2007 ibma awards - analysis

[Ted Lehmann]

I've just posted my analysis of last night's IBMA Awards on my blog. I'll be interested to read your responses to this very important evening in bluegrass music and to my take on it. - Ted

[Bill Van Liere]

I am happy for the Infamous Stringdusters

[Jonathan James]

I'm bummed that Tony Williamson, Vassar, Tony Rice, Scott Vestal didn't win "Best Recorded Event" for the concert at Randy Wood's concert house in GA. Great project and Vassar's last...

[Mandomax]

it was at Randy Wood's- Wayne lives in VA

[AlanN]

Well, great to see Tony T get banjo, and yes to Ted's opine about Alan Bibey.

For those at the event, how is it?

[Russ Jordan]

In regards to Ted's blog: MIchael Cleveland and Flamekeeper are still together, though Audie Blaylock has left.

[lgc]

I guess my question is is, when did Sam Bush play bluegrass this year?

[Don Grieser]

I lost interest in the IBMA awards during the O Brother time. When Mike Compton didn't win that year, I decided the IBMA awards weren't worth paying attention to. O Brother was only responsible for a huge rebirth of interest in bluegrass and string music. So they gave it to someone else that year. Who won this year? Who cares?

[lgc]

If Monroe came out today would he even be on the radar of the IBMA? Probably not. Ironic? Yes.

[Brady Smith]

I guess my question is is, when did Sam Bush play bluegrass this year?

Exactly...

[Keith Wallen]

I guess you all didn't hear Sam's cd this year. While not all bluegrass there were two songs on there that are definitely bluegrass and nothing else which is more than years past. And probably why he didn't win much the last 5 - 8 years or at least that's why I thought he didn't win those years.

Sam is my favorite player so I am a little biased however I do agree that the awards should be spread around a little more.

[Keith Wallen]

Also aren't we/bluegrass getting big enough to have more categories such as traditional and progressive although that is a little hard to define some times. Just look at the debates here.

[45ACP-GDLF5]

I guess my question is is, when did Sam #Bush play bluegrass this year?

Sam has been playing Bluegrass since about 1971 when he was in the band Bluegrass Alliance. He's just not played Bluegrass exclusively. Duh!! When he was in NGR and every band since then, he has always recorded at least 1 or 2 Monroe songs per album/CD.

I just seen him last week at WCU and he played about 4 or 5 Classic Bluegrass tunes. I've got his set-list from that night to prove it.


I guess my question is, when are you gonna wake up and smell the river? cause The River's Gonna Run!!!

[45ACP-GDLF5]

If Monroe came out today would he even be on the radar of the IBMA? #Probably not. #Ironic? #Yes.

When the IBMA was formed in 1989, and held their first awards show in 1990, the only award they ever bestowed on Mr. Monroe, was his induction into the Bluegrass Hall of Honor. Up until his death in 1996, he never received another award from the IBMA.

In his biography, Can't You Hear Me Callin' he mentions that he never wanted HIS music to be turned into a competition between artists and musicians.

One note of interest though: when Ronnie McCoury won his first of 8 awards as Mandolin Player of the Year in 1993, upon receiving the award, he immediately walked off the stage into the audience and gave the award to Bill Monroe!!!

Very honorable and impressive, to say the least!!!

[45ACP-GDLF5]

Well, great to see Tony T get banjo, and yes to Ted's opine about Alan Bibey.

For those at the event, how is it?

Alan Bibey won this year's SPBGMA Award for Mandolin Player of the Year. They kinda pick up where the IBMA leaves off.

There a LOT of mandolin players that should already have won Mandolin Player of the Year.

Bill Monroe
Jesse McReynolds
Bobby Osborne
Doyle Lawson
Hershel Sizemore
John Duffey
David Grisman
Jethro Burns
Frank Wakefield
Mike Compton
Danny Roberts
Dempsey Young
Red Rector
Roland White....in no particular order, except for the Father of Bluegrass Music!!!

[lgc]

I just seen him last week at WCU and he played about 4 or 5 Classic Bluegrass tunes. I've got his set-list from that night to prove it.

Sure, Elvis played some classic BG tunes. So did Dylan and Art Garfunkle and wasn't there a techno version of cotton eyed joe made in the last decade? I've heard Sam Bush for years and he plays rock. Not that he can't play BG but he chooses not to. Why not give the award to someone who is actively playing full shows of BLUEGRASS mandolin every night intead of a couplea tunes a night. It'd be like giving Ricky Skaggs the gutar award during his Stratocaster county days.

[45ACP-GDLF5]

I just seen him last week at WCU and he played about 4 or 5 Classic Bluegrass tunes. I've got his set-list from that night to prove it.

Sure, Elvis played some classic BG tunes. #So did Dylan and Art Garfunkle and wasn't there a techno version of cotton eyed joe made in the last decade? #I've heard Sam Bush for years and he plays rock. #Not that he can't play BG but he chooses not to. #Why not give the award to someone who is actively playing full shows of BLUEGRASS mandolin every night intead of a couplea tunes a night. #It'd be like giving Ricky Skaggs the gutar award during his Stratocaster county days.

