View Full Version : Bluegrass on Letterman
Doug Edwards
Sep-19-2005, 11:22pm
Our SWBG club sent an email for Wenesday's Letterman show featuring bluegrass legend Earl Scruggs with Pete (Dr Banjo) Wenick and Steve Martin. Pete's son, Will, will be on mandolin and his wife, Nondi, on guitar.
Dr Banjo (http://www.drbanjo.com/)
sean808080
Sep-20-2005, 8:31am
thanks for the tip. i just tivo'd this.
Willie
Sep-20-2005, 3:13pm
I`m glad to see bluegrass getting a look see on TV but why does it always involve pickers that aren`t really doing bluegrass any more? Don`t the producers know what real bluegrass is? I doubt it, if they are from the "Big Apple" I`m pretty sure the don`t know real bluegrass...I understand that soon they will have "The Bluegrass Awards" on TV and it will be the same thing...does anyone know how the performance awards are decided? Are they voted on by fans, or do they go by CD sales...I don`t see how "Best Male Singer" etc. could be judged by sales...Oh well, this will be the 20th year that I haven`t gotten any awards, maybe some day....Willie http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif
swampstomper
Sep-20-2005, 4:15pm
Pete Wernick not doing bluegrass any more?? On which planet?? His banjo camps are going strong. He's done a huge amount to get young people into the music. Plus he's a really nice guy. And since he's from the Bronx (even though he migrated to Colorado many years ago) he knows his way to the Letterman studio.
John Flynn
Sep-22-2005, 12:13pm
Don`t the producers know what real bluegrass is?
If Earl Scruggs is not "real bluegrass," what is? If he is the front man, it's bluegrass, it doesn't matter who else in the band!
Did anyone see it? I thought it was great, even though Steve Martin got top billing and they chose the most stereotyped bluegrass tune possible to play, but I understand the reasons when you are dealing with a mass audience. Does anyone know who the bald mando player was?
David M.
Sep-22-2005, 12:24pm
Recorded it, but haven't watched it yet. Pete W. is still playing w/Hot Rize when they play. I like his "Just Like You" song (at least I think he authored that one).
"Hector Brown, he lives on a farm, been a farmer all his life..."
HR is some good stuff.
Nathan Sanders
Sep-22-2005, 12:54pm
I watched it. It was kind of fun. The banjo playing was fine. What stood out to me, though, was when Paul Schaeffer took a break on the piano. I do not think I've ever heard Foggy Mountain Breakdown on piano. I liked it!
Doug Edwards
Sep-22-2005, 12:57pm
Not quite what I expected, but OK. Talk about overkill w/ 5 banjos. Reminded me of the jam from hell when we had 9 banjo players and 1 guitar.
acousticphd
Sep-22-2005, 1:20pm
It wasn't "bluegrass", it was "Men with Banjos who know how to Use Them". Not as good as "Women with Banjos" would have been, but still entertaining and a pretty good performance, I thought. Steve Martin has come a ways since he performed with the NGDB on Sat. night live in the 70s. Unfortunately, I will miss seeing Sheryl Crow on Letterman tonight, even though she doesn't do bluegrass anymore, either.
Willie done did say... Don`t the producers know what real bluegrass is? #I doubt it, if they are from the "Big Apple" I`m pretty sure the don`t know real bluegrass...
Fisrt off, is this show even produced in NY?
Second, and more importantly, don't dare tell Tony Trischka, Kenny Kosek, Pete Wernick, Andy Statman, Bela Fleck, and a host of other pickers that. Some of these guys may not pick bluegrass these days, but they surely know what the heck it is.
They would come over there and rap you upside the head, knock you down and make you take it back http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Second, and more importantly, don't dare tell Tony Trischka, Kenny Kosek, Pete Wernick, Andy Statman, Bela Fleck, and a host of other pickers that. Some of these guys may not pick bluegrass these days, but they surely know what the heck it is.
