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Overflow Chautauqua Festival crowd last Friday night for these bluegrass giants, and they reverse booted a set that made grandmothers snicker and grown men giggle. Krauss has developed into the least cloying sentimental singer imaginable, and she presides over her whipsmart men like a bemused den mother. They have all the chops you could want, more, harmonize with her in ways both dreamy and dark, and then they get down to impressing one another. Jerry Douglas has a pretty-boy haircut that doesn’t quite fit his rock star gait, and while he’s dobro’s Hendrix he can be distracting, loaming around stage left like he still has much to prove. And perhaps Richard Thomson’s “Dimming of the Day” treaded a trifle slow — they thrive on their virtuosity with downtempos — but they pretty much have you at hello. Secret weapon: “angry farmer” Dan Tyminski, who sounds just like George Clooney. For the encore, a brief acoustic set at a single mic, featuring “Down to the River,” from O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU. Warm-up act Dawes displayed a fervent commitment to slow, steady uplift, and when the material catches up to their ensemble, they’ll have an act.
