In April, I found myself at North Carolina’s MerleFest watching the “Hillside Album Hour,” an annual mid-festival event where Classic Rock band The Waybacks recreate a classic album with an all-star group of artists. At the most recent MerleFest, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s great Déjà Vu record was brought to life by the host band plus special guests Jim Lauderdale, Celia Woodsmith, Ben Morrison and an impressive fiddler named Christian Sedelmyer.
Sedelmyer is an admired talent who has worked with a large array of great artists, including Jerry Douglas, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris and many others. A couple of years ago, Sedelmyer made a musical connection with the award-winning fiddler Rachel Baiman. With both artists choosing the five-string fiddle as their axe of choice, the duo began to record and tour under the appropriate moniker 10 String Symphony. Baiman is a former Illinois State Fiddle Champion who has studied under acclaimed fiddler Matt Combs at Vanderbilt University, where she graduated magna cum laude.
What is awesome and innovative about 10 String Symphony is that while both Sedelmyer and Baiman are profuse in the Bluegrass, Old-Time and Celtic styles, they possess an open-minded bent for blatantly Progressive music as well. Their concert at Southgate will be about seeing two masters at work, having fun and pushing the envelope.
10 STRING SYMPHONY plays at Southgate House Revival Friday, Jan. 9. Find tickets/more info here .
