The first two-thirds of Jason Carter’s Wednesday evening performance at The Burl was largely business as usual – well, as usual as one could foresee for a bluegrass journeyman who has performed in Lexington countless times through the years, but almost always in the company of two bands bearing the family brand of McCoury. The rest – well, its was a hoedown no one saw coming with a guest no one planned on seeing.
The first part was sterling enough to carry the evening on its own. It presented Carter, the champion Greenup County-born fiddler who has been a card-carrying member of The Del McCoury Band for over three decades (which has earned him two Grammys) and the group’s Del-free variation, The Travelin’ McCourys, for roughly half that time (which gave Carter a third). The focus was on an impressive set of non-original works from his late 2022 solo album, “Lowdown Hoedown.”
The repertoire was mindful of bluegrass tradition but, like both McCoury groups, still open enough to chart the genres shift through multiple generations. That’s why the giddy ensemble spree and rapid-fire exchanges of solos during the show-opening take on Bruce Hornsby’s “King of the Hill” bore the same sense of the authority as the more tempered stride of John Hartford’s “The Six O’Clock Train and a Girl with Green Eyes.” The latter proving a vehicle for the lighter, more elongated fiddle lines in Carter’s playing, as well as a platform for assured mountain tenor singing that is seldom showcased in McCouryian company.
The performance also wasn’t afraid to explore bluegrass’ more folk-savvy roots. A fine example: “Paper Angel,” a “Lowdown Hoedown” entry penned by flat-picking guitar great David Grier, who just happened to be part of the all-star band at The Burl backing the fiddler. With a chin full of snow white whiskers and a dome crowned by a top hat, Grier looked like a cross between Santa Claus and Milburn Moneybags. His playing, though, was assured and precise throughout the evening, especially on a rugged reading of the folk staple “Dark Hollow” the guitarist also gave a sagely lead vocal turn to.
The other players – bassist Mike Bub (Carter’s former mate in The Del McCoury Band), East Nash Grass banjoist Cory Walker and 11th hour mandolin recruit Reed Stutz (he joined Carter’s crew the previous day) exhibited the same sense of balance, performance precision and scholarly sense of musical thrill-seeking that marked Carter’s playing. All of that coalesced into a merry “Midnight Flyer” the fiddler dedicated to his parents, both of whom were in the audience.
The second part? The segment where the precision quite happily morphed into a twin-fiddle jam session? That commenced once Carter invited fellow Grammy winner Michael Cleveland onstage to finish off the show. The thrill of a surprise celebrity guest understandably thrilled the crowd, but it also changed the entire dynamic of the performance.
Instead of a planned setlist, Carter and Cleveland basically winged it, employing an artillery of fiddle tunes and bluegrass/country standards that utilized the richest and speediest of their instrumental capabilities along with an intuitive sense of interplay and obviously gleeful camaraderie. You experienced all of that when the now six-member troupe sailed through the Don Reno/Red Smiley favorite “Sawin’ on the Strings” and rounded through the comparatively ominous turns of another Hartford gem, “With a Vamp in the Middle.” The evening concluded with a suitably delirious, go-for-broke version of “Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms.”
It was the kind of finale any great bluegrass concert dreams of – one where the show’s musical fuselage ruptured into shards of abandon, spontaneity and neighborly cheer. As winter nights of bluegrass in the Bluegrass go, this one was quite the soiree.
The Musical Box 
Wonderful review, Walter. Felt like I was there.
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