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| Sep 08, 2010 - 05:26 AM |
Queen City News - Helena's FREE Weekly Newspaper |
Helena, Montana |
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I’m no bluegrass connoisseur, but I know a great band when I hear one, and last weekend, I heard my new favorite bluegrass band. The Wilders, from Kansas City, Mo., tore up the stage at the Last Chance Bluegrass Festival like it was the Grand Ol’ Opry.
The four acoustic players crowded around a single mic at Pioneer-Heritage Park, leaning in for their vocal or instrumental solos and bursting with energy on old country and bluegrass tunes by the likes of Roy Acuff, Merle Haggard and Hank Williams.
The boys in matching suits and cowboy hats made a distinct impression while Betse Ellis commanded the rain-soaked crowd’s attention with her solid stance and flashy fiddling. Ike Sheldon’s gritty drawl is perfectly suited for the material, and Phil Wade switches effortlessly between mandolin and Dobro. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone play Dobro as cool as he did. He attacked it like a rock star.
In fact, this is one bluegrass band that really rocks. It’s no wonder; after reading their bios, I learned that their individual roots range from jazz to opera to punk to raga. They’ve been playing bluegrass less than a decade!
You must hear them for yourself, even if you missed them during their first trip to Montana. I wish I could have gotten a copy of their latest CD, “Spring a Leak,” but when I requested one a week in advance, they told me they were all sold out. You can download two 23-minute live sets of their music and order their three CDs at www.wilderscountry.com. This is one band you will be hearing more about, I guarantee it.
It’s a good thing that Shannon Saunders and the Splinters got to go on first because I can’t imagine anyone except Del McCoury’s band trying to follow the Wilders (the next night, the Cantrells and Kane’s River were set to; I felt for them).
Saunders and her Canadian cohorts played enjoyable contemporary bluegrass originals mixed with a few classics, a little gospel and some Celtic fiddle tunes. They managed to get the drenched crowd dancing after they had waited an hour past show time for them to start. Their van broke down in Alberton and they had it towed 150 miles to keep their gig—what troopers.
The breakdown provided plenty of humorous banter and lyric tweaking throughout their set (“Orange Blossom Special” became “Old Blossom Mechanic”). They played two songs from their latest CD, “Cold November,” inspired by their last trip to Montana (to play this same festival two years ago). “San Juan Worm” is a hopping instrumental about a fly that was guaranteed by a Missoula fly shop then disparaged by a drunken neighbor to their campsite (they didn’t catch anything with it).
You can find out more about the band at www.thesplinters.com and order their CDs by linking to www.cdbaby.com, where you can listen to every song.
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The Queen City News is published every Wednesday in Helena, MT, by Mossback Media, LLC.
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