Every music lover had a unique experience in March, but just consider a few of the shows, performers, and events.

March started with Band of Horses’ acoustic performance at Trustees Theater — amazing. Click here for a short review and some photos. That link will take you, by the way, to the music blog hissing lawns, where I and some other contributors are routinely posting music news and photo galleries.

We also have a pretty active Facebook page for hissing lawns. Please go give it a like if you want regular updates about the local and regional music scene. Facebook continues to be a critical driver of traffic for small blogs like hissing lawns and Savannah Unplugged. (You can like Savannah Unplugged on Facebook by clicking on the box at the top of the sidebar on the right.)

After BOH’s great show, we went right into Savannah Stopover. We have tons of posts and galleries at hissing lawns about Stopover, but readers of this blog might especially be interested in some of the reviews from out-of-town critics, a few of which I excerpted in one post. Among the highlights of the festival: St. Paul and The Broken Bones, Those Darlins, The Weeks, Future Islands, Big Ups, Oberhofer, Small Black, and on and on.

The outdoor music planned for St. Patrick’s Day was significantly compromised by the weather and the timing of a Monday parade, but I have been generally critical of the whole notion that we need to charge downtown visitors for wristbands so that we can fund lots of stages. Still, there was certainly some good music to be found over that long weekend.

Anyway, moving on: the Savannah Music Festival — now in its 25th year (about half of those years as Savannah Onstage) — is having another stellar year.

I’ve seen five shows — all sellouts:

• The Avett Brothers
• Asif Ali Khan
• Punch Brothers
• Jason Isbell
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band

By the way, I bought two tickets each to Punch Brothers and the Avetts, and I use a press pass to get into some of the general admission shows.

All 5 of those shows were tremendous productions, although I don’t know if I’ll go see The Avett Brothers again unless they get some more great music out there. As I noted in my Unplugged column in Do a couple of days ago, I think the band’s best work is now a few years old. And now that they’re headed deep into their 30s, the Avetts won’t be able to rely quite as much on that young, sexy vibe that helped them get where they are.

Punch Brothers, on the other hand . . . it’s too bad in a way that the five members all seem to have other projects being juggled simultaneously. One wonders just how good they’d be if they devoted their full attention to such a rich project. Led by Chris Thile — who on stage has sort of a seductive slitheriness that seems like a combination of Jude Law and Frank Gorshin’s The Riddler — the band wowed the audience at Trustees last Saturday night from start to finish.

I wrote a short review of Jason Isbell’s show for hissing lawns, and I have a bit more to say about the wonderful, vibrant performance by Asif Ali Khan and his ensemble in my City Talk column tomorrow (Sunday).

And note that both Do and Connect are providing extensive and excellent SMF coverage on pretty much a daily basis.

So tonight I have tickets to Taj Mahal. A legend. John Simon is opening, in what promises to be an interesting and idiosyncratic walk through pop history.

And tomorrow I have tickets for an afternoon show with Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn. Yes.

Taj Mahal is sold out, as are the two shows today by Kristina Train and Pokey LaFarge that I plugged on hissing lawns, and Fleck/Washburn is close to sold out, but it can’t hurt to check the Savannah Box Office website or just show up at the venues.

So, anyway, what more could one want from a month of music in a city the size of Savannah? There have been some great club dates too — both by touring acts and by musicians based here.

Maybe the big crowd was due to the word “free”, maybe due to the chance to hear the stellar Sierra Hull and Highway 111, maybe due to the simple fact that the Savannah Music Festival is becoming ever more embedded in the cultural life of the city.

I have a class from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. on Thursdays, so I didn’t have my usual itchy trigger finger to buy tickets the moment they went on sale at 10 a.m. today. Sure, at 10:45, I still got some great tickets for several shows I wanted to reserve seats for — Robert Cray Band, Taj Mahal Trio/John Simon, Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn, and Punch Brothers. The first three of those shows are at the Lucas Theatre, my favorite theater venue in town. (For the record, I always buy a fair number of SMF tickets, generally for shows with reserved seating, and I get press access to a number of other performances, primarily ones with general admission where I know I won’t be taking the seat of a paying customer.)

By the time I bought my tickets, some of the higher profile shows had already sold a fair number of seats, although none are close to being sold out as of this writing on Thursday evening. There are still about 600 seats still available for The Avett Brothers in Johnny Mercer Theatre, for example, although they aren’t great seats. So the theatre is only 3/4th sold out after the first day of sales for a show that’s still over four months away . . .

Click here to check out the schedule and click through for ticket sales.

