Scott Simontacchi, Matt Combs, David Long & Mike Bub: at The Station Inn (Nashville, TN) Fri. May 3, 2013

Scott Simontacchi, Matt Combs, David Long & Mike Bub

Bluegrass

Nashville Scene Critic's Pick …

Some ad hoc lineups at The Station Inn feature like-minded musicians who focus on an intersection of taste and training to produce music whose joys don’t derive from the unexpected. This grouping, though, looks to be taking the opposite tack. On the traditional side of the spectrum, Matt Combs (fiddle) and David Long (mandolin) are known for fidelity to the older forms laid out by masters like Benny Martin and Bill Monroe, Cavanaugh’s a fearsome banjo player firmly ensconced in the jazz world, and guitarist Simontacchi writes music that’s moody, evocative and often built on washes of texture. That puts bass man Mike Bub, who can switch gears from tradgrass to rockin’ country at the drop of a hat, right in the middle. Smart listeners will want to join him there, if only to see what that unexpected turns out to be.

—Jon Weisberger