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Post by Mandochris on Jul 13, 2024 21:30:06 GMT
Is it me next?
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Post by Mandochris on Jul 15, 2024 7:16:51 GMT
So, here I am at last. Sorry for the absence ... Retirement has never been so busy! For this cycle, I decided to share with you some of the bands that got me into Bluegrass back in the 70s and 80s. I'm starting with the iconic album Old & in the Way, released while I was at University in Bristol. I was already into the Grateful Dead (saw them in 74) when this album came out with Jerry Garcia playing banjo. This has become an iconic Bluegrass album, probably the best selling Bluegrass of all time, and I have lost count of the number of people who got into Bluegrass by listening to it. It turns out Jerry was always into the banjo and Bluegrass music and on my last trip to Nashville in June, I drove up to the Bluegrass Museum in Owensboro where they have an exhibition on Jerry Garcia's involvement with Bluegrass, all through his life. Old &in the Way was a project that lasted only about 2 years. There were no studio albums, just one live album (this one) and a couple of others followed. It included Peter Rowan, on guitar and vocals (I actually got to play with him on stage and there is YouTube evidence), the great David Grisman on mandolin (elected to the Bluegrass Hall of Fame last year), John Kahn on bass and the wonderful Bluegrass fiddle player Vasser Clements, who had no idea who Jerry Garcia was or anything about the counter culture. Here they are playing a now-standard Bluegrass song written by Peter Rowan "Midnight Moonlight" from 1972. Sadly there are no live videos of the original line up.
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Post by threehundred on Jul 15, 2024 8:56:45 GMT
Just what I needed to cheer me up this morning.
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Post by Mandochris on Jul 16, 2024 8:13:37 GMT
In the 1970s, Bluegrass was spreading to the cities and the coasts and new audiences were taking a look. Old & in the Way, in San Francisco, was a good example. Another example was New Grass Revival, who were long-haired hippies of whom Bill Monroe (the father of Bluegrass, scheduled for later this week) famously said "that ain't no part of nothin'" New Grass Revival started in the mid 70s and I saw them at my first ever Bluegrass festival in Toulouse in 1982 and I was blown away. This song is from that period. Moving forwards to day, the bass player John Cowan is now playing bass and singing with the Doobie Brothers (I met him last year in Prague over a weekend and he still loves Bluegrass) ; Sam Bush (mandolin is a kind of revered father figure to the entire Bluegrass community ; and Bela Flek (banjo) is on the same level as a Stefan Grappelli (he just toured Europe with his all star band "My Bluegrass Heart").
They didn't call it New Grass for nothing. This is basically acoustic Doobie Brothers
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Post by Frankfurt Saint on Jul 16, 2024 13:36:45 GMT
I’ve made the mistake of falling behind on this thread.
See you in about 6 months!
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Post by Mandochris on Jul 17, 2024 7:36:28 GMT
Another 70s band that I saw at that festival in Toulouse was Seldom Scene - so called because they didn't play often. The singer was a surgeon; the banjo player a university maths professor (his son is Chris Eldridge, currently playing with the Punch Brothers for those who know them). They were Washington DC based playing to "sophisticated" audiences and, while playing the standard Bluegrass songs, much of their repertoire was crossover from folk and pop songs (Fox on the Run, House of the Rising Sun) in Bluegrass style. They were perfect in every way : the instrumentalists, the vocal harmonies, the back up (what the instruments do while the lead singing is going on). They played a weekly show at the Cellar Door in DC and this double album (vinyl of course at the time) was recorded live there. I played it round and round for ever. All of them except the bass player (Tom Gray still playing in a band I almost booked) are now dead, the last to go being Ben Eldridge (banjo) who died earlier this year. Here they are performing California Cottonfields
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Post by Mandochris on Jul 18, 2024 8:53:36 GMT
Day 4 and I'm going back to the beginning. Sorry for the long post, I get carried away with this history stuff. When you get into Bluegrass in the 70s and 80s - and for those who get into it now, still - you start to go back through the history and see how it evolved. Now people are looking further back to reassert the black heritage in the Bluegrass with people like Rhiannon Giddens - the banjar actually came from Africa FFS. Bill Monroe was born in 1911 and learned to play with his Uncle Pen Vandiver on fiddle (the song Uncle Pen is a classic Bluegrass standard) and his black friend and musical companion Arnold Schultz. They used to play for the Saturday dances around Kentucky. When he grew up Bill Monroe went through different band line ups trying to get the "sound" and the "rhythm" he was looking for. It happened in 1945 when he hired a young banjo player called Earl Scruggs. The band exploded into national awareness when they played the Grand Ole Opry in December 1945. Nobody had ever heard music like that before. They were on the road a lot with a kind of circus show and every time they came to a new town they would challenge the local baseball team to a match. Bill Monroe went on to become the "Father of Bluegrass" and there are some great stories of the cantankerous old man (a fan was taking a photo of him and asked him to stand back a bit. "No," he said "You stand back!" I have a picture of me onstage with him when I emceed a festival he played at in France in 1994! Anyway because it's Bill Monroe, I'm goint to cheat and put up two songs (they are each less than 2minutes30, so I think I can get away with it). The first is with that 1945 line up and shows the energy and drive they had back then. The importance in the story of American music is that Elvis Presley listened to Bill Monroe when growing up and recorded one of his songs as the B side to his first record "Blue Moon of Kentucky" - there's also video of Paul George and Ringo playing it on youtube. Bill Monroe wrote over 200 songs that are American folk, pop and Bluegrass standards today. The second is the song Uncle Pen (cited above) from 1965. The young guitar player is Peter Rowan, who went on to become the hippy singer on Old & in the Way (from Monday) and I call him a friend today. You can catch the bluesy sound that he learned from guitarist Arnold Schultz, and the Bluesy mandolin playing is an important distinction in much Bluegrass music.
