Red, White & Brewgrass
Some of the area's best acoustic-based bands will be showcased Saturday at the inaugural Red, White & Brewgrass Festival, hosted by the Packway Handle Band and the Melting Point.
And while there's a derivative of "bluegrass" on the marquee, the day's events figure to be much more than untold versions of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" or "Orange Blossom Special."
"We've been moving forward, away from straight-up, traditional bluegrass," says Packway Handle guitarist-vocalist Josh Erwin. "I don't even know 'Orange Blossom Special,' and I know (fiddler) Andrew (Heaton) doesn't know it, either. We're trying to write and contribute something that's new."
The 8-year-old Packway Handle Band will co-headline the show with Nashville-based Mountain Heart, and a dozen other bands will be playing on indoor and outdoor stages from noon until midnight.
A charter member of Packway Handle, Erwin says the band is focusing more on its own song creations than on hot picking.
"None of us are virtuosos," he says. "And I like to listen to great players, but there's only so much of that you can listen to in one day. For us, it's more about the songs and what they're about. We like groups with excellent pickers and those groups do well with what they do, but we don't want to be thought of as a 'jamgrass' band. ... You'll hear some good picking at this show, but that's not all you'll hear."
Other bands on the bill include The Dappled Grays (from Atlanta), The Corduroy Road, The Back Row Baptists, Curley Maple, Johnny Roquemore & The Apostles of Bluegrass (from Covington), the Jumpin' Jesus Christers, the Mayhem String Band (from Mississippi), Peachtree Station (from Atlanta), Solstice Sisters, String Theory, Hawk Proof Rooster and the North Georgia Bluegrass Band.
"(Melting Point talent booker) Troy Aubrey came up with the idea, and it should be a great day because there are a lot of Athens bands on the bill," Erwin says. "Mountain Heart is pretty close to straight bluegrass, but these days, even the traditionalists are moving on."
Erwin and his colleagues - Heaton, Tom Bak
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