Category: Bluegrass Music

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Americana Music Bluegrass Music

So Long, AMA!

Well, with a heavy heart but no regret, I have decided to not attend this year’s AmericanaFest, and I am not renewing my membership to the Americana Music Association. My decision is similar to why I left the International Bluegrass Music Association.

The AMA has decided to for a committee to find ways to promote musicians based on race, gender choice, and sexual preference. The IBMA launched a similar program a few years back. Both were supportive of the BLM movement (a Marxist organization that it fully admitted to on its website until recently when the co-founder was caught red-handed purchasing five homes around the country), yet when the BLM/Antifa riots reached Nashville last summer and vandalized the Bill Monroe statue outside of the Ryman Auditorium, neither organization did anything to either condemn the crime nor help support the clean-up.

I left the IBMA a few years back,, but I remained in the AMA primarily due to my friendship with other members, board members, and staff. However, I had been on the fence the past two years because of the organization’s political involvement. This recent decision by the AMA helped make my decision to bow out. I had been a member for over 20 years, and had served in a volunteer capacity for about 15 years. This included stage management, chauffeuring, showcase organization, and a dozen other jobs. I met a lot a good people along the way, including artists, managers, booking agents, and publicists. The networking was great, to say the least. However, the time had come where I had to decide between my beliefs and going with the flow.

Music organizations such as the AMA and the IBMA are there to promote music first and foremost. The color of one’s skin or the choice of one’s personal identity should not matter if the talent is there. Both organizations have reneged on their original philosophies and are now more interested in an artist’s identity instead of the talent. Political correctness has led to being woke.

With the AMA, one can see that it would eventually lead to that direction. Many of the artists come from a more liberal background. Being a member for over 20 years, I could see that it was an almost inevitable move. I highly doubt that my leaving will affect anything. I will miss going to Nashville and working the conference, seeing old friends and making new ones, but I have my standards as well.

In the case of the IBMA, I have gone over this before, but the direction it is taking may have different consequences. The bluegrass community is a wonderful melting pot. Liberals and conservatives, hippies and rednecks, traditionalists and progressives, all coming together for the enjoyment of acoustic music. Debates consist of musical matters (Percussion? Electric bass? No banjo?), not anything about the race, creed, sexual orientation, or political views. A few years back, the powers-that-be discreetly began implementing more woke philosophies and actions. Now, most of the IBMA membership only care about concerts and such, but are dumb to how the organization is spending membership dues. There were a few like me that left, including one or two A-list bluegrass performers. The IBMA marches on, but it will be interesting to see what it will be like in five or so years as the organization becomes more woke. I don’t see too much negativity happening with the AMA as it moves in that direction.

So I leave the AMA. The only national music organization that I am currently a member is the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America, which has much smaller representation than the IBMA but is much more dedicated to the music. There are a few local groups that I belong to, such as the Southeast Michigan Bluegrass Music Association and the Michigan Fiddlers Association. For now, I will work harder with those groups to promote the music that I love.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Americana Music Bluegrass Music

YouTube Finds: Otis Gibbs, Mark O’Connor, Sam Bush

First off, I will be making a big announcement (at least to me) in next week’s blog, as I haven’t completed my actions yet. The announcement will be shocking to some, expected by others, but it is something that I feel that I need to do in my heart.

Now, let’s get to some quick business. I briefly mentioned it in my last blog, but I implore you to check out the Otis Gibbs channel on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYX2MTovE0vYjD8touqRH7Q)! I have been fortunate enough to hang out with Otis on occasion at previous AmericanaFests in Nashville. While a few of the videos are of his songs and performances, the truly enjoyable ones are of his interviews with people in the music industry. These people are not stars or business moguls. These are the roadies, back-up musicians, and technicians that have amazing stories about working with the big-time performers. They are filmed in a way that is less like a documentary and more like a barroom conversation. A great one is of bassist/producer Mark Fain talking about working with Tom Petty. Just about every one of the videos is a treasure, so you won’t be disappointed.

