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SATURDAY SEPT 23rd

Music 8:00pm / Doors 7:00pm

Patuxent Artists from Texas...

w/ special guests

The Basement Bluegrass Band

100% Great Bluegrass Guarantee!

Karl Shiflett, bluegrass, Chicago, September 2016,

"For me it's always been about the music. I kinda felt like I had a responsibility to keep it going and pass it down for future generations to do the same. I love the sheer enjoyment it brings me to know we are playing good music and touching people's hearts. The camaraderie with band mates and the many friends we have made over the years. That's what it's all about for me. " - Karl Shiflett

Karl Shiflett, Big Country Show, bluegrass, Chicago, September 2016
Karl Shiflett, Big Country Show, bluegrass, Evanston

Karl Shiflett has always been a throwback specialist, and his many recordings over the years have reflected his respect and admiration for the music of bygone eras. Bluegrass and traditional country are his areas of expertise, and the current edition of his band, Big Country Show, share his fascination with the early days of these musical forms.

 

Like Ralph Stanley always did, Shiflett avoids the label “bluegrass,” calling his music “ole-tyme acoustic country music,” but there’s no denying what it is. If categories are important to you, you could describe it as “retro country grass” or “old bluegrass country.”

 

For his latest Patuxent album, Karl just calls it Sho Nuff Country, with 15 arrangements of popular songs from bluegrass, country, and tin pan alley mostly taken from the 1920s through the ’60s. If you think that sounds corny, you’d be right. It’s brilliantly corny, kitschy, campy, and jaunty…  in a highly reverential and appreciative manner.

 

From Shiflett’s trademark high leg kick on stage, to their authentic period dress, these boys mean to bring forward a time in music that has passed us by. If you don’t get it, the joke’s on you.

 

Some of the material here is drawn into the honky tonk, bar room country repertoire, with songs like Six Pack To Go, which was a big hit for Hank Thompson, and Pick Me Up On Your Way Down, previously cut by multiple country stars like Charley Walker, Webb Pierce and Wanda Jackson, get a swingy acoustic treatment – complete with twin fiddles.

 

Others are old time favorites, like My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It, or Sally Was A Good Old Girl, instantly recognizable for most of us from childhood, are converted into Shiflett’s brand of country grass. Bluegrass classics also get their due, with a nice take on Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Stomp, and Monroe Fields’ Only You with its call-and-response lyrics. Karl sings them all in his distinctive Texas drawl, with just a touch of Lester Flatt’s habit of coming in below pitch and slowly sliding into the note.

http://karlshiflett.com

https://www.facebook.com/KSBCshow/

plus very special guests....

THE BASEMENT

BLUEGRASS BAND

Chicago's fast rising bluegrassers...

Charlie Lowman, banjo

Connor Ostrow, fiddle

Caleb Erickson, guitar

American Legion Post 42, Evanston, Illinois, veterans
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