Here’s a taste of Sierra Hull and her band — they’ll be opening for Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder on March 27th and also playing at Randy Wood Guitars on Nov. 16th.

And a few shots I took last night. The lighting conditions were a little tough for the equipment I was carrying:

Here are some of the highlights from today’s press release:

CHAMBER AND SYMPHONIC MUSIC

• World premiere of Charlotte Bray’s The Sun Was Chasing Venus, performed by the Dover Quartet. This piece is an SMF commission that was originally supposed to premiere at the 2013 festival.
• U.S. premiere of David Bruce’s The Given Note, a piece co-commissioned by the SMF that will be performed by Daniel Hope & Friends
• Mandolinist Avi Avital joined by The Dover Quartet
• The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center premieres its “Destination America” program
• The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra returns, featuring Daniel Hope and soprano Jessica Rivera
• Tenor Michael Schade performing two original concerts with Daniel Hope & Friends
• A series of performances: Celebrating Vivaldi

AMERICANA, FOLK & TRADITIONAL

•  Mike Marshall and Chris Thile in a duo recital of original works
• Punch Brothers and other virtuoso instrumentalists
• A variety of Nashville-based masters includingVince Gill, Bela Fleck & Abigail Washburn, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder and others
• The Avett Brothers return to Johnny Mercer
• Stringband Spectacular with students and teachers from the SMF’s impressive Acoustic Music Seminar
• Georgia-born, Brooklyn-based The Lone Bellow
• Southern Soul Assembly with J.J. Grey, Luther Dickinson, Anders Osborne, and Marc Broussard
• Bluegrass band The Gibson Brothers with the Lonesome River Band

JAZZ & BLUES

• An original production for the finale of  Swing Central Jazz, under the musical direction of Jason Marsalis
• Taj Mahal in his SMF debut
• Christian McBride Trio and jazz vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant
• Robert Cray Band at the Lucas Theatre for the Arts
• Ladies Sing the Blues highlights the music of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters in a three-day run with Catherine Russell and Charenee Wade
• SMFâ€s original Piano Showdown continues with Marcus roberts, Aaron Diehl, Cyrus Chestnut, and Christian Sands
• Saxophonist Branford Marsalis’ quartet
• Preservation Hall Jazz Band plays four-shows over two-nights at the Charles H. Morris Center

WORLD MUSIC

• A partnership with Flamenco Festival International showcases Tomatito and Estrella Morente, plus a collaboration between jazz pianist Aaron Diehl and flamenco guitarist Dani De Moron
• A unique double-bill includes Malian singer A Fatoumata Diawara with Tuareg guitarist Bombino
• Qawwali singer Asif Ali Khan
• Scottish ensemble Lau sharing a bill with a specially assembled Irish group
• Red Baraat  with a festival-closing dance party

Here’s the digital brochure (click here if embed is not working):

The Avett Brothers, courtesy of the artist

Given the publication’s focus, the list of featured artists is no surprise: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, Jerry Douglas, Joy Kills Sorrow, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Sarah Jarosz, and Richard Thompson. Clearly, Lumpkin was here for a few days during the festival’s final week.

I did not see Douglas, Tedeschi Trucks, or Jarosz, so I don’t have much reaction to those descriptions — except to say that I wish I had seen them all.

I didn’t post a separate review of Joy Kills Sorrow, but I found the band extremely talented although a bit hard to describe. Vocalist Emma Beaton sounds like she could be singing jazz or pop to me, but the band has a generally bluegrass sound. It makes for an odd combination, at least to my ear. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

I was certainly left wanting more — a lot more — of Joy Kills Sorrow mandolin player Jacob Jollliff. As American Songwriter notes:

Jacob Jolliff, the 2012 national mandolin champion, was a bandit single-handedly stealing the show with several brilliant solos while playing in front of a packed house on Thursday.

By contrast, Lumpkin had a pretty awful experience during Richard Thompson’s opening set before Crowell and Harris:

The lengths that this power trio went to for most of the show seemed like a waste, though. The cold audience (Emmylou fans) was disinterested in Thompson, politely clapping after each song and chatting throughout his performance. Thompson valiantly gave the crowd a spectacular performance and after playing “Keep Your Distance,” the audience was brought to life. They remembered “oh yeah, we actually like Richard Thompson too” just in time for the bandâ€s final song that ended with a battling, five minute solo from Thompsonâ€s electric guitar and Michael Jeromeâ€s drums. One of the best shows at The Savannah Music Festival this year for easily the worst audience.