Another great YouTube channel is one by Marc O’Connor (https://www.youtube.com/user/markoconnor). Do I really need to tell you who Mark is? Besides being a phenomenon on the fiddle, he can put anyone to shame on mandolin and guitar as well. In fact, many of his recent videos showcase his guitar skills recorded for his Markology II album. There are also fiddle duets with his wife Maggie, some instructional tidbits based on his successful O’Connor Teaching Method, and some amazing live performances throughout the years. He also has some videos of classical violinists performing some of his compositions. Of course, you could never go wrong seeing Mark jamming with Tony Rice, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas and Mark Schatz.

Speaking of Sam Bush, he’s been loading up his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxoxShg3clxxwKg9nKQeHNw) with a lot of great videos of him jamming in his living room with guests like Ronnie McCoury, Tim O’Brien, Bryan Sutton and Jeff Hanna. Plus, there are a few vids of him discussing his admiration of Jethro Burns while holding Burns’ mandolin. Sam is one of those guys that you wish was your next-door neighbor. Over the fence, you would be talking music, baseball, and the weather. Sam is a treasure, to be sure.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bluegrass Music

Jimmy Martin: Trouble Even After Death

There’s no doubt, Jimmy Martin was a character. His presence onstage, his banter, his love for hunting, and his being very vocal about not being invited to the Grand Ole Opry are well-known in the bluegrass community. Some say that his brittle attitude rubbed many in the music industry the wrong way, which caused him to not get the recognition he deserved. Whatever the case, there is no denying that his singing was powerful, his songs are timeless in bluegrass, and he was probably the best rhythm guitarist that the genre ever knew.

Jimmy died in 2005, yet he is still talked about by bluegrass fans and musicians alike. Everyone seems to have some crazy Jimmy Martin story. Not many people would have their tombstone made years before death, showing all of his accomplishments, but Jimmy did.

Unfortunately, it seem that even after being departed for 15 years, fate still wants to take a swing at Jimmy. A recent story on the Bluegrass Today website states that during a March storm in the Nashville area, a large tree feel on Jimmy’s old house near Hermitage, which led to the decision that the entire house would be demolished. Nothing is left except the chimney and a pile of bricks. Jimmy’s family sold the property in 2014, and fortunately, no one was home at the time of the storm. An update to the story states that the family didn’t know it was once Jimmy’s house, but later turned it into a daycare center named after his band, The Sunny Mountain Boys.

Jimmy Martin’s Tennessee home demolished (updated)

If you have never seen the documentary on Jimmy, The King of Bluegrass, by all means watch it! You will laugh and cry at the same time. Filmed just a few years before his death, the viewer sees how hurt he is about not being fully accepted by the country music industry, despite all of his success bridging bluegrass and country during the 1950s and 60s. This tragic ending to his house seems like it is just one more nail in Jimmy’s legacy coffin, as if some evil spirit did not want Jimmy to be continually recognized.

Americana singer/songwriter Otis Gibbs has a YouTube channel where he talks about unique and weird happenings in the history of country, folk, bluegrass and Americana music. One highly entertaining video is his interview with Mike Bub, bluegrass bass player who has worked with Del McCoury among many others. Mike tells some amazing stories about Jimmy that will make you smile.

Jimmy did a stint up here in Detroit with Sonny and Bobby Osborne right after he left Bill Monroe. Lord, if I could ever step back in time, I would love to have been able to tune in to WJR and hear them playing live on the radio back in the mid 1950s. Jimmy was a regular on many country music radio shows, including the WWVA Wheeling Jamboree. However, he was never asked to be a member of the Grand Ole Opry, despite performing at the Ryman dozens of times. If the powers-that-be at the Opry followed the same standards now that they followed back then, none of today’s country performers would ever be asked to perform the Opry, let alone become a member.

One could ask any of the number of musicians that worked with Jimmy, and they would probably all tell you the same thing. He was a hard man to work for, but in the end, you became a much better musician. There are tons of other stories about his drinking, creating havoc, and hunting that could fill plenty of music history books. Jimmy Martin should be in the same American Legends category as Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, and Pecos Bill. Our society is much better off because he was once a part of it.

