KATHY KALLICK BILLINGS CONCERT APRIL 10, 2014

Bluegrass music just oozes out of this great woman singer/song writer. From her opening numbers there was no doubt that this was to be a real bluegrass concert. I especially like her second choice, an old Bill Monroe tune entitled "The Rocky Road Blues." Wow! She has surrounded herself with a lineup of excellent pickers including her mando man of 17 years, Tom Bekeny. who can double on fiddle. She also has the fiery fiddle playing of Annie Stanicic, who can also play clawhammer banjo and Greg Booth on banjo and dobro. The bass work is handled by old pro, Cary Black.  I was extremely impressed with his work as he never seemed to play an open string, but was all over the fingerboard of that bass with fingers wide apart and noting all. That is the real way to play a bass.  I would encourage any readers to search the Kathy Kallick band and click on the biographies. I was blown away by that of Black. This man has played with an amazing array of different performers going all the way back to sax player Tex Benecke. Benecke was the lead singer of the Glen Miller orchestra in 1940. After Miller disappeared on a plane during WWII Tex went on to lead the band for several years after the war. Another older group was the Latin styling of Laurinda Almeida, a stalwart of the easy listening music of the 1970's. I still have vinyls of both these guys somewhere in my musical stash. Cary Black has played with many others in different genre including the Kingston Trio, Petula Clark, the Boys of the Lough (Scottish trad.), Kay Starr, Bing's brother Bob Crosby (and the Bobcats)  and now we were lucky enough to hear him with the Kathy Kallick band.  He alone was worth the price of a ticket to me.