They would come over there and rap you upside the head, knock you down and make you take it back
I've never met Willie but just reading his posts he sounds like he'd be able to handle his self pretty well in a scrap. I've got a five that says Willie could take any of those guys. Any takers? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
GVD
mandoman4807
Sep-22-2005, 1:59pm
If there was a piano in it... it ain't bluegrass, I`m sorry http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif
DS
John Flynn
Sep-22-2005, 2:23pm
If there was a piano in it... it ain't bluegrass, I`m sorry
Interesting distinction. I have heard a Monroe recording with piano, as well as another track with accordian and yet another with electric guitar. They sounded pretty grassy to me and heck, it was Monroe.
Nathan Sanders
Sep-22-2005, 2:34pm
Granted, you typically do not hear about "bluegrass piano," and at first when I noticed the piano on last night's performance, it just didn't fit. But then they let Paul take a break and for a Canadian-born guy who doesn't usually do bluegrass, he did a fine job of putting his own style to a bluegrass standard. Of course, Paul is the type of musician who can handle about any style of music, but I doubt he'll start to carry his keyboards to the festivals.
Don't forget, Buck White used to lug a piano on-stage at bg festivals. Mind you, he did the western swing thing, but banjos shared the stage with the 88!
f5loar
Sep-22-2005, 3:06pm
Piano and Bluegrass??? Least we forget when rock pianoist Bruce Hornsby sent Monroe and others packing on the Bluegrass Grammy Award a few years ago with his win(I forget the song). He tore up his piano break too!
He did it with Skaggs and friends and won it with that one song. And yes Letterman is for sure produced and recorded live in the afternoons(4PM I think) in New York City. Around the corner from Ed Sullivan Theatre is the Hello Deli and Dave is always having Rupert who owns the deli run in and out of the deli to the theatre. It's always daylight and you see the line of people who didn't get a seat that day. Leno is done in Burbank, CA near the Universal Studios Park.
Jim Yates
Sep-22-2005, 3:12pm
The Bluegrass Boys also included a harmonica in the early days.
"If there was a piano in it... it ain't bluegrass, I`m sorry "
He probably changed his mind in later years, but I've heard Bill quoted as saying,"There's no place for a Dobro in Bluegrass."
f5loar Posted
Piano and Bluegrass??? Least we forget when rock pianoist Bruce Hornsby sent Monroe and others packing on the Bluegrass Grammy Award a few years ago with his win(I forget the song). He tore up his piano break too!...
I remember seeing Bruce on a Monroe tribute show on PBS I believe. He talked about how much Bill influenced him and then played a great version of Darling Corey. Piano or not it worked for me.
GVD
acousticphd
Sep-22-2005, 4:21pm
Quote
If there was a piano in it... it ain't bluegrass, I`m sorry
If there's 5 banjos in it, and a piano break, and no mandolin solo, and is broadcast from NYC after midnight ...... obviously, NPR must have had a hand in it somewhere.
Re: piano and "bluegrass" - who has heard Phillip Aaberg's solo on New Grange's "Rock in a Weary Land" (or his playing throughout the whole CD, for that matter)? Now that was some good stuff.
Well Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse, me!
It was close enough!
Keith Erickson
Sep-22-2005, 4:33pm
NPR must have had a hand in it somewhere.
Hey, who gave you the right to cut down NPR?http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif
You'r not allowed to do that!!!!!
Why that's an injustice that can't be tolerated http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif
sunburst
Sep-22-2005, 4:40pm
Least we forget when rock pianoist Bruce Hornsby sent Monroe and others packing on the Bluegrass Grammy Award a few years ago with his win...
I was jamming with friends at Galax the summer after Bruce Hornsby won the bluegrass grammy, and this fellow walked into the camp and sat down about a foot from the end of my banjo neck and said hello to my fiddling friend Bill from tidewater VA. It was Bill's friend from back home, Bruce Hornsby.
That was about the time the Lonesome River Band had a big "hit" with "Carrying the Tradition". Sammy Shelor, Ronnie Bowman, and Dan Tyminski were wandering around in dark shades and ball caps pulled low so they wouldn't have be "celebrities" everywhere they went, and the bluegrass grammy winner could go wherever he wanted without anybody recognizing him.
"What's wrong with this picture?", I says to myself.
Maybe the grammy people don't quite understand about bluegrass...?
If there was a piano in it... it ain't bluegrass, I`m sorry
Interesting distinction. I have heard a Monroe recording with piano, as well as another track with accordian and yet another with electric guitar. They sounded pretty grassy to me and heck, it was Monroe.
Heck I even heard a Monroe recording that featured ... SEAGULLS!!! That tells me that stylistically the Bluegrass genre is more wide open than many think
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
f5loar
Sep-22-2005, 9:28pm
Don't forget the "true" bluegrass sound was during the time Monroe featured Sally Ann Forrester on accordian.
She was pretty good at pitching a tent too!
She was pretty good at pitching a tent too!
And just where were these tents pitched? #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif
GVD
Jason Kessler
Sep-22-2005, 10:58pm
Don`t the producers know what real bluegrass is? I doubt it, if they are from the "Big Apple"
I've always ruefully sat on the sidelines when certain Cafe threads have taken a bitter turn; I think we're here to support each other's enthusiasms and share information on areas of mutual interest.
But igrnorance is ignorance: the poster of the above excerpted quote is a fool.
I don't discount your validity based on your worthless opinions, so don't discount mine based on my hometown.
Luckily, though I travel and jam quite a bit, I'm not likely to bump into you given your sphincter-like world view. Pity: we might have learned something from each other if we'd had a meeting of open minds.
Your loss. I'm sure it's not the first.
EggerRidgeBoy
Sep-23-2005, 1:06am
Don`t the producers know what real bluegrass is?
If Earl Scruggs is not "real bluegrass," what is? If he is the front man, it's bluegrass, it doesn't matter who else in the band!
Did anyone see it? I thought it was great, even though Steve Martin got top billing and they chose the most stereotyped bluegrass tune possible to play, but I understand the reasons when you are dealing with a mass audience. Does anyone know who the bald mando player was?
The mandolin player was Pete Wernick's son Will. #The guitar players were Pete's wife Joan and Tony Ellis' son Bill.
EggerRidgeBoy
Sep-23-2005, 1:09am
Here's an interesting, behind-the-scenes account of the show from Pete Wernick, one of the Men With Banjos:
http://www.drbanjo.com/news-stories-current/news-9-22-05-letterman.htm
EggerRidgeBoy
Sep-23-2005, 1:53am
Don't forget the "true" bluegrass sound was during the time Monroe featured Sally Ann Forrester on accordian.
She was pretty good at pitching a tent too!
Well actually Wilene "Sally Ann" Forrester was in the band from 1943 to 1946 - she left in March of '46, three months after Earl joined and about six months before the "classic" line-up of Bill, Lester, Earl, Chubby, and Cedric made their first recordings, recordings which most people would say began to define what we think of as the "true" bluegrass sound.
WireBoy
Sep-23-2005, 3:14am
Hey EggerRidgeBoy,
thanks for that link to Pete's story about the show. it was a fabulous look at what a musical guest experience's on The Late Show.
Jim Hilburn
Sep-23-2005, 8:48am
Here's a little inside ifo on the mandolin that Will was playing.
When I got home from Winfield I had 2 messages from Pete. He was looking for a quality mandolin to borrow for the show. When I didn't return the calls, he went looking elsewhere and checked with Caleb Roberts of Open Road. Caleb has what I think is Cliff Sargent's last mandolin and that's what Will was playing.
All I would have had to offer was my own "A" and Cliff's Loar-inspired "F" was obviously the better choice.
David M.
Sep-23-2005, 8:55am
Back to the question, I finally watched it last night and enjoyed it. Wish they'd have given the mando and flattop a break, though, but they clearly weren't the headliners.
Paul's break was good.
It was what it was. We can all argue till the cows come home, but ain't no point in that.
Oh, and I watched Cheryl Crow on last night's show. Lawdy-mussy.
John Flynn
Sep-23-2005, 9:21am
Apropos of the "what instruments are bluegrass and which are not" discussion, a great guitarist I have the privledge of playing with occasionally and I were talking about that last night and he pointed out that guitar was not originally a bluegrass lead instrument, but was used for rhythm backup only. Monroe and his contemporaries did not generally arrange for guitar breaks. It wasn't until Monroe started doing duets with Doc Watson in the 60's that bluegrass flatpicking started to come into vogue. A big influence on this, according to my friend, was the improvement in PA systems. In the early days of bluegrass, the guitar had a hard time "cutting through" like the banjo, mando and fiddle.
Keith Erickson
Sep-23-2005, 10:19am
From what I had heard, it was a great show.
My first experience with Bluegrass was a live Hot Rize CD.
I think the world of Pete Wernick.
Question: Does he use a flange effects pedal on his banjo?
Jim Hilburn
Sep-23-2005, 3:23pm
Keith, I think he used an MXR phase 90 phase shifter with the sweep speed turned up high.
fredfrank
Sep-23-2005, 5:17pm
Question: #Does he use a flange effects pedal on his banjo?
Not on the Letterman show, anyway. I thought this was pretty cool to have on national TV, and it wasn't really billed as Bluegrass, so I don't know where all the debate was coming from. Earl Scruggs+Foggy Mountain Breakdown=Bluegrass.
Willie
Sep-25-2005, 11:56am
O.K, O.K. first off I couldn`t take any of those guys, I`m too old to fight and secondly, I played on a festival when Peter Wernick was playing with Hot Rize and he stepped on a pedal and played his banjer through a wah-wah amp and also through a fuzz box...Now I ask you is that Bluegrass? And its been awhile since Earl has played anything for longer than five minutes much less his standard bluegrass....I am not against the pickers and those boys from up state NY sure know how to pick and know what bluegrass is but they still don`t play it much because the money isn`t there that they want or need to make a living so they cater to mostly younger college crowds so they can make a living, I have no problem with that or them, just the promoters that still want to push this music(I use the term loosely) off as bluegrass...everyone to their own taste but if you think just because they played Foggy Mtn Brkdn it was bluegrass , think again....A PIANO UGH...I`m done...Thanks for the support from some of you....Willie
Willie
Sep-25-2005, 11:59am
Frank...If you don`t know where the debate comes from go back and read the title of this topic.."Bluegrass on the Letterman show"....Willie
Willie
Sep-25-2005, 12:09pm
Fake 4...You have a good name...I did not knock your state of NY, I only said that promoters from a northern state don`t really know what bluegrass mucic is compared to some of them that have lived in the rural south and lived through a lot of hard times and write songs from true happenings in their life...After all, bluegrass originated in the south....I love NY and have a lot of friends there...And you are more guilty of causing arguments on here than I am by calling me a fool...I hope I do meet you somewhere and I will prove to you that I am not a "fool', far from it, and I believe that all of us have the right to speak what we feel on this thread as long as it is kept clean,,,I just don`t happen to like promoters that try to make a buck by calling certain music bluegrass just to get it aired...Willie The fool
Willie
Sep-25-2005, 12:15pm
Just so I don`t rub any one else the wrong way I`ll refrain from posting on here any more, I`ll just sit back and read and keep my "Foolish" opinions to myself...Thanks and see ya....willie
Willie Posted
Just so I don`t rub any one else the wrong way I`ll refrain from posting on here any more, I`ll just sit back and read and keep my "Foolish" opinions to myself...Thanks and see ya....willie
I for one hope you'll reconsider and continue to post here. I don't always agree with your opinions but you've darn sure earned the right to express them. You've probably forgot more about real bluegrass than most of us will ever learn and if some Johhny come latelys can't respect that maybe they should quit posting.
GVD
Jason Kessler
Sep-25-2005, 4:53pm
Willie,
I owe you an apology.
I thought you were knocking NYC specifically, a particularly sore subject as I'd just signed off from reprimanding a friend for a gratuitous anti-NYC comment.
Whether I agree with you as to what constitutes bluegrass and what doesn't (and I don't) is irrelevant to the rashness with which I responded. Between the terrorist attacks, hurricanes, and floods, comments which seem divisive amongst Americans get my goat. I realize now that that was not your intention.
Sorry to have lost my cool, and I, too, hope you'll keep posting here.
f5loar
Sep-25-2005, 10:09pm
I thought the North and South made up years ago when Gen. Lee went to have his sword sharpened thinking Gen. Grant was a metal worker. He left it with him, signed a receipt and next thing he knew the war was over! Anyway it appears the North and South have gotten along fine in playing bluegrass and FMB is bluegrass no matter how you cut it.
Even Bill Monroe welcomed those Yankees to wear the hat in his band.
Pete Wernick=New York=Yankee
Earl Scruggs=North Carolina=Rebel
They played nicely together on national TV. It's the most exposure we've seen in the South on TV since the Darlings came out of the mountains to see Andy and Opie.
The idea that someone can't understand something because of either the geographic location of their birth or current residence seems foolish to me. #But what do I know I was born in Appalachia. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif
The video clip is now up at the Late Show website. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the link here, so I'll play it safe. Google it.
Moose
Sep-27-2005, 12:07pm
Do ya' really think Sally Ann(Forrester) helped "pitch" them tents...!!?? - wonder what position she played on Mr. Monroe's ball team....in "those" daze!?? - http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif
picksnbits
Sep-27-2005, 2:22pm
Just viewed the clip, thought it was pretty cool myself, whatever label you place on it.
FWIW, I seem to recall reading an interview with Mr. Scruggs in which he said that he didn't think of himself as a "Bluegrass" musician, but just as a musician (or something to that effect).
f5loar
Sep-27-2005, 2:45pm
Sally Ann was the "bat"boy.
JEStanek
Sep-27-2005, 8:55pm
I just watched the clip. That was great.After reading the Pete's story of how it all happened and to see those guys play so well was a treat. I made a shortcut to the page on my desktop. My kids will get a kick outta watch those fellas play. I know I sure did. I remember Steve Martin in a white suit playing banjo in standup when I was a kid.
I'm just happy Earl Scruggs and those other fine players were on The Late Show to give much of the rest of Amaerica a chance to hear something different than American Idol CDs!
Whatta treat.
Jamie
walshb
Sep-27-2005, 9:56pm
According to info at Pete W's website, Earl himself invited Paul S to take a piano solo. Paul did do a great job, but I still could have done without it; especially when the segment was titled "Men with banjos who know how to use them".
I just watched the video for about the 5th time, I still have to smile every time I see it. There's at least one thing it proves, Earl can still play the banjo!
Willie
Sep-30-2005, 10:31pm
Since F4Fake and I settled our differences via e mails I will post one more opinion on this subject....The civil war ain`t over yet but this isn`t about that, just because I mentioned New York, I mean that I feel that bluegrass and country music awards should decided by the experts in Nashville or Owensboro or someplace where bluegrass is a more familiar item...I know a lot of New Yorkers that are great pickers but the music still originated down yonder and I feel strongly that it should be represented by some origanization down that way...Please don`t shoot me down for expressing my thoughts...I wouldn`t expect Nasville to put on a "Rap" show...Also it proved to me that Earl can still play F M B but I haven`t seen or heard him play much bluegrass for some time...He was doing rock with his son the last time I saw him thats why I made the comment about being bluegrass pickers on the Letterman show....SORRY FOLKS...Willie