Category: Bluegrass Music

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Bluegrass Music Classical Music Musical Instruments

Tidbits #10: IBMA Awards/Wieniawski Violin Competition/Ypsilanti Guitar Show

I won’t get into the IBMA awards here, as reading different articles I am seeing different winners for a few categories. I do know that Billy Strings did win Entertainer of the Year, which after seeing him this past June sitting in with a number of bluegrass bands at the Charlotte Bluegrass Festival, I can say that it is well deserved.

The past two weeks saw the 17th Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Poznan, Poland. Unfortunately, I was not able to watch much of it live due to my new job (evening performances in Poland become mid-afternoon viewing here in Michigan), but I did try to watch YouTube highlights whenever possible. This year’s winner is Bohdan Luts of Ukraine. I did catch his first performance and was extremely impressed. Although every participant was amazing, I knew that he would at least make Stage 3 of the competition.

Was his victory politically motivated, considering the current Russian-Ukraine War? Perhaps, but to watch this young man perform one could not argue about his ability. I am not a person who can competently judge classical musicians, but I could not find any fault in his playing from what I saw. Congratulations to him!

I went to the Ypsilanti Guitar Show earlier today, and came back with only a few cheap guitar tuners. The $15.00 admission seemed a bit pricey, but I had driven all that way so I might as well have gone in. Compared to last year, there was even less buying going on (I had brought a guitar to sell, but kept it in the car, as I didn’t feel like carrying it around, and I could always get it out if I found an interested buyer), and lots of high-priced guitars that didn’t even pique my curiosity. The only thing that looked half interesting to me was a Regal dobro for $275.00, but it was an ugly blue that looked like a refinish, so it may have been previously repaired.

I was hoping to find some parts, particularly a nut for my green Telecaster. There was only one luthier there, and his parts selection was very limited, choosing to market tools and kits instead. The vendor that I purchased the cheap tuners from is a great source for cheap parts such as tuning gears and bridges, so I hope to meet up with him at a future show.

By the way, there is a guitar show returning to the Detroit area (Southfield to be exact) after a few years hiatus. March 7th is the date, and I’m sure that I’ll go. Hopefully it is better than today’s show. And maybe that blue Regal will be there, so I might plan on taking finger picks and a slide.

Chew on it and comment.

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Bluegrass Music

Perfect Song #15: “Choctaw Hayride” by Jerry Douglas

I have been a fan of Jerry Douglas for a very long time. Besides his solo work and being part of Alison Krauss & Union Station, there was a time when you could find his name on just about every country and bluegrass album coming out of Nashville. It seems like everything that his dobro touches sounds like it came from Heaven!

He has so many great original songs, but the one that I find absolutely perfect is “Choctaw Hayride.” It first appeared on the AKUS album New Favorite from 2001. Douglas and the band had just come off of success with work on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, so they could do no wrong as far as what they wanted to release. While the album is amazing to say the least, it is “Choctaw Hayride” that keeps the band firmly into bluegrass while showcasing the members’ instrumental prowess.

The song starts off with a heavy bass picking from the guitar, then Douglas kicks right in with a fast-paced dobro lick. From there, the band blasts right in, with each taking a short solo. But it is under the control of Douglas, as it pushes the traditional verse/chorus of most songs, giving us changes in time signatures and a bridge that skyrockets in tone.

It is completely bluegrass, but pushes the boundaries. That 2/4 beat stays through most of the song, with some fantastic shifts that makes heads turn. It’s Douglas’ skill with the fingerpicking and slide bar that will make any listener’s jaw drop. He is an absolute wizard.

The song has been a staple of AKUS’s live performances, and was included on the 2002 Live album.

If you want to see his real skill, check out this performance of the song with Tommy Emmanuel at the Ear Tumpet studio.

This song is what every dobro player strives for, or gives up on the instrument entirely. Douglas is a god on the instrument. He alone has set new standards for playing it, and pushed it to the forefront in bluegrass music. This song is proof.

Chew on it and comment.

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Bluegrass Music Rock Music

The Scruggs/Buckingham Connection

A few months ago, my buddy Ken gave me some food for thought: Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham has stated in a few interviews that bluegrass banjo hero Earl Scruggs was a big influence on his playing.

That thought has stuck in the back of my mind for a while. The more that I thought about it, the more it made sense. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album has always been one of my favorites. Buckingham’s playing style is finger picking instead of using a pick, which he has done since he started playing in folk bands in the 1960s. When he and Stevie Nicks joined the band in 1974, the melding of folk-rock with the British blues style rhythm section was magic. The first album with this lineup was the self-titled disc from 1975.