I didn’t notice any such problems with the audience, but — as I said in my review last week — I was seated in the first row of the lower mezzanine. So a) we had few people around us and b) everyone nearby seemed as excited by Thompson as by Harris and Crowell.

That’s not to say that I doubt Lumpkin’s impressions.

Sometimes in complaining about crowd behavior there’s a tinge of the “kids these days . . .” arguments, but it was an old crowd on hand for the show, with relatively few attendees who weren’t into middle age.

Also, the muddiness of the sound at the Mercer can do some really bad things — I’d be curious to know exactly where the reviewer was sitting.

And I’ll also observe that a certain number of people in attendance, including the friend who came with me, did not in fact know Richard Thompson, despite his staggering productivity and the sheer quality of his work.

There had been a number of other shows on the final day, including the “Stringband Spectacular” finale of the Acoustic Music Seminar that I reviewed earlier today, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with Marcus Roberts at Johnny Mercer Theatre, which I did not attend.

Lake Street Dive is made up of singer Rachael Price, drummer Mike Calabrese, bassist Bridget Kearney, and Mike “McDuck” Olson, who plays both guitar and trumpet. Saturday’s late set (Lake Street Dive had also played an early afternoon SMF gig) seemed to showcase the sultry Price, who was simply captivating. Given the audience response, I have a feeling we’re going to see Lake Street Dive back in Savannah again, although we lack a regular venue that seems appropriate for their jazzy, bluesy sound.

The pavilion at the Ships of the Sea continued to fill up throughout the Lake Street Dive’s set in anticipation of the set by Lee Fields & The Expressions, which turned into a soul and R&B dance party. The “kids” (15-22 years old) from the SMF’s Acoustic Music Seminar were among the first to start dancing to one side of the stage, and the energy just built from there.

I know, I know, we’re not supposed to take photos, but once everyone was shooting their no doubt crappy cell phone videos, I couldn’t resist getting a few shots of Lee Fields since I had had my camera with me all day.

Click here to see a few dozen pics already posted to the SMF’s Flickr photostream.

And that brought the curtain down on the 18-day Savannah Music Festival, which began with the artistry of organist Cameron Carpenter all the way back on March 20th.

In my Tuesday City Talk column, I’ll be saying something about the economic impact of the SMF, but let’s not get stuck for too long worrying about the financial worth of the festival. In bringing some of the world’s most accomplished musicians, the Savannah Music Festival has made life better for thousands throughout the region.

As I noted in a previous post, the SMF really does appear to have turned a corner in terms of the diversity of the audiences. I don’t know if there will eventually be any data to confirm it, but SMF regulars seem to agree that this year’s audiences are reflecting more than ever Savannah’s rich demographics.

I wrote that post about diversity before seeing The Wailers — another show that I loved. Just a few nights ago, I was chatting with a major supporter of the festival who noted with pleasure the amazing level of diversity — age, race, style, dress — for the legendary reggae act.

The venues this year seemed to work exceptionally well, with the dance parties held at the Ships of the Sea’s newish space. There’s something about that venue, however, that encourages people to talk out on the fringes — maybe the fact that it’s outdoors, maybe the lighting, maybe just the sheer size. The chatter was no problem once Lee Fields geared up, but I found it a little annoying during Lake Street Dive and last week for the first part of Sea Wolf’s strong set. I think that maybe next year the SMF should simply instruct ushers to give chatty groups a calming hand gesture and then perhaps just suggest that loud talkers just move to the neighboring arbor near the bar.

As I noted before, Trinity United Methodist lacked the sheer visual drama of the rotunda of the Telfair Academy, but the chamber music seemed to work really well there. I wish I had wandered upstairs to hear the sound from the balcony — I suspect it might have been even richer than the experience on the floor.

So can we get through an SMF without either Bela Fleck or Dianne Reeves in the lineup? As it turns out, we made it through just fine, although there were plenty of other returnees. It’s an interesting problem that Rob Gibson and crew have created for themselves. They’ve programmed some of the truly outstanding talents in various genres in the world — and a large number of those musicians seem thrilled to return to Savannah.

But audiences can grow oddly blase even about performers of the calibre of Fleck and Reeves.

At the same time, Savannah has not yet fully developed a taste for more progressive programming. I love the world music offerings each year, especially the Segal/Sissoko duet this year, but those shows can be a tough sell in the larger venues. I was thrilled that the festival took the plunge to produce Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company’s Play & Play, but the show didn’t really come close to filling the Lucas as it should have.