Chew on it and comment.

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Bluegrass Music

A Perfect Song #2: Flatt and Scruggs “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” (1949 Version)

It is considered by many to be the National Anthem of Bluegrass. Every good bluegrass band keeps it in its repertoire because it knows that all music fans, bluegrass or not, love the song. Every budding banjo player MUST learn it along the way, most playing it nuance-for-nuance like Earl. Flatt and Scruggs re-recorded it in the 1960s for the movie Bonnie and Clyde. The song fit the film perfectly.

However, it is the original 1949 recording for Mercury Records that true bluegrass fans adhere to. While the duo recorded a similar song “Bluegrass Breakdown” with Bill Monroe, Earl wanted one that defined the Foggy Mountain Boys. A change in chord structure and more emphasis on the banjo work made this song more popular as well as a bluegrass standard.

The arrangement is perfect – banjo solos for a few breaks, fiddle solo changes it up, then back and forth one more time until we end with the banjo wrapping it up with a “shave and a haircut” outro. No bridges or changes in keys. The G to Em chord change (although the tuning on this recording makes it sound more like it is in the key of G#) catches the listener’s ear. In this particular recording, Earl truly sounds like he knows what he is doing, yet it sounds improvised in many ways. You don’t really “hear” the rest of the band, you FEEL them! Lester’s rhythm guitar is more like a brush on a snare drum and hi-hat, until the end of each verse when his trademark G-run can be made out. The upright bass is definitely felt more than heard, but if it weren’t there, there would be a lot less drive to the song. Also, Earl only does two counts of lone banjo intro before the band kicks in. Usual arrangements give the banjo a full four counts. It makes one think that the band was caught off-guard with his playing right away. However, it sounds fantastic! Two minutes and forty seconds of pure energy!

What makes it unique is that it was recorded the way all recordings were done back then — with one microphone and the band standing around it, all the while maneuvering back and forth to let the soloist get closest to the mic. You can close your eyes and literally see them dancing around each other to get to the mic. That is the charm of the recording – everyone knowing his job to get the best recording possible. Recording engineering was in its youth. Studio engineers were more scientists than music aficionados. The mic went into a very primitive mixer, which was then wired into the cutter, which cut the music directly onto a wax disc. Any big mistake meant having to do the whole thing over again. Minor mistakes were often ignored as long as the results were satisfactory.

I also prefer this version over the 1960s version because it is so raw and untouched. The later version adds harmonica and other studio tricks to make it sound professional. The original version is just the band doing what they do best – performing live!

Which leads to listening to this particular recording. With the chord changes from G to Em and back, sometimes the guitar and bass go four counts on the Em, sometimes six counts. Occasionally the guitar goes fout counts while the bass stays on the E for six. Because the banjo and fiddle are so up-front, it really isn’t noticeable to the casual listener. However, it does tell a lot about how wild it must have been to first record this great song and everyone being slightly in his own world for a few moments. Today, most bands are pretty much sticklers to the four counts of Em, but I have always loved the six-count, as it makes the sone a lot less “pop” and more “rock.”

Yes, one could say that this is a precursor to rock-and-roll music, especially the emphasis on instrumental solos having short breaks to mix the overall song up a bit. There were tons of recordings of instrumental songs prior to this, but most stuck with simple arrangements – the soloist sticking to mimicking either the vocals or the main instrument, usually the fiddle. Here, Earl goes off on his own, creating breakneck-speed solos that could not be easily duplicated. The banjo rolls were innovative to say the least. Bill Monroe knew this when he had Earl join the Blue Grass Boys in 1945, and Lester and Earl knew how to make it a power to be reckoned with by 1949.

I have always loved this recording, but really knew how important and great it was a few years back. Eddie Stubbs was DJ-ing one of his late-night shows on WSM, and on the anniversary of the song’s 1949 recording, he played it on the air, then followed up with the statement, “Are there any questions?”. That to me says it all.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Americana Music Bluegrass Music

MerleFest/AmericanaFest/World of Bluegrass

September will prove to be a busy time for roots music, and the losers will be everyone involved.

