There is nothing like good bluegrass to ease the worried mind. Some weeks ago, you may have been reminded of that if you were lucky and caught the Lowcountry Boil Bluegrass Band under the Paleo Sun downtown. They're young,
but remarkably talented musicians transcending time and space with that ageless pulse. This is High Country Appalachian music with a Low Country twist.
The Hilton Head, SC based band also has a distict worldliness about them in that they weren't always Lowcountry Boil. It seems the band evolved out of a rock-rooted jam band known as the Daly Planet.
If you were lucky enough to catch Lowcountry on their last run through town, you didn't see them with their usual arrangement. Jevon Daly was just standing in on upright bass. Normally he plays mandolin badder than a badger
playing king of the hickory stump. And that pretty lil' Rebecca Bryan that was spinning the room with that sweet mandolin of her own? She's brand new. Only been with the band for a handful of months. But that's how you do it when you've got genius in your jeans.
The Lowcountry Boil Bluegrass Band has played over 275 shows up and down the East Coast in the past year. Lead guitar player Ben Vaught walks all over that flat top acoustic guitar like he invented it. If someone told you his age, you'd say they were lying. He didn't just fall off the turnip truck, but it hasn't been long. Kip Martin is the regular bassist that sets the groundwork up for this deeply innovative string music, four-part vocal harmony band. Innovative how? Tell 'em to play "Lowcountry Boil (with Salsa on the Side)" or "Change My Jeans" and see for yourself.
If you were one of those poor souls who missed Lowcountry's last trip to town, you definitely don't want to miss their CD release party this Friday, Jan. 21 ath the Paleo. The CD is called Break Me Off Some Bluegrass, and it features Vassar Clements. He's only the godfather of bluegrass fiddle, so you're definitely going to want to pick up a copy.
These guys didn't get to play MerleFest, or with Marshall Tucker Band, Bela Fleck and Col. Bruce Hampton for nothin'. So get on down to the Paleo Sun Atomic Bar, 35 N. Front St., Jan. 21 (10 p.m. on the dot) and see what
all the fuss is about.