Still, what a fine two and a half weeks of music. In an earlier post, I noted the glowing press from a Wall Street Journal reviewer, and I’m sure we’re going to see accolades continue to pour in over the coming weeks and months. At “Stringband Spectacular” I sat next to a German reviewer who seemed in awe of the festival and the city.

Congratulations to the SMF’s year-round staff and to the many who come on board for a few weeks each spring. It’s a remarkable event, one that I hope to be attending for many years — and one that I suspect will become even more embedded into the city’s evolving identity.

Just for the record, I spend several hundred dollars each year on SMF shows — ones that I know I want to attend and want to enjoy with friends. This year, that list included (with links to reviews and reactions): Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane dance at the Lucas Theatre; the Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Richard Thompson show at Johnny Mercer; The Wailers at Trustees; Dr. John at the Lucas; and Charles Bradley at Trustees. As a regular Savannah Morning News columnist and a blogger here at Savannah Unplugged, I also typically get a press pass that gets me into venues without assigned seating, if space is available, plus I sometimes request a few seats to shows that I wouldn’t otherwise attend.

All that to say that I trust Ryan McMaken’s judgment and asked him to give me a press ticket to last night’s “Stringband Spectacular” — the final showcase for the festival’s Acoustic Music Seminar, which brought 16 young musicians to Savannah for instruction and collaboration from April 1st through 6th.

First off, these aren’t just randomly chosen kids. As seminar leader Mike Marshall noted repeatedly, “This is the next generation of great acoustic musicians.” The list of guest instructors included some of the best string players who appeared at this year’s festival.

Aged 15 to 22, the 16 musicians accepted to the seminar hailed from across America, plus one from Scotland and one from New Zealand. A number are attending Berklee College of Music and other prestigious institutions.

Each musician arrived in Savannah with either an original composition or an original arrangement. Each song was rehearsed for an intensive two hours over the course of the week, with students divided into combos ranging from a duet to an octet. Marshall or Lage played guitar on some of the numbers.

So, as “Stringband Spectacular” began, all 16 students and both instructors were sitting on the Lucas stage with their instruments. Between songs, some would sit, some would stand, a new song would be introduced — and we were off on another short adventure. The early portion of the program could have used a little a few more uptempo selections, I thought, but it’s hard to design a perfect program when 16 talented musicians from around the globe converge after already having selected pieces.

The one-sheet program detailed the songs, the order, the composer or arranger, and all the musicians — a concise and indispensable resource both for following along and remembering today.

I’m generally aware of SMF offerings and programs, but I was completely unprepared for the talent on display at last night’s performance. The light turnout for the show suggests that many others are unaware of this tremendous program too. As I sat there, amazed by the sheer artistry on stage, I couldn’t help thinking that the Lucas should be packed. It seems inevitable that such a tremendous concept and program will attract more attention in the future.

Given the wall-to-wall excellence of the musicians and the individual numbers, I’ll just list a few standouts here to give you a sense of the breadth: violinist (fiddler?) John Mailander’s “Song for John”; violinist Chase Potter’s “Letting Go”; guitarist Matthew Taylor’s arrangement of the traditional “Back Home in Indiana”; guitarist and vocalist Molly Tuttle’s “You Didn’t Call My Name”; and bassist Ethan Jodziewicz’s Iranian-inspired “Trousers at Birth”.

That’s just five of the 16 songs plus two encores in the program. I suspect that another attendee’s list would begin with pieces I left out — that’s how consistent the quality was in the 2-hour program.

OK, I know we’re not supposed to take photos at SMF shows, but by the time all 16 students plus Lage and Marshall were playing the encores, the audience was on its feet and quite a number of people were taking crappy cell phone pics. I had my camera with me since I had taken shots earlier in the day of Swamp Cabbage and the Ogeechee Riverkeeper fundraiser at Moon River Brewing Company. So here are a couple taken during the encore from more or less where I was sitting:

UPDATE: For images and videos from the week of rehearsals and the performance, check out the Acoustic Music Seminar Facebook page. Here’s a pic embedded from that page of seminar participant Matthew Witler and the great David Grisman:

The SMF obviously brings some great headliners, but how about the skill of the backing musicians? It’s stunning to see how much talent there is out there.

“He’s one of my earliest heroes,” Thompson said of native Savannahian Johnny Mercer. When an audience member yelled out a request for “Moon River”, Thompson laughed and said he wasn’t “as sexy as Audrey Hepburn.”

It was simply thrilling to have this chance to see Thompson, whose work I’ve followed to some degree since the mid-1990s when he was working with his ex Linda. Even thirty years ago, Thompson’s voice had the depth and throatiness of age — and he sounds pretty much the same today.

