Re: What do you like most (least) Bluegrass?
I like to hear all the music, so I generally prefer studio recordings to live performances, because my biggest complaint with live music is bad sound engineering. The performance can be sterling, but if the sound is muddy I will not enjoy it.
That said, I like vocalists and instrumentalists equally, maybe a slight edge to the players. I do like high lonesome, but not nasal twang. Sincerity doesn't matter to me if it's bad. I would rather hear an over-slick good rendition than a sincere lousy one.
In bluegrass, I like good banjo, good fiddle, a rock-steady guitar and (horror of horrors,) I can actually stand electric bass. I can actually take or leave the dobro and I am in fact kind of sick of Jerry Douglas' style. It is undoubtedly great but you can always tell who it is within a couple of bars. The mandolin does not have to be slick for me to enjoy it, in fact the bluegrass with more of an old-timey feel to the mandolin breaks, such as the Stanley Brothers' stuff with Pee Wee Lambert is some of my favorite bluegrass. I like Monroe-style and Steffey style, but I don't care for the cram-as-many-notes-a measure-as-you-can style of bluegrass soloing. I do prefer tradiotal instrumentation in bluegrass - no accordion or djembe, please. I don't even like harmonica, and I know Lester and Earl used it and I also know that Charlie McCoy is great but if I want harp, give me some blues. I'll take Gary Primich, please.
I prefer traditional and gospel to newgrass, but if newgrass sounds traditional, then I like it. "Hippiegrass" irritates me. I just don't like it. And I play a few of the "standards" every jam - "Catfish John," "Midnight Moonlight," etc.. I much prefer "Can't You Hear Me Callin' ?" Songs which go {I- ii} irritate me too. I can't stand "Steam Powered Aereoplane," or "Devil's Dream." They just bug me.
As far as dress, it doesn't much matter, but the shorts and a tee-shirt look is not my favorite. I wear a slacks, a dress shirt, a tie and suspenders when I play for an audience. It's my personal idiosyncrasy, and it's kind of new with me - I've only done it for about four shows now - but it is now my style.
My 2’. Worth every penny.
"I thought I knew a lot about music. Then you start digging and the deeper you go, the more there is."~John Mellencamp
"Theory only seems like rocket science when you don't know it. Once you understand it, it's more like plumbing!"~John McGann
"IT'S T-R-E-M-O-L-O, dangit!!"~Me
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