Scanning through other WordPress blogs, I came across this and it melted my heart:
They are the Sister Servants of the Eternal Word. Their convent is the Casa Maria Retreat House in Birmingham, Alabama. They have a number of prayer and inspirational videos on their website (https://sisterservants.org/), but this one takes the cake as far as inspirational AND toe-tapping.
It makes me think about bluegrass music and its religious connections. While so much of bluegrass Gospel music comes from the Baptist and Methodist themes, a song like “I’ll Fly Away” seems to have no religious border, especially with the Judeo-Christian sects. I have heard this song and “Down to the River to Pray” (both are heard on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack) in a Roman Catholic church that I have attended. I have also heard other songs with Southern Gospel leanings during Catholic mass. Of course, a song like “Amazing Grace” cuts across all barriers and is performed regularly even in secular settings, along with Hank Williams’ classic “I Saw the Light.”
It got me to thinking. The International Bluegrass Music Association has been going crazy with implementing diversity into its fold. They are trying to attract more minorities, including women, African-Americans, and the LGBTQ-whatever else to listen to and perform bluegrass music. This sucking up to the liberal fold is one of the reasons that I left the IBMA – worrying more about who they don’t have listening to the music instead of supporting those that do listen. So, how would they react to a group of Roman Catholic nuns performing bluegrass music? Would that be “diverse” enough for them, or would it be something that they could not handle? In my honest opinion, they would probably ignore it or even purposely brush it off due to the Catholic Church’s views on certain topics.
The IBMA has changed dramatically in the past five years. The people in charge seem to be more concerned with being part of a political move toward the left rather than promoting and preserving the original ideals of the music. Bluegrass music was always firmly rooted in Christian values, and those have gone by the wayside in order to appease the vocal leftists. Bill Monroe is probably turning over in his grave.
As for me, I do hope that the Sister Servants do consider putting out such a bluegrass album in the future.
So the 2020 International Bluegrass Music Association’s 31st Annual Awards nominees have been announced. I won’t go into them big here; you can take a look at them at https://bluegrasstoday.com/2020-ibma-award-nominees-announced/ . However, one thing that I do want to address is the Hall of Fame inductees, specifically two of the three that truly deserve more recognition than they have gotten from the bluegrass community.
First is New Grass Revival. Sam Bush started this band back in the early 1970s, and while there have been a number of great musicians that have served time in the group, its most famous lineup is of mandolinist Bush, bassist John Cowan, banjoist Bela Fleck, and guitarist Pat Flynn. During their tenure in the band, these guys made listeners from all different genres come to love bluegrass! They were amazing soloists, Cowan and Bush sang like their lives depended on it, and they could kick anyone’s ass when it came to live performances! Their audiences ranged from old traditionalists to mohawked punk rockers. Leon Russell took them on tour with him in 1980. Each album they put out reflected their approach with one foot in old school, the other foot aimed at the moon! What other band could cover Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t That Peculiar” and Bill Monroe’s “Wicked Path of Sin” and make it all sound like their own as well as showing respect to each original artist? They gave the progressive “newgrass” format a whole lotta class!
Unfortunately, they decided to call it quits in 1989, right when they finally achieved some chart success with “Callin’ Baton Rouge.” Garth Brooks respected them so much that he asked the band to regroup for his 1993 recording of the song.
Their 1986 self-titled album is still in heavy rotation on my CD player and is definitely one of my Top 20 of all time favorites. Their original albums are hard to come by, even in used bins. There are a few different “Best Of” compilations floating around, so be sure to grab one if you don’t have anything by NGR.
Second is the Johnson Mountain Boys. What NGR was to progressive bluegrass in the 1980s, the Johnson Mountain Boys was to neo-traditional bluegrass. While other bands were dressing casual in blue jeans on stage, the Boys dressed as if they stepped out of a time machine from the 1940s. They approached each of their songs, whether it was an original or a cover, with the same attitude that Bill Monroe or Flatt & Scruggs would use. Formed in the mid-1970s by guitarist/vocalist Dudley Connell, other notable members included Eddie Stubbs on fiddle, Tom Adams on banjo, David McLaughlin on mandolin and Marshall Wilborn on bass. Like NGR, they had their big break about the time they decided to break up when their live album At the Old Schoolhouse was nominated for a Grammy in 1988. Fortunately, they re-formed a little while later and recorded another Grammy-nominated album Blue Diamond in 1993 before calling it quits for a second time.
After the 1996 final breakup, members secured various music jobs. Connell works with the Seldom Scene as well as worked for Folkway Records. Eddie Stubbs still handles the weekday evening hours DJ-ing on WSM in Nashville. The band was signed to Rounder Records, a label that respects all of its artists, so fortunately music of the Boys’ back catalog is still available. Anyone wanting to know how to effectively cover a bluegrass standard and not make it sound amateurish should listen to an album from the Johnson Mountain Boys.
