This post was prepped in advance as I will be deeply immersed in Winterfolk over the weekend.

Thursday night, a meet and greet was held in the Tiki room at the Tranzac club for volunteers and performers. It was a good opportunity to connect before the shows. While there, I caught part of a set by regular Thursday night feature Houndstooth, an excellent group with a well deserved rep for being one of the best bluegrass bands in Toronto. I highly recommend catching them whenever you can.

As someone interested in audio, I noted that the group was using a hybrid version of the One Mic Technique, used by bluegrass bands everywhere. The idea is to have one central high quality microphone in the centre of the stage with the musicians gathered around in a semicircle. Whichever musician has a featured part moves closer to the mic to be heard better, then backs away. It makes for interesting stage movement an better photo ops. Houndstooth used this approach, but added two more mics placed waist high that work better for the guitar, mandolin and banjo.

More on Winterfolk in next week’s post. Until then, be well!

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