Wintergrass 2007 Wrap-Up

Uncle Earl said, during their mainstage set on Saturday night, that walking into the hotel lobby at the Wintergrass festival felt like "the bluegrass spaceship has just landed." Indeed, entering the Tacoma, Washington, Sheraton lobby on Wintergrass weekend can feel a little sonically overwhelming. Look to the left, look to the right, look straight ahead and behind you, and you're unlikely to see anyone who isn't either participating in a jam session, or carrying an instrument.

The line between performers and the audience is muddled at Wintergrass, as the lobby jam sessions are often just as entertaining as the mainstage concerts. There are also the all-weekend-long workshops, which are taught by the festival's artists. These workshops cover everything from singing from your soul to learning banjo, guitar, fiddle, and mandolin.

The Mandolins

It was the mandolins that so dominated the 2007 Wintergrass festival. Most notably were performances from mandolin masters Mike Marshall and Hamilton de Holanda. Together, these two instrumentalists play at each other like old familiar dance partners, moving through old bluegrass standards like "Blackberry Blossom," with absolute ease, whether speeding the song up to unbelievable runs or innovating it with South American folk stylings.

Another mandolin master who put on set after set of great performances was Chris Thile (Nickel Creek) with his new group, How to Grow a Band.

The Gospel

Wintergrass always welcomes a great group of bluegrass gospel singers, too. This year's greatest gospel performance was put on by Valerie Smith and Liberty Pike. Smith and her band deliver impeccably tight harmonies and instrumentation. The group's presence and energy onstage is infectious, as well, and it was impossible to not stand up and clap along.

The Newgrass

There were more than a couple of times when the people sitting behind me said things like, "Is this bluegrass music? I don't think this is really bluegrass."

Wintergrass has always done a great job of presenting traditional Americana in all its forms, although much of the focus is, of course, on bluegrass music. Still, this year's festival was no exception in Wintergrass' history of welcoming innovators. Local group Captain Gravel, Australia's the Greencards, and jamgrass group Infamous Stringdusters were just a few of the great bands that pushed the envelope this year.

Whatever your tastes, there's almost no humanly possible way to see everything Wintergrass has to offer. Nonetheless, it would be almost impossible to walk away unsatisfied.