[photo by froboy]

Bluegrass is a musical genre that unfortunately gets short shrift at nyctaper. And it shouldn’t be that way. One of my favorite concerts of all time was a memorable collaboration between Steve Earle and the Del McCoury band at Town Hall in 1998, and I can also say that I saw the legendary Bill Monroe in concert at Damrosch Park in 1990. So in an effort to rectify that shortcoming, on Friday I made it to Highline Ballroom for a bluegrass double bill including one of the foremost “newgrass” bands Greensky Bluegrass, and local up and comers The Union Street Preservation Society (recording coming soon). Greensky is a quintet that’s been around for a dozen years and has accumulated a strong national following. On Friday night, they brought the goods — a two-set two-plus hour show that consisted of a healthy dose of original material, some traditional bluegrass numbers, and a series of eclectic rock covers all performed with stunning proficiency and with an authentic reperatory feel. We’re streaming “I’m Working on a Building”, an old negro spiritual made most famous by The Carter Family but also performed often by the aforementioned Mr. Monroe. Of the covers (Prince, Springsteen), the Talking Heads cover that was featured as the penultimate song of the night is also streaming below. At the end of the evening it was clear that if Greensky is the mantle carrier for the current generation of blue/newgrass music, then the genre is in very good hands indeed.

I recorded this set with the Neumann microphones set up directly in front of the soundboard and mixed with an excellent board feed. The mics picked up quite a bit of chatter during the first set, which relies more on the board feed, while the second set is heavier towards the mics. The sound quality on both is quite excellent. Enjoy!

Stream “I’m Working on a Building”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/G1307GreenskyBluegrass1202/16.%20I%27m%20Workin%20on%20a%20Building%20%5bCarter%20Family%5d.mp3]

Stream “Road To Nowhere” [Talking Heads]:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/G1307GreenskyBluegrass1202/23.%20Road%20to%20Nowhere%20%5bTalking%20Heads%5d.mp3]

This recording is now available for download in FLAC or MP3 at Archive.org [HERE].

Greensky Bluegrass
2012-07-13
Highline Ballroom
New York, NY USA

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Neumann KM-150s > Edirol R-44 (Oade Concert Mod) > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (level adjustments, mixdown, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced
by nyctaper 2012-07-15

Setlist:
Set 1
[Total Time 1:04:17]
01 Kerosene
02 I Second That Emotion [Miracles]
03 [banter – feel good juice]
04 Worried About The Weather
05 Hit Parade of Love
06 [banter – dance battle]
07 Break Mountain Breakdown
08 Atlantic City [Springsteen]
09 [banter – Hartford intro]
10 Steam Powered Aereo Plane [John Hartford]
11 Bottle Dry
12 When Doves Cry [Prince]

Set 2
[Total Time 1:13:44]
13 Bring Out Your Dead
14 Train Junkie
15 Been This Way Before
16 I’m Workin on a Building [Carter Family]
17 Highline Breakdown
18 [banter – Highline]
19 Old Barns
20 Take Me Back
21 Jesus on the Mainline
22 Don’t Lie
23 Road to Nowhere [Talking Heads]
24 Doesn’t Make Sense
25 [encore break]*
26 Down The Road
27 You Ain’t Going Nowhere [Dylan]
*encores unamplified

If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Greensky Bluegrass, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from the Store at their website [HERE].