Tag: Michael Cleveland

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Bluegrass Music

Audie Blaylock RIP

A few disappointments for me over the past 24 hours. The first one was that I missed the John McEuen show at The Ark due to a really bad snowstorm here in the Detroit area Friday night. The second one I just learned about as I was beginning to write this blog.

Audie Blaylock passed away earlier this week at the age of 61. While he was not a household name in the bluegrass industry, he left an indelible mark on the bluegrass music scene. Although born in Texas, he grew up most of his early life in Lansing, Michigan, playing in local bands and being a regular face at Elderly Instruments. Professionally, he started out playing mandolin for Jimmy Martin in the early 1980s, and went on to work with a number of other artists, including Red Allen, Lynn Morris, Chris Jones, and Rhonda Vincent (where I first met him). He then started a solo gig with his band Redline, as well as worked with fiddle master Michael Cleveland.

His home base was Auburn, Indiana, so he was a regular performer at bluegrass festivals in the Indiana/Ohio/Michigan area. I became good friends with his one-time fiddler Patrick McAvinue, whom I still talk to and recently wrote an article on for Fiddler. Audie was always friendly to his fans and fellow musicians. Learning a lot from his time with Jimmy Martin, his band was always tight when it came to performances, especially song arrangements.

His crowning achievement came in 2004, when he helped coordinate the Grammy nominated album A Tribute to Jimmy Martin: The King of Bluegrass. The recording gathered up some of the best in bluegrass, including J.D. Crowe, Sonny Osborne, Paul Williams, Kenny Ingram, and Michael Cleveland. He always had a high regard for Martin, and continued to perform many of Martin’s songs live and on recordings.

I went to see Audie and his band many times, as he was more than happy to do gigs in the Detroit area outside of bluegrass festivals. Talking with him was like talking to your next-door neighbor. He was interested in everything, be it music, musical instruments, automobiles and hot rods, farming, and woodworking. He proved to be a great bandleader, in that his bandmates always had great respect for him even after pursuing other projects.

I am sure now that Audie is performing once again with Jimmy at that bluegrass festival in the sky. You will be missed down here, sir.

Chew on it and comment.

Categories
Bluegrass Music

Charlotte Bluegrass Festival 2023

Sorry that this blog is a day late, but I spent Friday and Saturday in Charlotte, Michigan for its 51st Annual Bluegrass Festival. I had not been to the Charlotte (pronounced shar-LOT) festival in about 20 years, so this was a renewed experience to say the least. Here are a few positive and negative things that I took home with me.

  • My old age. I’m pushing 60, so there are a lot of things that I could easily do 30 years ago that are impossible today. When I was Civil War reenacting back then, it was nothing for me to camp out in a canvas tent (or if going campaign-style, sleeping out in the open) on rocky ground and finding the nearest tree when nature called. Now, with diabetes and aches almost everywhere, I don’t think that I could spend a night in a trailer, let alone in a tent. Fortunately, there was a reasonably priced hotel just a mile from the festival site. Also, my stomach cannot handle carnival-type food any more, The heartburn-drenched pizza slices and heavy-feeling hot dogs do not sit well with my digestive system. Thank God that I remembered some Pepto Bismol tablets. I’ll be packing my own food next time.
  • Williamson Branch. This is a family band with husband, wife, and three daughters (along with a non-relative banjo player). They are generally good entertainment, with everyone having good singing voices and satisfactory instrumental capabilities. That is, with the exception of the bassist Kadence Williamson. This girl is phenomenal to say the least! She’s 20 years old, looks much younger, and because of her small stature, she does not play a standup bass or even a full-scale electric bass. Her tool is a short-scale Kala 5-string bass, but what she lacks in size she more than makes up for in her playing. She goes way beyond the root-fifth thump heard on most bluegrass songs. No, she is throwing in some marvelous bass lines into each of the band’s songs, many times singing the lead as well. I was absolutely blown away by her. I am definitely going to work on doing a story on this girl! (http://www.williamsonbranch.com/)
  • The David Mayfield Parade. I saw David about a dozen years ago when he was with the Avett Brothers. He has also worked with Mumford & Sons as well as Cadillac Sky. This band is more progressive, in the vein of Grassicana, and the material has a slight Gothic feel to it. However, what makes it special is David’s rapport with his audience. He is like a living marionette, jumping around the stage with acrobatic skill, and his banter between songs is amazing. Everything he says has some sort of punchline, but it is truly intelligent humor. The harmonizing of the vocals is a lot darker than what one would expect from a bluegrass band, but I absolutely loved it. A standout song for me was “Blacksmith at Bull Run.” a Civil War ballad that touched me deeply. I will definitely be keeping track of this band. (http://www.davidmayfieldparade.net)
  • The Kody Norris Show. For anyone wishing to see what it was really like at a Jimmy Martin show, this is the band to see! All four members come onto the stage wearing outlandish Western wear, cowboy hats, boots and all! But they back up their visuals with amazing musicianship. Kody is a great frontman, hillbilly-style singer, and phenomenal flatpicker. His wife Mary Rachel switches between fiddle and mandolin, proving a bluegrass/country expert on both. Hearing banjoist Josiah Tyree perform is like listening to J.D.Crowe back in his younger days. This is a complete show! The band seems to know just about every traditional country and bluegrass song ever written, and can perform them with pure heart. If you see or hear of this band coming into your area, definitely go and see them! (http://www.thekodynorrisshow.com/)
  • Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper. What hasn’t already been said about Michael Cleveland. Twelve-time IBMA Fiddler of the Year Award winner, and he just doesn’t stop! Watching him bow his fiddle is hypnotic. His speed and accuracy is indescribable! I don’t know of anyone that has seen Michael and his/her jaw doesn’t drop. He has a great musical sense of humor, and when he plays either “Orange Blossom Special” or “Lee Highway Blues,” The audience goes crazy! Whether you are a bluegrass fan or not, or even if you are a classical violinist, you must witness Michael Cleveland in your lifetime. (https://michaelclevelandfiddle.com/)
  • Sevillana 2208. I took the guitar to the festival, not to jam (I don’t do that much any more), but to let a few artists try it out. Those that gave it a strum or two included Kody Norris, Josiah Tyree, David Mayfield, and Jamey Pittman (of the Edgar Loudermilk Band). All were quite impressed with the lower-midrange boom in volume as well as the quality that went into the workmanship. I did a blog about this guitar about a year ago (https://luegra.design.blog/2022/07/16/this-dreadnought-needs-to-come-to-the-u-s/) and am trying to convince the manufacturer in China to market it in the US. Hopefully, if I let them know about these four approvals (as well as a few that I sent them previously), they might take some initiative.
Kody Norris
Josiah Tyree
David Mayfield
Jamey Pittman

