The String Cheese Incident Welcomes Del McCoury Band & Celtic Steps Dancers At Red Rocks

The String Cheese Incident closed out their 2019 run at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado on Sunday. SCI was joined by the Del McCoury Band and dancers from Denver’s Celtic Steps ensemble yesterday after jamming with guitarist Cory Wong on Friday and celebrating a pair of anniversaries on Saturday.

Legendary bluegrass musician Del McCoury led his sextet through a catalog-spanning set to start the festivities at Red Rocks on Sunday. Del took time to tell stories about the songs the band played such as John Sebastian’s “Nashville Cats,” “Bluest Man In Town” by Bill Monroe and the traditional “Cold Rain & Snow.” The Del McCoury Band ended their set with “All Aboard” from their 2001 album, Del & The Boys.

Cheese dipped back to the mid-2000s for “One Step Closer” to kick off their first of two sets on Sunday. Then, the sextet treated fans to a pair of more recent numbers — “Get Tight” and “Manga” — before covering the Talking Heads’ “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)” and performing just the ninth ever version of original “Into The Blue.” The String Cheese Incident honored Del McCoury’s 80th birthday by bringing out the famed musician and all of the members of his band and leading the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday To You” to Del. Then, SCI and the Del McCoury Band (besides bassist Alan Bartram) teamed up for collaborative takes on Ola Belle Reed’s “High On A Mountain,” Vassar Clements’ “Lonesome Fiddle Blues” and Jimmy Martin’s “My Walking Shoes.” The latter was a The String Cheese Incident debut.

Lonesome Fiddle Blues Captured by Kyle Isaac

Last night’s second set started out with a spectacle as dancers from Denver’s Celtic Steps school emerged to perform a choreographed routine while Cheese performed their own “Rivertrance.” The band then went back to the mid-2000s for “Looking Glass” and “Just One Story” before a seamless run of “Falling Through The Cracks” > “Joyful Sound” > “Outside & Inside” > “Hi Ho No Show” brought the sixth and final SCI set of the weekend to a close. For the encore, The String Cheese Incident presented a cover of Peter Gabriel’s “Shaking The Tree.”

Pro-Shot Videos

One Step Closer

Rivertrance

Setlist (via SCI Family)

Set One: One Step Closer, Get Tight, Manga > Naive Melody > Into The Blue, Del’s Birthday Song, High On A Mountain*, Lonesome Fiddle Blues*, My Walking Shoes*

Set Two: Rivertrance^, Looking Glass > Just One Story, Falling Through The Cracks > Joyful Sound (No Rumble) > Outside & Inside > Hi Ho No Show

Encore: Shaking The Tree

• * w/ Del McCoury on Acoustic Guitar, Ron McCoury on Mandolin, Rob McCoury on Banjo, Jason Carter on Fiddle, Heaven McCoury on Acoustic Guitar
• ^ w/ Dancers from Denver’s Celtic Steps