Roots festival favorites Uncle Earl, the all-female string band, announced that it won't be touring in 2009 so that members can focus on individual projects. Abigail Washburn's duties with the Sparrow Quartet have complicated the band's scheduling the last two years, but the reasons are probably deeper than that, especially because the email announcing the news suggests that she is also slowing down that band's appearances next year while she pursues more travel in China and a duo album with cellist Ben Sollee.
Each of the other members also has outside projects. Kristin Andreassen performs with Sometimes Why and as a solo performer. Rayna Gellert has a variety of things in the works, including work on a documentary soundtrack and collaborations with Toubab Krewe and Loudon Wainwright. KC Groves has a new solo album and is working with two other bands, The Moody Sisters and Dangerfields, where she'll be join by, among others, former G'Earl Sharon Gilchrist. Read more »
Enjoy this outstanding video review from Stephen Ide of Thirsty Lizards of last July's Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival. Featured performers include Uncle Earl, Hot Rize, David Grisman, The Wilders and The Grascals, but the real star is the festival itself, the first held in a new location on Walsh Farm in Oak Hill NY. Visit Steve's YouTube page for lots of individual performances.
Even though the breakout old-time band Uncle Earl was not in the MerleFest lineup, fiddler Rayna Gellert, who lives in nearby Asheville, came to hang out and jam with her many friends who were performing. (MerleFest was one of the few major roots festivals Uncle Earl is not playing this season. I've already seen them at Wintergrass and Old Settler's, and will catch them later this summer at Grey Fox and Rocky Grass.) I had a chance to sit down with Rayna for a short chat.
"Hey, I'm on vacation," she said. "It is really fun just to attend and hang out and see so many friends."
The band did one set here last year as a last-minute fill in, but has not yet been slotted as a featured band, which seems to me to be an oversight on the part of the MerleFest bookers, considering that the "gearls" are getting headline billing at so many other festivals. I wondered whether having a local connection can actually be a disadvantage.
Gellert said she didn't think so, and anyway that Uncle Earl is usually thought of as a Colorado band, despite several members living in North Carolina and Tennessee. "We're from all over, but we think of Lyons (Colo.) as our spiritual home," she said.
I had seen the band a week earlier at the Old Settler's Music Festival in Austin, where they played three sets as an ensemble, while member Abigail Washburn also performed twice in a duo and they reconnected with former member Sharon Gilchrist, who sat in with Uncle Earl as well as playing in Peter Rowan's several configurations.
"Festivals have been really huge for us. At this point, it seems like that is mainly what we do. We like to work hard when we do a festival," Gellert said.
