Railroad Earth Infinity Music Hall, Hartford CT February 18, 2018 Story by Miles Hurley
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Full show audio; taper is Keith Antaya:
The band wrenched things back up to an upbeat vibe with the breakdown song “Drag Him Down,” followed by “Chains” and then “For Love,” each of these which delivered rounds of great bluegrass solos from all on stage. Set one rounded out with a fantastic combination in “Farewell to Isinglass” and “Grandfather Mountain.”
John Skehan and his energized mandolin soloing led the band on a strong finish in “Isinglass,” before the song dropped very neatly into “Grandfather Mountain.” Picking up from the steam of this fantastic segue, Mountain found its way into a gorgeous, graceful ending jam, one that had Skehan dropping some tender piano playing onto the band’s really serene playing.
Coming back for set two, Railroad Earth started up again with a favorited back-to-back pairing of tunes of “Chasin’ a Rainbow” and “When the Sun Gets in Your Blood,” a couple of songs that just lay thick on the feel-good vibe. “Carryigng Coal to Newcastle” brought another strong segue, straight into the intro jam for “Mighty River” and then the Bird in a House classic. From here is where set two for the night started to get really interesting. The band started off a big, affecting segment with the newer original song, the politically inspired “Adding My Voice.” The lines repeated over and over in this stingingly powerful song read:
I’m addin’ my voice to the voice of the people who are filled with disgust
I’m addin’ my voice to the voice of the people who have had enough…
The band released the song last year and cited the nation’s current political climate to be the drawing material. But months later, with recent tragic events having transpired, “voice” hits all the much harder right now.
The band kept on going in this beautiful route with “All That’s Dead May Live Again,” a beautiful song that worked as a great mirror opposite to “Voice,” both musically and lyrically. Again, given the air of the days we have all been witnessing and living through, the combination of these two mournfully hopefully pieces of music could not have been any better. Looking around the hall during this point of the night, Railroad Earth fans were singing along with closed eyes and open hearts, with their hands either tenaciously clutching the stage or thrown up in the air in a grateful awe of the six-piece string band’s performance.
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