Ken Ficara

Cephas & Wiggins
Originally uploaded by kenf225

Kickass harmonica playing on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Madison Square Park. Drinks with (and, unfortunately, all over) friends at Live Bait. And then night two of the Sheriff Sessions, listening to and sitting with some of NYC”s best roots musicians.

Phil Wiggins and John Cephas (pictured) are the best acoustic blues duo playing today. They play the Piedmont blues that originated in the Carolinas, and Delta blues as well, and Phil is a soulful harp player who can be flashy when he wants to be, but is better when he isn’t.

The Sessions last night were headlined by Bruce Molsky, a gentle and humorous old-time player who sat alone onstage with a fiddle singing songs a century old, played gutbucket fingerstyle blues on guitar, and frailed beautifully on the banjo. “I hope you like fiddle music,” he said. “Because there will be a problem if not.”

And now I’m off to Staten Island to play a gig of my own.

Punch Brothers
Originally uploaded by kenf225

Last night was the first night of the Sheriff Sessions, one of NYC’s best roots music events. A trio of great NYC bands opened the show, and then headliner Chris Thile (ex-Nickel Creek) took the stage with his new band the Punch Brothers. (“Punch in the presence of the passenger…”) Along with Chris Eldridge (pictured here with Thile, he’s a member of the Infamous Stringdusters) and a few more top-tier jamgrass players, they did a stunning set. Rather than the endless noodling of most jam bands, they were dynamic, tight, and concise; in short they kicked ass.

Tonight’s headliner is the great old-time musician Bruce Molsky, but call before you come; last night sold out and tonight probably will as well.

Steve Earle
Originally uploaded by kenf225

I saw Steve Earle at Town Hall last night, in a mostly solo acoustic show. He came out and began strumming the very recognizable (to this audience, anyway) introduction to Bob Dylan’s “Baby Let Me Follow You Down,” and started talking.

“I used to be a folksinger, because I had trouble with authority of any kind,” he said. “Then I found out there were folksinging authorities, and I had to give it up.”

He flouted any number of authorities, starting of course with his political songs. He said people have asked him whether he’s worried that the songs about the Iraq war on his two most recent albums will become dated. “God, I hope so,” he said. Halfway through his set, he brought out a DJ, who played and scratched beats behind him as he played old-time banjo.

He played a mixture of songs from his new album, Washington Square Serenade, and albums going all the way back to Guitar Town.

Allison Moorer, to whom Earle got married last year, opened the show and sang a few duets with him at the end. He returned for encores including “Hardcore Troubador,” which one audience member was particularly insistent about requesting (“Steve, please play it or I won’t get laid tonight,” the lout’s girlfriend shouted at one point, leaving Earle speechless for the only time that night), and closing with “Chrismastime In Washington.”

Valentino Pier, Red Hook, 6.45 pm.