The Holdfast

Well, what a Friday and Saturday we had in Argyle, Texas at the Argyle Bluegrass Festival. This festival has brought bluegrass to new heights in North Texas, heights that have never been seen before. Sure, we’ve had our Ricky Skaggs at Bass Hall, Alison Krauss at Bass Hall, and there was that time when the Down From the Mountain tour came to Fair Park, etc. But for consistent, yearly bluegrass with top national bands, nobody does it like the 4 year old Argyle Bluegrass Festival. For the price of one ticket at Bass Hall, you get two days of the very best bluegrass anywhere. Plus, the organizers are heavy on the traditional: no Telluride flavor here. This is straight up bluegrass. The most progressive they get is when they invite Claire Lynch, which they’ve done two years in a row, and bless them, they can just invite her every year as far as I’m concerned.

Anyway, the headline band to close out the show this year was Hot Rize. That’s right, a band that hasn’t existed for 15 years was on stage. It’s kind of like getting to see a Beatles reunion. Three out of four of them are still alive - Charles Sawtelle being the tragic missing figure, having died young - but they brought Bryan Sutton with them on guitar, and the legendary Bobby Hicks even stepped on stage for a few numbers.

It just doesn’t get any better than this for family entertainment, folks. Come one, come all, to Argyle next year on March 7th & 8th, 2008.