I opted instead to spend a hundred & go to Merlefest. Four days worth of much of the same music & many of the same people as the O Brother tour.

DB.

Maybe we'll see you there. I'm not sure if they're using the whole ACC, my tickets say something about the Sears Theatre. I wonder if it's something like the old Garden's Concert Bowl.

During the pledge breaks, they announced that the whole crew would be at Seattle's Paramount Theater on Thursday and Friday, February 14th and 15th. Tickets going fast!

Don Firth

Your guess about the Sears theater is as good as mine. This will be the first concert I've been to at the ACC. I hope that the sound is good and that Emmylou & Ralph do more than two or three songs each. I'm sure that the others will be good, but my main reason for going is to see these two live for the first time.

I'll look for you.

Steve

Thanks for the report. Did Ralph Stanley do many songs?

Peter, I looked at the Sears theatre seating plan and it seems that the stage would be near the Blueline of the ice surface facing the net. It would appear that they are only using about 1/4 of the building for this. The view should be pretty good, I hope the sound is. Three quarters of the arena empty could make for some serious echo.

Thanks for the advice, but we Canucks are used to this. Balmy.

I see that Allison Krauss will not be at this show, she is being replaced by Rhonda Vincent (I have to admit I've never heard her) and the Del McCrory's.

O well, It's really Emmylou and Dr. Ralph that I'm going to hear. Hopefully there will be some pleasant surprises from some of the other acts.

Down From The Mountain

Down From The Mountain

I thought the Sears Theatre at the ACC was pretty good. I had good sight lines and the sound was crystal clear where I was.

Didn't see Peter, and I was looking.

Yeah I was thinking the same at times, especially when Ralph was leading the others in Amazing Grace, calling out the verses before they would sing them. If he'd jumped right into a fire & brimstone sermon it wouldn't have surprised me one bit. There was less standard Bluegrass than I was expecting.

How did you like the venue?

I don't make it into Toronto much, so bing there on a Wednesday at 10:45 I whipped up to the Silver Dollar to hear Crazy Strings, a local Bluegrass band. It was packed with University students who were genuinely having a blast. They were singing and dancing, many were appreciative of the musicainship (some excellent players in Crazy Stings). There were also some teenagers sitting in front of me at the DFTM show too. They obviously have the CD and were cheering when the band would start one the way that I would have cheered when I first saw the Stones live. O Brother has made Bluegrass hip, and a lot of these kids will move on to the next fad and forget they ever heard Ralph Stanley et al. But there are some who will become lifers. There is a future for acoustic music.

I think that they tried to do a Grand Ole Opry style show, and I think that they did a pretty good job. I could have lived without the MC, I found him to be a little pompous (who was he anyway?). As I've mentioned, I was going primarily to hear Ralph Stanley and Emmylou Harris, two of my favourite musicians and I have never seen either of them before. I realized with that many people on the bill that they wouldn't be doing a lot.

I thought that Emmylou could have done a few more songs. By the way, I heard that pools of water that you referred to were in fact drool formed by a certain Professor when Ms. Harris took the stage. I was glad to hear her do Blackhawk and dedicate it to Daniel Lanois's mother who was in the crowd. You have more of her stuff than I do, what was the second one that she did?

I liked the version of Po' Lazarus.

I thought Norman Blake was pretty good, but overused.

I really enjoyed Rhonda Vincent, and I thought her band was very good, the most authentic Bluegrass of the evening.

I had mixed Feelings about Patty Loveless, but like you, I really enjoyed "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive".

The Whites were better than I thought they would be.

Del McCrory was very good, his band was very tight.

The Peasall(?) Sisters were cute, but I have a bit of a problem with children of there age being on the road. Still, I think they added to the Opry feel that I thought were trying for.

The highlight of the evening for me was Dr. Ralph, specifically the "Angel Band" encore. I'm sure that his voice isn't what it was even ten or twenty years ago, but it is still moving. I'm a sucker for Bluegrass Gospel, and I really enjoyed Amazing Grace, especially the few times that Emmylou's voice came clearly out of the assembled musicians. Although I was disappointed that Ralph didn't play, I thought the Banjo player who accompanied him did a great job of playing the Ralph Stanley style.

Chris Thomas King (?) was pretty good, but he didn't blow me away. I liked the fact that he talked about Tommy Johnson being the original Deal With The Devil Johnson.

Now keep in mind that most of the concerts that I saw as a teenager were at Maple Leaf Gardens, where the sound was horrible. I was very impressed with the sound last night. I was surprised that nobody was plugged in, they got all that sound from mikes.

All in all, I enjoyed it. At times I half expected to hear "Martha White Flour". Still, I will watch Emmylou and Ralph Stanley's websites, I would love to see an entire show by both of them.

A friend of mine just handed me the Star review. There's a nice picture of Emmylou. I believe that you have seen her before. How did this performance stand up against others that you have seen?

The Star also complained about the sound. I know that the other side of the building was complaining at the beginning of the show. I was really impressed by the souund. Granted, my seats were only two rows ahead of the restaurant and Corporate boxes and were in a direct line and at the same height as the speaker banks that were suspended above the stage. It occurred to me that even though I wasn't in the greatest spot to see the stage, I was probably in the optimum spot for sound.