On that album, listen to “Say You Love Me.” Yes, Buckingham throws banjo onto the track, which gives it a great country music feel. Then check out “Rhiannon.” He plucks the strings similar to what banjo great Don Reno was doing on some of Reno & Smiley cuts.

Then we go to Rumours. “Gold Dust Woman” not only has Buckingham picking banjo style, but he even includes some dobro. His bluegrass-tinges playing can also be heard on “You Make Loving Fun” and “Don’t Stop.” Check out his more folky picking with “The Chain.”

While Tusk from 1979 was a bit more experimental, Mirage from 1982 had Buckingham implementing his picking style into a few tracks, namely “Hold Me” and “Gypsy.” One cannot see the similarities of his guitar playing with instances that Scruggs picked up a six-string on some of the Flatt & Scruggs recordings.

As for Mr. Scruggs, the Earl Scruggs Revue did cover Fleetwood Mac’s song “Landslide” as a country-rock number. The band did a number of live shows with Fleetwood Mac in the early 1970s (before Buckingham and Nicks were members). On his 1983 Top of the World album, Scruggs recorded a composition titled “Lindsey.” He claimed that it was not about Buckingham but instead about his granddaughter. Fast forward to today, Lindsey Scruggs is now a singer-songwriter and performs a number of Fleetwood Mac songs in her live performances, as well as recording a version of “Gypsy.”

Chew on it and comment.

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Bluegrass Music Songwriting

More Songwriting Woes

Maybe I’m losing it.

Songwriting for me the past few years has been a big challenge. I have written a few songs and posted them on my ReverbNation page (http://www.reverbnation.com/mitchmatthews), but I keep downing myself because I’m not as proficient as I was in my 30’s. Back then I was playing in/leading a country-influenced alternative band (what today we would call Americana music), and I could easily write a song a week that I was proud of. Heck, I was writing for a female lead singer.

I took on the reins of songwriting in my bands then because no one else had the will to do it. I never wanted to be in a cover band. All of my bands did play covers, but we were selective about the songs, and wanted to stress our originality.

As I phased out of the band-member role and considered myself more of a songwriter, this was about the same time that I delved happily into my love for bluegrass music. I found that many of my previous compositions could transfer well to bluegrass, so I have recorded some in that vein. My writing style changed as well toward the bluegrass format.

Back in 2011 or so, when I attended the IBMA World of Bluegrass Conference, I started meeting other people like me – not into playing much but working more with songwriting. It was a great experience, and I was rewarded with co-writes with two people now more prominent in the bluegrass industry as songwriters.

However, I have struggled getting any more recognition. Part of the reason is that I have a full time job in Detroit, so I am not able to travel to Nashville (let alone live there) more than twice per year. I try to hit as many bluegrass shows as possible using my time off so that I can network with touring bands, but I hit a lot of brick walls by not getting any feedback.

In a recent online discussion at SongwritingPro.com, the topic of discussion came up regarding networking as well as the quality of the demo recording to give to a prospective artist. Like I said, I try to network in any way that I can, so that was not a concern. However, recordings of demos has always been a burr in my saddle.

When recording one of my demos, I usually have just guitar, bass, and vocals, with either some harmony vocals or another instrument (mandolin, dobro). I would think as a song, giving it to an artist or producer, that would be sufficient. However, many still want a full band recording.

Think about it. A bluegrass band, no matter how great or even unique they are, all have the same basic set-up of guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin and fiddle, give or take an additional instrument. Is it necessary for me as the songwriter to do the job as producer/arranger so that the artist can hear what the song sounds like in a full band setting?

I have mentioned this phrase before in previous blogs – “It all starts with a song.” A good artist or producer should be able to hear a good song in its rawest form and know what he/she wants to do with it. “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” is a great example. Richard Thompson recording his version was just his fingerpicking guitar and vocals. The Del McCoury band heard a hit with the song, THEN recorded it as a band.

Knowing that I may have to up front money to get a band to record my song demo (and try to find reliable bluegrass musicians willing to learn an original song here in the Detroit area) gets to be defeatist. With that, I tend to lose energy to want to write some more. I have loads of tidbits of songs in my notebook, but I find myself staring at them and not being motivated.

