A regular stop for Panic over the years, the Oak Mountain Amphitheatre became sacred ground for Panic fans, whose energy fed the band night after night, particularly during this run. On the first night, Panic dug deep into their catalogue performing rousing versions of fan favorites “Conrad”, “Barstools and Dreamers” and “Greta”, while infusing the set with newer songs that would become band staples, including “One Arm Steve”, “Action Man” and “Bear’s Gone Fishin’”. Night 1 also features the first-ever performance of Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come”, which has since cemented its place in the diverse list of songs Panic covers.  See full set list below.

The 2001 Oak Mountain shows left fond, lasting memories on fans and band members alike. So much so, that Widespread Panic’s next archival release will feature Night 2 of the run, also to be released via their independent label Widespread Records. (Date TBA).

Widespread Panic just finished their sold out spring tour, and have recently announced dates for their much-anticipated summer tour, which begins on June 1 at the Wakarusa Music Festival in Ozark, AR and ends with a return to Oak Mountain Amphitheatre on July 19 & 20. June 28th mark Widespread Panic’s 40th consecutive sold out show at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO. For the first time, Panic will play a four-night run June 27-30, all of which sold out in minutes, extending the venue’s record of sold out performances by any act to 42. For full list of tour dates, please visit: http://www.widespreadpanic.com/tour.

Disc I

1.) “Conrad”
2) “One Arm Steve”
3.) “Barstools & Dreamers”
4.) “Action Man”
5.) “This Part Of Town”
6.) “Greta”
7.) “Christmas Katie”
8.) “Let It Rock”
9.) “Radio Child”

Disc II

1.) “Disco”
2.) “Bear’s Gone Fishin’”
3.) “Driving Song” > “Blight” > “Driving Song”
4.) “The Waker”
5.) “Last Dance”
6.) “The Harder The Come” *
7.) “Drums” *

Disc III

1.) “Fixin’ To Die”
2.) “Low Rider”
3.) “Love Tractor”
4.) “Ride Me High”
5.) “Dream Song”

* w/Dr. Arvin Scott on percussion

Each year, Beale Street Music Festival seems to be plagued by weather issues. Without fail, it rains. However, 2012 was a perfect storm of…well…no rain storms. So, it was basically a given that 2013′s edition would have bad weather.

No one could have foreseen, however, that not only would there be the annual rain, but that temperatures would drop – no, plummet – into the 30s. The only thing missing was actual snow.

Nevertheless, music fans were once again treated to a solid line-up of music ranging from fest regulars like Gov’t Mule and Jerry Lee Lewis to the Black Keys and metal guitar legend Yngwie Malmsteen.

Click on the thumbnail(s) to view photos from the show by Josh Mintz

By Tom Speed

In the years following Hurricane Katrina, when New Orleans musician Dave Jordan’s band disbanded and his marriage dissolved, he did what musicians do in such times. He picked up his acoustic guitar. Then the songs came out.

Jordan released his first solo record, These Old Boots, in 2010 and it was something of a departure. Swathed in pedal steel guitar and populated with melancholy, acoustically-rendered tunes, the Americana leanings of These Old Boots stood in contrast to his previous work as the founder/bassist/bandleader of the funk outfit Juice.

These Old Boots was lauded by the local press in New Orleans, and three years later, Jordan’s follow-up, Bring Back Red Raspberry, expands that palette even more with a collection of songs that sample flavors from country, zydeco, and R&B while fleshing out the songs with more instrumentation and a joie de vivre that didn’t exist on the last outing. It’s a culmination many years in the making, but a natural progression for a musician who has been steeped in the sounds of southern Louisiana all his life, and who has been around long enough that he’s no longer just an up-and-comer.

Now an elder statesman of the New Orleans music scene, Jordan finds himself playing the mentor role to musicians a decade younger than he is, much like he learned from Anders Osborne, George Porter and others. It’s a lineage Jordan embraces.

“Very early on in this process I realized that my whole career with Juice, I was always looking up to Porter and Anders and Joe Krown and the older guys,” says Jordan.

But when he coincidentally formed the loose-knit band that plays on Red Raspberry, he recognized that they might be looking up to him in the same way. “I realized early on that I was working with guys the other end of the spectrum now, about a decade younger than me. I really got into that idea. I had kind of cordoned myself off. All those years on the road, I wasn’t here for a lot of these guys coming up. I didn’t get to witness it. I was gone. It was really fun for me, and informative and educational to work with guys that were not in my wheelhouse.”

