to plenty of nuance, whatever the context or style. Humorous or earnest – or both! – East Nash Grass have so much to offer the bluegrass and string band scenes.

Stay tuned, as our DelFest Sessions series will continue next week, right here on BGS.

Video Credit: Brad Wagner, I Know We Should
Drone Footage: Christopher Weist
Audio Credit: Juan Soria, I Know We Should

DelFest Sessions: Wood Belly

Our series of DelFest Sessions continues with our third installment, featuring Colorado-based bluegrassy string band, Wood Belly. BGS contributors and videographers I Know We Should were on hand for the Memorial Day Weekend festival earlier this year to capture exclusive live performances from artists and bands on the lineup on the beautiful banks of the Potomac River.

For their first song, Wood Belly perform “Alamosa Rain,” a track from their 2023 album, Cicada, that highlights all of the musical and stylistic growth the band has enjoyed since they won the band contest at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 2018. This is a group with decidedly bluegrass bones, but with a Telecaster and drum kit in the lineup and a song with plenty of pop sensibilities and a folk-rock pocket, it’s easy to tell how Wood Belly can feel right at home whether among traditional bluegrass acts, jam bands, Americana outfits, or many others.

“Alamosa Rain,” an original co-written by the entire band – including Dylan French, Brennan Mackey, Aaron McCloskey, Chris Weist, and Chris Zink – is clearly grown directly from Wood Belly’s Colorado roots. It’s a perfect song for summer, for a long drive flanked by the Rocky Mountains, for pointing your headlights down the highway toward the next town, the next gig, or the next festival.

But, that’s not all, as McCloskey sets down the Tele to pick up his banjo and Mackey steps up to the mic to sing the band’s second selection, “Cry Cry Cry” – also from Cicada. They stay in the groove, lounging in the pocket while leaning forward with the current, like the DelFest-goers lazily floating by behind them on the river in the summer heat.

In the shady understory on the verdant Allegany County Fairgrounds, Wood Belly sing about better luck, about looking up at the stars through satellites, about love and sadness and the essence of life. All while the small gathering of onlookers surely reflect on their own great luck at getting to witness the behind the scenes magic of capturing our DelFest Sessions.

Stay tuned, as our series continues next week, right here on BGS.

Video Credit: Brad Wagner, I Know We Should
Drone Footage: Christopher Weist
Audio Credit: Juan Soria, I Know We Should

DelFest Sessions: Big Richard

Our DelFest Sessions continue with the second edition in our series from the McCoury-hosted festival, held over Memorial Day Weekend 2024. We were fortunate to have BGS contributors and videographers I Know We Should on hand at the event in Cumberland, Maryland to capture intimate, riverside performances with some of the impressive acts on the DelFest lineup. This time, we’re featuring Colorado-based string band, Big Richard.

We’ve followed this genre-blending bluegrass group for more than a few years now, so we were delighted to sync up with Joy Adams, Eve Panning, Hazel Royer, and Bonnie Sims on the banks of the north branch of the Potomac River, where Maryland and West Virginia meet at the site that’s been home to DelFest since it began in 2008. The band’s first song is “The Missing Stair,” an inspiring number co-written by Sims with artists and songwriters Melody Walker and Phoebe Hunt.

With a wide open groove, plenty of soul and passion, and an encouraging, challenging message, the lyrics process traumas, whether familial or generational, spoken or unspoken. There’s pain, reckoning, and ultimately a tidy dose of redemption, all punctuated by gorgeous solos – especially by Adams on bluegrass- and old-time-inflected cello – and soaring collective vocals. This is a chorus for all of us to sing along, that’s for sure.

For their second selection, it’s a perfect song for the transition from spring to summer, “Back Porch Dove,” which was written by Adams and finds the cellist swapping her cello and bow for a growly and honeyed mandocello. A song about love, tension, conflict, and violent release, you can almost feel the heat and humidity settling in on the back porch or just imagine the background of cooing doves, all text-painted artfully by Adams and Big Richard.

“The sweetest song I have ever found/ Were the back porch dove crying to his love/ That the sun won’t come around again…” Adams sings, a certainly sweet song itself with a bitter tinge of finality as the river flows gently by. Big Richard are certainly on the move and on the rise, and deservedly so. With songs as striking as these and points of view truly original among their contemporaries, it will be exciting to continue to watch what they’ll accomplish and what’ll they record and release next. Is a full-length studio album in the works, for instance? We know we aren’t the only ones excited for that inevitable milestone from this group.

Stay tuned as we continue our DelFest Sessions series in the coming weeks with even more exclusive live performances shot on site at the festival.

Video Credit: Brad Wagner, I Know We Should
Drone Footage: Christopher Weist
Audio Credit: Juan Soria, I Know We Should

DelFest Sessions: The Travelin’ McCourys

DelFest is known as a family reunion – literally, and figuratively. BGS videographers and contributors I Know We Should were on hand at this year’s festival, held over Memorial Day weekend in Cumberland, Maryland, to capture exclusive DelFest Sessions featuring some of the many luminaries on the festival lineup.