I have plans to hit Nashville in November to use up some vacation time, and have been contacting people down there for possible songwriting sessions or even just meetings. So far I have one “maybe.” It is two months away, so it’s not like I am calling on them last minute. It gets frustrating, but I realize that I am not well-known in the industry, only having one minor songwriting hit and a few other non-bluegrass writing credits.

We shall see how this all plays out.

Chew on it and comment.

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Bluegrass Music

Perfect Song #14: “Wicked Path of Sin” by Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys

This is the song that pretty much set the standard for bluegrass three- and four-part harmony singing with little or no accompaniment. Bill Monroe knew what he was doing, or at least found to right people to do it and let him take credit (which was often the case).

The minimal instrumentation is rhythm guitar, bass, and mandolin picking a simple riff in between verses and choruses. The charm is the vocals. Four voices doing their particular jobs perfectly, not competing with one another. Recorded in September 1946 in Chicago, the lineup of the famous 1946 Blue Grass Boys was not even a year old. The recording consists of Bill Monroe (tenor vocals, mandolin), Lester Flatt (lead vocals, guitar), Earl Scruggs (baritone vocals), Birch Monroe (bass vocals), and Howard Watts (bass).

It is interesting that Bill brought in his brother Birch to sing the bass. Either he did not have enough confidence in any of his current band members, or he had been working on the song at home and his brother was assisting. Either way, it worked. The chorus having Birch start it off, then the rest of the singers answering, then Lester does two lines with the question/answer, then Bill takes two lines with his high lonesome tenor, continuing the question/answer, finishing off with Lester doing one line and the entire quartet singing the last line — that is genius!

Plenty of bluegrass bands have covered this song, including New Grass Revival, the Stanley Brothers, Blue Highway, and Old & In The Way. However, it is the Blue Grass Boys’ version that is the most stirring. It needs no improvement — it is raw yet polished in its outcome. It is a gospel song, but never spends a lot of time talking about God or Jesus, only that he feels safe with his Savior. The beginning theme is that the world (even in the 1940s) was sinful, and that the singer is looking forward to arriving at the Pearly Gates to hear the bells and singing angels, as well as to meet all of the dear departed friends and relatives.

Everything about the bluegrass format can be traced back to Bill Monroe and his concept of it. We have so much to be thankful for from what came from his musical mind. This beautiful song is just one example.

Chew on it and comment.

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Bluegrass Music

Billy Strings’ New Video

Apologies for being a day late on this week’s blog. My allergies have knocked me out this weekend.

Well, Billy Strings does it again. When I think that he cannot get any better, he one-ups me again! So he’s a fantastic musician, a great songwriter, and a decent human being, but his creativity keeps showing how amazing he is.

A few weeks ago, his team sent me a link to his brand new video for his song “10,000 Miles From A Friend,” which is off of his new album So Much For Goodbyes. It starts off with Strings as a cashier at a truck stop talking to a trucker. One would think that this is going to be about the boring life of a truck-stop cashier, but he is only doing a cameo. The focus and story changes to the trucker, his life on the road and struggles trying to support his daughter and granddaughter.

Man! I was actually shedding a tear at the end of this one! Powerful hardly describes the theme of the video. The background on the video is that Strings and the video’s director interviewed a number of truckers to get the storyline going, and the trucker in the video is an actual trucker.

The album is a fantastic listen, to be sure. This was recorded in January of 2026, just months after the death of String’s mother. Many of the songs have a feeling of his sorrow, and the album’s artwork includes many creations by his mother. The final cut, “Debra’s Waltz,” is for her.

I am not going to laud any more about Strings or this album. Let the music speak for itself. Strings is pushing the boundaries of bluegrass while not getting above his raisin’. I hope to shake his hand some day.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bluegrass Music Country Music

Dolly Parton RIP (I Will Always Love You)

By the time that this gets posted, the news of the passing of country music legend Dolly Parton is well known. To say that she was an icon is cutting it lightly. Her voice, talent, good looks, and business sense made her loved by millions of people, whether they were music fans or not.

Her life story is posted throughout the internet, so I won’t go into it here. What I will talk about is my early experience of her music and her love and respect for bluegrass music.

