LIVE: Crooked Still @ The Egg, 11/19/11

You may be scratching your head and thinking, “Didn’t Crooked Still just play The Egg?”

Well, yes, they did – this past January. (Read our review here.) The band also played at Club Helsinki in Hudson just last month, and Aoife O’Donovan, Crooked Still’s captivating vocalist, also performed at the FreshGrass Festival at MASS MoCA in North Adams the month before that.

This time around musically speaking nothing had changed much with their bluegrass-meets-alt-country by way of Celtic folk virtuosity: O’Donovan was again in fine voice, nailing each song; Brittany Haas was playing a mean fiddle; Tristan Clarridge was coaxing some impassioned notes from his cello; Corey DiMario’s fingers were plucking and running up and down the acoustic bass with fleet-fingered imagination; and Greg Liszt showcased some quite superb banjo licks.

What was different about Crooked Still’s second appearance at The Egg this year was that it was a farewell concert of sorts, at least for the time being. The show was their last concert date of 2011, and the band members have decided to take a year-long hiatus from the band (with the exception of a very few “special” appearances) throughout 2012, too.

Yes, after ten solid years of touring and playing to audiences all over the country and Europe, Crooked Still is taking an extended break, while the band members pursue other musical interests. As a token of appreciation for the support and loyalty of their fans over the past decade, they have released a brand new EP “Friends of Fall,” which will hopefully help keep everybody happy until their return in 2013.

Review and photographs by Andrzej Pilarczyk