Live Music – Luegra

Where Have All of the Bluegrass Fans Gone?

Last evening, I went to the Kentuckians of Michigan Lodge in Romulus, Michigan to see Fast Track, a bluegrass band consisting of players formerly of the Bluegrass Cardinals, Continental Divide, and the Rarely Herd to name a few. The lodge and association are known in the local bluegrass community for hosting many touring bluegrass acts as well as some local country artists.

Now bluegrass shows are not that common in the Detroit area, and with summer coming to a close, area festivals are not readily available. Add to that many festivals have permanently closed up. So when a bluegrass show is available, one would think that there would be a decent crowd.

Unfortunately, the audience number was sparse. Maybe 50 people, including a few lodge staff members. Now there a few factors that affected the low attendance. The show was booked only a few weeks ago, as Fast Track was actually heading to Ontario for a festival during the weekend and probably wanted to squeeze in a Friday night show where they could. Also, the K of M does not heavily promote the shows that they present, usually just posting the announcement on its website and Facebook page.

However, good bluegrass fans keep their eyes open and their ears to the ground. I don’t have a Facebook page, but I still check the internet at least once per week for shows in my area. While I haven’t been to The Ark in Ann Arbor since before the pandemic, I still check out the website to see what is coming up.

And that leads to another problem – the pandemic. That was over two years of panic among the masses, the closing of venues, banning socializing, and loss of personal communication. With that, people stopped going to see bands, especially at smaller venues, and bands stopped touring, either limiting performances to internet streaming or even disbanding due to no income. When the COVID bans were lifted, people had found other entertainment, basically continuing to stay at home.

Oh, there were live shows to go see. However, it strikes me that people will not go to a small bluegrass (or most any other music format) show for $15.00, yet will pay hundreds/thousands of dollars to go see Taylor Swift at a nosebleed seat and be surrounded by thousands of sweaty, heavy-breathing individuals holding up their iPhones to film this moment. Now, I will be the first to say that I am glad that someone like Billy Strings can fill a large venue and give a fantastic live performance. He is a phenomenal guitarist, and humbly pays tribute to his bluegrass roots during his shows. But how many of these “bluegrass” fans will then go to a local venue in the next few weeks to go see a touring bluegrass band like Fast Track? Probably close to zero.

The post-pandemic apathy of music fans has driven another nail into the live-music coffin. Instead of people going out to spend a few bucks to see what is happening on the music scene, the thought is to save up a few week’s wages to go see that one special act that everyone is talking about. Back when I was in punk and alt-rock bands in the 80s, we used to go to plenty of shows to see what bands were out there, thinking that we may be witnessing the next-big-thing in one of these dives. Today, we wait for the media to tell us what is good and what we should spend out money on. This concept has always been around, but it has exploded over the past few years.

Other than Billy, Rhonda Vincent, and a very few other bluegrass acts, most bluegrass performers have other jobs, and only tour during most weekends. I am sure all of them would love to be making a living playing the music that they love, but it is near impossible, and a lot of it has to do with the music-loving(?) public. The same liberal people that claim there should be a more fair distribution of wealth will make sure that Taylor Swift is a multi-millionaire while so many talented musicians still have to paint houses, dig ditches, and bartend.

Bluegrass fans take note: While I am glad that you helped someone like Billy Strings achieve big success, you should also take the time to search out smaller bluegrass shows, especially ones that are not at festivals, in your area and attend those as well. And you Billy Strings fans that think you know bluegrass music, then how about going out and seeing other bands, especially the more traditional ones. Billy would be the first to tell you that.

Chew on it and comment.

“And Bring Your Own PA!”

As I continue to clean out my house, there are more artifacts from my past that make me reminisce about why I became a musician. One of the items that I am cleaning up and looking to sell is a small PA system.

Back in the mid 1980s, when everyone was forming a band, one of the stipulations was that someone in the band had to own a decent PA system. You needed it to practice the vocals, and more importantly, you need one to get a gig many times. Bar owners were willing to let any four kids with guitars and drums take a corner of the bar up for a night, thinking that they would bring in their friends who would drink and spend money. However, only established live music bars usually had a PA system to provide. Most dive bars told the band to bring their own.

Of course, to prove my worth as a reliable musician, I made sure that I had a small one handy. It served its purpose for the small 50-person dives, but for any larger bar that didn’t have a PA, you either looked to do a shared booking with some other band that did have a better PA, or you lost the gig. Back then, I had a mini-truck that I could haul a whole PA as well as my gear and a drum set around. I traded the truck days for a subcompact about the time that I left the electric band life for playing bluegrass.

Why I kept the PA system I don’t really know. Either I figured that one day I would need it for a gig, as if I was ever going to play in a band again, or was just too lazy to pull it out of my attic. The PA speakers were the biggest concern, in more ways than one. The two that I have were from the 80s, probably from Radio Shack, that I know that I bought used from someone. Covered in gray carpeting, they have 12-inch woofers. One has the original radial tweeter, and if I remember correctly, the other one had a blown tweeter that I replaced with a horn and some plywood. These are the small venue size PA speakers meant for basements or small dive bars, handling probably 100-150 watts total.

I have a few variants that I used for the mixer/amp configuration. The most useful proved to be a four-channel Kustom PA head. Small in size, 80 watts, it was easy to carry around. The downside was if I needed more than four microphones. I do remember connecting a six-channel ROSS mixer from the 70s to it for more flexibility, but it started to look like a mad scientist setup after a while. I also have a few power amps around that I would hard-wire into the system if I needed more power, but I do know that I had to either borrow or rent out larger speakers for those gigs.

The same situation was with monitors. I have a few homemade ones along with a compact Peavey pair that I would also use as main speakers for really small/solo acoustic gigs. I would get lots of snide remarks about my mismatched equipment, but I always said the same thing back: “Next time, YOU bring the PA!”

Finally, microphones and cords. I have well over a dozen dynamic mics laying around now, even after selling off some over the past few years. I have put more on Craigslist, hoping to clean house a bit. As for cords, those have always worn out or shorted out faster than you could buy new ones. I was a bit of a wiz with a soldering iron, so I could repair some of them, but not many. As for mic stands, those would occasionally disappear at gigs (i.e., get stolen) to the point where I was tired of replacing them. Over the years, I probably had 20 or so in my arsenal, and now I have two or three.

I really don’t ever see myself performing live again, especially with a band, in which I would need a PA system. I laugh because the bar scene has shrunk to about 10 percent of what it was when I was in my 20s playing in punk bands. I don’t miss much of it, especially working with other personalities. However, there are some memories within those PA speakers that will never go away.

Chew on it and comment.