Growing up, our family vacations consisted of two weeks during the summer staying at an uncle’s cottage at Higgins Lake, Michigan. Back in the 1970s, the area was still backwoods, despite a building up of tourist motels for those flocking to swim in the beautiful lake. It always seemed to rain at least one Saturday of the time there. Television was a black-and-white tube set with rabbit ears that barely picked up two stations from the Traverse City area. If stuck in the cottage on a rainy Saturday afternoon, we would watch the grainy syndicated The Porter Wagoner Show. His duet partner at the time was Dolly. My uncle used to make fun of her, but my dad loved her. I could see that she had that Southern Belle charm that any man would fall for. Unfortunately, the show was never available in the Detroit area, so that was the only time I got to see this angel with the powerful voice.

Of course, she would eventually leave the show, go off on her own, and create an amazing solo career, along with recording the Trio sessions with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt. Her talent was not only in music, but was showcased also in a number of television shows and movies. As she became more wealthy, instead of just buying tons of cars and houses, she invested in a number of business dealings, most notably the Dollywood amusement part in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. She also started many charitable organizations, among them the Imagination Library, which gave books to pre-school kids so that they had reading skills when starting their education.

Dolly loved all kinds of music, and because of her growing up in Tennessee, bluegrass music was in her heart and soul. Many of her country music albums, as well as the Trio recordings, had an acoustic bluegrass feel to them. However, in the early 2000s, she decided to record a trilogy of more strict bluegrass albums. It started with 1999’s The Grass is Blue, followed by Little Sparrow (2001) and Halos & Horns (2002). Some of the best bluegrass musicians in the industry were on these recordings, and along with original material, she recorded some non-bluegrass songs (“Shine” from Collective Soul and Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven). “Shine” won her a Best Female Country Vocal Performance the following year.

Bluegrass fans and artists have always loved her back. Her compositions “Jolene” and “Coat of Many Colors” have been recorded and performed live by numerous bluegrass bands, as they so perfectly fit into the genre.

It is hard to accept that Dolly is no longer with us. Perhaps because she had such a long and successful career, we all thought that she would be with us forever. Fortunately, her music will always be with us. And we can pretty much guarantee that she is singing with the Angel Band right now.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bluegrass Music

Pat Enright RIP

Last week, we lost another great bluegrass voice and musician, Although exact information is still forthcoming, Pat Enright passed away at the age of 81. While his name was not as well-known to the general music audience, he was a stalwart in the bluegrass community, having been a member of two influential bands and a voice that was on a multi-platinum album.

Born in Indiana, he originally wanted to be an architect. However, he got bit by the folk music bug during high school. He joined the Navy in 1965 to avoid the draft, and while stationed in Washington, DC, he discovered bluegrass music. After the service, he moved to San Francisco and played in a number of area bluegrass bands. He moved to Nashville and secured a job at Gruhn Guitars. While working on a guitar, a string snapped and hit his left eye, causing it blindness.

In 1979, he was invited by Bela Fleck to join Tasty Licks, which had him move to Boston. They would later move back to Nashville and form the Dreadful Snakes. That band’s only album, Snakes Alive, is considered one of the most important bluegrass albums of the time.

In 1984, he and Alan O’Bryant formed the Nashville Bluegrass Band, The band’s 20-year run would leave an indelible impact on bluegrass music, as they not only stressed the traditional side, but included heavy influences from black Gospel, old-time string bands, and the blues. So many of the NBB songs included four-part harmonies arranged by Enright.

The highwater mark of his performing career came in 1999, when he recorded vocals for the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?. That is his yodel on the recording of “In the Jailhouse Now,” as well as the harmony singing on “Man of Constant Sorrow.” During the Down From the Mountain US tour, NBB served as the house band to back up many of the vocalists from the soundtrack.

NBB won numerous IBMA awards during its tenure, and of course, he received a Grammy for the soundtrack for OBWAT. After the band retired in 2004, Enright stayed away from the music scene for the most part, occasionally performing at the Station Inn or other Nashville venues. My memory of him is getting to talk to him at a few IBMA World of Bluegrass conferences around 2010. We talked about old Martin guitars and the video that NBB had made for vocal harmony instruction. As with so many bluegrass artists, he was extremely humble and cordial to me and anyone else that wanted to talk. NBB has always been one of my favorite bluegrass bands, particularly due to those amazing harmonies, courtesy of Pat Enright.

Sir, your voice will surely be missed down here, but I know that you are now singing with the Angel Band.

Chew on it and comment.

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Bluegrass Music

Bluegrass Internet Radio

Call me late to the party.

So I have had internet access at my house for almost a year. After years of dial up, hot-spotting off of my phone, and stealing access from neighbors that didn’t use a password, I finally can work on the web whenever I need to at my computer.