Sam does NOT play rock music! You're wrong as wrong can be! Sam plays bluegrass in every show he does! He also plays Newgrass! Sam learned Bluegrass Music at a young age and has ALWAYS played it throughout his career, just not exclusively.

Elvis, Dylan, Garfunkle NEVER started out in Bluegrass! They've NEVER been associated with Bluegrass! You're analysis of Sam Bush is WRONG! He plays Bluegrass festivals all over the country every year! He breaks down, note for note, bluegrass tunes in all of his instructional DVD's including his breakdown of Bill Monroe's style and tunes in Bill's instructional DVD's. All his interviews, radio and TV, he talks about playing and learning Bluegrass!

How many more lessons in Sam Bush would you like, free of charge?

[DryBones]

#Sam learned Bluegrass Music at a young age and has ALWAYS played it throughout his career, just not exclusively.

Pretty sure the B in IBMA means Bluegrass...exclusively and the awards are suppose to be for a 1 year time period not somebodies career. So was Sam the best "Bluegrass" picker for the past year? inquiring minds want to know

[45ACP-GDLF5]

#Sam learned Bluegrass Music at a young age and has ALWAYS played it throughout his career, just not exclusively.

Pretty sure the B in IBMA means Bluegrass...exclusively and the awards are suppose to be for a 1 year time period not somebodies career. So was Sam the best "Bluegrass" picker for the past year? inquiring minds want to know # # #

According to his peers in Bluegrass, he was the best! They voted for him, and he got more votes than the other nominees, so I guess there's your answer.

Personally, I wish Doyle Lawson would have won. All the other nominees have won except for Doyle. He's always nominated, but never wins and he's been playing mandolin longer than the other nominees! His progressive style has been on the scene since the 60's. He more than deserves it!!!

[Brady Smith]

I'm with lgc on this one...and was he the best bluegrass mandolin player this year...no way. Shouldn't have been nominated..there's too many other deserving bluegrass mando players.

It didn't stop there though...you've got Tony Trischka winning 3 times and Bradley Walker winning the Male Vocalist. I haven't heard much of Walker's songs but the 3 or 4 I've heard sound like another mediocre modern country singer. Non of them I've heard yet are bluegrass...I hope he has an album full of bluegrass somewhere I haven't heard yet.

[45ACP-GDLF5]

I'm with lgc on this one...and was he the best bluegrass mandolin player this year...no way. #Shouldn't have been nominated..there's too many other deserving bluegrass mando players.

It didn't stop there though...you've got Tony Trischka winning 3 times and Bradley Walker winning the Male Vocalist. #I haven't heard much of Walker's songs but the 3 or 4 I've heard sound like another mediocre modern country singer. #Non of them I've heard yet are bluegrass...I hope he has an album full of bluegrass somewhere I haven't heard yet.

Yeah whatever! Blah, blah, blah!

[Ted Lehmann]

Genius is a strange and wonderful and haunting characteristic which has destroyed as many people as it has made. There is no doubt that Bill Monroe was an authentic American genius. He took a variety of strands of music and melded them into a musical sub-genre that has honored his contribution by naming itself after Monroe's band. But Bill Monroe was often a difficult, jealous, demanding, and demeaning taskmaster. He was prone to look at developments in "his" music and reject them, saying "that ain't no part of nothin'." During his years at the Grand Ol' Opry he jealously protected his prerogatives, making it impossible for many years for new peformers to join the Opry. This block was finally broken when Alison Kraus was admitted to membership, the first new member in (I think)about twenty years.
During the early years of bluegrass music, great members of the first generation like the Osborne Brothers, Jim and Jesse McReynolds, and Earle Scruggs experimented with using drums and other alternative instruments on the bluegrass stage. These experiments were driven away by the "true" fans, proving themselves to be more conservative than some of the great contributers to the genre. It has only been the creative genius and courageous perseverance of great musicians like Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas who have been able, however precariously, to make the drum stick to the bluegrass stage.
Every time I've seen Sam Bush perform, he has done honor to Bill Monroe both in what he says and how he plays. He brings to his own playing the same kind of inventiveness that Monroe brought to his own. In a recent workshop at Otis Mtn. Music Festival in rural Elizabethtown, NY, Sam spoke with the greatest love and respect of Bill Monroe, recounting stories of having seen and learned from Monroe at the earliest bluegrass festivals in Virginia.
If musical creators like Bush, Douglas, Trischka and many more are not seen as representing the natural extension of the synthesis that became bluegrass music, then the genre is doomed to our own conservatism and ultimate demise. Unless we let the music grow by continuing to revere the founders whle developing the music in a variety of directions, we're in trouble. - Ted

[AlanN]

Ted for President!

[AlanN]

[
Personally, I wish Doyle Lawson would have won.

Right with you

[Ted Lehmann]

If nominated, I will not run.
If elected, I will not serve - Ted