Tag: Bryan Sutton

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Bluegrass Guitar Bluegrass Music

Billy Strings & Bryan Sutton “Live at the Legion”

In last week’s blog, I talked about a bluegrass album that I was not too thrilled about. This week, I will be raving about an album that is absolutely fantastic!

Last April, bluegrass flatpickers Billy Strings and Bryan Sutton performed an intimate duet show at Nashville’s American Legion Post 82. They did two sets in one day consisting of bluegrass and old-time standards that have been a part of most parking lot jams over the past few decades. They have each performed some of them at their own shows, and almost all are recognized as being previously recorded by the likes of Doc Watson, Tony Rice, Clarence White and Norman Blake.

A few months back, I got word that the concerts were recorded and would soon be released as a double album by Reprise Records. I immediately put in a pre-order, and finally received the package a few weeks ago, I have been thoroughly enjoying these discs, going through each one at least five times over the past few days, and am just now sitting down to tell you about it.

Strings and Sutton are geniuses on the acoustic guitar. Everyone who reads my blogs know how much I love and appreciate Strings’ work. Sutton has been a go-to bluegrass guitarist for about 30 years, starting with his tenure in Ricky Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder, being on the A-list in the Nashville studios, and serving as guitarist in the re-formed Hot Rize, replacing the greatly missed Charles Sawtelle. Both gentlemen kept meeting up with each other at various bluegrass festivals, and would partner in after-hours jams as well as sit in on each other’s performances. Last year, when both of them had a break in touring, they decided to quickly book a venue for a day and do some picking together for a live audience.

Two of my favorite albums of all time, of any genre, have been the two Blake & Rice recordings released by Rounder records several decades ago. The sound of two acoustic guitars in the hands of masters working off of each other is Heaven to my ears. Live at the Legion has been that for me, with the added enjoyment of it being performed in front of a live audience. There is that beautiful intimacy that comes from a live acoustic performance, along with the between-song banter that is most definitely charming. It is the next best thing to being there.

A large majority of the songs are standards with bluegrass musicians, particularly guitarists and fiddlers. There are wonderful interpretations of “Nashville Blues,” “Walk On, Boy,” “Salt Creek/Big Sandy River,” and “Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar.” Also included are some folk standards such as “Tom Dooley” and “Darling Corey,” as well as the Bob Dylan classic “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.”

Both players give it their best, and never try to outdo each other. There is no need to, as they ave both proven themselves to be the best at their work, and hold each other in high esteem as musicians. Both have always paid musical tribute to the aforementioned greats of bluegrass guitar, and both also have set up their own original expertise. Working off of each other on these discs is something that every guitarist, be they bluegrass or other genre, should listen to and pay attention. While the songs and even presentation have been performed and recorded similarly before, this album is so amazingly fresh to the ear of anyone wanting to hear what true bluegrass musical collaboration can be.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bluegrass Guitar

The Art of Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar

With my hands starting to feel their age (the pointer finger on my left hand is starting to get arthritic), I have to re-train myself in playing guitar. As I am still planning on going to the SPBGMA conference in Nashville in January, I know that I will be participating in some motel room and hallway jamming.

Now my lead guitar skills have pretty much dried up, as they weren’t that great to begin with, but I do still work on my rhythm guitar skills. I try to go back to the basics every few months by starting off slow with a metronome (about 70 beats per minute), then each day bring up the tempo a few notches until I get to about 120 bpm, which is pretty much the most common tempo for most bluegrass songs in 2/4 time.

I also occasionally refer to a DVD that was put out years ago by Musician’s Workshop, The Art of Bluegrass Rhythm Guitar with Chris Jones. He has a pretty laid-back approach to working on the rhythm chops, and while stressing the common “boom-chick” strum, he shows modifications, as well as some more modern strums that work with a 4/4 time signature.

After so many years playing electric guitar in punk and alt-country projects, and even after the past nearly two decades of concentrating on acoustic music, simple bluegrass rhythm guitar is really not that simple. The band (without a drummer) relies on that rhythm guitar to help keep a steady tempo. That basic “boom-chick” strum works with both the bass downbeat as well as the chop from the mandolin. I have worked with a lot of banjo players that have very little control of self-timing while doing their Scruggs rolls, and a rhythm guitarist with great control of tempo is a life saver to a bluegrass band.

I decided to check out what could be found on YouTube for bluegrass rhythm guitar. The search pulled out a few videos, and it seemed that each video had not only a different approach to the task, but even different fingerings altogether. Looking at the basic G chord, which in most beginner guitar books shows the first finger fretting the A string at the 2nd fret (creating a B note), the second finger fretting the low E string at the 3rd fret (creating a G note), and the third finger fretting the high E string at the 3rd fret (again, a G note). A few videos show a different position, with the first finger either muting the A string, or not touching the fingerboard at all and letting the second finger “mute” that A string, Then, the fourth finger frets the B string at the 3rd fret,(creating a D note). What this does is create a G5 chord, which removes the 3rd note (B) from the chord and only gives you G and D notes. This has a chime-like sound, which some bluegrassers prefer. Not me, I like the full sound of the whole major chord. One person actually stated in his video that this G5 is the only chord that a bluegrass rhythm guitarist should be using. Really?

