The organizers of MerleFest 2024 did not start small, letting the festival build over four days. Instead, they pulled out the stops with some of the hottest bands in bluegrass today. Presley Barker opened on the Watson Stage, and by the time Dan Tyminski Band took the stage, the grounds were full. Tyminski took the time to feature his band members, three of them–Maddie Denton, Harry Clark, and Gaven Sargent–also members of East Nash Grass, a band on the rise. After the first few numbers, the band members left the stage before Tyminski introduced the title song from his latest album God-Fearing Heathen, joking that the song was “too complicated for this band to play.”
(photos by Nancy Posey)
After performing “There’s Silence in the Brandy,” a song that alludes to PTSD, he introduced what he called “one song that has been better to me than any other–“Man of Constant Sorrows,” first teasing with the intro to the theme from Peanuts.
Steep Canyon Rangers followed, performing a number of tracks from their latest album, including the haunting “Hominy Valley” and such up-tempo songs as “Deep End,” “Harvest Queen,” and crowd favorite “Fare Thee Well, Carolina Girls.” They were the first, but not the last this week, to play the Allman Brothers’ instrumental “Jessica,” a tribute to the late great Dickie Betts.
Tuttle, who has been open about her alopecia, introduced the title song from her latest album “Crooked Tree,” which she said called for a wardrobe change, removing her wig to finish out the set.
Fresh off their Grammy win, Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway took the big stage next, with a mix of her songs–“City of Gold,” “Down Home Dispensary,” and “Dooley’s Farm” as well as the Rolling Stone’s “She’s a Rainbow.” When she segued from “Alice in the Bluegrass” to Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit,” the crowd roared. Tuttle’s vocals and guitar skills are matched by her band members–Bronwyn Keith-Hynes on fiddle, Kyle Tuttle on banjo, Shelby Means on bass, and Dominick Leslie on mandolin.
Willie Watson played the cabin stage, joined by former bandmate Ketch Secor before Old Crow Medicine Show closed out the night, playing “Alabama High-Test,” “Carry Me Back to Virginia,” and “Levi,” dedicated to a former soldier. Despite the occasional “Just Say No to Wagon Wheel” shirt in the audience, they delivered “the one that brought them” before the night ended.