To launch the series we have an apropos first act, the Travelin’ McCourys, reigning IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year and the backing band for Grammy-winning living legend, Del McCoury, who founded and hosts the annual event nestled in the Appalachian Mountains along the Potomac River. With West Virginia just across the river’s banks, the band – including Del’s sons Ronnie McCoury and Rob McCoury, as well as Alan Bartram, Jason Carter, and Cody Kilby – performed three incredible songs highlighting their instrumental and vocal virtuosity and bursting with full-bore bluegrass energy.

The first, “Why Do I Feel Like Running,” kicks with Rob on grizzly, low-tuned banjo and features Carter’s equally deep and sultry vocal. If you think you recognize the tune, it’s because you do; the Travelin’ McCourys are known for their excellent cover songs and this number is their grassy innovation on a Montgomery Gentry track.

For their second selection, Bartram steps up to the microphone to sing “Lonely Night,” while festival-goers float by on the North Branch of the Potomac in the background. This band knows how to lean into iconic lonesome and “modal” bluegrass stylings, lending a perfectly haunting tone to the lyrics.

To round out their mini set for our DelFest Session, the Travelin’ McCourys called on Kilby for an instrumental original pulled from his 2008 album, Many Roads Traveled. To the delight of the campers and fans gathered in the shade to watch the taping, the band kicks into high gear for the second half of the tune, illustrating why they’ve taken home two Instrumental Group of the Year trophies from IBMA in the past few years.

Stay tuned as we debut new DelFest Sessions weekly right here on BGS over the next few weeks. And, make plans to visit Cumberland, Maryland and DelFest in 2025.

Video Credit: Brad Wagner, I Know We Should
Drone Footage: Christopher Weist
Audio Credit: Juan Soria, I Know We Should

Rootsy Summer Sessions: Violet Bell

After seven gorgeous and lovely Rootsy Summer Sessions, we’ve reached the final installment of this series with two songs featuring Americana string duo Violet Bell. Shot overlooking the waters of the Kattegat, a bay on the North Sea, you may recognize the golden hour location from our earlier session with Emily Scott Robinson, who makes an appearance with Violet Bell after the North Carolina-rooted band appeared as guests in Robinson’s performances, as well.

Last summer, during Rootsy Summer Fest ’23, the videography team from I Know We Should captured this series of eight sessions in Falkenberg, Sweden featuring more than a dozen performers and nearly twenty individual tracks from Americana, country, and folk artists from across the genre spectrum and from both “sides” of the Atlantic.

Completing the series, Violet Bell – Lizzy Ross and Omar Ruiz-Lopez – first perform “Fisherman’s Daughter,” a fantastic story song from their critically acclaimed 2022 album, Shapeshifter. (Read our BGS feature interview on that project here.) That record, with a strong concept album through line, plays with metaphors and analogies around the legendary selkie, an aquatic, seal-like figure from Celtic mythology that, as the title suggests, can shapeshift. The songs on the project, “Fisherman’s Daughter” being a stand-out, explore topical, political, and cultural questions through the lens of this transatlantic folklore. The track shines and is certainly in its element delivered on the edge of the North Sea.

For their second number, Ruiz-Lopez and Ross are joined by Robinson on “House,” a jubilant song of community and togetherness that feels like a more than apropos way to conclude this visually stunning and aurally first-class series of sessions. Their joyful refrain is a perfect invitation to take part in the magic made by Rootsy Music and captured in our Rootsy Summer Sessions.

From Israel Nash and Jesper Lindell to Jim Lauderdale and Caleb Caudle, we will be returning to these Rootsy Summer Sessions for a long time – and we know you will be, too.

Explore more of our Rootsy Summer Sessions and our nearly endless supply of exclusive video performances here.

Video Credit: Brad Wagner, I Know We Should
Audio Credit: Juan Soria, I Know We Should

Rootsy Summer Sessions: Jim Lauderdale

This week, we bring you a brand-new installment of our Rootsy Summer Sessions, which were shot last year in gorgeous Falkenberg, Sweden, during Rootsy Summer Fest ’23. The videography team behind I Know We Should set aside time during the summertime roots music festival with Nashville renaissance man, Americana magnate, and hit songwriter Jim Lauderdale while on his trip to Scandinavia.

For his first performance, he performs “The Road Is a River,” a song from his 2018 album, Time Flies, in an adorable local music store, Liljedahls Musik. Joined by his band, including recording artist and fiddler Lillie Mae, guitarists Craig Smith and Frank Carter Rische, Jay D. Weaver on bass, and Dave Racine on drums, they cheerfully lope through the darker tinges of the song, harmonizing in three parts on the track’s foreboding and certainly apocalyptic lyrics. “The Road Is a River” demonstrates the ease with which Lauderdale combines styles, textures, and sonics with his deep understanding of history and a literary reckoning with the machinations of the earth – natural and unnatural.

