I’m well aware that I’ve harped on a lot of negative things lately, so for today I’m keeping things on the upbeat.

I was delighted to hear a few weeks back that The Infamous Stringdusters, a Grammy nominated bluegrass band, was going to be swinging through Alamosa. Really!? Alamosa?! Well, okay.

So I made sure to swing by and pick-up my tickets for the Friday, April 1 show earlier in the week, and was glad I did because when I arrived shortly before the show began on Friday night the place was packed - I believe the seat I took was one of the last three seats in the house (it wasn’t a very big house, but still I’d say the crowd was a respectable size.

There’s something about bluegrass music, and especially live bluegrass music, that’s just so warm, even when the song is a “sad” song. Maybe it’s because of the banjo. A banjo can evoke a lot of feelings - happy and creepy, like in Deliverance, come to mind pretty quickly - but I don’t think anyone has ever really thought of the banjo as a sad instrument. That’s probably why  B.B. King never put out a banjo blues album.

I really just love the communal feeling that’s present during a bluegrass concert. The way the whole band is standing together in one row, instead of the normal hierarchy that is created by having some band members at the front and some at the back of the stage. just makes it feel like less of a scripted show and more like a group of friends just having a good time, and that feeling always gets to me as an audience member. I also love the way that bluegrass bands will be constantly walking around the stage and interacting with one another, it’s just fantastic. And just wathcing the way that those guys’ fingers fly around can put me into a trance. It makes even my best nights of Guitar Hero look like amateur hour, which is pretty right on the money.

The Infamous Stringdusters….though not as they appeared in Alamosa.

The band was on stage for about 2 full hours. These days, it seems like a show’s got to have three bands on the bill in order for it involve that much live music, so that was really awesome to see. Their stage banter was pretty much right on the whole time. I hate bands that try to be too funny when on stage, and I also hate bands that don’t interact with the crowd at all. Most of the stage banter on Friday night came during times when the band was having longer than expected breaks in order to tune an instrument, so it just fit into the show very naturally, and the fact that they were good at it made it nice too.

As a bonus, the crowd was treated to a little history lesson about bluegrass legend Jimmy Martin, whom I’m currently listening to and loving at the moment. Is there anything better than would some really good music leads you to more really good music? Yeah, but not much.

Speaking of positives, I found what has vaulted itself into my list of top five beers as a bit of a darkhorse candidate:

The SLV Brewing Company was the very first place I visited when moving into town. I greatly enjoyed their Alamosa Amber and Valle Especial Mexican lager, but neither one was even in danger of becoming an obsession the way that Ska Brewing’s (located not too far away in Durango) Modus Hoperandi and Euphoria, or Breckenridge’s Avalanche have. But as I made quick stop at the local libation hut on the way home from work the other day, they SLV Brewing Company’s Valle Caliente Green Chile Lager available. Just the name had me enticed, and the taste didn’t disappoint.

Basically, they take their normal Valle Especial and add Hatch green chile’s in with it, and the result is a deliciously spicy Mexican lager, and a very satisfied me. So SLV has now joined my list of favorites alongside an assortment of hoppy and dark brews. Good form, indeed.