This wasn’t some walk down memory lane, however. I was especially impressed with Thompson’s newer tune “Salford Sunday” — a beautiful, soulful work.

Other new songs included the rollicking “Good Things Happen to Bad People” and we were treated to a beautiful version of “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” performed by Thompson alone with his acoustic guitar.

I would have been content to go home after Thompson’s hourlong set. That’s how satisfying it was to see such a great songwriter and performer on his first Savannah trip.

And let me say a word about the Mercer Theatre, a venue I really dislike. I think I finally figured out where I want to sit there — as far down as possible in the lower mezzanine. We were the equivalent of about the 12th row in the orchestra, and the sound seemed much better up high than it typically is down below.

Old friends Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell seemed especially at ease on stage together as they meandered through a polished set that totaled well over 90 minutes. The total show time of over three hours proved a bit of a challenge for my lagging attention, but how do you tell Emmylou to stop singing? The 66-year old icon still sounds pretty good, and with her mass of white hair is still as striking on stage as ever. While you can hear a bit of age in Harris’ voice, Crowell sounded like he had just hopped off a train in Nashville with a guitar slung over his shoulder, dreaming of the big time.

Harris and Crowell sang a number of songs from their new album Old Yellow Moon, plus works that reached back decades. Some songs counted for both categories, like “Bluebird Wine”, written by Crowell and recorded by Harris almost 40 years ago. The latest recording can be found on the new album, which the pair had oddly sold out of before Wednesday’s show in Savannah.

I loved the band’s rendition of “Pancho and Lefty”, Patty Scialfa’s “Spanish Dancer”, “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight”, and “Chase the Feeling” by Kris Kristofferson. Harris took the lead vocal on the beautiful “I’ll Be Your San Antone Rose” by Susanna Clark, who died in 2012 at age 73.

After the three song encore, Harris came back on stage with two rescue dogs that looked unfazed by the attention. She urged everyone to adopt rescued animals. After noting that she had saved them, she added, “And they saved me too.”

But, as festival director Rob Gibson noted at the beginning of the program, there’s been a delay. Bray completed the piece, but the players found that they simply did not have adequate rehearsal time to present the 14-minute quintet “The Sun Was Chasing Venus” as it deserved to be heard. So Bray will appear at next year’s SMF for the performance.

It sure didn’t seem that many were bothered by the program change among the sizable crowd at Trinity, which has been hosting much of the SMF’s chamber music this year. In previous years, this program would have been in the Telfair Academy rotunda — a gorgeous space with dramatic visuals.

But the rotunda is also a bit cramped, especially since virtually all the shows there sold out. Trinity is considerably larger, and there’s room for the audience to find space for themselves. The lighting is more general at Trinity, since natural light comes in the windows — a beautiful effect, if less dramatic than the Academy.

Violinist and SMF associate director Daniel Hope was joined by a stellar cast of musicians: Joseph Conyers, bass; Benny Kim, violin; Lorenza Borrani, violin; Philip Dukes, viola; Eric Kim, cello; Carla Maria Rodrigues, cello; and Camden Shaw, cello. The program consisted of Dvorák Nocturne in B Major for string orchestra, followed by Op. 40
Mozart String Quintet No. 3 in C Major K. 515. After the intermission, all the musicians except Benny Kim joined in performing the Strauss Metamorphosen Strings Septet.

The Dvorak was short and beautiful. I’ll admit to getting a little lost in the second and third movements of the Mozart. It gathered steam at the end, however, or maybe I just tuned back in.

But Strauss’ Metamorphosen is what I’ll remember from last night’s show. The piece quotes from Beethoven and finishes with a deep, slow, resonant passage that literally had me on the edge of my seat as Hope and the rest held the final notes as long as possible.

And I’ll remember the performance for the very presence of Joseph Conyers, the double bass player and Savannah native. It was the first time I’ve seen Joseph play in a chamber setting, and just watching him provided more than enough visual spectacle.

Joseph is now with the Philadelphia Orchestra after stints with symphonies in Atlanta and Grand Rapids. His other credits are far too extensive for me to list here. Joseph is also the founder of Project 440. From the website:

Project 440 is designed to encourage, educate and empower communities through the unifying power of music. Focused on service, our organization seeks to establish music as a central tool for education, leadership, and community building.

It’s simply great to see a Savannah native achieving such success and to be building musical bridges. And it’s great that we have an event like the Savannah Music Festival that can showcase his talent.