I wasn’t able to attend on Thursday, but hopefully, I can do all three days next year. My schedule is filled at work until Christmas time, so that’s about it for me this summer. I’m still planning on SPBGMA in Nashville in January!

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.

Categories
Bluegrass Music

What Is/Isn’t Bluegrass? The Debate Continues

Last week, the online site Bluegrass Today posted a review of the Watchhouse Band performance at The Ark in Ann Arbor (https://bluegrasstoday.com/watchhouse-band-in-ann-arbor-mi/). This ensemble consists of the duo Mandolin Orange along with two additional acoustic guitarists and an upright bassist. While I am not a huge fan of Mandolin Orange, I do like some of their music, and this set-up allows them to do more eclectic material live.

As expected, a recurring debate on what is/isn’t bluegrass started up in the comments section. The Watchhouse Band does not have a banjo in its lineup, so of course, that brought a lot of traditionalists out commenting that the band was not bluegrass and probably should not be featured in a BT article. Others from the opposite end stated that many established bluegrass bands such as the Osborne Brothers and Doyle Lawson have used non-traditional instruments such as electric bass and drums in their recording for a number of years.

I did post one comment within the debate. I stated that while Mandolin Orange was not a bluegrass band by definition, much of their material and sound does pay homage to bluegrass music and artists. I also stated that BT has widened its coverage by including a Grassicana chart (charting artists/recordings that are on the fringe of bluegrass while having some Americana influence), and that the website The Bluegrass Situation covers only about 10% of traditional bluegrass music. One statement that I said that was taken out of context was that I felt that some “uneducated” music people do not fully understand what traditionalists view as bluegrass and simply lump any acoustic band into the bluegrass format. When I put that word into quotes, I meant that there are a lot of people that may not listen to bluegrass as much as the hard-core bluegrass fans, and thus, do not have such a hardline definition of bluegrass (must have banjo, no drums, no electric bass, no piano, etc.).

Of course, there were a few that took that quoted word out of context, and started an even bigger ball rolling. In short, this is an argument that will never have a happy ending, or an ending period! As I said at the end of my comment, “To each his own, I guess.” There are a lot of “beyond the walls” definitions and influences with bluegrass. Doc Watson played amazing flatpicking guitar doing old-time fiddle tunes. He wasn’t bluegrass by narrow definition, but his playing inspired thousands of bluegrass guitarists, and so many times did he perform with bluegrass bands at bluegrass festivals.

There are so many things to consider when defining bluegrass, but one thing that is definite – there is no definite answer. While there are distinctions that definitely do not fit any bluegrass mold, such as a metal band like Metallica or a rap artist like Eminem, the format of bluegrass has a few basic rules and branches out from those according to individual tastes. Some individuals parallel a long stretch, while other individuals break apart early.

Whether it’s Doc performing solo, or a full band playing, my thought is, does it give you a feeling inside that bluegrass music (by traditional definition) always seems to give you? If so, then perhaps it is bluegrass. Or perhaps one can say, “Can you clog to it?”

Check out this backstage performance of Doc jamming with a very young version of award-winning fiddler Michael Cleveland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrYxk5g8peQ

Chew on it and comment.