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Post by threehundred on Jul 18, 2024 10:47:59 GMT
Day 4 and I'm going back to the beginning. Sorry for the long post, I get carried away with this history stuff. When you get into Bluegrass in the 70s and 80s - and for those who get into it now, still - you start to go back through the history and see how it evolved. Now people are looking further back to reassert the black heritage in the Bluegrass with people like Rhiannon Giddens - the banjar actually came from Africa FFS. Bill Monroe was born in 1911 and learned to play with his Uncle Pen Vandiver on fiddle (the song Uncle Pen is a classic Bluegrass standard) and his black friend and musical companion Arnold Schultz. They used to play for the Saturday dances around Kentucky. When he grew up Bill Monroe went through different band line ups trying to get the "sound" and the "rhythm" he was looking for. It happened in 1945 when he hired a young banjo player called Earl Scruggs. The band exploded into national awareness when they played the Grand Ole Opry in December 1945. Nobody had ever heard music like that before. They were on the road a lot with a kind of circus show and every time they came to a new town they would challenge the local baseball team to a match. Bill Monroe went on to become the "Father of Bluegrass" and there are some great stories of the cantankerous old man (a fan was taking a photo of him and asked him to stand back a bit. "No," he said "You stand back!" I have a picture of me onstage with him when I emceed a festival he played at in France in 1994! Anyway because it's Bill Monroe, I'm goint to cheat and put up two songs (they are each less than 2minutes30, so I think I can get away with it). The first is with that 1945 line up and shows the energy and drive they had back then. The importance in the story of American music is that Elvis Presley listened to Bill Monroe when growing up and recorded one of his songs as the B side to his first record "Blue Moon of Kentucky" - there's also video of Paul George and Ringo playing it on youtube. Bill Monroe wrote over 200 songs that are American folk, pop and Bluegrass standards today. The second is the song Uncle Pen (cited above) from 1965. The young guitar player is Peter Rowan, who went on to become the hippy singer on Old & in the Way (from Monday) and I call him a friend today. You can catch the bluesy sound that he learned from guitarist Arnold Schultz, and the Bluesy mandolin playing is an important distinction in much Bluegrass music. This totally blew my mind… Fabulous!
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Post by Mandochris on Jul 19, 2024 6:49:56 GMT
I'm going to wind up this week with a bit of Tony Rice. Tony Rice took the guitar into new areas for flatpicking (playing with a pick, rather than finger picking). He picked up the mantle left by Clarence White when he was killed - and even bought and used Clarence's Martin Herringbone (like in this clip). He became a focal point for all Bluegrass lovers through his amazing picking and great vocal range. I bought all his albums from straight Bluegrass to more jazzy stuff, and his great solo efforts like Me and My Guitar or Church Street Blues (for anyone tempted to look for more). This clip was a bit later in the 90s. He regularly played with this kind of all star line up at festivals where they all happened to be. This is the top of the tree with Jerry Douglas on dobro (inducted this year into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame - Tony was inducted a few years ago just before he died from cancer) ; Mark O'Connor - who is a bit of an arsehole but a great fiddle player ; Mark Schatz on bass - just so good and really nice ; and you may recognise Sam Bush on mandolin and Bela Flek on banjo (from the New Grass Revival post a couple of days ago). This is what happens when top Bluegrass musicians get together on stage to have some fun. It's a standard 3-chord Bluegrass song played at every jam you will ever go to, but what these guys do with those 3 chords is pretty outrageous. The opening line is missing "I was born in the southland, " then he starts picking.
