Raleigh has fully embraced the IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) World of Bluegrass festival, award show, and industry gathering. Or maybe the IBMA has totally embraced Raleigh. In any event, the two entities are hugging powerfully, and bluegrass music fans aren’t the only benefactors. The event, which stretches for 5 days and concludes with a street festival and amphitheater blowout on Friday and Saturday, has taken on a state-fair atmosphere, but with decidedly more skyscrapers, fiddle, and Jim Lauderdale sightings.
On the event’s final two days, 6 free stages dot the downtown Raleigh grid. They’re connected by a lengthy strip of food, arts and crafts, and sponsor booths where one can acquire everything from standard carnival food to one-of-a-kind clothing items. A constant breeze of bluegrass wafts through the streets, the inescapable traditional combo of guitar, bass, fiddle, and banjo dominating the overall sound. Hundreds of amazing musicians perform in the clubs, bars, on the streets, and on the festival’s biggest stage, Red Hat Amphitheater, over the course of the week. Naturally, it’s the headliners that draw the most attention, and the ticketed nature of the amphitheater program deftly separates the music diehards from the stroller-shoving curiosity seekers.
On Friday, the feature presentation was the Wide Open Jam, which featured some of the same players from the 2013 edition. This was a more streamlined group, a sextet of legendary instrumentalists – Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Bryan Sutton, Edgar Meyer, and Stuart Duncan. They traded songs like the folk nugget “Groundhog” and a couple of Bush’s tunes, among others, and Sutton in particular showed why he is one of the scene’s most lauded guitarists. Earlier in the evening, Steep Canyon Rangers and Hot Rize provided sets of acoustic and vocal perfection, while Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn enchanted the crowd with their rustic and spousal banjo duo tunes.
Bruce Hornsby with Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder may have closed the week’s festivities on a chilly Saturday night, but the clear highlight of the night was the constantly morphing lineup of musicians during a 90-minute set that featured Keller Williams, Del McCoury Band, Lee Ann Womack, and Ronnie Bowman. The set was the sort of collaborative magic that can’t be duplicated, making for a wholly unique experience. Keller and The Travelin’ McCourys – Ronnie and Rob, respectively, along with fiddler Jason Carter and bassist Alan Bartram – peeled back the mostly stoic façade of the event, offering humorous banter and cute covers from Foster the People, Jessie J, and Donna Summer, all laced with Keller’s jester-like stage presence.
Del McCoury joined in for a spell, then eased his own band into a predictably entertaining set that included timeless bluegrass staples like “All Aboard”, “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”, and “The Bluest Man in Town”. Then, The Del McCoury Band was joined by songwriting legend Ronnie Bowman and country music star Lee Ann Womack for three spine-tingling songs around a single microphone. Bowman and McCoury goofed around with guitar clichés, blended seamlessly with Womack while singing the Bill Monroe tune “Little Cabin Home on the Hill”, and provided 15 minutes of joy that left the audience beaming.
Yonder Mountain String Band also turned in a strong showing beforehand, filling their set with songs from various eras and band members. Fiddler Allie Kral adds a new wrinkle to YMSB’s limitless sound, and they showed they can still play to the traditional bluegrass crowd after nearly 16 years pushing the genre’s boundaries. The diversity and draw of the world’s best bluegrass has never been more apparent than it was during IBMA 2014, one of the most loaded weekends of music Raleigh has ever hosted.
