INTRODUCTION
The Southern Ground Music and Food Festival was held this past weekend in Charleston, South Carolina. The festival was organized by Zac Brown, head of the Southern Ground record label, and features predominantly "Americana" artists. AXS TV aired performances from nineteen (19) artists on April 16 and 17. The makes and models of the basses used by the artists were observed and recorded. Additional information including body color, pickguard color, and fingerboard wood were also recorded. These data were used to determine the most common and therefore "best bass" for the particular genre. This method was identical to the one used to determine the best bass for rock.
GENRE DEFINITION
One might be tempted to characterize the artists performing at the Southern Ground Festival as "country" but closer inspection of the lineup shows a distinct lack of mainstream "pop country" artists and with one exception, "bro country" artists. Thomas Rhett could easily be characterized as "bro country" and represented a distinct outlier relative to the other artist (he must have some juicy dirt on Zac!
). Other outliers included The Tedeschi Trucks Band, who could be classified as a "blues" artist, and Michael Franti & Spearhead who are difficult to characterize. For these reasons, the "Americana" label, defined as "contemporary music that incorporates elements of various American roots music styles, including country, roots-rock, folk, bluegrass, R&B and blues", was selected as an umbrella genre for the festival as it is more inclusive of a wide range of American music styles.
BASSES
A total of nineteen (19) artists were shown as part of AXS TV's coverage of the festival. One artist, Clay Cook, played an unaccompanied acoustic set and therefore no bass was noted. The basses for the remaining eighteen (18) artists are shown below.
Bases on these data, the most common and therefore "best" bass for Americana music is...
A butterscotch Fender Precision with a tortoise pickguard and rosewood fingerboard!
* NOTE: In at least one case, I misidentified butterscotch. There are pics in post #59. Have a look and weigh in.
DISCUSSION
It was no surprise that the trusty Precision was the most common bass. That result is identical to one reached for the Firefly Festival. Another similarity with the Firefly Festival results was the preponderance of of rosewood fingerboards however, six (6) of those fingerboards were blocked while blocked rosewood fingerboards were completely absent at the Firefly Festival. The final similarity was the distribution of pickguard colors with tortoise being the most abundant, followed by white, then black.
What was a surprise was the most common color of butterscotch. My eyes may be failing me and I may have actually been looking at natural basses but they all appeared to have more "color" and less grain than natural wood. Apparently, butterscotch is a "thing" with Americana bassists. Sunburst, the most popular color at the Firefly Festival and therefore amongst "rock" bassists, was not even the second most popular color at Southern Ground. That honor went to white.
The Southern Ground Music and Food Festival was held this past weekend in Charleston, South Carolina. The festival was organized by Zac Brown, head of the Southern Ground record label, and features predominantly "Americana" artists. AXS TV aired performances from nineteen (19) artists on April 16 and 17. The makes and models of the basses used by the artists were observed and recorded. Additional information including body color, pickguard color, and fingerboard wood were also recorded. These data were used to determine the most common and therefore "best bass" for the particular genre. This method was identical to the one used to determine the best bass for rock.
GENRE DEFINITION
One might be tempted to characterize the artists performing at the Southern Ground Festival as "country" but closer inspection of the lineup shows a distinct lack of mainstream "pop country" artists and with one exception, "bro country" artists. Thomas Rhett could easily be characterized as "bro country" and represented a distinct outlier relative to the other artist (he must have some juicy dirt on Zac!
). Other outliers included The Tedeschi Trucks Band, who could be classified as a "blues" artist, and Michael Franti & Spearhead who are difficult to characterize. For these reasons, the "Americana" label, defined as "contemporary music that incorporates elements of various American roots music styles, including country, roots-rock, folk, bluegrass, R&B and blues", was selected as an umbrella genre for the festival as it is more inclusive of a wide range of American music styles.BASSES
A total of nineteen (19) artists were shown as part of AXS TV's coverage of the festival. One artist, Clay Cook, played an unaccompanied acoustic set and therefore no bass was noted. The basses for the remaining eighteen (18) artists are shown below.
- There were nine (9) Precision basses, making them the most abundant bass at the festival. Eight (8) of the basses were Fender and the other being a Mike Lull. Fender Precision basses were also the most abundant bass at the Firefly Music Festival.
- There were six (6) Jazz basses, the second most abundant bass at the festival. Four (4) of those basses were Fender, one (1) was HMR, and last was an unlabeled parts bass.
- The remaining basses consisted of two (2) Fender Jaguars, two (2) Musicman Stingrays, two (2) upright basses, one (1) Kent violin bass, one (1) Yamaha PJ bass, one (1) Montgomery custom bass, and one (1) unidentified hollowbody bass.
- The most popular color for electric basses at the festival was butterscotch, with seven (7) instances. Four (4) basses were white, making that the second most popular color. There were three (3) sunburst basses, making them the third most popular colors at the festival. Other colors included natural (2), blues (2), reds (2), and one (1) each of brown, black, and silver.
- Of the basses that had pickguards, seven (7) had tortoise, five (5) had white, four (4) had black, and there was one gold anodized and one natural burl.
- The fingerboards of the electric basses included eight (8) maple, seven (7) rosewood with blocks, six (6) plain rosewood, and two (2) maple with blocks.
Bases on these data, the most common and therefore "best" bass for Americana music is...
A butterscotch Fender Precision with a tortoise pickguard and rosewood fingerboard!
* NOTE: In at least one case, I misidentified butterscotch. There are pics in post #59. Have a look and weigh in.
DISCUSSION
It was no surprise that the trusty Precision was the most common bass. That result is identical to one reached for the Firefly Festival. Another similarity with the Firefly Festival results was the preponderance of of rosewood fingerboards however, six (6) of those fingerboards were blocked while blocked rosewood fingerboards were completely absent at the Firefly Festival. The final similarity was the distribution of pickguard colors with tortoise being the most abundant, followed by white, then black.
What was a surprise was the most common color of butterscotch. My eyes may be failing me and I may have actually been looking at natural basses but they all appeared to have more "color" and less grain than natural wood. Apparently, butterscotch is a "thing" with Americana bassists. Sunburst, the most popular color at the Firefly Festival and therefore amongst "rock" bassists, was not even the second most popular color at Southern Ground. That honor went to white.
Attachments
Last edited:
