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Railroad Earth Setlist
Tour Dates
03/30/17 Nashville, TN Marathon Music Works
03/31/17 Birmingham, AL Iron City 04/01/17 Hogs For The Cause 05/20/17 Bluegrass In The Bottoms 05/27/17 Delfest 05/28/17 Summer Camp Music Festival 06/02/17 Candler Park Music 06/04/17 Music On The Mesa 06/10/17 Blue Ox Music Festival 06/16/17 4 Peaks Music Festival 07/02/17 moe.down 07/14/17 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amp 07/15/17 Boulder, CO Boulder Theater 07/26/17 Floydfest 08/13/17 Grand Targhee Bluegrass Fest Read More
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Stillwater, New Jersey’s “newgrass” Americana band Railroad Earth headlined First Avenue’s mainroom last week, March 23rd.
Nashville’s Billy Strings (aka William Apostol) opened up the show. According to Billy Strings’ banters on stage, he “doesn’t make it to Minneapolis all that often”, so it was a real treat for him to be playing on the historic First Avenue’s stage.
A few years ago (in 2014), Billy Strings’ name came across my desk, when he was billed as Billy Strings & Don Julin, a duo out promoting their album Fiddle Tune X. It was described as guitar and mandolin, and the impression I got was that Strings handled the guitar part, while Julin handled the mandolin.
Billy Strings had a full backing band with him for the recent Minneapolis show, complete with upright bass player, mandolin player, and banjo player. The band played a few tracks from his 2016 EP and he was working on his debut album.
The only song I recognized on his set was a cover of John Hartford’s ‘I’m Still Here’ song... but less emphasis on the fiddle.
Bluegrass, or rather “newgrass”, band Railroad Earth took the stage right on time. The reason for the tight schedule was that they were playing a double set. Typically, when bands play double sets, they don’t have an opening band. As for newgrass, although their music is classified as bluegrass, the group often combine elements of rock, jazz, and celtic, in their music. Whatever it’s called, the audience loved it and can be seen dancing (square dancing too!) at the front of the stage.
The other thing to note about Railroad Earth is that they are a jam band. Songs can play as long as twenty minutes, often medley with other songs ... so you don’t know when songs start or end.
You can tell that the band (currently singer/guitarist Todd Sheaffer, violinist/accordion Tim Carbone, mandolin player John Skehan, banjo/acoustic Andy Goessling, drummer Carey Harmon, and bassist Andrew Altman) play together quite nicely. Band leader Tim Carbone, when not playing in Railroad Earth can be seen with jamband supergroup The Contribution (with Keith Moseley and Jason Hann of String Cheese Incident and Jeff Miller and Phil Ferlino of New Monsoon).
It’s been three years since their critically praised record Last of the Outlaws, the band mentioned that they are working on a new record. For this 2017 tour, they’ve decided to dip into their 15+ years of music and put together a sort of “greatest hits” set. So if you’re a Railroad Earth fan, this is probably the best year to go see them play.
NOTE: There were recording devices at the soundboard, as well as custom audio recording/noise cancelling equipment, which suggests that the band was recording the show. There were no video cameras, despite watching a great light show!
Nashville’s Billy Strings (aka William Apostol) opened up the show. According to Billy Strings’ banters on stage, he “doesn’t make it to Minneapolis all that often”, so it was a real treat for him to be playing on the historic First Avenue’s stage.
A few years ago (in 2014), Billy Strings’ name came across my desk, when he was billed as Billy Strings & Don Julin, a duo out promoting their album Fiddle Tune X. It was described as guitar and mandolin, and the impression I got was that Strings handled the guitar part, while Julin handled the mandolin.
Billy Strings had a full backing band with him for the recent Minneapolis show, complete with upright bass player, mandolin player, and banjo player. The band played a few tracks from his 2016 EP and he was working on his debut album.
The only song I recognized on his set was a cover of John Hartford’s ‘I’m Still Here’ song... but less emphasis on the fiddle.
Bluegrass, or rather “newgrass”, band Railroad Earth took the stage right on time. The reason for the tight schedule was that they were playing a double set. Typically, when bands play double sets, they don’t have an opening band. As for newgrass, although their music is classified as bluegrass, the group often combine elements of rock, jazz, and celtic, in their music. Whatever it’s called, the audience loved it and can be seen dancing (square dancing too!) at the front of the stage.
The other thing to note about Railroad Earth is that they are a jam band. Songs can play as long as twenty minutes, often medley with other songs ... so you don’t know when songs start or end.
You can tell that the band (currently singer/guitarist Todd Sheaffer, violinist/accordion Tim Carbone, mandolin player John Skehan, banjo/acoustic Andy Goessling, drummer Carey Harmon, and bassist Andrew Altman) play together quite nicely. Band leader Tim Carbone, when not playing in Railroad Earth can be seen with jamband supergroup The Contribution (with Keith Moseley and Jason Hann of String Cheese Incident and Jeff Miller and Phil Ferlino of New Monsoon).
It’s been three years since their critically praised record Last of the Outlaws, the band mentioned that they are working on a new record. For this 2017 tour, they’ve decided to dip into their 15+ years of music and put together a sort of “greatest hits” set. So if you’re a Railroad Earth fan, this is probably the best year to go see them play.
NOTE: There were recording devices at the soundboard, as well as custom audio recording/noise cancelling equipment, which suggests that the band was recording the show. There were no video cameras, despite watching a great light show!
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Billy Strings |
Poster |
Railroad Earth |
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Railroad Earth at First Avenue, Minneapolis (23 March 2017) |
