Rachel Baiman at Cedar Cultural Center (04/15/2023)

It’s not a good sign for spring when members of the opening act and headliner sport ski caps in the middle of April. At least no one wore mittens while playing their string instruments.

Barbaro opened the evening with most seated except for Jason Wells on the upright bass. The setup lent itself to a cozy atmosphere with the members attune to each other as if the songs were not completely set, giving the four members room to explore.

Kyle Shelstad (guitar) and Isaac Sammis (banjo) first started off as a bluegrass duo. But when Rachel Calvert (fiddle) and Wells joined, the group began to evolve for the additions came from a more classical background. In fact, Wells was not even familiar with the bluegrass when he signed on.

Barbaro’s music was not so much a display of technical dexterity found in most bluegrass bands as much as cooperative effort to accommodate the different viewpoints with Shelstad, Calver and Sammis sharing singing duties and Calvert and Wells creating at times an almost cosmic, ethereal sound. The whole effort felt as intimate as a campfire and as vast as the stars.

Rachel Baiman was joined on stage with Lauren Horbal on drums, Jacob Groopman on guitar and Steve Hann on bass.

Born and raised in Chicago, Baiman became attracted to the traditions of folk and bluegrass while attending Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She decided to stay and became a fiddler-for-hire who eventually evolved into a singer-songwriter.

Lyrically, Baiman may have absorbed the views of her left-leaning parents, but musically she is all in on the country spirit of her adopted home. For example, the song “Shame” from her 2017 self-titled album is an ebullient affair even if the topic is about the corrosive nature of fundamental religion. Also, you can clap along to “Self Made Man” even if you don’t want to root for the protagonist.

Baiman is promoting her new album On Common Nation of Sorrow but don’t think it’s a lament, as Baiman told the Nashville Scene: “It’s not a protest album so much as a statement of solidarity.”

In between songs Baiman took the opportunity to converse with the audience with topics ranging from how many geologists were in the audience (3) to the correct term for the study of insects (entomology). And since it was a cold night, she asked if ice fishing was really a thing (it is) and how a seventeen hour road trip through a snowstorm ended up in Reno, Nevada (not fun in her opinion).

Cold or not, Baiman was having fun at the Cedar. And for an encore she brought out Barbaro to try an acoustic set. It gave the appearance of being a spontaneous moment as if the show was already over and the two bands had found a nice cozy campfire to pick away the evening on their string instruments.

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