Re: 'Danger' of genius?
Well, I agree with Lehmann on one point: there's a disturbing tendency among some music fans to say, "Well, I really appreciate all the changes and development in music that produced the style I love -- but that's gotta stop here! No more changes!"
What I think the article doesn't recognize is that there are/were "trad" bluegrass artists playing Monroe/Flatt & Scruggs/etc. era music right along, before, during and after bands like the Bluegrass Album Band and the Johnson Mountain Boys revived older styles. Ralph Stanley, Jimmy Martin, Larry Sparks, Del McCoury, the Goins Brothers -- they kept plugging away at '50's-style bluegrass even though the Bluegrass Alliance, New Grass Revival, Muleskinner band, Earl Scruggs Revue, and other "newgrass"-influenced groups appeared on the scene. And don't forget that Monroe, and Flatt's Nashville Grass, kept playing right through the "newgrass" development period.
As for the guitar being "primarily a rhythm instrument," remember the writer's talking about bluegrass, not jazz or other forms of flat-picking. There were lead guitars playing well before Clarence White: think about Scruggs's work on Foggy Mountain Boys gospel tunes, Bill Napier and George Shuffler with Stanley, and Don Reno, mentioned above. And if you stray from bluegrass to "trad" country, listen to Hank Snow and Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas. Yeah, they weren't like Rice, Watson, White, or Dan Crary, but they moved the acoustic steel string guitar to the front of the band.
I'm not quite sure what earns the "genius" label; just that you have to be a very accomplished musician? IMHO the "genius" of Bill Monroe wasn't that he was a virtuoso mandolin player; it was that he developed a distinct genre of music -- bluegrass -- by combining a number of pre-existing stylistic influences, and recognizing and combining the musicians needed to realize his concept. If it hadn't been Scruggs in the Blue Grass Boys, it would have been Reno -- that's established -- and if it hadn't been Chubby Wise, Monroe would have found another fiddler that played the way he wanted. It's like Benny Goodman finding Charlie Christian and Lionel Hampton, Bob Wills coming up with Tommy Duncan, Eldon Shamblin and Leon McAuliffe, or Muddy Waters hiring Otis Spann and Little Walter. However these musicians ended up together, it was the vision and leadership of the bandleaders that produced their unique distinctive styles.
So, I don't know if Tony Rice is a "genius,' or even really when you apply that label to someone who's a top musician. Maybe I'd be more likely to award the title to David Grisman, who put together a group that defined a "new acoustic" style -- in which Rice, as well as others starred. When you can't think of a style without thinking of a particular leader -- Monroe and bluegrass, Wills and Western swing, Reinhardt and "gypsy jazz," Armstrong and New Orleans jazz, Dylan and "folk rock," etc. -- then you may have a defensible definition of "genius."
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