Tonight, live in Atlanta, Georgia, newgrass-bluegrass musicians extraordinaire Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn will perform at the venerable Variety Playhouse. They're the only act listed on the lineup and doors open at 7:00, so there's a good chance we could get home from the show before 11:00. If, that is, we were going - which we're not, not because we don't like the musicians (we do) but because we just saw them at Big Ears last Saturday.
Sure, tonight's set will be a great show, but is Grammy-winner and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Rhiannon Giddens singing with them, like she did at Big Ears? No, we didn't think so. Is the adventurous new-music string quartet Brooklyn Rider playing with them, like they did at Big Ears?
No, we didn't think so. But will tonight's set include pregnant clogging?
Probably. Sure. We'll grant you that much. Abigail's almost certainly still as preggo as she was on Saturday, and probably no less inclined to clog when the set calls for it. Still, not to sound like snobs, tonight's show at the Playhouse should be a great set, even without Giddens and Brooklyn Rider, especially for those who can appreciate the intersection of traditional bluegrass and Americana with innovative, eclectic improvisation.
We had been wanting to hear Bela live ever since we first heard his debut LP way back in 1990, and it sort of amazes us that it's actually taken this long to finally get the opportunity. Here's Sinister Minister from that long-ago LP, featuring the outstanding Victor Wooten on bass.
And finally, as long as we're unpacking the Big Ears experience and all, here's a nice profile of Bela and Abigail that aired on CBS' This Morning in 2015.
Incidentally, Washburn also did a set at Big Ears with Chinese zither master Wu Fei which, unfortunately, we missed.
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