Kleptograss

[The Weekenders]

No chant, but I did see some blue-new-grass notables together the other night at the Freight. Eric Thompson has this new project called Kleptograss, with Laurie Lewis, Erik Nygard, Paul Shelasky and Tom Rozum. They put a few multi-culti tunes in there, in this case it was Greek and Puerto Rican, plus some Django Reinhardt, along with blues and some traditional proto- and real Bluegrass. Thompson swapped instruments for much of the night, playing guitar, cuatro, banjo and mando. His banjo playing, in a special tuning, was awesome.

The concert was a bit odd, the mood being weird in the Bay that day (last Saturday) between the onset of Fall, various distracting public events and horrid traffic. Laurie Lewis was ill with laryngitis and played bass for all but one number when she fiddled, which was quite good.

The concept to me, is better on recording than live, because it doesn't have the drive of straight Bluegrass and is perhaps more sophisticated than an audience might want on an average Saturday night.

Thompson is a fairly awesome musician, it's obvious, and can thread some pretty fine needles in all of these different styles, instruments and tunings. At one point, Rozum played a mandola with a slide, which was kind of interesting.

I bet the CD will be great but be warned that this is a pretty eclectic mix, if the tour makes it to your town.