... at the Red Newt Bistro and Winery in Hector, NY. My god what a player. He was playing with four other people, all from in and around the Ithaca, NY area. Richie and a couple of them had just returned from what I believe may have been playing this past weekend at the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival near Pittsford, NC. How he / they could have left Chapel Hill, NC at 9am yesterday morning, as he told me, driven 9/10 hours to get to Hector, NY, and had the stamina and energy left to begin playing at 6:30pm boggles the mind! Richie did many tunes from the Evil City String Band album plus several others. The two fiddlers (one was Rosie Newton also from the Evil City String Band, the other I didn't know) also were outstanding, as was the rhythm guitar player, especially on "Little Boy, Where'd You Get Your Britches?"
And a surprise was the String bass player, certainly the absolute best I've ever heard, Ethan Jodziewicz, at student at Ithaca College, whose skills not only in playing traditional string bass but in bowing have to be seen to be appreciated fully.
Another highlight -- besides the selections performed by Richie and Rosie in their respective "Evil City String Band" and "Pearly Snaps" groups, was the performance of all five on the tune "Jeff Sturgeon" -- just absolutely fantastic.
These folks gave an incredible performance sitting in a very small circle not more than three-four feet wide at its widest point. Richie's banjo-playing was always at the forefront and exceptional.
If you get a chance to see any of these folks, you'd be doing yourself a great disservice if you don't attend.