Review: Railroad Earth's Horn-O-Plenty at Sherman Theater 11/25-26
words: Christopher Snyder | photos: William McKee
For the last decade, Railroad Earth has called The Sherman Theater home over Thanksgiving weekend. Their annual “Horn-O-Plenty” gathering in Stroudsburg, has brought fans, or “Hobos”, as they are called from coast to coast. The first of the two night run featured opener, Circles Around The Sun, who created the interlude music for the GD50 shows last summer. The four piece act has recently been wowing fans in Brooklyn and treated the Sherman Theater crowd to an instrumental journey that featured tunes, “Scarlotta’s Magnolias” and “Gilbert's Groove”.
The audience was treated to an oldie but goodie from the group, “Storms”, to open the two night stand at The Sherman Theater. Lead vocalist, Todd Sheaffer, kept the energy flowing in the room with the upbeat tunes, “Happy Song” and “Chains”. The group kept the set rolling along with fan favorite, “Mighty River" that featured a deep groove from bassist Andrew Altman. Closing out the first set was the Charles Johnson penned, “My Sisters & Brothers”, which gave multi-instrumentalist, Andy Goessling to showcase his horn skills, performing the number with two saxophones at once. Neal Casal added to the mix, with his far out, spacey guitar riffs.
Digging deep into their catalog, “Seven Story Mountain”, was the perfect way to start off the second half of the performance. With John Skehan showing how he can take the mandolin to new levels, with his lightning fast picking. Carey Harmon, kept the backbeat as fiddle player, Timmy Carbone led the crowd in a heartfelt rendition of, “Flower Between The Stones”. The New Jersey based quartet invited Circles Around The Sun guitarist Neal Casal back to the stage for an “A+” version of “Warhead Boogie” that flowed seamlessly into “Wayfaring Stranger”. The band sent the “Hobos” into the streets of Stroudsburg with “Keep Movin’ On”. These holiday performances showed how Railroad Earth has so much appreciation and love for their fans and are always happy to be back home.
The audience was treated to an oldie but goodie from the group, “Storms”, to open the two night stand at The Sherman Theater. Lead vocalist, Todd Sheaffer, kept the energy flowing in the room with the upbeat tunes, “Happy Song” and “Chains”. The group kept the set rolling along with fan favorite, “Mighty River" that featured a deep groove from bassist Andrew Altman. Closing out the first set was the Charles Johnson penned, “My Sisters & Brothers”, which gave multi-instrumentalist, Andy Goessling to showcase his horn skills, performing the number with two saxophones at once. Neal Casal added to the mix, with his far out, spacey guitar riffs.
Digging deep into their catalog, “Seven Story Mountain”, was the perfect way to start off the second half of the performance. With John Skehan showing how he can take the mandolin to new levels, with his lightning fast picking. Carey Harmon, kept the backbeat as fiddle player, Timmy Carbone led the crowd in a heartfelt rendition of, “Flower Between The Stones”. The New Jersey based quartet invited Circles Around The Sun guitarist Neal Casal back to the stage for an “A+” version of “Warhead Boogie” that flowed seamlessly into “Wayfaring Stranger”. The band sent the “Hobos” into the streets of Stroudsburg with “Keep Movin’ On”. These holiday performances showed how Railroad Earth has so much appreciation and love for their fans and are always happy to be back home.
Railroad Earth
Circles Around The Sun