Greensky Bluegrass Plays Guest-Filled Final Performance At Northwest String Summit

Greensky Bluegrass headlined Northwest String Summit at Hornings Hideout in North Plains, Oregon on Thursday to help kick off the festival’s final year. The quintet performed with keyboardist Holly Bowling for both sets in their 6reensky configuration and had a number of other guests in store for their last NWSS appearance.

6reensky got the first set underway with “Monument” of GSBG’s 2022 album, Stress Dreams, with Bowling adding some Hammond organ accents to the tune. “The Four” followed, which contained the lyric change “forgot about the six of us.” Mandolinist Paul Hoffman began altering the line during Greensky and Bowling’s collaborative tour earlier this year. From “The Four” the sextet flowed into “Courage For The Road,” which saw teases of Stress Dreams cut “New & Improved” as well as “Down By The Riverside.” 6reensky capped off the jam-heavy, three-song seamless segment with the title track to Stress Dreams.

GSBG then welcomed Yonder Mountain String Band guitarist Adam Aijala and banjoist Dave Johnston for “Who Is Frederico?,” which was proceeded by some “backstage bingo” banter. “Frederico” also saw an appearance from YMSB bassist Ben Kaufmann who hopped on Mike Devol’s instrument for a bass solo. 6reensky then went it alone for the staple “Windshield” before debuting a cover of Justin Timberlake’s “What Goes Around…Comes Around.” Set closer, “Living Over,” saw more “New & Improved” teases.

Dobroist Anders Beck would win “backstage bingo” and receive a trophy along with some fanfare from Bowling at the beginning of the second set. The music kicked off with “Reasons To Stay.” The sextet jammed on a “Demons” segment before heading into “Kerosene.” An eventful “Broke Mountain Breakdown” followed, which contained a “We Want The Funk” tease, more elements of “New & Improved,” as well as a call back to the first set closer “Living Over.” The band then headed into “Worry For You” to seal another expansive seamless segment.

Next, Guitarist Dave Bruzza led the band through his “Wings For Wheels” ahead of “Leap Year,” which saw more expiration from the group. 6reensky then welcomed Lindsay Lou for a cover of “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life” recorded by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes and made famous in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing. Paul and Lindsay would duet on the tune to bring GSBG’s final NWSS appearance to a fitting close.

Northwest String Summit livestreams are available all weekend via Mandolin.

Setlist (via Camp Greensky FB Group)

Set One: Monument, The Four (1)(2) > Courage for the Road (3)(4) > Stress Dreams, Frederico (5)(6)(7), Windshield (8), What Goes Around (9) > Living Over (3)

Set 2: Reasons to Stay (10) > Kerosene, Broke Mountain Breakdown (11)(3)(12)(13) > Worry for You > Wings for Wheels, Leap Year, I Had the Time of My Life (14)

Notes:

• (1) Lyric change “forgot about the six of us”
• (2) Paul on backup part
• (3) “New & Improved” tease
• (4) “Follow Me Down to the Riverside” quotes
• (5) With Adam Ajala, and David Johnston
• (6) Ben Kauffman sat in for Mike Devol mid song
• (7) Backstage bingo discussion and quotes
• (8) Lyric change “the woman to give to the man”
• (9) First time played
• (10) “Demons” intro jam into”Kerosene”
• (11) “We want the funk” tease
• (12) “Living Over” tease
• (13) Unfinished
• (14) With Lindsay Lou