Fortified

Juice had been part of the local funk scene in the late 1990s and helped bridge the gap between the burgeoning jam band scene and the funk heritage of New Orleans—it was Jordan who personally
introduced George Porter to Widespread Panic, for example. Peers of the time included bands like Galactic, All That and Iris May Tango.

Of the group, only Galactic and Juice toured the country relentlessly, each with their own take on classic New Orleans funk music.  Heavily influenced by the Meters and George Porter’s Runnin’ Pardners, Juice always leaned to the R&B side of the funk equation, with Taj Mahal and Bill Withers songs populating their setlists alongside their groove-laden originals. They gained a reputation as a party band and blanketed the Southeast, but also found audiences in Colorado and California eager to soak up their New Orleans vibe.

They released three albums while juggling a rotating lineup.   Their funky debut Fortified came in 2000, followed by the Anders Osborne-produced All Lit Up in 2002. The live collection Juice Live: Hey Buddy! came out in 2005. It was a double disc set that positioned them to reach an even larger audience. Alas, it was released just weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit. Like many New Orleans bands, the members of Juice scattered far and wide in Katrina’s wake, from California and Colorado to Nashville and beyond. Some members didn’t return to the city for years, and though they had about half of a new album in the can, they never quite got back together.

Neighborhood Improvement

Following the dissolution of his band, and the concurrent dissolution of his marriage, Jordan sought out solo gigs wherever he could find them as he adjusted to a single-income household and its attendant bills. One of those gigs was a weekly show at the Banks Street Bar, a neighborhood joint near his home in Mid-City New Orleans.

There, he pulled out his acoustic guitar on Thursday nights and began pouring his heart out with confessional, emotionally wrenching tales. Soon his drummer buddy Andre Bohren, a founding member of Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, would join him along with fiddle player Harry Hardin, also a bandmate of Bohren’s.

The Thursday night gig went from solo to a trio…then sometimes a quartet. Friends dropped in and out from week to week. The makeshift band in the making was joined by Greg “Wolf” Hodges, who like Jordan, was adept at both bass and guitar, which enabled the two to swap instruments as the songs demanded.

The two had met back in the Juice days, when Juice would share bills with Col. Bruce Hampton and the Codetalkers, with whom Hodges was playing bass at the time.

“Me and Wolf made a quick connection,” says Jordan. “Our sense of humor is kind of the same. The connection with Col. Bruce was a focal point. Our music sensibilities are very similar in their diversity. He knows serious country music, rock music.”

These gigs started being billed as “Dave Jordan and the Neighborhood Improvement Association”—a loose-limbed consortium that by definition had no described membership or precise repertoire. Before he knew it, the Thursday night gig at Banks Street had lasted two years.

“It’s a brutal amount of time,” says Jordan. “But a lot grew out of it.”

The most tangible thing that grew out of it is Bring Back Red Raspberry, on which Jordan and his pals incorporate the instrumentation of those weekly gigs with some of the songs forged from them. For some of those songs, Jordan would bring a basic blueprint to the group, and the players would add their own flourishes. Others were later developed in the studio.

“These tunes were written real fast, but I’d write them and then we’d go to Banks Street and they’d flesh themselves out over time,” says Jordan. “Andre and Wolf really developed the songs live. Then we got in the studio and that’s where the other things come in. What [Bill] Machow did with keyboards and accordion in the studio really took it to another level.”

Two-Step

The twin touchstones of Jordan’s musical upbringing were the Meters and the Grateful Dead, and if Juice explored the territory of the former, his latest output channels the more acoustically tinged side of the latter, only bringing it to it’s modern conclusion. Several of the selections on Bring Back Blue Raspberry place Jordan not within the context of his forbearers but alongside his contemporaries, and in some somewhat surprising areas. Much of the album fits comfortably into a twangy shuffle that brings to mind Americana stalwarts like Son Volt and Drive-By Truckers moreso than Galactic or their other fellow funksters.

Elsewhere, accordion and fiddle provide a rhythmic foundation that draws on zydeco and Cajun music. Though Jordan may have started out playing jam-based funk music, it’s hard not to soak up one’s surroundings.

