When I got to Chapel Hill, I had a bear of a time finding a parking space. I ended up parking in a metered spot on Franklin Street and walking the block and a half to the theater. I was a bit early, so I just hung out a bit before the show started. When the show was about to start, I was joined by
collingwest, who made the trek out for the show, too. The theater was only about 1/3 full, which was a shame -- it was a pretty cool theater to see a show in and the show was lots of fun. They even had a huge tree that they tried to give away at the end of the show.The first part of the show was full of traditional songs and originals off of their album Backroads. I was in heaven. They had one microphone stand with two microphones -- one to pick up vocals and one to pick up instrumentals. The band members would cycle to the microphone when it was their turn to be a featured soloist, which was pretty cool. There was only one hiccup when the bass player almost didn't make it back to the mic after a mandolin solo. The musicianship was great. For example, I don't know about such things, but
collingwest said that the fiddling contained "some truly amazing double-string work." All I know is that it sounded great.Kickin Grass definitely solidified me as a fan with their show. I picked up a copy of their CD and have already listened to it a couple of times. It's great stuff and I really hope things turn out well for them as a group. During the show, they mentioned that "Backroads" has been getting some national attention, so that's great. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on their calendar for upcoming show dates.
And for the extra-cool factor, today I received an email from the fiddler's mother. She said "Thanks for publishing your comments re: the band Kickin grass. I was web surfing and found your site." If my little blog can help get these guys some attention, I'm more than happy to help -- they are a great, tight bluegrass group. If you ever get a chance to catch them, do it.
