Last night, Greensky Bluegrass made their way to Cumberland, MD for their Friday headlining set at DelFest. As usual, Greensky went above and beyond to make their festival set a memorable one. In addition to welcoming a number of special guests—including the man himself, Del McCoury—and breaking out a few choice covers, the band delivered brilliant, improv-heavy takes on a number of their staple original compositions.
After opening with “Burn Them”, Greensky moved into a cover of The Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s classic, “A Day In The Life”, which in turn bled into If Sorrows Swim tune, “The Four”. You can watch fan-shot video of Greensky Bluegrass’ Delfest Beatles cover below:
Greensky Bluegrass – “A Day In The Life” [Beatles cover]
[Video: DCRANGERFAN]
Later in the set, the band welcomed out “the real Del McCoury … the reason we’re all here!” to add guitar and vocals to a single-mic rendition of “Country Boy Rock and Roll”, marking Greensky’s first time playing the Don Reno-penned tune. “That there is what it’s all about, people,” they exclaimed as McCoury left the stage. Watch fan-shot footage of the collab below:
Greensky Bluegrass w/ Del McCoury – Country Boy Rock and Roll
[Video: Rick Kline]
After Del’s exit, the band stayed in single-mic formation to dust off “Fox on the Run”, a song from their “barroom days.” The improvisational meat of the set came next, with an extended “All Four” that led into a sing-along “Old Barns”, both featuring Jason Carter. Finally, the band welcomed out Jon Stickley for a complex “Broke Mountain Breakdown” jam session which eventually found its way into a cover of the Allman Brothers Band‘s “One Way Out”. After a brief break, the band came back out to thank the crowd and the festival organizers before diving into a powerful, eerie “Bring Out Your Dead”, including some amusing Silence of the Lambs as-libbing.
The full show is streaming now on nugs.net. Next up for Greensky is a Sunday, May 27th set at Summer Camp Music Festival before the band mounts their inaugural Camp Greensky Music Festival next week. For a full list of Greensky Bluegrass’s upcoming shows, head to the band’s website.
Setlist: Greensky Bluegrass | Delfest | Cumberland, MD | 5/25/18
Set: Burn Them, A Day In The Life > The Four, Radio Blues, Windshield, Country Boy Rock And Roll^*, Fox on the Run*, All Four%, Old Barns%, Broke Mountain Breakdown#, Broke Mountain Breakdown > One Way Out$
Encore: Bring Out Your Dead
^First Time Played, with Del McCoury
*Single mic
%with Jason Carter
#with Jon Stickley; included “Smells Like Teen Spirit” teases
$included “Broke Mountain Breakdown” teases