Yes, yes, he did. He also said:
He's running a bit late - hasn't even logged in for over a week - so what I've done is try to put the results so far into some sort of context, with a rudimentary statistical analysis. Whatever the final analysis ends up being by his reckoning, this "clear tendency" has been fairly consistent, with a ratio of over 3:1 nos to yeses. As I've said, saying "yes" to the question means one defines oneself as someone who plays bluegrass mostly, if not exclusively, and saying "no" means one defines oneself as someone who plays mostly other music than bluegrass, even if that includes playing bluegrass some of the time. IMO, natch, and YMMV, but I think that's a judicious interpretation of the question.
For instance ...
Last night I played my first real gig in ages, what with this and that real-life situation impinging on my activities. This was with the seasonal Cajun-country-bluegrass band I'd been playing with for some fifteen years (only during the main tourist season, when them snowbird members come down to escape winter) until I had to quit last year, after getting tired of not being called on very often due to financial shortcomings. (And also, I'd gotten tired of wrestling with the new guy, the drummer and sound guy, about ... so many things. Another time for all that.) But I got the call to fill in for the pedal steel player, and even though it was for low money, I was glad to have a chance to play. It felt great, by the way, and I discovered I still have some chops, even though I haven't been playing much. In the course of the gig, we played only one bluegrass number, "Glendale Train," inexplicably in the key of E. It went at breakneck speed, and since I had to do all the lead work, I had to play a lot of notes in a short amount of time. My fingers are grumbling today. It was one of the high points of the night, as I impressed myself (a rare occurrence) with my ability to step up and kick butt when needed. But even though I enjoyed this tremendously, there is just no way I would say I was a bluegrass player. At the moment, for that occasion, yeah, sure - but overall, nope.
Bookmarks