Last night, I joined my Dad for a night at the Mobile Symphony. Dad is a huge fan of symphonic music, constant contributer to the local orchestra, and never misses one of the performances on his season tickets. It’s easy to be a snob about a symphony from Mobile, but honestly, they do a good job and have a great maestro and dedicated, talented operational staff.
One of the organization’s outreach projects is a composer-in-residency arrangement where three musicians work with the symphony to compose new works that are then premiered (pretty cool!) Kenji Bunch, one of the composers-in-residence, was featured with his band “Citigrass” as part of the night’s performance, titled: “A bunch of bluegrass.” They were fantastic! They take a bluegrass spin on many songs and are a great time. I highly recommend checking them out for some seriously fun music.
Memorable moment: “We’re a bluegrass band from New York City. We do get some funny looks when we tell people where we’re from, but we figure, if there can be a world class symphony from Mobile, then why not a bluegrass band from New York?”
Matt and Laura | 11-Jun-06 at 7:34 pm | Permalink
I am a pretty big bluegrass fan, following Alison Krauss ever since she was with the Cox family. I’m listening to streaming audio of Citigrass right now! Very unique. I’m sure you have heard of Heartland: An Appalachian Anthology, if not, check it out.
Holly | 20-Jun-06 at 2:44 pm | Permalink
Awesome suggestions — from someone who knows!! Thanks! 🙂