Weird, but in a good way

So as you guys probably know (or might assume) I haven't been seeing much live music lately. Actually none since Linus was born. But that changed Saturday night. Annette's cousin's boyfriend has been traveling the US this past summer as a member of the band Bluegrazz Berlin. A dean of their college back in Berlin who's in his 70s now has been dreaming for years of assembling some of the more musically talented students into a band and taking them on tour. He plays the banjo and is passionate about bluegrass (he's American), and this summer he made his dream come true. He took anywhere from 5-8 twenty-somethings--the band size fluctuated a bit over the summer--and took them all over the country. They came from a very international school, so besides the Germans and a few Americans, the lead singer is Polish and the fiddler is Hungarian.

So yeah, that a long way of saying I saw a German/Polish/Hungarian/American Bluegrass/Jazz fusion band Saturday night, in some rich person's back yard in Amherst, MA. If it sounds weird, it worked surprisingly well. The Polish singer's voice was really good, and the alto-saxophonist (who comprised the jazz portions of things) integrated his instrument into the bluegrass and folk songs relatively seamlessly. The weather was perfect, though I guess it's a little hard to keep a banjo in tune on a somewhat humid summer night. But the stars were out, the crickets were chirping in the background...it was pretty sweet.

I don't really know why I'm sharing this, other than that it was one of the more surreal musical experiences I've ever had. I know they did a few things in the studio and recorded most of their shows, so if Bluegrazz Berlin comes out with an album I'll let you know...