For years, the AmericanaFest has happened in Nashville during the second full week of September, while the IBMA World of Bluegrass conference/festival takes place during the final week of September/first week of October. For some, it was a bit conflicting, but if one worked his/her vacation schedule right, both could be enjoyed. My previous job screwed me over the last three years I was there, so WOB was a no-go. Add to the fact that WOB was moved from Nashville to Raleigh, NC, which was a strain on driving 14 hours from Detroit, then 14 hours back.

This year, AmericanaFest has been moved to September 21-26, while WOB will be September 28-October 2. The move may be due to the fact that MerleFest, which is usually held in April, has been scheduled this year for September 16-19. So three different major roots-music festivals will be happening three weeks in a row in September. I have also been informed by a good friend in the music business that a popular European music conference is also scheduled during this time.

Now, we all know that last year as well as this Spring have been affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. Hundreds of festivals and thousands of concerts were cancelled. That hurt a lot of artists in the pocketbook. Both the AmericanaFest and WOB went virtual last year just to stay in touch with their fan base and business membership. Many artists did the same, hosting mini-concerts on Zoom or Facebook.

MerleFest lost out last year, being cancelled right at the start of the pandemic. This year, while the pandemic has been subsiding, the festival was not feasible for the usual April scheduling. Thus, the promoters and planners decided to schedule it for September. Well, now everyone is screwed.

Many fans enjoyed Merlefest in April, as it divided up the time long enough so that they could attend AmericanaFest and/or WOB in September. With all three festivals following each other in consecutive weeks, most of these fans are going to have to decide which ones to attend. Only the few privileged that are financially secure and can afford the time off, or the retired that have money available, will be able to attend more than one of these events.

I thoroughly enjoy MerleFest, but it is this event that is throwing a monkey wrench into the gears. It could have done what the others did and gone virtual for the year, or could have re-scheduled for dates not so close to AmericanaFest and WOB, perhaps in June or July. MerleFest is in North Carolina, as is WOB. Perhaps it could have been scheduled for early- or mid-October, being able to secure some of the WOB crowd for staying that extra weekend in the area.

As for me, I will only be attending AmericanaFest this year. My new job has limited vacation time available to me for September, and I have attended the conference for over 20 years. I have made numerous friends there, and have served as a volunteer in various capacities for the past 10 years. AmericanaFest already had some competition with a small roots-music festival in Bristol, TN every year, so this just hurts it even more.

The pandemic has screwed over a lot of people, businesses, and organizations financially the past year. This type of self-righteous scheduling only makes it worse.

Chew on it and comment.

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Bluegrass Music

A Perfect Song #1: Del McCoury Band “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”

This is the first of what I hope to be many blogs on recorded songs that I think are perfection or near perfection. They will vary in genre, but probably most in the bluegrass format. We start with a personal favorite, “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” by the Del McCoury Band.

The song – Written by folk-rock legend Richard Thompson, it tells the tale of a girl admiring a boy’s motorcycle. Good girl and bad boy fall in love. Bad boy can’t change his ways, and attempts to rob a store, and gets shot. On his deathbed, he gives her one last kiss and his motorcycle. Now, this is no ordinary motorbike. Manufactured from 1948 to 1952, it was the fastest production motorcycle of its time. There is a famous photo of racer Rollie Free riding one lying flat on his stomach wearing only swimming trunks and a helmet at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1948, setting the land speed record of 150 mph. There are only 19 known Black Lightning bikes in existence today. One sold in auction for $929,000 in 2018. The song is unique in that it does not have a chorus – just four long verses that tell the romantic story. It has been covered numerous times, but most prior to 2001 have stayed close to Thompson’s original with a minimal guitar and vocals. DMcB made it a bluegrass standard.

