Greensky Bluegrass New Years Eve!

Last night was New Years Eve. With several friends, I headed to the beautiful State Theater in Kalamazoo, MI. The theater is beautiful. With a couple bars running, and CD/Swag tables the place was set up. The interior of the theater reminded me of the Tampa Theater; a very ornate facade with statuary stuck in alcoves.

As we arrived, Seth Bernard and Daisy May were already singing. Daisy has an amazing voice and tremendous energy. Seth crafts thoughtful, and sometimes political tunes. He is an excellent guitar player; so is Daisy May. Check out their stuff at earthworkmusic.com. Buy anything they sell, go see them anywhere within a day's ride. You won't be disappointed.

Next up was Steppin' In It from Lansing. I have seen their name several times and thought that I had seen them before. I hadn't. Lucky for you they are nothing like I had in my head [i'm not tellin']. SII is a wild and versatile band. They have guitars and bass and harmonic as well as trumpet, trombone, concertina and all kinds of noisemakers [it was New Year's after all]. I would call them a "rad trad" band in the vein of Uncle Earle or Old Crow Medicine Show. They knocked me out. Buy/See they will not disappoint. Michigan Singer/Songwriter Rachel Davis joined the boys.

We had seen Greensky Bluegrass at the Livery in Benton Harbor [great place, go there]. That is where we learned of the New Years Eve Bash. I was hooked. These guys are multi-talented with thoughtful and meaningful songs and journeyman musicianship. This should also be obvious by the fact that they won First Place honors at the 2006 Telluride Bluegrass Fest Band Competition. They are great. Go see Greensky! Sort of neo hippy newgrass, but it is delicious. Some of the best homegrown to come out of Michigan. 'Tuesday Letter' is a great song; title cut to a great album. Pink Floyd Cover! Can you imagine?!? They did a bluegrass Pink Floyd Cover. It was off the hook!

The night was wild. Sweaty hippy chics dancing everywhere. Plenty of bourbon. Bands tradin' members back and forth. Who knew Cookie played the drums?

How could it get any better? How about if all three bands came back out at midnight? How about if Seth lead them on 'All you need is love.' The Steppin In It horns played the intro. We were screamin' . . . and dancin' . . . and carryin' on. Then . . .

then!

ok, you're not going to believe it . . . Young MC 'Bust a Move' cover. Yeah, that's right! With Rachel and Daisy May singing the infectious chorus, Seth and members of each band took a turn rappin' a chorus from Young MC's 1989 hit Bust a Move. Most of those musicians were still in diapers when that song first hit. It was so cool. We were out of our minds! We made enough noise for the Greensky boys to come back out for one more instrumental.

What a great night. Greensky were excellent hosts. Everybody was 'on.' Thanks to all you musicians! And a great big THANKS to my friends, you know who you are. The bluegrass crew, thanks for being there and thanks for having me. I can't remember a better New Years!