The Dan Tyminski Band brought their high-energy Bluegrass to the Appalachian Theatre on March 18th. The jubilant evening was filled with both new and familiar tunes that aroused the audience with each song. It would have been hard to find a single person in the theater that night who was not tapping their foot or nodding their head along to the music. Dan Tyminski’s band was a long-awaited performance at the Appalachian Theatre; the event organizer even mentioned that she had tried to get them to visit Boone for almost 15 years.
Throughout the evening, the band played Tyminski’s hits, a few covers, and individual songs from each bandmate’s solo career. I appreciated the range of songs that complimented the unbelievable talent of each of the band members. Although many in the audience came to see Tyminski, it was an excellent opportunity to be exposed to other relevant Bluegrass musicians.
Throughout the years Tyminski has played with many different bandmates; however, this performance was a special treat because he brought along with him some astounding young musicians. Tyminski’s present touring band of heavy hitter musicians includes Maddie Denton on fiddle, Jason Davis on banjo, Gaven Largent on the dobro, and Grace Davis on bass. It should be noted that the band was short a mandolin player that night. Everybody who loves Bluegrass knows how integral the mandolin is to the ensemble, but the quality of the music was not diminished by the instrument’s absence. If anything, the lack of mandolin only made the audience appreciate and absorb the other instruments more.
I was completely astounded by the talent of each of the members of the band. I was especially impressed by Largent’s playing on the dobro. At one point everyone left the stage for Largent to deliver a beautiful solo performance unlike any I had ever heard. I have never seen anyone shred on a dobro as hard as he did, and I would venture to say that he is one of the greatest dobro players of our generation.
The lighting during the performance was well executed and supported the mood of each song. Spotlights moved in tight during the more serious songs and opened up during the lively ones. The band was center stage, highlighted by warm light and surrounded by hints of subtle pink and blue lights. It was spectacular when the blues and pink lights would reflect off of the banjo and scatter across the audience like a disco ball.
Tyminski’s band performed a range of songs that provoked many different emotions. Tyminski even performed a song about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to raise a conversation about an ailment that many people struggle with but few talk about. Typically, bluegrass lyrics are about booze, heartbreak, and the Appalachian Mountain range, so I appreciated the short change in subject matter because it allowed for a more serious subject to be digested by the audience, and gave them more to consider after the show.
In short, Dan Tyminski is a rockstar. He is very personable and connected with the audience easily, often sharing personal sentiments and insight behind the music. Throughout the evening, the audience was hootin’ and hollerin’ and would even stand up to honky-tonk. Dan expressed towards the end that they were over their time and instructed the audience on how to give an encore so they could play their final song. I believe that the band would have received the encore regardless of Tyminski’s instruction.
Tyminski shared that during the Covid-19 quarantine, he decided to make a shirt for every song that he wrote. I found it humorous that he would regularly plug his T-shirts whenever he was about to play a song that he made a shirt for. I ended up at the T-shirt table after the event and received a handshake from the man Dan himself for my T-shirt purchase.
The Dan Tyminski Band was certainly worth the trip up the mountain, and I would highly urge anyone familiar with bluegrass to go see him during his tour.