The band – Del McCoury has been a Blue Grass Boy, and has led his own band for nearly 50 years. In the mid-1990s, he formed his present band with his two sons, Rob on banjo and Ronnie on mandolin. Adding Jason Carter on fiddle and Mike Bub on bass, this band became more than a powerhouse. They were THEEE bluegrass band that no one dared challenged. When they performed, usually around one or two microphones the old-fashioned way, it is magic. Everyone of them has won an award for their musical work, as well as the band being honored numerous times. Mike left the band around 2006, but every album that this lineup recorded is an textbook example of how a modern traditional bluegrass band should sound.

The recording – DMcB’s version is the lead-off track for the band’s 2001 album Del and the Boys. With the banjo kick-off, it automatically becomes a head-turner. Rob is not using a standard G tuning on his banjo. Instead, he uses a Concert tuning, which sounds a bit darker and works well with songs in the key of C (like this one). That 10-note intro just sounds like from another bluegrass planet. It is gold! Once the band kicks in, it is a diesel train coming at you full-force. DMcB takes a standard bluegrass instrument lineup and turns it into a wall of sound. Many bluegrass bands have strived for this sound, but few can achieve it.

When Del sings, it is soulful. Soulful like Otis Redding. Very few in bluegrass can even come close. That Pennsylvania-meets-Nashville drawl makes it even more special. His accents are slightly different than Thompson’s original. Del is a master at bluegrass vocals, knowing exactly what fits. He is a teacher at it without even knowing. A distinction to the recording is that there is no typical bluegrass harmony vocals. The band has the goods for it – Ronnie and Jason have excellent harmony voices and have done the job many times. However, the song is a story with no repeats, and it forces you to listen to the narrator. Extra voices would only be a distraction.

The lead instrumental parts are perfectly fitting into the song. Expert-sounding without being flashy. Jason’s fiddle and Ronnie’s mandolin could not be any more exact for the song. During the third verse when Del sings about the boy James getting shot, Rob kicks into a 7th chord that puts emphasis onto the scene, which makes the listener pay even more attention. Then in the fourth and final verse, it begins with just Del singing and Rob’s banjo. The production lets the listener know in a musical way that James is breathing his last without having to listen to the lyrics. However, the lyrics are important, and Del’s vocal tone makes you listen to him. Overall, DMcB is extremely successful in taking a tragic story and putting it into a foot-tapping mide-tempo bluegrass song.

The results – this recording is 20 years old, and is still a mainstay with bluegrass radio programs. It has achieved that classic status, in the same category as Bill Monroe’s “Molly and Tenbrooks” and Jimmy Martin’s “Sunny Side of the Mountain.” It has become a jam standard, more so accepted because it doesn’t require harmony vocal (although some banjo players may get frustrated having to re-tune). For bluegrass fans, those first few banjo notes are that same as the first chords of the Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar.” It defines a certain sound of the genre, one that fans know that they can go to for definition. DMcB has continually put out excellent material in the two decades since this release, but this one song is a “must hear” at every band performance. It is truly four minutes of perfection.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Americana Music Bluegrass Music Musicians

Bluegrass Unlimited/Billy Sheehan/MerleFest

A short but sweet blog.

While I am still on the fence regarding the Bluegrass Unlimited magazine’s format (https://luegra.design.blog/2020/11/05/the-new-bluegrass-unlimited-magazine-some-thoughts/), I truly appreciate the YouTube channel that the publication has established. Every few days they post a new video that is either a quick lesson on how to improve your playing on guitar, bass, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, or dobro, or it is a jam track. These consist of standard bluegrass instrumentals with a lead guitar handling the first verse, then followed by a few verses of just rhythm guitar, bass, and rhythm mandolin. Perfect for practicing your own lead work! Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxNYVomNcDI-5mrOy3KgoHA.

Another likeable YouTube channel is the one set up by bassist Billy Sheehan. While I’m not big on “bass guitar as lead instrument,” I do know that Billy is one of the top bass players out there, and if he says something about bass playing, YOU LISTEN! His channel has only been up for a few months, but the videos up are worth watching. There are a few performance videos, but there are also some great videos on what he does to work on his basses to make them play better. Like me, he likes to get his hands dirty by working on things like setting up his guitars, setting intonation, and adjusting parts for better playability. He’s personable, humble, and appreciative of his success. Definitely check out his channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/BassPlayerBilly.