“You write the songs and then the songs kind of tell you what they need,” he says. “If a song says, some accordion would sound cool here, you put some accordion on there. I never thought I would end up writing zydeco style music, but it is what it is. To me, it’s just another part of growing up in south Louisiana and being surrounded by music. It’s not something I set out to do. It’s just something absolutely natural for me to do. It’s as easy for me to do that as it is to pick up a bass and play a Meters tune.”

It’s apparent on “By The Side of The Stage,” a breezy mid-tempo tune in which Bohren makes his kit sound like a washboard and Malchow decorates the beat with graceful accordion swaths while Hardin rounds out the melody on fiddle. It’s a true amalgamation—too country to be zydeco, too rock to be country.

In fact, a compelling factor of Bring Back Red Raspberry is the diversity that defies categorization. Classic New Orleans piano tunes (“Biggest Little Shrimp In Town”) stand alongside plaintive ballads like the wispy “She Was Born In April,” alt-country rockers like “Dontcha Come Runnin’” and those zydeco two-steps like “The Waiting Feeling.”  Listening to the record from start to finish brings to mind the experience of walking through the Louisiana Jazz & Heritage Festival: you find your toe tapping in different but congruous ways. But that’s a natural synthesis for someone who spent a lifetime soaking up those sounds.

“I think with this record all the music of my life is coming to a natural juncture,” says Jordan. “I’m into funk, I’m into Dr. John, Tom Petty and the Dead. I think this record shows that. One of the things I’m most proud of with this record and the band really is that we are touching on a lot of bases but we’re not forcing any of it.”

Hubig’s Pie

The album’s title comes from the song “Hubig’s Pie,” a barrelhouse piano tune that humorously proposes the reliably satisfying New Orleans fried pie delicacy as a an antidote for a frustrating relationship. It’s about an appreciation for the simple things in life that pull us through when the trappings and clutter are removed.

It’s the kind of swaying sing-along that likely urges a sense of solidarity among those denizens of the local pub who hung around long enough for last call. Towards the end, Jordan goes off a rant extolling the virtues of the beloved confectionaries. One particular exaltation is to “bring back red raspberry!” in reference to a rare flavor that was discontinued after Hurricane Katrina.

Indeed,  now eight years later, life in New Orleans is still demarcated by Pre-Katrina and Post-Katrina. That things neccesarily changed forever means an instant nostalgia was created.

Sonically, Bring Back Red Raspberry is mostly good time rockers and swaying dance numbers that reveal the culmination of that Louisiana heritage. Thematically, it belies Jordan’s experience too, and beneath the surface it’s not quite as rosy as all that. Years of rugged touring are revealed in Jordan’s gravely voice, and lyrically Red Raspberry touches on themes of regret, betrayal, frustration and yes, nostalgia. But the comforts of the past can sooth the problems of the present, and vice-versa.

“Telluride,” one of the album’s standouts, is a sweeping country road tale of risk and frustrated dreams, at once describing a perilous journey through bad weather and the rigors of eeking out a living as a traveling musician.  Other songs touch on indiscretions and failing while others point to finding hope in the face of frustration.

Kickstarting

Like many independent musicians these days, Jordan turned to the crowd-funding platform Kickstarter to help fund the recording and distribution of the album. But it wasn’t something he was comfortable with at first.

“I didn’t want to do it,” admits Jordan. “ I felt like a beggar. I felt like after years of being able to fund my own records or having record labels, I really didn’t want to go that route. I tried to find outside funding and it never materialized. I had some friends—younger people who are much more savvy with this kind of stuff than I am—told me just do it, it’s gonna work.”

And it did. With a campaign bearing the boastful title “I Am Gonna Make A Killer Record I Promise,” Jordan sought to raise $11,000 to defray the costs of studio time, manufacturing and self-distribution, among other expenses.  Not only did he meet and exceed that goal, he was humbled by the outpouring of support from across the country, a shot in the arm that inspired him to live up to his boastful promise that also included the tagline: “The album will sound like Dr. John, Tom Petty and John Prine met in south Louisiana and had an illegitimate love child. And it was me!”

But the outpouring also helped him put the legacy of Juice into perspective. Many of his Kickstarter backers were friends and fans from around New Orleans. Others were high school buddies he hadn’t seen in 20 years. But others were fans that had been touched by his music during those grueling, relentless tours with Juice.