There are a number of reasons why I am no longer a member of the International Bluegrass Music Association. I won’t get into the full story here; it would take five or six blogs, at the very least. However, one of the reasons I had become disenchanted with the organization is its lack of recognition of those outside the “norm” of the bluegrass community that have helped promote the genre in so many ways.
While I was a member, as well as a serving member of Leadership Bluegrass, there were a few of us who worked hard to get Hazel Dickens inducted into the IBMA Hall of Fame. She had already been presented the Merit Award in 1994 (the first female to receive it), but finally, in 2017, she was admitted to the HOF (after a lot of hard work on many members’ behalf) along with Alice Gerrard.
The IBMA has been promoting itself as a diverse community, but as for as recognizing musicians from outside of the fold that have promoted bluegrass, they turn a deaf ear.
So how about this person – Jerry Garcia? Yes, he was the founder and guitarist/singer for the legendary Grateful Dead, the group that gave us the moniker “jam band.” Those who know rock-n-roll history are aware of Garcia’s demons, most notably heroin and cocaine, and mixing that with his diabetes condition, his body could only take so much. He slipped into a diabetic coma for five days in 1986, had a few relapses, and eventually passed away in 1995 at the age of 53 – way too soon. However, his musical career and scope cannot be ignored by the bluegrass community.
Years before he started the Dead, his main musical interest was bluegrass music. He learned guitar and banjo (playing Scruggs style despite missing a finger on his right hand), and formed the Hart Valley Drifters in 1962 with future Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. While the band never released a commercial recording, a tape from a college radio performance was recently discovered and released in 2016 on Rounder Records as Folk Time. While the performance at times stumbles, one cannot deny that Jerry’s singing and his playing has a true respect for the music.
Jerry was also passionate about promoting other bluegrass bands in the area, such as The Kentucky Colonels. In 1964 he was playing in The Black Mountain Boys on banjo. But while Jerry’s musical tastes turned more toward electric rock within a few years, he never lost touch with bluegrass. Around 1969 he played banjo in an offshoot band called High Country. In the early 1970s, the Dead began adding an acoustic set to its shows, which continued throughout the band’s tenure. Songs like “Uncle John’s Band” and “Ripple” have heavy bluegrass influence, and one can hear that sound influencing today’s young, progressive grass bands such as Hawktail, Mile Twelve and Steep Canyon Rangers just as much as Bill Monroe or The Stanley Brothers had influenced them. One also has to think about the numerous jam-grass bands that were impacted by Jerry, such as String Cheese Incident, Salamander Crossing and Yonder Mountain String Band.
Garcia had a number of side projects besides the Dead, such as The Jerry Garcia Band and New Riders of the Purple Sage. However, the one project that bluegrass afficionados pay attention to is Old & In The Way. Jerry played banjo and sang, along with mandolinist David Grisman, guitarist/vocalist Peter Rowan, bassist John Kahn and fiddler Vassar Clements. Rowan and Clements were former Blue Grass Boys, and Grisman had worked with Hazel & Alice among other bluegrass/roots projects. The band didn’t last long, only a few months, but a live recording released as Old & In The Way in 1975 would become the best selling bluegrass album of all time (until 2000 with the release of the soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou?). Garcia and Grisman would continue to put out acoustic albums until Jerry’s passing.
Garcia never let bluegrass leave his heart. In an interview that appears in the 1993 documentary Bill Monroe: The Father of Bluegrass Music, Jerry talks about a time in the mid-1960s of approaching Monroe to possibly audition to be a Blue Grass Boy, but chickening out and going back to California. While he would pass away a few years later in 1995, Jerry left an impact on his fans. Many learned about bluegrass music and the magic of Monroe, The Stanley Brothers, and Flatt & Scruggs through Garcia’s praises. Bluegrass mandolinist/pioneer Jesse McReynolds respected him enough to release a Grateful Dead tribute album a few years back.
So why can’t the IBMA pay him some respect with some award? Of course, Jerry’s in the Rock and Roll HOF with the Dead, and received the President’s Award in 2008 from the Americana Music Association. Is it because he’s a rock icon? His issues with drugs? Because he’s from California and not an Appalachian? He’s done more to promote bluegrass to the younger generation than almost anyone.
In 2018 the IBMA restructured its award distribution. Gone are the Merit Awards (at least as far as I can see, it’s not listed on the IBMA website), replaced with more Industry Awards. Thus, anyone who had a previous impact on the bluegrass industry (more than a year ago) and is not a full-time bluegrass professional has very little chance of being recognized by the IBMA. If that person has passed away, the chance is even more scarce. Someone like Jerry will most likely never be recognized for his influence on bluegrass unless there is a big change in the powers-that-be at IBMA. Totally sad, since Garcia will not be the only one forgotten for his bluegrass work (except by me, I refuse to, as well as a few others). If the IBMA is so concerned with the diversity of its fan base and membership, maybe it should look at who it recognizes as those pioneers of diversity in the music itself.
Luegra 