Tonight was the opening of the Festival International Mandolines de Lunel, a famous mandolin festival that happens to take place in the town where I went to highschool, not far from my home. We really don't have much places where we can hear bluegrass, or mandolin, in France, so I'm glad I'm living nearby.

Preceding the concert there was an "opening cocktail," where we heard Sierra Hull and Justin Moses, then the Perendengue Cuarteto (Colombia), then the trio Brittany Haas/Dominick Leslie/Greg Liszt, and finally The Boston Boys (one song per group).

The actual concert was Sierra Hull and Justin Moses, playing their first full set together here. Lots of new songs, traditional and bluegrass tunes too, as well as some of Sierra's earlier songs. I was amazed by the evolution of her music, it seems she's kind of following the same path as Chris Thile, beginning with bluegrass but now entering a phase of exploration and experimentation. Her new compositions were great, inventive and beautiful. (I'm sorry I didn't record anything, by the way.)

Click image for larger version. 

Name:	IMG_7170_bis.jpg 
Views:	1018 
Size:	83.6 KB 
ID:	125257

Sierra Hull's Bombshell is the song that got me into the mandolin, and I listened to her songs before finding out about Chris Thile, and at this moment her bluegrass music became kind of boring to me. But now her music is greatly evolving to something else. She told me she will be recording a new solo album (if I remember correctly) in December, and that nothing is in the works concerning a duet album with Justin Moses.

I didn't mention her incredible skills on the mandolin, as you probably are already aware of them, but her partner (playing the guitar most of the time) comes very close to her, on the mandolin as well as on the octave.


The second part of the concert was extremely monotonous and boring napolitan music, with lots and lots of tremolos, and suffered by comparison with the first part. (This is my opinion, but the audience seemed to like the set even more than Sierra Hull's.)

I'm in for the master class as well. Sierra and Justin are doing theirs tomorrow afternoon (it's nighttime here). Is anyone here taking part in the master class too? I hope that wasn't too long or boring. Thanks for reading!

Niavlys