So sitting around a few days ago, I realized that I can now listen to an internet radio station to my choosing 24/7. After quitting Sirius/XM years back due to cost vs. selection, my bluegrass listening was limited to four hours on Sunday through CJAM-FM out of Windsor, Ontario, or digging through my CD collection if I wasn’t that lazy.

So I did a quick search for “bluegrass internet radio station” and Live365 had a list of Bluegrass stations. I sampled a bunch, but most seemed to mix a bluegrass song in with some classic country music. Two that I have been spending time with are “Catgut ‘n Jugs Bluegrass Show” (which leans toward the modern popular bluegrass charting songs) and “Rideout’s Bluegrass Farm” (heavy on Tony Rice, Billy Strings, and Garcia/Grisman).

It is nice to have a dose of bluegrass at the touch of a button on the keyboard, and it does run 24/7 on my computer (since I am paying for internet by the month). Howver, I am noticing that both stations tend to program the same way as SiriusXM’s “Bluegrass Junchtion” channel, which is why I unsubscribed from it. One will hear very little variety, sometimes the same song by the same artist will play two hours later than the first play.

There is so much material out there, so if it is because some computer is doing the programming, then perhaps someone at one of these stations needs to be a lot more attentive and put some personality. This is just like the old days (for me, still exists) with the car radio of twisting the dial or pushing buttons to change a station to get something different.

Yes, it is nice to hear bluegrass first thing when I wake up (“Bill Monroe for Breakfast,” or some reasonable facsimile), as well as when I walk into the house after a hard day at work. Right now, I need to check out other stations, hopefully one with more variety.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bluegrass Music Musical Instruments

US 12 Yard Sale/More Billy Strings News

This weekend was the annual US 12 Longest Yard Sale, and I took Friday off from work to do my annual trek. While I will grab just about anything that I think is a bargain or treasure, I am mostly looking for musical instrument related items. In past years, there have been about a dozen vendors selling some such items, but this year, it was down to four, and three of them were pretty much a joke.

The US 12 Heritage Way website this year included a map of vendors that listed items that they were selling. I earmarked a few of them, and the results were pathetic. One had a Taylor 3/4 size gigbag for $40.00, and Elixer guitar strings for $5.00 per set (which I can get from Temu for half of that price). Another vendor’s idea of a “musical instrument” was a giant rug shaped like a keyboard.

There were a few vendors selling a few drum pieces or an old trumpet. One vendor had a few acoustic guitars, including a Harmony archtop that looked interesting. He was asking way too much, as well as high prices for two headphone amplifiers that looked like they had seen better days. Toward the end of my drive in a town called Allen (which calls itself the Antique Capital of Michigan), there is one vendor that is there every year, selling mostly fishing and hunting equipment, but has some musical instruments. They are mostly clarinets and trombones, but he does have a few guitars. However, they are all cheap department store types like First Act that are not worth anything.

In short, other than a few Hot Wheels cars that I bought for a co-worker, the only thing that I purchased for myself was a Godzilla Sandwich from Randy’s BBQ in Onsted (https://www.randysbarbecue.com/).

One of my YouTube subscriptions is to Billy Strings’s channel. When he is on tour, he will often post his opening song live. On Friday, I noticed that he was wearing a hockey helmet while performing. I figured at first that it was some kind of joke because he was playing in a hockey arena.

Then I read the following story:

https://stereogum.com/2507707/billy-strings-wears-protective-headgear-after-getting-hit-by-object-the-previous-night/news

What is with some idiots these days? Billy is a pretty laid back guy, and he has done his best to make up for cancelled shows due to his leg injury earlier this year. There is no doubt that he and his band put on a fantastic live show, and his fanbase has grown to amazing numbers over the past few years. However, there always seems to be one or two morons that want to ruin it for the thousands that paid good money for the show.

Billy had just started talking to the audience about how glad he was to be there, when an object (most likely a disposable lighter) was thrown from the crowd and hit him in the head. Suddenly, Billy’s demeanor changed drastically, and he not only called out the unknown assailant, but asked the crowd to “sodomize” the jerk.

Can you blame Billy? He is up there literally unprotected from any flying objects, and even something like a lighter hit in the right spot could do damage. I hope to read in the news soon that the assailant was found and charged with some crime. In the meantime, I also hope that Billy understands that the does not reflect the thousands of true fans who value his musicianship and love for his audience.

Chew on it and comment.

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