Last evening felt like an embarrassment of riches.
The Nationals were mowing down the hated Phillies on the road, to maintain the best record in baseball and lower their magic number to 3. There were some high and tight pitches thrown. Michael “The Beast” Morse hits a home run “nine million feet” into the Nat’s bullpen in right-center field where reliever Tom Gorzelanny catches the ball in his cap, eliciting whoops, cheers, and raised arms all around.
It was fun to watch.
But the International Bluegrass Music Association awards (IBMA) show was being live streamed on Bluegrass Today’s web site from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville at the same time, with appearances by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, Doyle Lawson, and many others.
What’s a bluegrass loving Nat’s fan to do?
Simple…multi-task.
Zap goes the mute button. I’ll “listen” to Bob and F.P. on closed captions. Next, I turn on the live stream on the iPad and we’re off to the races.
Loved the tribute to Ralph Rinzler and the story of how he discovered Doc Watson. (Doc came to a recording session with his father-in-law bearing an electric guitar. Rinzler, the purist, sends him away. The next day Doc comes along with a banjo and plays old-time music. Rinzler pays attention, and the rest is history.) And it was a nice tribute to name Doc the bluegrass guitarist of the year. There was great music throughout the evening.
So Thursday ended up being a pretty wonderful day. Of course, things change and the Nats are now down 5-1 in the first inning. Oh well…there is still a lot of baseball to be played.
If you can’t stand the scary parts (as Boswell puts it), just click on the video below and listen to Junior Sisk sing the Bluegrass Song of the Year, A Far Cry from Lester and Earl. For extra credit, see how many bluegrass tunes you pick up in the course of the song. You’ll also get the reference to the High Lonesome sound.
High and Tight or High Lonesome. No matter where you looked, it was all good!
More to come…
DJB
