To call it “difficult” to summarize DelFest understates the reality.  As an event, it offers more than music – which, frankly, is a lot in and of itself – instead providing a profound sense of community, of togetherness, and a wild joy.  If anything, the truest theme and the greatest certainty of DelFest is the conflating of joy and the brief, accepted loss of the self that exists in the real world. A real and true escape.  The air of lives lived elsewhere fails to permeate the mountain atmosphere; there is a collective letting loose, of muscles unwound, hearts opened. And the music, of course, filters away any of the moments the mind wanders to worry.

Thursday

Cumberland unfurled under the highway around us, her sloping, verdant mountains nestling the city, the sun edging downward.  After checking in at the Allegany Community College, we rolled into the fairgrounds, music soaring over a sea of tents. I grabbed my camera, flashed my wristband, and we walked to the grandstand, our first time taking in DelFest.

A sea of tents and campers marked the tide of fans that had already descended on Cumberland, nearly doubling the local population by Saturday.  Everybody waves, “Hello” to just about everybody else; some folks stayed behind to grill at their campsites or play their own instruments, but music still carries on the mountain winds.

Walking to the stage, we stopped by the food vendors, taking in the crowd of hoopers, dervishing dancers, folk nestled in chairs and tents, and those just standing and stepping to the beat.  We settled on crispy avocado tacos, enjoying them as we walked across the field.

We had arrived late, having missed Yonder Mountain String Band setting the stage for the night (great show; recording here), but found our way just in time to see  Marcus King and his band tear down the sun and raise the stars, his guitar a squalling storm, voice heavy with soul. From the blue-eyed beauty of “Homesick” and “Goodbye Carolina” to the wild explosions of “”How Long” and “War Pigs”, Marcus and his band brought guitar rock and roll to the crowd (even if we could argue endlessly about who invented it [Bill Monroe]).

Trampled by Turtles followed shortly, tearing through a run of songs that manage to twist between positively upbeat and gently depressing in a matter of moments, the breakneck rolls of Dave Carroll’s banjo and Ryan Young’s fiddle foiled by the mournful strains of Eamonn McLain’s cello and Dave Simonett’s lyrics.  Still touring largely on the back of their most recent album Life is Good on the Open Road, they delivered a set that fit somewhere between bluegrass, punk, and whatever-the-hell americana means. They smiled off and on at the audience, talking little, but more than delivering the music the crowd craved.  

During the show, Del’s trademark laugh lit the mountain on the other side of the river, watching over the crowd as a patriarch and model for living joy.  

Part of the crowd sauntered to their tents, RVs, campers, or cars to start winding down and get ready for the next morning, but the rest crowded into the Music Hall to get ready for two sold out Billy Strings sets.  In a matter of moments, the place had all but reached capacity, the crowd electric.

More than a household name and nearly a living legend, Billy’s music fills the space between bluegrass and metal, newgrass and and modern rock, but most importantly, his playing has resonated so widely that his profile has gone from playing smaller stages to becoming the main attraction at more than one festival.  Billy and his band rippled through a setlist featuring songs by Ralph Stanley, Bill Monroe, John Hartford, Pearl Jam, Phish, Allman Brothers, Bob Seger, Jackson Browne, and of course, The Grateful Dead (in addition to Billy’s own music). Bluegrass maintains one ear for tradition and the other for whatever-the-hell sounds good and works with string instrumentation that defines the genre. Billy and his band deftly displayed the balance modern artists try to maintain.

Billy’s late night show featured a who’s who of guests, including Frank Solivan, Ronnie McCoury, and Marcus King, the last dueling Billy with his electric guitar.  He finished the night with an encore of “Long Gone” somewhere around 3:30, though time had long stopped meaning anything. Hearts full, the crowd wandered away to get ready to begin again.  