“It was an overwhelmingly awesome experience,” says Jordan. “Once again, it put the legacy of what Juice did into light. It made me realize that there are people out there that our music has touched and they were willing to support me to make more music. That’s an amazing feeling.”

And while Juice didn’t gain the same momentum as their brethren band Galactic, it’s becoming apparent that they did make an impact on the scene and left a legacy that can’t be considered lightly.

That realization came into even sharper focus with the sudden death of former Juice harmonica player/percussionist/vocalist Jamie Galloway this year. His death received an enormous flood of support and the second line parade and wake at the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans garnered considerable media coverage. And that caused Jordan to reflect on the band’s history, and maybe resolve to revisit it.

“I think for right now, everyone in Juice has gone through some tumultuous shit in the past six or seven years,” says Jordan. “Be it dealing with Katrina, dealing with divorce, family members having health problems. Dealing with various substance abuse issues, personal health problems. We’ve all hit a few crossroads, very common to the age we are. And none of these things we should look at in a negative way, in a way that we’ve failed on any level.

“We worked as hard as we could for as long as we could,” said Jordan. “I think that Jamie’s death put all that in perspective and we’d all like to finish this record and do some stuff. But take some time and figure it out and not just finish it to finish it. But really figure out what we want to do.”

That reunion may come to light and may not. There will always be problems to deal with, troubles in life. The other members of Juice, like Jordan, have their own outside outlets. But in the meantime Jordan seems to have found his artistic voice, and it’s one that includes insightful songs, a cadre of talented musicians with a wide swath of styles, and when he needs it, nothing more than an acoustic guitar.

For more information on Bring Back Red Raspberry, tour dates and more: http://www.davejordanmusic.com

An incredible night benefiting “Believe in Music”

 Dark Star Orchestra and The Bridge will come together for one night only to play a special benefit show for Believe in Music (The music division of the Living Classrooms Foundation) at Pier Six Pavilion in Baltimore, MD, August 10, 2013.

 
 
Founded by Kenny Liner of The Bridge, Believe in Music is a new Living Classrooms program operating at the POWER House facility in the Eastside Children’s Target Investment Zone. The program aims to uplift underprivileged Baltimore City students academically, culturally, and spiritually, while promoting self-expression and community awareness through music education. Through the program, students will foster a deep connection with music in their own lives, and gain the tools to be able express their culture, struggles, and triumphs through music. Students will come away from the program seeing music as a  way to uplift themselves as well as their community.

To learn more about Believe in Music please view this video.

Tickets are on sale now and can purchased online.
http://www.piersixpavilion.com/event/241837-believe-in-music-benefit-dark-baltimore/

www.believe-in-music.org
https://www.facebook.com/believehon
follow on twitter @believeinmusic5
http://vimeo.com/52852155

Tea Leaf Green’s newest release is a testament to the relevance of a physical album in an increasingly digital world of music. Funded through a Kickstarter campaign, this is pure Tea Leaf Green creativity unleashed in the studio and made possible by a fanbase eager to see them take the wheel. The band made it easy; they provided impressive incentives to help contribute to this collaborative release. In The Wake marches across tracks from the three frontmen  (Josh Clark, Trevor Garrod, and Reed Mathis) with quite a bit of distinction between their styles and voices. Yet, the stamp of Tea Leaf Green as the well-oiled quintet does unite their individual efforts.

“Someday” sends the album off, and this is the band’s sweet spot. Garrod’s lyrics and soulful expressions are right in tune with the wild spirit of the band. Next, Clark takes his turn with a wild, sweaty romp, “Space Hero Pt. 2,” that is part of a suite of songs with parts three and four later in the disc. “Penny Saved” is a groovy head-bobber with more of Garrod’s unique way of finding the cross-section of power and control. The classical sound of “All Our Love” is an interesting contribution that adds a nice touch of character with arrangements on strings and horns thanks to Mathis.

The title track rolls along without a crash, but rather it fades softly away. “Give Me One More Chance” boasts great interplay with catchy lyrics between Garrod and guest vocalist Lesley Grant. Another track by Reed, “One Condition’s Enough,” lets the horns loose, and it certainly works. Part three of the “Space Hero” saga has Clark wind along an acoustic corridor in another dimension with an otherworldly backdrop of sonar pops and whale calls. Somewhere between classical music and pop-funk, “Two Parts” adds a nice push to the tempo of the album. For “Don’t Go,” Mathis and Leslie Helpert meander along together, connected by a wall of Green sound. Clark closes out the “Space Hero” suite with part four, wrapping up his songwriting contributions with a sizzling, guitar-laden jam.

