Re: Complex Bluegrass Arrangements
Well, Bill Monroe wasn't above "complex arrangements"; how about the tempo change in Blue Moon of Kentucky? Or the Jenny Lynn fiddle "outro" in Uncle Pen?
You can "spice up" arrangements without getting weird. Key modulations are one alternative, take the last verse up from G to A (lots of performers do that in Me and Bobby Magee). Repeat the last chorus with all the instruments dropping out but the guitar. Put an a cappella sung intro in before the instruments enter. As suggested above, have two lead instruments harmonize on a break. Or have the instruments alternate lines on the break. Many a bluegrass instrumental has the rhythm stop, while the lead instrument puts in a phrase that ends the break.
These are all things that mainstream bluegrass bands have done, without seeming to be self-consciously "arty" about it. They vary the standard verse/chorus/break, verse/chorus/break pattern without seeming incongruous or, Heaven help us, "non-bluegrass." Flat & Scruggs often included one banjo/fiddle duet, just Scruggs and Paul Warren, in their sets. Ralph Stanley would go from finger-picking to clawhammer for a couple songs. Listen to the Osborne Brothers' original recording of Ruby, Are You Mad; it has Bobby and Sonny both playing banjo, in harmony. (At least I think it's Bobby, since there's no mandolin audible.)
There are a lot of things you can do within a basic "trad" bluegrass context. And they don't need to be "complex," just different.
Allen Hopkins
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