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Bluegrass thrived indoors

BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD
From left, Jonah Horton, 14, from Wilkesboro, Isaac Ferrell, 17, from South Carolina, Helen Foley, 17, from California, and sisters Frannie, 17, and Cara DiGiovanni, 16, from Tennessee, rehearse in an empty room on the lower level of the Raleigh Convention Center on Thursday. They were selected to represent their Kids On Bluegrass group and perform for about 1.5 hours at the IBMA Awards Show Party at The Memorial Auditorium across the street. Gathered from across the country, the five quickly practiced their harmonies and techniques together before getting dressed for the show. The IBMA will go on this week, but all performances will be indoors due to the rainy weather.
From left, Jonah Horton, 14, from Wilkesboro, Isaac Ferrell, 17, from South Carolina, Helen Foley, 17, from California, and sisters Frannie, 17, and Cara DiGiovanni, 16, from Tennessee, rehearse in an empty room on the lower level of the Raleigh Convention Center on Thursday. They were selected to represent their Kids On Bluegrass group and perform for about 1.5 hours at the IBMA Awards Show Party at The Memorial Auditorium across the street. Gathered from across the country, the five quickly practiced their harmonies and techniques together before getting dressed for the show. The IBMA will go on this week, but all performances will be indoors due to the rainy weather. Corey Lowenstein clowenst@newsobserver.com

Bluegrass is “living in Raleigh now,” goes the song by Chatham County Line, and this just-adjourned World of Bluegrass festival proved that it’s still alive and well and that Raleigh, like the Postal Service, delivers in all kinds of weather.

Rains ranged from heavy to light but seemed unceasing. Yet crowds poured into the city’s Convention Center to take in hundreds of bluegrass players – from family bands in one of the upstairs ballrooms to a young people’s showcase downstairs. And then there was the “basement” of the center, transformed into the Red Hat Amphitheater.

There was the showcase for the stars of bluegrass, Alison Krauss first among them.

Judging by the license plates in parking decks, there were families who traveled hundreds of miles to join the International Bluegrass Music Association and the World of Bluegrass that had proved triumphant for Raleigh in 2013 and 2014. The Capital City had lured the IBMA from Nashville, where some bluegrass stars felt eclipsed by the country music dominance of Music City. And as bluegrass fans know, contrary to what some nonbelievers may believe, the two kinds of music are different.

As they walked to the convention center on Friday and Saturday, fans used ponchos to cover themselves and their instruments, instruments carried in cases with stickers from festivals around the world.

Alison Krauss and Union Station wowed the crowd at the basement Red Hat on Friday night. Feeling poorly, she carried on with her band and with Jerry Douglas, the legendary dobro player.

On Saturday, the Kruger Brothers, popular in Raleigh thanks to their performances with the North Carolina Symphony, came with a string quartet and the great jazz star Branford Marsalis. They were spellbinding and received tremendous ovations.

Mandolin star Sam Bush, grinning, dancing about the stage, closed out Red Hat on Saturday with a more modern form of bluegrass and drew a younger-than-usual crowd.

But as those who have attended know, the heart of bluegrass is found in the hallways of the hotels, where musicians, many not playing on stages, bring out their instruments and sit in the hallways until the wee hours.

Bluegrass songs tell the stories of families, of love affairs gone wrong, of thieves and preachers. Bluegrass loves religion, with mainstays heard again and again in the hallways, “I Saw the Light,” “I’ll Fly Away,” “Far Side Banks of Jordan.”

On the weekend past, the prevailing bluegrass song told an uplifting tale about about rain outside and sunshine indoors. Congratulations to the nonfairweather fans, the dedicated performers, the nimble organizers and a well-prepared city for making the World of Bluegrass festival a waterproof success.

This story was originally published October 5, 2015 at 7:22 PM with the headline "Bluegrass thrived indoors."

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