Hot Rize — Joe Val Bluegrass Festival, Framingham, 2018

Complete set filmed on 18 February 2018 at the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival in Framingham, Massachusetts, featuring Hot Rize, an emblematic American bluegrass outfit founded in the late 1970s in Colorado. Led by Tim O’Brien (mandolin, vocals), with Nick Forster (bass, vocals), Pete Wernick (banjo) and Bryan Sutton (guitar), the band embodies a bluegrass at once traditional and inventive, renowned for the quality of its vocal harmonies and the finesse of its instrumental playing. This live capture conveys the complicity and humor of a group that shaped several generations of musicians, between reworked standards, original compositions and sparkling solos. Carried by the warmth of a connoisseur audience, the performance illustrates the intact vitality of an ensemble that became a reference of the genre. For lovers of folk, americana and acoustic bluegrass, this 2018 full concert is a fine chance to catch Hot Rize on stage, in the most authentic tradition of Appalachian and American West music.