Double Bass Is bluegrass moving beyond shade tree pickers?

[Steve Killingsworth]

I have really enjoyed Bela Fleck's "My Bluegrass Heart" over the last few months. But it also has gotten me to thinking. Over the last 20 years or so, bluegrass musicians have really raised the bar on the level of musicianship, and that makes me wonder if bluegrass is going to become mainly listening music rather than participation music?

I think the thing that was always a strength of traditional bluegrass was that the music was always within the grasp of a 'mortal' picker--especially the instrumentals. If you think about the meat and potatoes tunes like Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Rawhide, or Jerusalem Ridge (just to name a few), even marginal musicians could render a pretty good version. It was what set bluegrass apart from jazz. Somehow I can't picture Bela's 'Vertigo' or 'Wheels Up' ever being played under the shade trees at a festival.

I'm definitely not saying that I'm opposed to the new stuff. I really enjoy the music of Jake Workman, Sierra Hull, Billy Strings, and so many of the other young folks. They certainly keep the music alive and vibrant and are bringing in lots of new listeners. But in the olden days, what really drove the music was that you could listen to Scruggs, Monroe, Baker, etc. and then actually play the tunes. As an official Old Man, I hate to see that lost.

 

[brianrost]

I wouldn't worry too much...yet

Forty years ago when I started playing bluegrass in college with my banjo playing roommate, we spent a lot of time listening to the first Bela Fleck LP as well as Tony Rice with and without Grisman. We learned a couple of the simpler tunes. I recall attending late night picking sessions in 1982 where the "serious" guys were whipping out Minor Swing and the like. Maybe five years later I auditioned for a band with Pete Anick on fiddle that was playing Thelonious Monk tunes! Sadly above my pay grade then, today I could cut it.

I live near Boston so plenty of "Berklee bluegrass" going on and one thing is for sure: even the players who get seriously out there can play straight ahead "hard grass" as my roommate called it. A friend of mine who plays old time introduced me to a fiddler and clogger she was working with. The fiddler told me she was studying jazz at Berklee and in the school's microtonal jazz ensemble When she fiddled, it was as old time as you can get without playing out of tune...

I think the music is still OK. If a guy like Billy Strings can go from Dark Star-style Deadhead to stone cold Stanley Brothers in the same set I figure we're still OK.

 

[DrCannabass]

Check out Dave Holland with Vassar Clements and John Hartford (1985), I'd say the bar has been pretty high for quite a while now

 

[Bent77]

It became more mainstream, and more people started partaking of it

I hope it doesn’t suffer a drastic shift like country did

 

[Don Hergert]

... mainly listening music rather than participation music? ...

I'd say out here in the west it's still very much a participation genre. Jamming is strong out here. And while the jams are primarily older folks (who like me are retired and can afford to jam until 4am on a Monday morning and we can't sleep then anyway so why not jam???), there are young folks making their way in too.

The biggest thing hampering the big jamming events out here is the pandemic, and most if not all of us are really hoping that's going to soon at least diminish enough that events can become regular again, because we're ready.

Out here, the outdoor jamming events during the warmer part of the year have been continuing to be extremely successful. Indoor events are met with some concern still.

Worth mentioning, there is strong support for bluegrass volunteerism in many of the elementary and high schools out here. And people are interested in mentoring. Young people and old people enjoy it alike.