Volume Five at Mountain View Bluegrass Festival

When we were at the Mountain View Bluegrass Festival a couple of weeks ago, we got to play before and after some amazing bands. Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, of course, gave a demonstration of the perfect gospel night performance. IIIrd Tyme Out and Grasstowne were just as phenomenal live as on their recordings (the cool thing about IIIrd Tyme Out's last show was that people would start clapping during the intro or after Russell Moore sang the first few words because they knew the songs).

But the band that really caught our attention was Volume Five. They're relatively unknown (not as unknown as The Hartley Family but when compared to DL&Q or IIIrd Tyme Out . . .), so the high quality of their music came as a surprise.

Even though IIIrd Tyme Out was my favorite band, partly because I've loved them for a long time, I felt that Volume Five had the best song choices for their sets. They told stories in their songs--stories that actually felt like they mattered. I have their CD, Children of the Mountains, and I keep listening to one song in particular over and over. (I've listened to the whole CD over and over, but this one gets repeated more than the others.) It's "The Rabbit Song," which tells the story of a man who's growing older in perhaps the most touching and gracious manner I've ever heard. The lyrics are perfect, never overdone or underdone, and Glen Harrell sings them with an equally sensitive touch.

This post turned into part festival review, part CD review, part band review! In conclusion . . . go see Volume Five or buy one of their CDs! Go to www.volumefivebg.com to listen to their music.