Friday

Against all odds, the fairgrounds bustled by 10 am as Wicked Sycamore heralded the debut of the Bloody Mary Bar at the Music Hall.  The crowd filtered in to begin their days with tomato juice and liquor (by all accounts, delicious, but I am not fit to judge), serenaded by the pitch perfect women onstage.  They began the set with “Miss Ohio” (if you don’t love Gillian Welch, you’re wrong) before running through the propulsive “Some Girls” and wistful “Santa Cruz”. Lainie Gray, Madeline Waters, and Juliette Bell also delivered a stunning cover of the Sarah Jarosz song, “House of Mercy” and their own “Rollin’”, a song that ought to be on their forthcoming album (recorded this autumn, hopefully).  

Shortly after this set, the Kruger Brothers kicked off another first for the festival, a series of interactive talks about music, with theirs focusing on composition and songcraft.  They shared about their journey to bluegrass music during their childhood in Switzerland, the way they split apart for a time to explore their own musical interests, and then eventually coming back together and playing for more than three decades.  

The midday sunlight offered a clearer view of the festival, lighting the food options (Pie for the People, the Del McCurry Bowl, Goatocado bowls, tacos, Chinese food, ice cream, etc.) and the many shops around the grandstand.  We opted for more healthful options during the day and significantly less healthful options during the night (quesadillas are possibly the single greatest post-beer food).

The Broomestix opened the main stage while Pixie and the Partygrass Boys set fire to the Potomac.  Sierra Hull returned – this year, on the main stage – singing new songs, standards, and a riveting cover of Tears for Fears’  “Mad World” that continues to play in the back of my mind.

From there, we hustled to the Lindsay Lou set at the Potomac stage under the clouds, where she and her band greeted us with the first of two sets, both of which would be my favorites of the weekend.  Lindsay played material from across her career, as well as sprinkling in covers. Highlights on Friday included the soul explosion of “Roll with Me”, originally written by Laura Cortese, and the recently released, “Keep On Going,” a song that musically flirts with joy, though  acknowledging the profound sadness of the human condition, of being present yet apart.

Billy Strings then once more set fire to another stage, his showcasing his brand of jam grass, with a dedication of “This Heart of Mine” to Sam Bush, a riveting rendition of “Dust in a Baggie”, and the double fiddle assault of Allie Kral (of Yonder) and Jason Carter on “All Of Tomorrow” and “Little Maggie” further cementing his status as bluegrass superstar.  The Kruger Brothers showcased their unique brand of bluegrass (with elements of classical composition) in the Music Hall, while Kitchen Dwellers brought their funky jams to the Potomac stage under the sun’s heavy late afternoon rays.

The sun began setting to the Del McCoury Band on the main stage, with a special shout out to Del’s constant smile and playful approach to a setlist, occasionally sliding into a song for which the audience shouted, though my personal favorites were “Streets of Baltimore” and “Bluest Man in Town”.  Heaven McCoury pulled out the electric guitar for the back end of the set, which also featured the Kruger Brothers with the widest smiles I have ever seen on “Crying Heart Blues” and “Pig in a Pen”.

The audience shifted a bit for the final act of the night, a little wilder, a little louder.  Joe Craven gave one of his trademark introductions, eliciting laughter from the stage as the members of String Cheese Incident ambled to their places, every single one of them with a flat Del McCoury sign attached to their instruments (Del survived plenty of the set for all of them).  SCI ran through songs from most of their catalog, inviting a host of guests onstage with them, including Joe Craven on “Manga”, several of the Traveling’ McCourys for “Colorado Bluebird Sky” and more, as well as adding Del himself to close out the first set with, “I Saw the Light.” The highlight of the night, though, came when Billy Strings walked onto the stage to play ”Black Clouds” alongside Bill Nershi to a stunned and almost-disbelieving crowd.

