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  Wilkesboro, North Carolina, USA - MerleFest Records,
distributed exclusively by Welk Music Group, has announced a May 11, 2004 street
date for Merlefest Live! The Best of 2003. The audio compact disc
assembles a “who’s who” of acoustic music recorded live at MerleFest 2003 on a
generous 18 tracks. MerleFest host Doc Watson’s two contributions reflect both
his bluegrass (“Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms”) and blues/rockabilly (“Match Box
Blues”) influences. This live compilation includes something for everyone who
appreciates Americana music from Asleep at the Wheel’s western swing on “Before
the Next Teardrop Falls” to the hard core bluegrass of “How Mountain Girls Can
Love” by Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder to Guy Clark’s Texas troubadour twang
on “Black Diamond Strings” and Don Edward’s traditional cowboy music heard on
“Master’s Call” to the jam band fusion of Donna the Buffalo’s “Conscious
Evolution.”
Merlefest Live! The Best of 2003 also features live cuts by artists
including Dr. Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys, Doyle Lawson &
Quicksilver, the Whites, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Hot Rize, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band,
Mountain Heart, Rhonda Vincent & the Rage, and the Red Stick Ramblers. The CD
also presents a glimpse into Vassar Clements’ 75th
Birthday Jam at MerleFest 2003 with “Orange Blossom Special” featuring Vassar,
Sam Bush,
Béla
Fleck
, Tony Rice, Bryan Sutton, Mark Schatz, and Peter Rowan.
An extraordinary line-up greeted record crowds to MerleFest 2004, the 17th
annual festival in celebration of the music of the late Merle Watson and his
father Doc Watson. Wilkes Community College presented the event on April 29 May
2 by on its campus in Wilkesboro, NC. MerleFest again drew an enormous, well
behaved, and appreciative audience with a preliminary estimated total
participation including volunteers and school children of 82,500. MerleFest 2004
offered food, crafts, family and children’s’ activities, and performances by
nearly 100 Americana music acts, including Doc Watson and Merle’s son Richard,
the Sam Bush Band, Rosanne Cash, the Derailers, Donna the Buffalo, Béla Fleck &
Edgar Meyer, Vince Gill, the Gourds, David Grisman Quintet, Hot Tuna, Indigo
Girls, the Kruger Brothers, Patty Loveless,
Natalie MacMaster, Nickel Creek,
Tim
O'Brien, Mark O’Connor’s Hot Swing Trio, Reeltime Travelers, Tony Rice Unit,
Savoy Doucet Cajun Band, Earl Scruggs with Family & Friends, the WAiFS, and
Gillian Welch. A surprise appearance on Sunday by Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul
Jones with the John Cowan Band delighted the audience. Look for a MerleFest
Live: Best of 2004 project to be released in early 2005.
Buy Merlefest Live! The Best of 2003.
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