We're not going to as many concerts as we used to these days, we're perhaps more selective. And one that immediately caught our eye was "Peter Rowan and the Sam Grisman Project doing Old and In the Way" at the Cabot. I've really enjoyed the few Peter Rowan concerts I've been too, and this sounded like one that shouldn't be missed, especially when we were able to get seats in row K in the center of the orchestra at the Cabot, a great theater.
Ate a quick dinner at Gulu-Gulu in Salem on Saturday, June 14, a busy day with the No Kings demonstrations that morning. Then drove up to a crowded downtown Beverly and were able to get the last parking spot in the municipal lot. Got to our great seats a little before show time. The crowd was late filling in but eventually the place was packed (except for the two seats right in front of us!) and the show started a little late.
Well, what we saw wasn't the recreation of Old and In the Way that we expected, but was fantastic. Rowan shuffled on stage by himself first, an old man with a big (Panama?) hat and Hobbit pants, looking a little like a pumpkin. He spoke/sang an introduction for the Sam Grisman project, and they came on and all opened with Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land, before Peter left the stage. Sam told us that you never know what to expect from his introductions, sometimes he does a song, sometimes he recites a poem, sometimes he makes up a ditty on the spot.
Anyway, the Sam Grisman Project then did almost the whole first set by themselves and they were great. They're led by Sam (David's son) on vocals and a double-bass that has a body that looks like it's been through a war but a beautiful neck, nut, and scroll that makes it look like a classical instrument. They also had a fiddler, a guitarist, a mandolinist, and Victor Furtado (another legacy) on clawhammer banjo, and a dobro player came out for a few tunes. I didn't try hard to remember the names, thinking that they'd be on the website. But the only names on the website were not there on the night we saw them, I guess it's kind of a rotating cast.
Anyway, this band had some great strengths. Sam Grisman is a fantastic, melodic, technical bass player and has a pretty good voice. He has a unique style, hunching down and almost looking up at the bass while he plays, moving it around a lot, looking like he's doing a funky dance with it and just doing some incredible bass runs. At one point the guy behind me couldn't help himself and said out loud, "Holy Cow!" when Sam did something on the bass we'd never seen done. The rest of the band was very good too, though they weren't mixed particularly well. They featured an excellent fiddle and guitar, and the mandolinist had a very good tone.
They played a set of neo-traditionalist bluegrass featuring songs like Going Up On the Mountain, and I'm Troubled. Rowan came out for a few songs before the set break, doing some of his older stuff including The Free Mexican Air Force. When we was with them the band stood back and filled in, while Sam almost duetted with Peter, who IMO is one of the best bluegrass guitarists ever. He seemed very old and didn't bring his fastball, but he was consistently right around the plate and his change-up could not be touched. Rowan strolled off-stage again and the band closed the first set with a smoking cover of Big Railroad Blues.
Surprisingly, very few Old and In the Way covers! In the middle of the first set they did Vassar's Kissimmee Kid, on which the fiddler shone. They later did Old and In the Way itself, which was written by David Grisman.
After a pretty short set break the band came back out and Peter joined them after a couple of numbers. He'd shed the hat, letting his white hair fly, and seemed to now be taking this thing seriously. They did a lovely cover of Carter Stanley's White Dove, with four/five part harmony. And the song of the night was a haunting cover of The Walls of Time, written by Rowan with Bill Monroe. His golden voice was at its best on this.
They did a few more numbers, including Midnight Moonlight, on which Peter invited the crowd to sing the chorus, and a great cover of Charlie Monroe's Rosa Lee McFall. The last song of the set was another patriotic Guthrie number, All You Fascists, which Sam dedicated to Stephen Miller. They came back out for an encore and Rowan mentioned the recent deaths of Sly Stone and Brian Wilson. He finished the night with a spoken word and then sung cover of Wilson's late-in-life masterpiece, Love and Mercy. By the end of the song he was leading the audience in a singalong, and then he closed it with one of his vocal flourishes.
Another great show at the Cabot, and a pretty quick journey home.
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