new nomination for show of the year:
Lucas Reynolds from Blue Merle + Brett Dennen
Walking into the club, you look up at the stage in anticipation of the evening's performance, curious about this band Blue Merle. But instead of the usual array of electric guitars and stacked amps, what you see are acoustic guitar, mandolin, violin, upright bass, and drums. "The people file in, and they're looking at the stage, seeing these instruments. And until we step out onto the stage and pick them up, I think they're expecting something else," says Blue Merle mandolinist/guitarist Beau Stapleton Something else, indeed. Blue Merle is a band that doesn't simply defy expectations; it renders them irrelevant. Despite its mostly acoustic instrumentation, the band is well practiced at the art of catching an audience unaware and transporting it to a place of pure rock pleasure. It's a trick they've honed through heavy roadwork--whether opening for the likes of J.J. Cale, Badly Drawn Boy, or Jem, or playing festivals ranging from Farm Aid to Bonnaroo ?Į and perfected with their Island debut, Burning In The Sun.