Yonder Mountain String Band took the late night stage first, inviting a host of guests onstage throughout their set, beginning with Lindsay Lou, and eventually including Sierra Hull in a shredding match with Jacob Jolliff and Larry Keel trading on the guitar. Larry Keel returned to the stage for his own late-night set, somehow ending just a few hours before he had to play the main stage the next morning.  

Saturday

Even more tents filled the fairgrounds, more people walked by in bathing suits with tubes, and more instruments played over the campsites.  Children played in the kids section (an unsung hero of the festival world is anyone who helps with the children), and everyone found their way to coffee and eggs.  

Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers and The Plate Scrapers represented the region further at the Blood Mary Bar, whereas Joe Craven took the crowd through the Garcia Songbook at the Potomac stage, all while Larry Keel somehow kept playing at the main stage, playing favorites like “Buffalo Creek” and “(Ain’t That) Good News”.    

Once more, the DelFest promoters had another talk with the artists, this time featuring Sierra Hull, Lindsay Lou, and Brooke Aldridge talking about the impact gender has on playing music, specifically in the bluegrass world.  They collectively emphasized the importance of female models for other women (and young girls) acting as a symbolic representation for the reality that women can be professional musicians, all while acknowledging that the music world is changing but still has a great deal of change to undergo.  I have gone back to listen to this recording twice while driving to work in the last week, and to say that they imparted wisdom is an understatement.  

Right as the interactive talk ended, Front Country was on the stage in the Music Hall, with Melody Walker belting songs out into the universe while guitarist Jacob Groopman, fiddler Leif Karlstrom, and mandolinist Adam Roszkiewicz built barnburners around her, all of them grinning ear to ear. After Front Country, we caught the end of Frank Solivan’s set at the Potomac stage, privileged to see the he and the gifted band (Mike Munford on banjo and Chris Luquette on guitar) around him cast magic over the audience.

Saturday featured an unparalleled run of female musicians across the stages, going from Brooke & Darin Aldridge to Sierra Hull & Justin Moses to I’m With Her to Lindsay Lou.  Brooke showcased her choir-trained voice alongside her husband’s crack playing in the Music Hall, while Sierra and Justin dueted and traded virtuoso solos and smiles (I cannot express how easy it is to experience secondhand joy at lovers sharing happiness).  I’m With Her – Sarah Jarosz, Sarah Watkins, and Aoife O’Donovan – narrowly dodged a large storm and created a gentle squall of their own, with a special highlight coming when they crowded around one microphone, creating an atmosphere of intimacy I’d not thought possible.  

Following I’m With Her, Lindsay Lou took the Potomac stage – which, after her two shows and multiple guest appearances, might as well be renamed after her – promising transcendence quickly with the opening cover of John Prine’s “Pretty Good” and following with Blaze Foley’s incendiary “Oval Room”, a moment of protest as relevant today as it was decades ago.  Lindsay and the band then ripped through the almost-epicurean jaunt of “Sugar” before bassist PJ George III traded instruments and positions with Lindsay for “River That I Knew”. Jacob and Melody from Front Country walked onstage for the next song, resulting in a comment from Joshua Rilko (mandolinist for Lindsay Lou’s band, as well as her husband) that you can’t have so many Californians on a stage without playing a Dead song (a sunshining rendition of “Eyes of the World”).  

The band walked off, leaving Melody and Lindsay, with Sierra Hull joining them onstage. They sang, “Shining in the Distance”, as transformative of a moment as any DelFest had to offer all weekend, followed by a cover of Jim Lauderdale’s “Superpower” that lifted everybody anywhere the stage onto their feet and into the clouds. Two Railroad Earth members then took turns playing with the band, with Mike Robinson on guitar followed by Tim Carbone on fiddle, including songs “Criminal Style”, “River Jordan”, and the sumptuous “Smooth and Groovy”.  Lindsay ended the set with a rousing “Go There Alone” from Southland and invited Melody back out to help with a cover of “Woodstock” that brought a little of the late 60s right into 2019.  

