Killted Bluegrass Saturday Nite

[Half Scot Half Pole]

Banjo man Eric and I, High Lonesome Valley are playing bluegrass tonite at the Yak & Cracker (yes, real yak burgers) in Crestone, Colorado, up around 9000 feet, 6-9 PM Saturday 7/12/14. I'll be kilted, Eric is still in the repentance stage of conversion. I'm working on him, however. He's a 6'4" stout Viking who is fitted for a classic kilt.

The debuting of the MacLaren SW Thrifty Kilt, easy to wash the customers' spilt beer out. Some cover tunes, some original. Some bluegrass, some bluegrass gospel. Bluegrass covers anything from shooting Little Sadie, wishing you were back home in the cabin in the hills, and, of course, drinking and distilling moonshine. Bluegrass gospel is, well, all about the Gospel. If you don't like the bluegrass song your listening to, stick around, you're bound to like the next.

Why kilts and bluegrass? Bill Monroe, the great bluegrass mandolin player, said "Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin'. It's Methodist and Holiness and Baptist (I'll add "and Presbyterian"). It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound."

High lonesome bluegrass harmonies sound awful much like the pipes, the lead singer the chanter and the harmonies the drones, drawing long notes out of the bags we call lungs.

And who will be able to forget the bluegrass band with that guy with a kilt?

Have a great day and via con Dios from the wooly and wild San Luis Valley, home of Black Bart and his gang.

[chasem]

Sounds like a blast! I'd be there in a heartbeat if I were still in the Santa Fe area. Bill Monroe's birthplace is about 30 minutes from where I've spent most of my life, so bluegrass is big around here.

Are there any recordings of you guys playing?

[gordontaos]

Sounds like a blast!(Hmmm sounds like someone said that before me). Just watch out for Elk on the way home.
Crestone is one of my favorite places. The last time that I was there I had lunch in a wonderful little grocery store/cafe. Even though I have shoulder length hair and a full beard I was still the most conservative, clean cut guy there.

[Half Scot Half Pole]

No recordings yet, my hard drive went down recently on my studio, but hopefully soon.

Gordonintaos, you hit the nail on the head about Crestone. If you walked into town backwards on your hands wearing your kilt on your head and screaming obscenities, a tourista would ask you for directions.

[Jackson]

I'm from Alamosa and it's good to know you guys are workin' the San Luis Valley. Can't make it to Crestone tonight, but, perhaps will be able to one of these times. Keep me posted on your schedule and will definately be watching for you at Milagros. Crestone is a slightly different crowd, all right. I'm sure that wearing a kilt there will raise nary an eyebrow--you can see most anything there.

Jack

[Tobus]

Awesome! Kilts and bluegrass are two of my favourite things in life. I tend not to mix them, though, mainly because playing my mandolin in a kilt seems awkward. My sporran has to move out of the way, and I worry about scratching the back on a buckle or something. I mainly just play at home with my wife, house concerts, at local jams, and small-venue public events.

[Bluescelt]

Bill Monroe was very aware of his Scottish heritage. In 1982 I painted an oil on canvas of him and presented it to him in Maine at the Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival and when I told him I was a Duncan he said "that's Scottish, that's where my people come from" and shook my hand. The painting hangs in his museum at Bean Blossom.

[freddie]

Bluegrass music and kilts are two of the great loves of my life also. Many of the mountain folks were of Scottish origin so there is a real connexion there.

[Leatherneck Donald]

I don't remember the year, but when Steve Earle was doing his bluegrass tour with Del McCourey (sp?) I caught the show on St. Patrick's Day and wore my kilt with a "In a perfect world, Steve Earle would run Nashville" T-shirt. Love me some bluegrass music!