Best of Pickathon 2010

Punch Brothers gave several great performances at Pickathon 2010, but it was their very first one - in the woods on Friday night - which stood out to me. Understated and elegant, quiet while still somehow seriously rocking, the band moved through a selection of songs from their two albums and Chris Thile's solo efforts, along with covers by Norman Blake and Radiohead. The Punch Brothers includes some of the finest players in the stringband genre, making music which just flat-out defies definition. Easily one of the best sets of the entire festival. 

I caught the Red Stick Ramblers several times, but it was their performance in the barn on Friday night which took the cake for me. The whole jampacked room was dancing its head off as Linzay Young and Kevin Wimmer lit into their dueling fiddles, and delivered some Cajun music mixed with whatever other sweet flavors they felt like throwing in. 

I've caught Langhorne Slim at a number of festivals (including a few prior Pickathons), and have come to understand that he never disappoints. His Saturday afternoon performance on the woods stage was a major highlight, though. Equal parts folk, soul and straight-up rock and roll, Slim forges a path all his own. As if anything could have usurped the sheer amount of energy he churned up in the barn the night before, this set felt as though the trees were going to pull up their roots and start dancing with the rest of the crowd.

Known chiefly as one of the Be Good Tanyas, a Canadiana band she played in with Jolie Holland, among others, Frazey Ford is a serious force. Her solo album Obadiah had just come out and I was having trouble getting into it. But, her performances at Pickathon sealed the deal for me. Ford's voice is a remarkable machine, and her songs capture the entire complex range of emotions. She's such a born performer that I managed to wrest myself from my typically short festivarian attention span to catch nearly the entirety of both her Saturday sets at Pickathon 2010.

Heartless Bastards are definitely not a folk band, and won't be of interest to many of the traditional folk music fans who are likely to read this site. But, for those of you interested in a wider range of music, I'd highly recommend checking them out. They're certainly informed by traditional roots music, but they take it to a level of rock which defies tradition. Their Saturday night mainstage performance was an obvious highlight of the weekend.