John Eaton's Recording Session, Del McCoury Show at the Barns to be Released as a Live CD

Yesterday I had the pleasure of witnessing a live recording session by world-class jazz pianist, John Eaton. For those of you who aren't as familiar, Mr. Eaton is considered one of the 20th centuries' best interpreters of the American Popular Song, channeling the innovation of artists like George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, and Cole Porter.

He has been travelling to Wolf Trap's Center for Education for a few years now to record volumes for his "American Popular Song" series during which he presents casual radio-style commentary along with musical selections from historic American songwriters. In conjunction with Mr. Eaton, Wolf Trap has released these recordings through our in-house record label, Wolf Trap Recordings. You can listen to selections from his celebration of Richard Rodgers of Rodgers and Hammerstein on Volume One by accessing this link to Wolf Trap's online store. http://wolftrap.shop.musictoday.com/Product.aspx?cp=949_4976&pc=WLCD02

I wasn't quite sure what to expect right off the bat, but if you appreciate live music in a storytellers type format (very similar to the intimacy you experience from watching an MTV unplugged performance or a storytellers with Bruce Springsteen or Pearl Jam, except moreso), John Eaton could not fit the bill more perfectly. The performance was a mixture of dry, sarcastic banter with bassist Jay Leonhart, an impressive wealth of knowledge and insight into the musical genius of George Gershwin, and dead on renditions of Gershwin classics with some occasional scatting from Leonhart.

To me, this is one of many things that makes Wolf Trap such a great place to spend my 9-5. Phone call, press release, media pitch, oh...do I want to spend an hour listening to a world-class jazz pianist who has performed at the White House? Yes, please.

Del McCoury Band (kudos to our programming director for booking some killer bluegrass this fall, Mike Marshall and Darol Anger tonight by the way, but unfortunately without Chris Thile this time) finished up back-to-back performances at the Barns last night, the second of which was recorded for an upcoming live CD. Our multi-talented media intern Jennifer Stratton was hired to take some photos of the band last night, so I'll hopefully have some posted soon if I can get the proper approvals. I saw my first Del McCoury band show at none other than the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN., on the recommendation of my former boss Alison Brown (who is a riduclously talented banjo player, one of my former colleagues at Compass Records claimed that she can play arrangements that even Bela Fleck cannot handle). http://compassrecords.com/alison-brown

I will be running a contest soon asking people to post their "Best Wolf Trap Experience" of which the prize will be a pair of tickets to an upcoming Barns show of your choice, so stay tuned for contest details.

Be back soon,

Graham