MerleFest is back on for 2021! Although the festivals is usually slated for the month of April, this year it has been moved to September 16-19. Unfortunately, anyone planning to attend AmericanaFest will have to either choose between the two, or hope that his/her boss will give them two weeks vacation. The Chris Austin Songwriting Contest is also on, with entries being accepted April 15-June 15. For more information, go to http://merfest.org/.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Americana Music Bluegrass Music

Book Review: Bluegrass Word Book / AmericanaFest

The next few weeks of blogs will be erratic in posting and size. I started a new job this week, and it has been controlling my time for the most part. Hopefully things will regulate soon.

So I picked up a copy of Slim Richey’s Bluegrass Word Book, edited by A. Stricklin (Ridge Runner Publications). I wanted to go over some of the pros and cons of this book to see if it is of some interest to beginning bluegrass players.

For $6.95 cover price, there is a lot of information within the pages. There are 294 songs listed. However, they are squeezed into 50 pages, so with five or six songs per page, the type is very small and hard to read. It looks as if it was cut and pasted the old-fashioned way, because the font changes a number of times. It is copyrighted 1977, so it most likely was physically cut and pasted onto sheets, then photocopied in place and printed by the printer.

The page numeration is completely off. The standardized way to number pages is odd numbers on the right-hand side, the even-numbered pages to the left. This book is reversed, and the table of contents is on the back cover, which is also printed small and hard to read. Extremely confusing to follow.

As far as song selection, this is a plus. Most bluegrass standards are here, along with some country standards and many gospel songs that fit into the bluegrass vein. Lots of selections from the catalogues of Bill Monroe, Reno & Smiley, Jimmy Martin, and Flatt & Scruggs. In addition, there is a load of public domain traditional songs that constantly come up in bluegrass and old-time jam sessions.

The book only contains lyrics and some chord charts. This can be helpful to basic players, especially bassists, but many of the songs are listed in keys that are not normally used. Thank goodness for capos! There are also a few songs with questionable chord changes.

In short, this is a decent quick-reference book for lyrics of the most popular bluegrass jam songs. Other than that, because of the small print, screw-up of the page numbers, and occasional strange chord changes, it should probably be passed on by more veteran bluegrass jammers. There are two more volume additions to this book, but I will probably not consider them. Sorry.

Good News! The AmericanaFest in Nashville is on for September 22-25! Last year’s cancellation of the live event due to the pandemic forced the Americana Music Association to go virtual on the web (like so many other conferences). I wasn’t too thrilled about the virtual seminars, attended a few, but did not walk away feeling better about the experience. I am sure that there will be many restrictions in place, but as I have been attending as a volunteer or participant for the past 20 years, getting back to seeing live shows and networking face-to-face (even if they are masked) will be truly welcomed. Go to http://www.americanamusic.org for more details.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Americana Music Bluegrass Music Music Industry

Billy Strings & The Grammys / Tom Stevens RIP

The Grammys were last week, and guitarist Billy Strings won the Best Bluegrass Album Category for his recording Home. I don’t watch the Grammys, but I congratulate him winning the award. He totally deserves the recognition.

So as expected, there would be those that claim an amount of unfairness. When the news was posted on the Bluegrass Today website (https://bluegrasstoday.com/2021-bluegrass-grammy-winner-announced/), there were a few that stated that, not only was Billy Strings NOT bluegrass, but neither were the other nominees. That list included:
Man On Fire – Danny Barnes
To Live In Two Worlds, Vol 1 – Thomm Jutz
North Carolina Songbook – Steep Canyon Rangers
Home – Billy Strings
The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Vol 1 – Various Artists

The complaint was that there were no “real” bluegrass artists in the list. Of course, the debate began, with about an even amount of Billy Strings is/isn’t bluegrass. I sided with the “is” party, mostly because I feel that I have a bigger acceptance of what the format entails. There will always be the debate of what instruments can or cannot be included in a bluegrass ensemble. Some feel that if there is no banjo, or if there is an electric bass, or if there is any type of percussion or keyboard, then it is not bluegrass.

