Team TWD will be in full force starting tonight in NYC for a weekend extravaganza of Gigs We Dig. The line up consists of not to be missed bands like The Bad Plus, Jonny Corndawg, The Extraordinaires, Cahalen Morrison & Eli West, Spirit Family Reunion, and The Del McCoury Band.
Feel free to reach out to Team TWD via twitter (ThseWhoDig, DaveWhoDigs, SteveWhoDigs, & KyleWhoDigs) throughout the weekend if you're at the venues. We always love to hear from and meet the Dig Nation.
Starting off the long weekend will be The Bad Plus tonight, August 2nd at Damrosch Park – the outdoor performance venue of Lincoln Center on W 62nd St, (between Columbus and Amsterdam Aves). The set list for this concert is the trio's take on Igor Stravinsky's watershed 20th century classical composition The Rite of Spring. The original premier of the work set people to riot in the concert hall; I can't wait to see what The Bad Plus does with this work. Get more information regarding the event here.
Starting at 7:30 tonight The Bad Plus will be sharing the stage with the Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble. The Bad Plus has been known to perform re-imagined classical master works before including Milton Babbitt's Semi-Simple Variations and well as Igor Stravinky's Variation diApollon. Few other contemporary ensembles performing today are equipped with the amount of musical versatility The Bad Plus wields. This promises to be remarkable evening.
The Bad Plus: Variation diApollon
Following this, TWD favorite Jonny Corndawg will be bringing down the house on Friday August 3rd in at Union Pool (484 Union Ave). Jonny will be playing alongside the Extraordinaires. The show is $10 and tickets are available here. With mainstream country music selling an image instead of content, Jonny is a voice of authority in new country music and he will make you a believer.
Jonny Corndawg: Silver Panty Liners
-brenda-mcclearen-web-crop.jpg){kind=spacer}
Finally on Saturday August 4th The Del McCoury Band will be performing at the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn. Del McCoury has been a favorite of mine for years now and he will be sharing the stage with new comers Cahalen Morrison & Eli West as well as Spirit Family Reunion. Bring your dancin' shoes because this concert is sure to raise a ruckus. Full concert information can be found here.
If you are not already familiar with the laudable career of Del McCoury, the subsequent write up from Paste Magazine is a succinct and beautifully written introduction.
For 50 years, DEL McCOURY music has defined bluegrass authenticity. With his sons in the band, McCoury conjures an authentic high lonesome sound that prompted Dirty Linen to declare, “There’s no voice in bluegrass quite as distinct.” He has been a keeper of the flame now for decades, touring relentlessly and releasing records at a furious pace since his 1968 debut. In 2010 he received a National Heritage Fellowship lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 2011 he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. Opening honors go to the virtuosic young pair CAHALEN MORRISON & ELI WEST, a self-proclaimed “new-old time duo” from Seattle, and Brooklyn’s SPIRIT FAMILY REUNION, whose joyfully raucous, communal music “blurs the line between past and present so thoroughly, and so deftly, that time feels irrelevant." (Past Magazine)
The Del McCoury Band: If You've Got The Money Honey
See you this weekend New York. You dig?