Mike Sokolowski - Tony Trischka Band - Larry Keel Experience - James Cotton - Corey Harris - Hogwaller Ramblers
Afterwards the Hogwaller Ramblers were playing the Outback and I got to hear them in a setting I'm not used to: on a stage, through a P.A. I'm pleased to report that they sound even cooler like this than they do in their usual "living room" style shows. Ramble on.
Mike Sokolowski is a genius. I found myself at his bi-monthly Miller's gig staring at the floor, totally tranced out to his ethereal classical/jazz piano improvisations. It's heady stuff -- deep wafting clouds of musical poetry floating from room to room of some ancient secret mansion. His band with Houston Ross and Johnny Gilmore (now TR3's rhythm section), Soko, is all but disbanded, but the spirit of his piano work is every bit as powerful unaccompanied on Miller's' slightly out-of-tune upright. He's an accomplished dude. Soko's first CD, In November Sunlight, was a powerful foray into funk-jazz fusion (and featured our liege, Dave Matthews on a tune) and he's just overseen the re-release of his improvisational duet with Tim Reynolds, Common Margins, an ambient classic that would make Brian Eno proud. "Ambient" is a good word for a Miller's Monday, with Mike alternating weeks with another ambient guru, Greg Howard. Both these guys perform advanced musical meditations in a decidedly environmental way, conjuring deep moods and strange emotions, and they both like the Beatles.
On Friday night I squeezed into a packed Prism Coffeehouse for Tony Trischka and his band of fusionoids. Trischka, along with fellow conspirator Bela Fleck, is a respected pioneer of modern banjo. Not at all confined by his medium, he runs the gamut of styles, doing cool stuff like string bends and changing tunings in the middle of songs as part of the melody. His band plays a mixture of fusion folk and jazz, much of which can be found on their new record Bend. The drummer is a monster of jazz thump, while the bass player holds the groove together through their complicated rhythm and time changes. The guitarist tears it up and sings in a beautiful high tenor. The sax player blows like a champ and his compositions are slick and supercharged. As the show progressed it became clear that every copy of Bend in the lobby would be sold after the show. No problem. These people were impressed. And sure enough, all 40 copies went. 
By the time I got downtown, Miller's had devolved into a classic Larry Keel Experience hootenanny. The place was full up with lovers. Larry lovers. The gravel throated wiz-kid from Natural Bridge. Tonight the band is doing a "positive vibes for John Hartford" thing, performing as much of the great steamboat king's material as they can think of. It's really appropriate since Larry's band works in and out of the bluegrass medium in much the same way that Hartford always has, serving as historian and tour guide for the legacy of Appalachian music. Killer stuff. Late in the night the band expands to include two of the Walker's Run crew along with "B.T." Tom Bailey on fiddle and Humble Sacrifice's Roger Fox on flute. In the LKE's imitable style, they do a great spacey "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" into "Legalize It." All hail Virginia's flagship of acoustic psychedelia. 
I jetted out before the show ended because I didn't want to miss Mississippi blues legend James Cotton at the Outback Lodge. These legendary-type guys can only come through town so many times before they... well, you know... can't anymore. The Outback loves to have 'em. Cotton is a haunting harmonica player who sings in a voice so bar-worn that when he opens his mouth, you'd swear the wind from a ramshackle Delta ghetto was blowing right in your face. This, of course, plays out as a paradox: it's a blues show and that means good times -- very low-key but upbeat good times. The combo was made up of guitar, piano, vocalist/harmonica player, and Mr. Cotton. They sounded cool as hell and it was an honor just to hear the old wizard blow.
On Saturday I got my mojo recalibrated by Corey Harris at the Prism. Did you hear that his last disc, Greens from the Garden, recorded right over in Belmont, made Rolling Stone's top 100 records this year? Halleluiah! Corey kicks ass. There's really no denying the power of a man who holds forth for a crowd of 150 while sitting a good 5 feet back from the microphones. He sings with such intensity and verve that I'm compelled to say he is the single greatest vocalist I've ever heard. Every note out of his mouth is affected with some throaty harmonic or barnyard wail. His tunes run from traditional rants to ironic social commentary like in "5-0 Blues" where he sings: "I'd go out to California/ If it weren't for one thing/ When you're out in California/ They treat you like a king (like Rodney King)" He's a daringly witty songwriter, and no slouch with a six string either, breathing some seriously new life into old forms. He and his cohort, the mighty Jamal Milner, tore through a smoking show of retro blues and accoutrement imbuing everything with a raw improvisational funkiness and good ol' grit. I whipped out my spoon and plate and bellied up to the smorgasborg. Good eatin'.
-Cripsy Duck