Two great songs from Garrod close out In The Wake, a wonderful addition to Tea Leaf Green’s discography. This band needs to be in everyone’s catalog. Congratulations to the band on such a success with their fans and their love for music.

In The Wake is out now on Greenhouse Records.

In times like these, the world needs albums like Robert Randolph Presents: The Slide Brothers. Bands like Randolph’s Family Band and The Lee Boys have exposed fans to the  beauty and joy of  music known as “Sacred Steel” played on the pedal steel guitar. Now, with the formation of The Slide Brothers – made up of Aubrey Ghent, Calvin Cooke, Chuck Campbell and Darick Campbell – a veritable supergroup of scared steel players has come together to put forth one of the most joyous and uplifting albums to come along in quite awhile. Is this church music? Yes, but it’s music that celebrates the Church of Mankind and Brotherly Love. It may be rooted in Christianity but it embraces the best parts of it.

A mix of originals and covers, this record will bring a smile to the face of the most jaded heathen. Songs like “My Sweet Lord,” “Wade In The Water,” and “Motherless Children” will be instantly recognized but it’s the tracks “No Cheap Seats In Heaven” and “Help Me make It Through” that show the finesse and skill in these 4 virtuosos. A stellar stand out on the record would have to be their reworking of the Fatboy Slim song, “Praise You”. If you thought the original was an uplifting song, wait until you hear the Slide Brothers tackle it.

Robert Randolph Presents: The Slide Brothers is out now on Concord Records.

This year is already shaping up to be a year of great albums from women, and you can now add to the ever growing roster of quality releases the new EP, Lucky, from Arrica Rose & The …’s. And, yes. That is really the name of her band: The …’s. Though only six songs in length, Rose and her band prove that when you have quality songs, all it takes is an EP.

Creating a soundscape that centers on Arrica’s voice, the rest of the production offers solid support and enhancement in the playing, background vocals and choruses. This record has a feeling of warmth and comfort that wraps around the listener like a big fluffy blanket. Utilizing strings and harmonies, each song paints a brief portrait that highlights the years the artist experienced as a DIY musician with a background in film. With what they show in just six songs on Lucky, we can hopefully look forward to more from this band in the future.

Lucky is out now on pOprOck records.

Imagine, if you will, if Rufus Wainwright had been born in New Orleans at the turn of the century.

Witty, soulful, urbane  and Southern through and through, The Coming Tide from Luke Winslow-King strolls down the banks of the Mississippi as easily as if it was a sidewalk on Fifth Avenue. You can smell the lamp oil burning and hear the bourbon glasses clinking as a honky-tonk piano tinkles along to a bluesy trumpet.

With the renaissance that NOLA has experienced since the devastation of Katrina so many years ago, it’s a joy that someone of Winslow-King’s generation can not only embrace but enjoy and enhance music like this. If you like Dr. John and Randy Newman, you will love The Coming Tide.

The Coming Tide is out now on Bloodshot Records.

You wanna know what a Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ album is like, kiddo?

It’s a hopped-up Mountain Dew and BBQ pork rinds fueled joyride through the twisted trailer park underbelly of Joe Dirt America. Rock and roll like this comes greasy and skeevy, and don’t you ever forget it! These boys have been slogging through the beer-drenched bars and smoke-filled halls of the world for so many years, their middle name is “Motel 6.”

Songs From The Psychedelic Time Clock continues the similar groove of their past few EP releases. Hit the recording studio hard, bang out a quick slab of sonic garage noise in six tracks, and get back out on the road to play this stuff live for the people.

Songs From The Psychedelic Time Clock is out now on New! Records.

The festival was powered by a trio of killer B’s, Baltimore, Brews, and Bluegrass.  Held on the grounds of the Union Craft Brewery located within the Baltimore City limits, Union Craft marked the day with the release of the appropriately named Claw hammer Ale to help celebrate the occasion.  The location was perfect as the tree-lined Union Craft Brewery grounds provided ample room to roam around, to check out the vendors and the brewery, and provided a good view of the stage from just about anywhere on the grounds which easily allowed one to forget they were downtown.   The day featured twelve acts on one main stage. Set changes were always quick and prompt so there was very little downtime between band.  During the little downtime there was DJ Bohfunk was on hand to keep the music going.  

