By: Eamon McLoughlin
About a mile from the razzmatazz of CMA Music Festival on Thursday night (June 10), deep in the deepest darkest gulch of Nashville, the legendary Station Inn hosted the legendary bluegrass band, Hot Rize. Featuring Tim O'Brien, Nick Forster, Pete Wernick and newest member Bryan Sutton (the band came out of a 10-year retirement in 2002), the band turned in a silky smooth show to a packed house.
You cannot dislike a band that features O'Brien's vocals (in my very biased opinion), but Hot Rize has always had a very unique musical chemistry. Everything seems to slot into place exactly how it should when these guys play together. It's that unexplainable magical spark which makes people go on the road together for years, throwing caution and security to the wind. Forster has a vocal blend with O'Brien that has a sibling quality -- think Everly Brothers. Wernick has a rhythmic style of playing that seems to keep everyone grounded and Sutton adds a gleam in the guitar department that surely leaves original member Charles Sawtelle in stitches if he happens to be looking down upon us ...
All this was clear to the sold-out crowd at the Station Inn that night as the band paced its way through a set that included "Colleen Malone," "Nellie Kane," "Trimmed and Burning" and many more hits from their catalog. Despite O'Brien claiming to have a sore throat, their singing was still fantastic and the quality of songwriting has always been second to none with these guys. The biggest cheer of the night came when Forster announced they are going into the studio this summer to record a new album. Sutton's exquisite guitar playing might just be acting as the catalyst to get these guys back in the mind frame of a hot 'current' band rather than a reformed band with a collection of hits. More here.
Note- Nothing in writing yet but rumors persist that Hot Rize will be appearing in Wheeling WV, later this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment