Wow! Sunday night saved RG 2008! Loved the Chocolate Drops - hope they’ll come back again!!! Sorry to say that Sat. didn’t do it for me or my hubby after Chris Thile. At one point I leaned over and asked my husband if we had accidentally bought tickets for RIVERDANCE?!?! We love bluegrass so much and appreciate that this festival did not seem to expirement like the lineup of other festivals (i.e. Telluride). We were engaged at Rockygrass & spent our honeymoon there 9 years ago. So we feel we have a personal connection. Hope that the old-timey and traditional bluegrass Rockygrass we know and love will be back next year!!! :flower
P.S. We forgot to mention how much we loved Chatham County, Bearfoot & the Steeldrivers as well!!!
I heard them in April at JazzFest and knew they’d astonish the RG crowd. Some old-timers may remember RGs of not too long ago when “Down in Front!” was a common call in the audience. How great it was to see these youngsters get the RG crowd on its feet - for the first time I can remember.
just one thing… I am wondering about this… “The Carolina Chocolate Drops” is the name of the group. (It’s okay to say Carolina on a public form, isn’t it? :lol ) Living in the world of acromyms and abbreviations has made us all too quick to change their name. I know that Bearfoot shortened their name… since they are now much less bluegrassy… and so did Adrienne Young who started out as Adrienne Young and Little Sadiem but as far as I know, The Carolina Chocolate Drops have not shortened their name.
and… yes, I had seen them a few times already. They are greatly loved at Merlefest, of course. I was thrilled to see them get such a great response at RockyGrass.
And, thanks to Craig and Steve and the others at he planet who did the hiring this year. Amazing lineup… and I am still in awe of the whole McMaster and Leahy thing. It was brilliant.
LuAnna
I concur on the riverdance thing…it would have been acceptable for a mid-day set but not closing out on Saturday night. Natalie and her husband are certainly uber-talented, but the drums and piano and the exepctation of a chorus line of riverdancers appearing on stage any second just didn’t work for me.
I didn’t let it get me down, because I’ve seen her before and had my expectations cranked way down. And I liked the warning/apology given to the crowd before the set started.
I had a great time at the festival…Friday was my favorite day…a Mark O’Connor away from a full Strength in Numbers force.
I already have ‘The Del McCoury Band’ penciled in on my calendar for last set, Saturday night, 2009 Rockygrass.
My favorites:
Caroina Chocolate Drops - my thought is, other than them connecting to the audience and being great musicians is that there was a deep sense of appreciation for these 3 young, vibrant , intelligent musicians who chose to forge a connection with music as close to it’s root as they can get. I loved it and I loved the swell of energy they created.
Natalie and Donnell - I have seen Natalie 5 times now and this show was so different from her others. What a spectacular component having her amazing husband there! He was superb. His playing the fiddle upside down was a great consolation to me since Natalie did not play behind her head while dancing. The green lasar light was a nice touch I thought. Thanks M! The worst part was the tarp full of folks next to me that chose to speak @ high volume practi cally throughouyt the show - very diostracting and annoyiung. I wish folks like that wpould pack it up and take their converations elsewhere.
Of course the StringDusters were great, I love that band, but they didn’t seem to jam like they did down @ the durango Meltdown in April and I wish they had.
I, too loved the Garrett gospel set. It was all good, but Sarah, Sam and Alex were my favorites! I immediately went looking for a cd of Sarah’s but she said one won’t be out until next Spring. 
Would have loved to see John Cowan but had my son in the fiddle contest, so, missed that.
Linda
I would really like to find a recording of the [b]Carolina Chocolate Drops set. Does anyone have any ideas? My kids loved dancing to their music! How many instruments does that guy play? He’s absolutely amazing!!! I have to admit that I held my breath as he was juggling his steel guitar! :lol By the way, did anyone else miss Tim O’Brien this year???/b]
Keep an eye on the “Show Traders/Tapers” section of the forum.
When the tapers get everything transcribed I’m sure it will show up. :flower
I may have mentioned this previously, but I am wondering if anyone sat in on the shape notes workshop, or participated.
I only saw the very end, but hearing all the voices singing Angel Band, was a truly amazing and beautiful thing. It is one of the highlights for me of RG.
There are several CCD shows (excellent recordings, too) over at livearchive. Not the 2008 RG set, but great stuff none the less:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Aetree%20AND%20creator%3A"Carolina%20Chocolate%20Drops"&sort=-avg_rating%3B-num_reviews
It seems like my bit torrent posting got deleted. I wonder why? Anyway, there are a bunch of torrents from RG08 over at cotapers.org. Again, if anyone’s taping or sharing policy is being violated cotapers will pull the torrent on request or the poster will. The moderator there is very cool and responds promptly- no attitude or threats required.
me too. :huh
:8
I moved the Psychograss torrent post to the “Show Traders / Tapers” section of the forum.
I thought it belonged there. :flower