Bluegrass melts the annual Ice Jam
BUTLER TWP — The pickin' was plentiful and the fiddlin' fabulous at the January Ice Jam in the township.
The annual bluegrass festival celebrated its 23rd anniversary Friday and Saturday at the Butler Days Inn on Route 8 south.
“It keeps getting better and better, and bigger and bigger,” said Amy George of Zelienople, one of the festival's organizers and a member of the bluegrass band Bits'n Pieces, which has been around for about three decades.
It was standing room only at the hotel's ballroom for much of Saturday's performances, with 500 people in attendance at any given time on each day. Organizers estimated 3,000 enthusiasts — maybe more — attended the two-day event.
“Bluegrass music is really popular in Western Pennsylvania,” George said. “There are lots of jams out and about and there are lots of bands that have been together for years and there are up and coming bands.
“The music is just fantastic. It's a lot of acoustic, really 'feeling' kind of music, and people can't get enough of it. The musicians can't play it enough and the listeners can't listen enough.”
In all, 28 bands filled the lineup card at the January Ice Jam, which has become one of the premier bluegrass events in Western Pennsylvania. Each band offered up a 30-minute session.
The festival began in 1997 as a way of bringing bluegrassers together during the winter months since festivals typically take place outdoors during the warmer months.
But with Saturday's nearly 70 degree temperatures, the so-called “Ice Jam” was a bit of a misnomer.
One of the fan favorite performers, the Pittsburgh-based Sweaty Already String Band, had feet tapping and hands slapping on knees and thighs, during its early afternoon performance.
“It's the pulse. It's the drive,” said band member Trish Imbrogno of Troy Hill, of the music genre's appeal. “There's a counterpoint about where everybody has their part: the stacking of the voices and where you play your instrument.”The instruments of bluegrass include the fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin and bass. Verses, typically, are sung solo and choruses are harmonized with two or three vocal parts.Imbrogno is a vocalist and classically trained double bassist for the Sweaty Already String Band — an acoustic quartet that plays traditional and modern bluegrass.Other band members include Peter Flynn, lead guitar/vocals; Patrick Varine, rhythm guitar/vocals; and Danny Rectenwald, mandolin/vocals.The quartet was created as a side project by members of the electric blues-jam band Charlie Hustle & the Grifters.Along with the melodies and harmonies, the lyrics of bluegrass, too, can grab hold of the soul. The words, however, are often melancholy if not downright depressing.“The songs are usually about murder and adultery,” Imbrogno said, “and you usually get to bury mom on each side of the record. There's not a lot of happy bluegrass songs.”It's not a bluegrass, she quipped, “till we whack a woman and throw her in the river.”The love and camaraderie that bluegrass evokes, is what sets it apart from other musical forms, George said.“We're all such good friends,” she said. “We've all grown up with these people. My children have grown up with them.“It takes a village. We hear that all time, and I've always counted on my bluegrass family to be one of the villages that helps in raising my children who are now adults themselves. My oldest son is instrumental in helping me with this event.”Her band Bits'n Pieces is a family affair, consisting of George doing vocals; her husband, Scott George, on guitar and bass; their son, Scott, on guitar and bass; her cousin, Rich Thomas, on banjo; and her brother-in-law, Donn George, on mandolin.Even after the stage performances were over Friday and Saturday, members of the different bands played on throughout the day and night at impromptu sessions in “jam rooms” at the hotel.“During this festival and in the wee hours of the night,” George said, “people are playing music all over the hotel and you can just walk up and play with anybody.”Proceeds from the Ice Jam benefit the Bluegrass Relief Fund, which provides financial support for bluegrass musicians in need in Western Pennsylvania.