The second song selection, “Sister Horizon,” brings forward the rambling, troubadour qualities evident in Lauderdale’s work. It’s clear this ensemble is having fun, swapping smiles as often as licks and harmonies, singing in worshipful tones of “Sister Horizon” and text painting in evocative and striking tones. With a sly smile, Lauderdale makes eye contact with the lens, a fourth wall breaking that seems to draw on the fantastic, storybook qualities of the track. His vocal phrasing, iconically lazy and languid, lingers delightfully on each word in a wonky and unpredictable way – one of the most exciting and engaging parts of Lauderdale’s singing over time.

Even in this context, with a “full band” lineup, the stripped down, Tiny Desk quality of these sessions is striking. Lauderdale is comfortable in so many musical setups and that comfort comes through in both of these exclusive video performances.

Stay tuned for more Rootsy Summer Sessions coming soon right here, on BGS!

Video Credit: Brad Wagner, I Know We Should
Audio Credit: Juan Soria, I Know We Should

Rootsy Summer Sessions: Caleb Caudle

Today, we continue our Rootsy Summer Sessions series with three fresh videos and songs supplied by longtime friend of BGS, singer-songwriter Caleb Caudle. For his first selection, Caudle and his small-but-mighty trio perform a properly bluegrass rendition of “Great High Mountain,” a modern gospel-folk-bluegrass classic written by Keith Whitley and also commonly known by the title “You Don’t Have to Move That Mountain.” With bluesy Dobro and a slight growl to Caudle’s voice, they perform the number in front of the beautiful and apt background of Falkenberg Church.

Captured in Falkenberg, Sweden by the crack videography team, I Know We Should, our Rootsy Summer Sessions highlight the wide variety of roots musicians and Americana artists that performed as part of Rootsy Summer Fest ’23. Even all the way across the Atlantic, on the North Sea, by the banks of the beautiful Ätran river, world class American roots music can be found, brought to Scandinavia and northern Europe by the folks at Rootsy Music – and the community that surrounds them.

For their second song, Caudle and trio perform “Whirligigs,” a track from his 2022 album, Forsythia, which he recorded at the infamous Cash Cabin just outside of Nashville. On “Whirligigs,” the trio trades in their gospel trappings, but the result is every bit as reverent.

Forsythia is a collection of stories, songs as vignettes, and the details and affection evident in the lyrics of “Whirligigs” translates even while so greatly removed from the peoples and cultures the song speaks about. A track recorded on hallowed ground performed on hallowed ground, with the appealing architecture of the cathedral as background, demonstrates just a bit of the magic captured during our Rootsy Summer Sessions.

To conclude their mini-set, Caudle and trio offer “Crazy Wayne,” another track from Forsythia that offers an additional, fresh angle on Caudle’s penchant for microscopic stories told in broad and inviting styles. On the studio recording, Jerry Douglas and Sam Bush lend their talents to the song; in Falkenberg, bassist Karl Zerfas and resonator guitarist Carter Giegerich do the music justice and then some. It’s another gritty, bluesy number infused with heartbreak and essential advice that’s just perfect to round out the session.

Stay tuned for more Rootsy Summer Sessions coming soon right here, on BGS.

Video Credit: Brad Wagner, I Know We Should
Audio Credit: Juan Soria, I Know We Should

Rootsy Summer Sessions: Jackson Scribner

Last summer, flanked by roadside flowers and backgrounded by a softly cooing dove, singer-songwriter Jackson Scribner graced the videographers from I Know We Should with two beautiful, original songs. It’s the latest installment of our Rootsy Summer Sessions series, shot at Rootsy Summer Fest ’23 in Falkenberg, Sweden on the banks of the Ätran.

Scribner, who was born and raised in rural Texas, first performed “Front Porch Rain,” a track from his 2021 self-titled album, with backing vocals by his brother and duo partner, Levi Scribner. Jackson’s voice is soft, but confident as he sings, “Though I see it now/ watch for the weather, wanted to kill it to stay/ it’s a front porch rain…” a striking lyric beneath the summer Swedish sun. There’s certainly a familial quality to the harmonies, though Levi leaves plenty of breathing room, allowing Jackson’s lyrics to come forward.

For his second selection, Jackson performed “Train Song (Early July),” this time solo. “Met my baby on a Mississippi train,” the song begins, as Jackson brings a timeless American roots music tradition – the train song – to Scandinavia, with heaping helping of reality infused into the archetypical lyric. “I’ll be a drifter,” he declares with subdued passion, “I’ll be machinery/ called to remember/ … I’ll be your early July, you’re my late June…”

Both of Scribner’s tracks are simply stellar in their Swedish setting, captured by I Know We Should. Stay tuned for more Rootsy Summer Sessions coming soon right here, on BGS.

Video Credit: Brad Wagner, I Know We Should
Audio Credit: Juan Soria, I Know We Should