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Post by OneBeat on Jul 19, 2024 7:38:17 GMT
I'm going to wind up this week with a bit of Tony Rice. Tony Rice took the guitar into new areas for flatpicking (playing with a pick, rather than finger picking). He picked up the mantle left by Clarence White when he was killed - and even bought and used Clarence's Martin Herringbone (like in this clip). He became a focal point for all Bluegrass lovers through his amazing picking and great vocal range. I bought all his albums from straight Bluegrass to more jazzy stuff, and his great solo efforts like Me and My Guitar or Church Street Blues (for anyone tempted to look for more). This clip was a bit later in the 90s. He regularly played with this kind of all star line up at festivals where they all happened to be. This is the top of the tree with Jerry Douglas on dobro (inducted this year into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame - Tony was inducted a few years ago just before he died from cancer) ; Mark O'Connor - who is a bit of an arsehole but a great fiddle player ; Mark Schatz on bass - just so good and really nice ; and you may recognise Sam Bush on mandolin and Bela Flek on banjo (from the New Grass Revival post a couple of days ago). This is what happens when top Bluegrass musicians get together on stage to have some fun. It's a standard 3-chord Bluegrass song played at every jam you will ever go to, but what these guys do with those 3 chords is pretty outrageous. The opening line is missing "I was born in the southland, " then he starts picking. My dad would listen to stuff like that when I was a young kid. Not my thing, but it did take me back to that big old stereo in our front room and my dad playing his records. I only really remember Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Roger Millar albums specifically, but he would listen to still like that too. Who needs more than three chords?
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Post by threehundred on Jul 19, 2024 7:55:07 GMT
I'm going to wind up this week with a bit of Tony Rice. Tony Rice took the guitar into new areas for flatpicking (playing with a pick, rather than finger picking). He picked up the mantle left by Clarence White when he was killed - and even bought and used Clarence's Martin Herringbone (like in this clip). He became a focal point for all Bluegrass lovers through his amazing picking and great vocal range. I bought all his albums from straight Bluegrass to more jazzy stuff, and his great solo efforts like Me and My Guitar or Church Street Blues (for anyone tempted to look for more). This clip was a bit later in the 90s. He regularly played with this kind of all star line up at festivals where they all happened to be. This is the top of the tree with Jerry Douglas on dobro (inducted this year into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame - Tony was inducted a few years ago just before he died from cancer) ; Mark O'Connor - who is a bit of an arsehole but a great fiddle player ; Mark Schatz on bass - just so good and really nice ; and you may recognise Sam Bush on mandolin and Bela Flek on banjo (from the New Grass Revival post a couple of days ago). This is what happens when top Bluegrass musicians get together on stage to have some fun. It's a standard 3-chord Bluegrass song played at every jam you will ever go to, but what these guys do with those 3 chords is pretty outrageous. The opening line is missing "I was born in the southland, " then he starts picking. Oh yeah!!!!!
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Post by threehundred on Jul 19, 2024 8:00:37 GMT
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Post by spot51 on Jul 19, 2024 9:20:40 GMT
Thank you Mandochris for that "History of Bluegrass" over 5 days. Loved it. Recognised a number of the names who, as you have shown, regularly play and/or record with and other artists. You know I love your brother's music too and was delighted to find that Bela Fleck had celebrated the centenary of one of the greatest pieces of 20th C Classical music, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which fell earlier this year. I have this album and hope you won't be pissed off by me posting this fantastic version here. This is Bela and some mates with Rhapsody in Bluegrass.
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Post by Mandochris on Jul 19, 2024 10:26:33 GMT
Thank you Mandochris for that "History of Bluegrass" over 5 days. Loved it. Recognised a number of the names who, as you have shown, regularly play and/or record with and other artists. You know I love your brother's music too and was delighted to find that Bela Fleck had celebrated the centenary of one of the greatest pieces of 20th C Classical music, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which fell earlier this year. I have this album and hope you won't be pissed off by me posting this fantastic version here. This is Bela and some mates with Rhapsody in Bluegrass. I love this too. Be my guest. Bela toured Europe earlier this year with some of those very musicians (one of them being Jerry Douglas on dobro). As I said on the New Grass Revival, Bela has become a kind of Stefan Grappelli of Bluegrass. He's called Bela because his parents were into the music of Bela Bartok, so I guess he had a good start.
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Post by threehundred on Jul 19, 2024 10:38:33 GMT
Thank you Mandochris for that "History of Bluegrass" over 5 days. Loved it. Recognised a number of the names who, as you have shown, regularly play and/or record with and other artists. You know I love your brother's music too and was delighted to find that Bela Fleck had celebrated the centenary of one of the greatest pieces of 20th C Classical music, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, which fell earlier this year. I have this album and hope you won't be pissed off by me posting this fantastic version here. This is Bela and some mates with Rhapsody in Bluegrass. Pure, unadulterated joy!
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