Just A Little Gospel And Bluegrass

This past Wednesday and Saturday I caught The Blind Boys Of Alabama ar Jazz Alley, and the Sam Grisman Project at the Neptune Theatre in Seattle.

The Blind Boys show was the last of a 3 night residency, and they were clearly comfortable, in sharp form, and enjoying themselves.  They're a vocal trio now and still bring deeply soulful harmonies and individual virtuosity.  Their guitarist and bassist have each been with the band for over 30 years, and the drummer and organ player were rock solid.  
 

They mixed a lot of Christmas classics in with setlist staples like Higher Ground and Spirit In The Sky, and rocked the house.  It was my first time back at Jazz Alley post-Covid, and enjoyed being back.  Great sound and sightlines, and their kitchen is aces.  I went with the shrimp and grits, a house green salad, and a couple of Kona Longboard lagers, which were all just exactly perfect.

Last night was the Sam Grisman Project's final show of the year.  It's always nice to just close shop and walk upstairs to see the show!  No sit-down dinner theater, like Jazz Alley, the Neptune Theatre is an over hundred year old 1100 seat space.  I was second row center in the balcony for this one.  Fortunately, Sam and his band played two sets, which let me stretch my legs, as the rows are fairly narrow up there.

The band is cooking.  Someone mistook the fiddle player, John Mailander, for Alex Hargreaves, which cracked the band up.  They played a mix of train songs, Dawg songs, Dylan songs, traditional songs, Grateful Dead songs, and Grisman & Garcia songs.  David Grisman stayed home in Port Townshend for this one, after playing with the SGP on Friday night out on the Olympic Peninsula.  Sam said David has a regular Saturday night "play date" with Danny Barnes at home.  He did lend the mandolin that he played all the Garcia and Grisman material on, which was put to great use by mandolinist Dominic Leslie, and Sam's cousin Vincent, who sat in on 2nd guitar and mandolin on a bunch of songs.  Apparently, it was also the anniversary of the day this particular mandolin was built, so we joined in as the band played Happy Birthday to it.

They bookended the first set with Jack-A-Roe and Shady Grove, added other Jerry references on It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry, Mississippi Half-Step, and Jenny Jenkins, and finished the night with Friend Of The Devil.

We are lucky to have this new generation of talented Bluegrass players on the rise.