Tag: New Grass Revival

Here’s something that I wanted to blog about for a while now, but I never really knew how to approach the subject. I am going to talk a little about bluegrass artists covering pop and rock songs, trying to get them to sound bluegrass.

This idea has been around since bluegrass was still in its youth and the birth of rock-n-roll. Most everyone knows that Elvis Presley’s first single contained a rockabilly send-up of Bill Monroe’s lamenting waltz, “Blue Moon of Kentucky.” Mr. Monroe didn’t think much of the cover, that is, until the royalty checks started coming in. Then, he was so impressed that he re-recorded the song to include a rockin’ 4/4 time version on the second half of the recording.

Through the years, bluegrass bands have dipped into the pop and rock-roll bag to get new musical ideas as well as to keep bluegrass relevant. Jim & Jesse McReynolds recorded a whole album’s worth of Chuck Berry songs. Through the 1960s, bands such as Flatt & Scruggs and the Country Gentlemen often picked up on rock and folk songwriters for material. Flatt & Scruggs had a minor hit with the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Nashville Cats” (which Del McCoury also recorded, and I will look at later), and a number of Bob Dylan compositions. That led to the disagreements of the band’s direction and ultimate break up. Earl Scruggs would go on to record and perform a number of pop and rock songs with his sons, while Lester Flatt would delve back into the traditional bluegrass sound.

During the 1970s and 80s, there was a lot of bluegrass artists covering pop and rock songs. Tons of bluegrass bands were covering the Beatles’ songs because they were popular. The Seldom Scene covered Ricky Nelson’s “Hello Mary Lou” (which has now become a bluegrass standard), as well as many Grateful Dead compositions. Of course, it helped that the band, particularly Jerry Garcia, was big fans of bluegrass, and the Garcia/Robert Hunt writing team was highly influenced by old-time music. Progressive bluegrass bands such as the New Grass Revival would often incorporate pop and rock songs their albums. NGR does an amazing cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t that Peculiar.”

But what about today’s bluegrass bands and their choices in pop and rock music. Some bands such as Del McCoury can pull it off pretty well. Take his cover of the aforementioned “Nashville Cats”:

However, with his band’s cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” in which they are joined by Sierra Hull, the Gibson Brothers, and a few others, it comes off to me as very tiring:

A few years back, the Grascals, who have always been known to cover popular country songs, had a bluegrass hit with its version of the Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville.” For me, it was OK, but not fantastic. Granted, at the time of the release, the Grascals were probably the most popular band in bluegrass, so they could take a chance on material.

Of course, Alison Krauss knows a good song when she hears one, and can make it her own. While not exactly bluegrass, she did put an acoustic swing to Bad Company’s “Oh, Atlanta”:

One artist that I think has a really good ear on choosing pop and rock songs to cover in the bluegrass vein is Dale Ann Bradley. I have always been a big fan of her, and part of the reason is that she chooses great material to record. Here are two fine examples of covers – the Kris Kristofferson/Janis Joplin hit “Me and Bobby McGee,” and Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down”:

A band out now that I really like is Echo Valley. They are a bunch of young kids that sound great together, and I was glad to finally see them live last January at the SPBGMA conference. They perform some great bluegrass gospel, and have a few decent traditional sounding songs. However, I am not too impressed with their choices of covering modern rock songs. Among these are Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” Electric Light Orchestra’s “Don’t Bring Me Down,” and Guns & Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine”:

Again, I really like this band, but the choice of rock songs makes me wince. Maybe it’s me, but I just don’t hear a good melding of genres here.

This is definitely a “Chew on it and comment” blog. I would like to hear what others think. My blog next week will be a little late, as I will be going to Owensboro, Kentucky on the Thanksgiving weekend to visit the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum.