Bluegrass music

[ngzcaz]

Most of the bluegrass festivals I attend
seem to be my age group ( over 40, well 50 )
I just dont see youngsters waiting in the wings
to carry the torch, especially the older Bill Monroe,
Ralph Stanley, F & S ect. The few younger players
are into what I liken to be " new country " &
country rock. Nothing wrong with that, just would be a shame to lose what the old tunes.


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[AlanN]

Down here in NC, I see the opposite. Shake a tree and 8 banjo pickers fall out of it, many of them young kids.

[Darren]

I agree with AlanN. #I am 28 and have been listen to BG for a few years now. #Been trying to play too. #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif # Granted there are probably more yongins playing newgrass or more contemporary BG then Traditional, but the Trads are out there. #

Saw King Wilkie a few weeks back and they definitely have that high lonesome sound. #Single mic and all. #Well sort of...single vocal/solo mic. #They also dress up in suits like the forefathers did. #The guys appear to be in their mid-twenties.

Another band that comes to mind is Jim and Jennie and the Pinetops. #Very traditional minded. #Then you've got the Old Time bands like the Reeltime Travelers.

A great time to be "into" acoustic music, if you ask me.

[Pete Martin]

A number of younger players up here in the NW as well.

[Bobbie Dier]

[QUOTE]"Bunch of spinners"

Do you mean drednecks?

[giverin]

If you come to the northwest of england on a thursday night you will find my band "nuffin" playing on stage, with an average age of 13 i'd saywe were pretty young. Also in the same night you would find 2 10 year old fiddle players a 15year old guitar player and a 6 year old learner on the mandolin. Idont know about america but traditional bluegrass is well supported by youngsters in the UK.

[Moose]

I wiil have to agree with all the above posters.. ; Bluegrass - tho' not always the "traditional"(i.e. Monroe.., Flatt& Scruggs, et al..) is alive and well.., thanks to the "newer"/2nd generation folks(i.e. AK, the McCoury 'family', & others) - I work at a large university(Delaware) and the local/college FM plays lots of both "traditional" and "newer" acts. This is indeed something for us die-hards to be "thankful" for. Most of the kids(!?) I talk with appreciate and respect the "cultural"/traditional aspect(s) of OUR music even if they didn't grow up in "the mountains"..,dig coal, work in the cotton, wash with a tub...etc. Let's appreciate their honest interest, open-mindedness, and "willingness-to-learn-and-listen" attitude. There's still hope!!! Regards, Moose. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[JD Cowles]

there are plenty of new acts keeping the old torch burnin. check out open road sometime. if those fellers aint traditional, i don't know what is. there will always be traditionalists and there will always be those seeking to expand on those traditions. in some ways, the boundaries are getting blurred a bit too much for my tastes and it's hard to find a festival thats strictly tradtional. telluride has been calling itself a bluegrass festival for years, yet features acts like cake and james taylor and spearhead. last time i checked spearhead was about as far away from bluegrass as you could get.

[surfnut]

If you think it is dying why not do something about it? Start a slow jam that teaches traditional songs in your area. Take a jam group to your local middle/ high school music dept. and make a presentation. This is "roots" music show young people how much fun it is to play it.I wish there more slow jams in my area around Santa Cruz I could use some learning.

[Scotti Adams]

..I think everything is gonna be okay....just go to SPBGMA or IBMA and its all youngins playing...alot of girls too....fiddle players and mando players out the hiney...

[f5joe]

I heard these same comments in 1973 when I discovered BG music. I believe it's never been in better health.

[Moose]

AMEN.., brother... - I suggest those "lurking in the spheres".. . would smile down and be proud of today's crop of young pickers - carrying on the the "tradition". IMHO http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[ngzcaz]

I truly hope all of the above posts are
correct. America cant afford to lose as traditional
as old time bluegrass. Guess I'll have to attend a
few down south.

*** Anyone familar with the Smithville TN festival ?
Clogging, Fiddle, banjo, guitar, dulcimer, contests
on the 4th of July. Would like to hear from someone
who has been there. Sounds traditional as it gets...

Blue moon of Kentucky, Ragtime Annie, The Orange,
Redwing, Rank strangers.......Ah..... Classics all

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[Willie]

I find that in my area, central Md., that there a lot of youngsters playing traditional but as soon as they seem to get it down right they get bored and branch off into something more like the new grass, nothing wrong with that as I see a lot of them coming back to the tradition ways because they want to make some coins playing and the new stuff just don`t sell in this area, at least not in the circles where I walk....Willie

[Jeff_Stallard]

It's funny to hear people mention the tradition of bluegrass, when it was invented just over 50 years ago. That hardly seems old enough to be considered traditional.

But I digress...

[Bobbie Dier]

ngzcaz,
I've never been to Smithville but at times they broadcast it on the public TV stations and it looks like it's pretty BIG. I hear it is a nice festival too. One of these days I'll make it over there. I've always wanted to go. Hope someone else has been and can answer your questions
ima

Jeff -

I looked up "traditional" and there was no mention of a number of years. #The closest was talk of passing down from generation to generation and that can easily be done in the 50 years. #Still when most people talk about traditional bluegrass they are using defintion number four from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary "4 : characteristic manner, method, or style"

The "funny" part of this is someone thinking that a word in the English language can only have one meaning.

[f5joe]

*** Anyone familar with the Smithville TN festival ?
Clogging, Fiddle, banjo, guitar, dulcimer, contests
on the 4th of July. Would like to hear from someone
who has been there. Sounds traditional as it gets...


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Smithville is TONS of fun, right on the old town square. #Do not go without your mando. #You'll be disappointed if you don't take it. # http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[mrbook]

A couple months ago, a local college student stopped by my business because he heard I had a bluegrass band. He did his senior thesis on Monroe style mandolin, and he had a guitar-playing friend with whom he did Monroe Brothers style duets. I invited them to sit in with us a few times, we played at their senior recital, and tonight we're playing at their college bar - my first experience of that type in 30 years. I give them credit for sitting in with people the same age as their parents (even though we don't feel it), and because of them we get to play old Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs tunes for an audience we never would have reached.

[peterbc]

I'm a youngin' in the northwest and I think it is skewed towards an older crowd, but there are definately some other youngsters. I'm not sure I buy that there are lots of girls though... And about playing with people the age of their parents, I go to a jam most every week with friends of my parents, doesn't bother me a bit (not bluegrass, but old semi related music, carter family, other country acts, blues, western swing, some bluegrass). They know how to have fun!

[doublestop]

Nathan,
Where are you from in PA? I am from Central PA and work in a music store. We seem to have a great Bluegrass clientele and a lot of the younger people are interested. All the "Dead Heads" have started to follow Bluegrass. Not sure if this is good or bad, but eventually those "Dead Heads" will settle down and pass it on to their children. Del McCoury playing with Phish has also enlightened a lot of younger people (Hail Del). Working in a music store I haven't seen much negativity toward Bluegrass. We even have a lot of older women 40 to 60 that are interested in learning to play bluegrass. We have good intentions of starting a slow jam for them if time will allow. These are women who are married to Bluegrass players, but husbands just don't have the patience to deal with beginners. Hey, if you're from PA, don't forget about the Smoked Country Jam Fest in McElhatten, PA.
www.smokedcountryjam.com
It is the first annual, but should be fun!!!

[Patrick Gunning]

Hey thanks for the shout-out Pete to all us young players in the NW. Peter, where do you live up here, got a cast on my hand for a few more days but this summer would love to find more people to play with. Post back here or message me through the forum if you see this.

-Patrick

[mrbook]

Just came home from playing the college bar, where a couple hundred drunken college students whooped and cheered when we played "Can't You Hear Me Calling," "I'm on My Way Back to the Old Home," Rocky Road Blues," "Jerusalem Ridge," and all the standards. It's what I've been waiting to see for years. In a couple weeks we will play at a local bluegrass festival, where half the audience will have oxygen tubes stuck up their noses. I like both extremes, but only one has a future.

[ngzcaz]

Hey Doublestop,
I'm from NE Pa in the foothills of the Poconos.
Windgap festivals are coming up, also go to Belfast
on occasion. At these locations its predominantly
40 on up.
Lyons has a fiddle contest in Sept and there are
a few kids from the Amish/Men territory that come and
join in. First time I was there we ended up closing
with the young female fiddle contest winner that happened to stroll over and join in a chorus of " Amazing Grace "
The kids joined in.. " How sweet the sound "


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[mandodon]

I just can't wait till the young kids sift through all the fluffy stuff that's being produced and promoted today, and discover, or rediscover, as the case may be, the original stuff, and take it in a different direction that doesn't head straight for a bunch of makeup and a video on CMT or VH1. I personally am sick of bubblegrass, and hope that some of these kids go in a more authentically musical (vs. commercial) route. Bluegrass history, to include offshoots like Dawg music and Newgrass, is too full of musical innovation and creativity to be wasted on makeup and hairspray.

[garyblanchard]

Sometimes success in the more commercial fields of the music industry allows an artist the time and money to go closer to the "real" stuff as well as giving them an audience to hear it. Probably more than one person (I am one) first came to Bluegrass through Jerry Garcia and Old and in the Way. From there I moved on back to the roots.

I wish I made more money whan I was young so I could do the things that are important to me now.

[AlanN]

Wind Gap is a good 'un. Used to hit it regularly when I lived up there. My favorite part was in driving through the gate, the guy they had taking tickets had the biggest, roundest gut I've ever seen.

[doublestop]

Nathan,
Do you ever go to the Out Among the Stars Fest. in Benton, PA? We are one of the vendors there. If so, maybe we have met. Probably not a very far trek for you. I used to be from NE PA. In fact, my Dad still lives close to Elk Mtn.

[ngzcaz]

"
I wish I made more money whan I was young so I could do the things that are important to me now. "
Gary, seems to me you probably are. : )


Doublestop,
I went last year to Benton just to see Charley Waller
& the Country Gentlemen. Windgap used to be an 1/8 mile
dragstrip oh so many years ago. That blacktop you drive
across was part of the strip. The banks on the right
was the spectator area.

[doublestop]

Look me up if you come to Benton again this year. We are the musical instriment vendor.

[A9cp]

I was at this years Merlefest and the were young musicians everywhere, banjo players, flatpickers and mandolin players like Josh Pinkham a 14 year old mando playing wise kid from Florida. He has placed in the top 3 the last two years in the mando contest. So I say the torch is being carried by a lot of young pickers. Plus the workshops were packed with old and young pickers.