Having damn near melted during Lindsay’s scorching set, we settled in the Music Hall for Kitchen Dwellers, who matched the sun’s heat without promising strokes, with incredible jams on “Ghost in the Bottle” and “Visions of Mohr”, the latter closing their set.  Keller Williams and the Hillbenders, meanwhile, blew the entire Grandstand’s collective minds by playing a Heartbreakers set that resulted in a thousands-strong singalong.

Just a short time later, Tyler Childers – a country music wunderkind with a rapidly expanding audience, led his raucous fanbase through singalongs of their own, from opening song “Whitehouse Road” to “I Got Stoned and I Miss It”, as well as a host of new songs from his upcoming album.  Tyler and his band let loose and settled into their humor; when one fan yelled out, “I love you, Tyler Childers” (pronouncing his name like the word “child”), to which Tyler responded, “Mr. Childers couldn’t make it, so he sent me” (correct pronunciation is more like “chill-ders”). During the set, he also teased about playing a Hannah Montana song and later sang the beginning of Miley Cyrus’s wrecking ball with a smile, a shimmy in his hips, and a dramatic hand in the air, all before settling into “Trudy” to close the set.   

A large rainstorm chased the audience after Tyler’s set ended, pouring like holy hell as the Travelin’ McCourys took to the stage.  Curtained for a time by rain, they played “Rain Please Go Away” to a chuckling crowd, though “Brown-Eyed Women”, “Cumberland Blues”, and “Little Maggie” acted as set-definers, along with the extended jam on “St. James Hospital”.

Railroad Earth followed them in the Music Hall for the late night show, their brand a fusion of bluegrass, celtic, and folk music that continues to mystify crowds even in their fourth decade of playing.  Their trademark jam sessions featured a few guests, with the best coming last on the encore, as Lindsay Lou added her vocals to the encore song, “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo”.

Sunday

Bluegrass as a genre developed out of mountain music, gospel, and the folk traditions, made into something together different by Bill Monroe and the mandolin chop alongside Earl Scruggs with the banjo roll. So it’s altogether fitting that DelFest has developed a gospel tradition for its Sunday mornings, led by Dre and featuring friends. The music, as always (find the online tapes here and here for examples) stirred the soul, though a wayward sermon by Ricky Skaggs marred some of the beauty.  

Serene Green followed shortly, closing out the slate of regional acts playing the festival, more than asserting that they should receive an invitation again in the future.  The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys followed suit (pun intended) on the Potomac stage, delivering their brand of old-time bluegrass music, also inviting Lindsay Lou onstage to sing with them. They possess an easygoing earnestness about them, which, when mixed with their playing, makes it clear they’ll maintain their presence on the scene for years to come.  

Sunday is more of an easygoing day in the festival, most of the audience in a kind of quiet stupor, dazed by the all the joy and a little bit closer tot he edge of exhaustion.  Energy is all borrowed from the music, such as when Melody Walker’s voice soared over the fairgrounds as Front Country played “Boys of Summer”, the kind of moment that quickens the heart and steals the breath.  

Or when Marty O’Reilly and the Old Souls Orchestra jumped off the stage, barefoot and full of passion, to wade into the crowd and sing with the audience, Marty’s ocean-hewn voice rising like a mountain surrounded by swaying forest of folks encircling the band.  

Or when Del McCoury and his boys took to the stage one last time after a world-ending thunderstorm promised to upend the city, lightning holding back then music again and again and again and again. The rain still fell in the wildest tumult, falling water screening the band from the audience, refracting and reflecting the stage lights.  

Or when Railroad Earth finally took the main stage, slipping into “Chasin’ a Rainbow”, everybody onstage bathed in psychedelic beauty, the just-ended storm softening the earth beneath our heels, the air just chilled enough to erect goosebumps the lengths of my arms.

Or when the final show still happened and everyone got to say their goodbyes to DelFest.  

Until next year, anyway. May your joy never end.