Another video had the instructor forming a basic G chord, but with every strum, he would hammer on the low E string to the G note with the downbeat. It sounded less like a bluegrass strum and more like a surf-rock rhythm! One video states that the “boom” bass note should be stressed more, while another video states that the “chick” strum should be the emphasis. It seems that if you watch 10 videos on bluegrass rhythm guitar, there will be 11 opinions!

I will not get into the do’s and don’ts of bluegrass rhythm guitar. My one complaint about almost all of the videos is that they talk as if the typical bluegrass song (with exceptions of waltzes and those in quick 6/8 time) are all 4/4 time. I prefer to think of these as 2/4 time signatures, since the “boom-chick” action is two counts. Most folk and rock rhythms following a straight pattern usually fall into the 4/4 time signature, with a “boom-a-chick-a” pattern. Of all of the videos that I watched on this topic, I feel that Bryan Sutton says it the best on working with this rhythm pattern.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bluegrass Music

Today’s Live Sound Engineering Ain’t What It Used To Be (Or Am I Just Getting Old?)

This past Thursday, my buddy Ken and I went to see Bela Fleck and his My Bluegrass Heart touring band at the Detroit Opera House. Bela is a living legend on the banjo, and his touring band is the cream of the crop as well, with Sierra Hull on mandolin, Michael Cleveland on fiddle, and Bryan Sutton on guitar among others. Special guests who warmed up for the show were dobro master Jerry Douglas and mandolin god Sam Bush.

First, the good parts. Having Douglas and Bush warm up with their respective touring bands was phenomenal! Both are beyond professionals as far as musicians, and know how to talk to their audiences. Bush always looks like he’s having fun on stage, and has no problem making light of bad situations, such as when his fiddle was feeding back too much to play properly. Both he and Douglas were on their game as far as soloing, and their band members were just as supportive.

The same can be said about all of the members in Fleck’s troupe. No screw-ups during solos, and everyone worked with each other. One of the personal highlights for me was when Fleck pulled out John Hartford’s banjo to play on a beautiful song. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a John Hartford fanatic, and his banjo has a very distinctive bassy tone that I have never heard from any other five-string.

Now comes my disappointments with the show:

  • Way too long on a weeknight. I’m getting old, and probably 3/4 of the crowd there was hovering around my age as well. The show started just after 7:30 pm, but Ken and I left at 10:30 barely able to keep our eyes open, so we missed the all-star jam at the end with Douglas and Bush joining the band. Those who stayed surely got their money’s worth, but I just cannot sty up late any more on a weeknight, knowing that I have a rough day at work the next morning.
  • Lousy sound mix. I am not sure that the Detroit Opera House is meant for that type of music. Douglas’ and Bush’s bands were mic’d as well as running direct into either amps or the mixing board. Fleck’s band all just used microphones. Either way, everything sounded muddy and awash. The electric guitar in Douglas’ band sounded like a blanket was covering the amp. When Fleck and his band came on stage, the mix was horrible! It was like the sound engineer did not have a clue. Now granted, Ken and I were in the upper balcony, and it could have been mixed for the main floor seating, but there was no clear distinction between soloists and backup playing. I was watching Sutton and Hull, and both of them had the smarts to back off from the mic when not soloing. Still, it was getting stressful to listen to!

Both Ken and I used to do live sound work for bands years ago, back when you manually adjusted volume and EQ by sliding or turning knobs on a mixing board. Most live shows today use computer tablets to adjust levels, which I have find to be a terrible alternative to the ear. Good sound engineers have certain “touch” to the sliders that work. Moreover, many times I feel that the engineers don’t adjust to the rooms. During a soundcheck, the room is usually empty, save the musicians and engineer. However, once the room fills up for the show, the crowd makes the room acoustics totally different. The bodies soak up a lot of the high end of the sound, and reverberations are a scramble from the main floor to the reflections near the ceiling. I truly think that today’s sound engineers do not study the science of acoustics, and just go for one sound, hoping that nothing feeds back.

My ears got burned out years ago doing live sound, and I quit as soon as I realized that all bands sounded the same to me. I would occasionally help out my friends at Rock City Eatery when they had a band play at their restaurant, but that was as a favor and not as a job. Plus, as Ken commented to me at the show, I do not miss doing the roadie work of winding cables and pulling up duct tape from the stage. I know that live sound engineering is not an easy job, but to be good at it, a person has to study it and practice just like a musician has to practice his/her instrument.

Her is a clip from that show someone in the audience recorded (which, by the way, they asked people not to do).

Chew on it and comment.

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