Saturday at MerleFest poses a challenge for festival-goers with a bad case of FOMO: At any given time slot, several stages beckon. With a choice of either seeing MerleFest favorite performers one more time or checking out some of the new acts on the lineup, the only guarantee is good music everywhere.
Singer-songwriter Brandy Clark returned to MerleFest, this time with her recent Grammy win for song of the year. She played two stages on Saturday, starting on the hillside then playing the Cabin Stage between Sam Bush and the Teskey Brothers on the Watson Stage. She explained going with a self-titled album after rejecting “Northwest,” after being told repeatedly that was “Kim and Kanye’s daughter’s name.” In addition to “Dear Insecurity,” which secured her Grammy, she sang “She Smoked in the House,” a tribute to her grandmother, and others from her narrative songs that first drew listeners.
A perennial favorite, the MerleFest Veterans Set featured some of the performers who were around to kick off the first MerleFest and who regularlyplayed with Doc Watson: Sam Bush, Jack Lawrence, Jerry Douglas, T. Michael Coleman, Joe Smothers, and Peter Rowan, as well as John Cowan.
The Waybacks drew their usual over-the-top crowd for the Hillside Album Hour. This time after some teasing, playing “Amazing Grace,” and “I Can See Clearly Now,” they featured Lamont Van Hook as they covered Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions, including such familiar hits as “Living for the City” and ‘Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing.” As is their tradition, they also worked in some songs from musicians lost this year–“Proud Mary” and “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” to remember Tina Turner. Jim Lauderdale, a regular at the album hour sang Jimmy Buffett’s “Changes in Attitude, Changes in Latitude.” Worked among the Wonder tracks were also songs to remember Dickie Betts and even (non-musician) Carl Weathers (cueing up “The Theme from Rocky.”) Each year, the Waybacks take the lead on pulling together the musical feat of incorporating the albums tracks with the additional featured songs, but they include other MerleFest performers, with John Cowan sharing some of the lead vocals and Jens Kruger of the MerleFest favorite Kruger Brothers on banjo.
Bela Fleck presented My Bluegrass Heart on the Watson Stage, joined by Sierra Hill, Justin Moses, Bryan Sutton, Michael Cleveland, and Mark Schatz. They performed “Rhapsody in Bluegrass,” from Fleck’s recent album, Rhapsody in Blue, released 100 years to the day after Gershwin premiered his classic work.
Sam Bush Band is a staple at MerleFest–and for more than sentimental reasons. They played a range of music from earliest Doc Watson recordings to plugged in rockin’ Newgrass. When they played “Howlin’ at the Moon,” the audience complied–full howl–even before the moon appeared.
Saturday night closed with bluesy Australian headliners The Teskey Brothers, making their first MerleFest appearance–not likely to be their last.