Greensky Bluegrass Lights Up Gray Skies at Beech Mountain Resort

Greensky Bluegrass performed at Beech Mountain Resort in North Carolina on July 21, 2024.  The show was the finale of the resort’s “Party on the Mountain” summer concert series.  Greensky was joined by The Motet.

Words and images by Andrea “Andy” Hall for Festy GoNuts

This past Sunday, the penultimate event of the Beech Mountain 2024 Summer Concert Series took place despite stormy skies and threats of lightning. The afternoon sound checks and even the ticket holder entry time were delayed due to safety reasons, but the show did go on — and started on time.

The venue, a ski resort that is the epicenter of the highest town east of the Mississippi River (we are talking elevation here), looked to be about half full of its 4,000-person capacity. Some of the crowd had been there all weekend, attending the Need to Breathe with Fireside Collective show on Friday evening, and the Dispatch with Maggie Rose show on Saturday — a few remarked on how tired they were from climbing up and down the steep hills. But that nor the rain dampened the spirits of the fans – who danced nonstop to both bands – first The Motet, followed by headliner Greensky Bluegrass.

The Motet got fans moving to their funky set, using a fog machine on stage that seemed to match the hanging clouds between the peaks surrounding the resort.

During set break, folks took advantage of the many food and beverage vendors, as well as shopping amongst the jewelry and craft booths. Food ranged from burgers from Boone to tamales and mini donuts whose sweet smell permeated the 65 degree chill in the air.

When it was time for Greensky Bluegrass, the crowd seemed to grow by a few hundred. Greensky got the crowd going big time with their second song, “How Mountain Girls Can Love,” a song first recorded in 1958 by The St anley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys. Hearing old school bluegrass deep in the hills where it was birthed rings as true as Uncle Pen’s fiddle here in Appalachia. If that wasn’t enough emotion for us, the guys in the band noticed it was someone’s birthday in the crowd, and got the whole place singing “Happy Birthday.”

Up on top of the hill, beyond the plentiful and clean portalets, where the ski lift chairs hang over the dancers in the back, a lone woman was spinning a few strands of LED lights. Seeing the entire event below, the lit stage matching the whirling lights, thousands bouncing to the music … was a magical scene.

If a plane flew overhead, they’d think the mountain was on fire, as Greensky Bluegrass lit up the cloudy night.

GREENSKY BLUEGRASS
7.21.2024  | Beech Mountain Resort, NC

Past My Prime
How Mountain Girls Can Love
The Four
Don’t Lie
Handguns
Unidentified Instrumental
It’s Not Mine Anymore
Fixin To Ruin
Born Again
Run or Die
Universal Sound
Distracted
Give a Shit
Leap Year

Encore:
My Love Will Not Change

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Andrea “Andy” Hall is a freelance journalist and photographer living in the mountains near Asheville, North Carolina. She grew up going to fiddlers conventions and watching her uncles make homemade peach brandy. Now she gets to write about it.