I look at bluegrass not as a structure, but as a feeling. It doesn’t matter what kind of bass is playing in the background, or if there is a banjo on the song. A bluegrass song moves me in a different way that a rock song, or a blues song, or a jazz song moves me. Doc Watson played guitar either solo or with his son Merle. What Doc kicked out may not be bluegrass to some, but it sure was to me.

My problem with what one person said on the discussion was that others knew nothing about bluegrass, including calling out another participant who has won numerous awards for his bluegrass songwriting and journalism work. This person continued to state certain ideas, then a few entries later would say that he never said that. He continued to post statements that only a few people know what bluegrass is, and that others just follow bad examples.

Bluegrass music, in fact, all music, is not mathematics. There is no definite answer to what is good or bad. There is no definite answer to what bluegrass music is. As I stated in that discussion, no one person, no small group of people, not even organizations such as the IBMA or SPGBMA, can truly define bluegrass music. It is up to the listener. There can “perhaps” be some directional suggestions, such as “may have a three-finger banjo picking” or “lack of drums,” but those should only be suggestions. The Steep Canyon Rangers have a percussionist, yet their songs have a groove that is definitely more bluegrass than any other format. The Lonesome River Band often uses an electric bass. I haven’t heard a single LRB album that cannot be considered bluegrass.

Maybe what Billy Strings is playing, or Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull, Mile Twelve, or Hawktail isn’t nuance for nuance a Bill Monroe version of a song, but I would hate for that to be so. Do not clip the wings of the young.

—

I just learned today while writing this that Tom Stevens, bassist for the Long Ryders (one of the best and most underrated bands of the 1980s), passed away in late January. I don’t keep in touch much with my connections in the old days of cowpunk/Paisley Underground, so I am disappointed in myself that I am just learning the news.

If you never heard of the Long Ryders, you should have, especially if you are a fan of the Americana music format. The band was keeping alive that country-rock/electric folk sound in between the days of the Byrds/Flying Burrito Brothers/Gram Parsons and the early stages of Americana/alt-country of Uncle Tupelo/Jayhawks. They had their fan base in California where they headquartered (although members were form different parts of the country), had cult followings around most of the rest of the US, but were highly revered in Europe. There were a few bassists that passed through the ranks, but Tom was the one that remained closest. He wrote many of the band’s songs as well as shared lead vocals with guitarists Sid Griffin and Stephen McCarthy. His bass playing was totally in the pocket. Tom left the band in 1988, and the band broke up shortly thereafter. They reunited in 2004 and 2019, put out another album, and toured the US and Europe. I stayed in touch with Tom for a while in the 80s and 90s, but as with most relationships in the business, they sometimes drift apart.

Unfortunately, I was not able to see the reunion show here in Detroit two years ago, as I was out of town at a music conference. I am still kicking myself for that. I was able to talk s friend into going to the show, and he was totally floored by the band. They were not flashy, but were straight-ahead rock-n-roll. The band also had a great sense of humor. I was a member of the Long Ryders Fan Club, and upon the breakup, the band sent their fans a cassette called Metallic B.O. (tip of the hat to Iggy Pop), which contained a number of their outtakes, demos, and banter that is just hilarious. I still have that cassette, and I cherish it.

Tom did some solo recordings as well as appeared on other artists’ albums (a lot of his stuff is available on YouTube and other sites). He moved back to his home state of Indiana, got a computer degree and job, raised a family, and became a regular guy for the most part. I do hope that he knows how much his art and talent was appreciated by those who listened. You will be dearly missed, Tom.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bluegrass Music Bluegrass vocals Singing

Bluegrass Harmony Singing Part 2: You Gotta Work On It To Be Good!

Last week’s blog talked a bit about harmony vocals in bluegrass music. It truly is one of the best facets of bluegrass music, yet is the one that is worked on the least by amateur and semi-professional bluegrass musicians.