The early part of the day was dominated by the sweet harmonies of the Honey Dewdrops and the loose, fun, free-for-all attitude of Trace Friends Mucho. Trace Friends Mucho is made up of mandolinist Kenny Liner and bassist Dave Markowitz formerly of The Bridge, drummer Jeff Hunter, and one of the festival’s founders Jordan August on guitar and vocals.  The band is a raging good time that toes the thin line between rock, funk and bluegrass with expert ease.  Quite simply they are living musical party every time they hit the stage.  Their high-energy Steve Miller themed bluegrass set was a highlight of the day.

 Following Trace Friends Mucho was the aggressive picking of Chester River Runoff and the cover heavy set of local favorites Feinwood.  Feinwood’s set included a spirited bluegrass romp through Ween’s “Roses are Free” and The Band’s “Ophelia.”  Feinwood and Chester River Runoff both perfectly set the table for the latter portion of the day which was led off by folk-rocker Caleb Stine.  Stine’s music falls somewhere between the renegade cowboy-poetry of Townes Van Zandt and the sweet rough and tumble sound of Neil Young’s Harvest.  His set pulled equally from all parts of his large catalog.  The addition of Baltimore great Dave Hadley’s delicate touch on pedal steel in Stine’s set only served to heighten the emotional intensity of his always powerful music.  Hadley is a Baltimore institution who has played on what seems like every album made by an artist from Baltimore.  In just the past couple of years alone his pedal steel has graced albums by artists as diverse as Cris Jacobs, Caleb Stine, Wye Oak, Arboretum, and The Bridge.

Following Stine was the debut of former Bridge singer/guitarist Cris Jacobs’ latest project.  Since The Bridge called it quits in 2011 Jacobs has been a busy man, assembling and playing with a variety of various bands.  His latest project Cris Jacobs & the Union Men is an all-star line-up of some of the best bluegrass musicians in Baltimore.   Based around the rhythm section of bassist Jake Leckie and drummer Ed Hough (both of whom play with Jacobs in The Cris Jacobs Band), fiddle prodigy Patrick McAvinue (Audie Blaylock) and legendary banjo-picker Mike Munford, The Union Men were a true force of nature.  They ripped through a set that featured some new Jacobs’ tunes – “Crooked Eye John”, “Saddle Up & Ride”, a classic Bridge tune – “14 Days”, a Hough led vocal turn on the Smooth Kentucky song “I Don’t Mind,” and a few choice covers including Bob Dylan’s “Positively 4^th Street” and the Traveling Wilbury’s “Hard to Handle.”  Jacobs set ended just as the sun finished setting and gave way to the highlight set of the day Tim O’Brien.

Tim O’Brien’s solo set was an utterly engaging, masterful display of the former Hot Rize front man’s unmatched songwriting prowess.  Switching between guitar, mandolin, and fiddle with perfected ease, O’Brien laced his set with classic Hot Rize tunes including “Working on a Building,” and “Nellie Kane,” (after the latter he thanked the sold-out crowd for their exuberant help in singing along with him), a pair of Bob Dylan covers in “Wicked Messenger,” and “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” and a boat load full of classic O’Brien solo songs.  He took time during his set to explain the subtle difference between bluegrass and country, “country is three chords and the truth, and bluegrass is two chords and a bunch of lies!”  To close out his set he brought Tony Trischka (banjo) and Frank Solivan (mandolin) onstage and the three masters proceeded to lay down an awe-inspiring display of picking.

After a quick change, the day’s headliners Tony Trischka and Territory hit the stage.  Trischka is perhaps the most influential banjo player of the last thirty years and the man who taught a teenaged Bela Fleck how to play. His set was a lesson in what bluegrass picking should be.  Just like O’Brien he was quick to share the stage bringing up O’Brien, Solivan, and Mike Munford to join him.  Trischka and his band seemed to not want to relinquish the stage despite the impending curfew, and when the end of the day eventually forced them to leave the stage, the band that was not quite ready to quit and returned for an unplugged acoustic encore.  Trishcka’s impromptu acoustic encore was the perfect way to close out a day that had featured such hot-picking and announced that the Charm City Folk & Bluegrass Festival was here to stay and wholly welcome addition to festival season.