There are a few video resources available for purchase out there. One of the first videos that concentrated on bluegrass harmonies is The Nashville Bluegrass Band: Vocal Harmony Workshop, available through Homespun Video (www.homespun.com). While it is great to hear and “see” (via the included booklet and if you can read music) the harmonies from this fantastic bluegrass vocal group. The downside is that there is not real instruction on “how” to get to those harmony notes.

Homespun also puts out two videos on bluegrass singing by the best in the field, Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent (Bluegrass and Gospel Duet Singing and Dailey & Vincent Teach Bluegrass and Gospel Quartet Singing). I have not seen either of these videos, so I cannot critique them as yet. Unfortunately, Homespun has made most of its videos as download-only. Call me old-fashioned, but I like to have the DVD so that I can play it on my TV with the bigger speakers and not on my laptop.

Of course, YouTube has its share of videos covering harmony vocals. Likewise, most of them seem to talk about what to sing without discussing “how” to get there. One recent video put out by bluegrass producer/engineer Stephen Mougin comes about the closest to good instruction for harmony singing in bluegrass. He talks about having to know the melody before attempting a harmony (good point!), and he has the harmony singers (actually himself cut into three images on the screen) to move their fingers up and down to the melody so that the harmony follows the same pattern. However, this video, along with all of the others that I have seen on YT, take for granted that the harmony singer has a good enough ear to immediately follow along in whatever key the song is played. Still, this one is worth watching for some pointers.

There are also a number of book/CD/audio download resources available as well. I have not checked out many of them, so I cannot be a judge to their pros and cons. I guess what I can suggest is that, if you can afford to purchase one or two of these resources, go ahead. I do have tons of instructional books and videos at my house covering various musical instruments and such. My logic has always been affordability-meets-availability. That is to say, many of the videos that I have secured I got on the cheap either through clearance or used. Yeah, I have a few heavy metal guitar videos that I got for a buck. I probably watched them once and never again. But I figured that for the cost, I may actually pick up a pointer or two to transfer to my regular guitar playing. You can never learn too much.

Getting back to bluegrass harmonies, there is a need for video instruction to show ALL aspects of the learning process. Along with knowing the melody and paralleling the melodic pattern, the instruction should also cover some bit of actual theory. I covered this a bit in the last blog, but here it is again. If singing in the key of G, one should know the three notes that make up that tonic chord (in this case, G, B, and D). If the song has more than one chord (as it most likely will), one should know the three notes of each of those chords. Moreover, one should also know the diatonic notes for the key that the song is in. In the case of the key of G, the seven notes that will work with the song with that G chord are G, A, B, C, D, E, and F#. Same goes for the other chords within the song. And this is not even going near the variations of those chords, like 7ths, diminished, major 7ths, and so on (way too much to throw in here!).

One concept that is rarely covered (do I dare say, never?) is the idea of vocalizing hard consonants while singing harmony. You may hit the right note when harmonizing the vowel “ah,” but if that word ends with a T, and all of the singers come down on that consonant at different times, even milliseconds apart, it will sound like an accident instead of an artistic moment. For singers working together years and years, that technique of coming down on that consonant at the same time becomes natural. But it takes time, lots of it, to get there. In the meantime, I always suggest that harmony singers allow the lead singer to stress the hard consonants (B, D, G, K, P, Q, T). If harmony-singing a word with one of those consonants, perhaps approaching it softly, or not enunciating it at all (instead of singing “darling,” sing “arlin” and let the lead singer hit the D and G) may come across better to the audiences’ ears.

The best way to fully get to know how to sing harmonies is practice, practice, practice! In videos discussing bluegrass harmonies, they will say that there are the lead, baritone, and tenor singers. Concepts like that are not as important as having a good ear, knowing what note to hit, and where to go with the next note. Find a recording of a song with a lead singer, learn the key and what notes to work with as a harmony, and record yourself singing along to that recording to analyze the results. Sweet harmonies take a lot of work, but the audience will appreciate it.

Chew on it and comment.

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