Brian Paul Swenk, Author at Bluegrass Today

Béla Fleck Blue Ridge Banjo Camp

Béla Fleck welcomes the class at the 2018 Blue Ridge Banjo Camp – photo by Brian Swenk

“Immerse yourself.”

If there was one consistent theme to the inaugural Béla Fleck Blue Ridge Banjo Camp, it wasn’t necessarily the technical mechanics of banjo wizardry, but more of how we expand art and passion in our conscious daily lives. There is a focus on how to use an instrument like the banjo to learn self-discipline, dedication, and the joyous expression of art to become better people, better friends, and better artists.

The first (of hopefully many) Blue Ridge Banjo Camps took place at the scenic Brevard Music Center last week, as nearly 100 banjo players arrived ready to sit at the feet of masters and become “immersed” in all things bluegrass banjo for three straight days.

Coming from as far as New Zealand, Australia, and Switzerland, students of all ages (the youngest was 11 years old!) arrived Wednesday evening to check in, have a quick dinner, meet their fellow camp mates, and find a seat in one of the open air performance spaces and await one of their heroes, Béla Fleck.

Woody Platt, guitarist and singer for the Steep Canyon Rangers and one of the camp organizers, welcomed everyone and told the story of the moment he was standing with Béla after a performance and said, “You know… we should do a banjo camp!” There are few people who could take that kernel of an idea and turn it into a multi-national reality within a year, but Woody Platt and Béla Fleck are two of the hardest working musicians you’ll ever meet.

As Béla got up and welcomed the students, he explained that his goal for everyone, regardless of skill level, was to find both meaningful short-term and long-term takeaways, and to not become overwhelmed at the amount of information. He wanted everyone to relax and become immersed in the entire experience.

Béla introduced the other camp instructors in an autobiographical context of his own experience learning the banjo. For Béla, it all started hearing the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies on TV one day. “I heard Earl Scruggs playing that melody and it was just all over for me!” His first banjo teacher got so frustrated with Béla asking to learn Tony Trischka songs that he finally handed Béla Tony’s phone number and said, “He lives in the Bronx, you should just start going to him.” Béla explained that Tony was so cutting edge back then, he took all the flack for not playing the banjo “right.” He thanked Tony for taking so much heat, so that when he started recording and performing, people were not as shocked about this entirely new way to play the instrument.

Béla then introduced Steve Cooley from Kentucky. While Tony taught Béla the outer limits of playing creatively, Steve taught him the deeper meanings and techniques of the Scruggs/Crowe style. “Steve broadened my understanding of that style, much more than I could find up in New York. Back then, you couldn’t just pull up a video of the different styles of the southern banjo players, so you had to find someone that had a deeper understanding of the Scruggs style, and Steve was able to show me that.”

Mike Munford was introduced next. Winner of the 2013 IBMA Banjo Player of the Year award, Mike plays with the award winning Frank Solivan and Dirty Kitchen. Béla described him as a banjo “set-up” master, and a tangential conversation ensued about the complexities of setting up a banjo to perform in all parts of the world. The impromptu conversation/story was easily one of the highlights of the camp, as the instructors all had moments of remembering random stories about people like John Hartford, Earl Scruggs, Don Reno, etc. that they would stop and share in the moment. The freedom to tell unplanned stories about the bluegrass greats was worth the price of admission. For example, did you know that John Hartford was buried in a Batman cape? Neither did I, but Béla telling the story in the middle of the evening festivities is something I’ll never forget.

Kristen Scott Benson was the last instructor to be introduced, and Béla explained that not only is she an amazing player and four-time IBMA Banjo Player of the Year, but she’s such an amazing teacher that Béla was able to pick out her students in their audition videos because of the solid fundamentals and timing they showed.

The five instructors then took turns leading some of their favorite songs for the class. One of the highlights of this first night was Béla and Tony playing Green Willis and Whiskey Before Breakfast on top of each other. And if that wasn’t enough, they got the other instructors to join them as they added St. Anne’s Reel to the mix, playing each tune as a counterpoint to the others and then eventually playing all three together at the the same time. One would think it would be a cacophony of notes, but surprisingly to everyone in attendance it worked and sounded much better than expected. The 5-piece banjo band then rolled through some Scruggs standards including, Bugle Call Rag, Groundspeed with 3-part instrumental harmonies, as well as Foggy Mountain Special, with each instructor stretching out and showing some jazz chops.

Another highlight was Kristen Scott Benson and Mike Munford leading an older Fleck tune called Eager and Anxious. This song was recorded with his old group Spectrum and has a unique sound, as it’s in the key of Bm with the 5th string lowered to F#.

Banjo Camp showcased the striking contrast of the overplayed stereotype of banjo players being “dumb” and the reality of how incredibly intelligent and educated so many of these players are. From jazz performance degrees (Adam Larrabee of the band Love Canon) to adjunct professors at UNC Chapel Hill (Hank Smith, founding member of Hank, Pattie, and The Current) to Bach on the banjo expert John Bullard, who demonstrated Prelude from Violin Partita No 3. The knowledge and curiosity of the students was palpable as the students started discovering each other’s strengths and experiences. The term “banjo nerd” was used often and endearingly, as it did seem to accurately describe the overall passion that was inherent in each and every player.

The morning session of the first day included the entire camp as Béla took the stage overlooking the idyllic pond on the grounds. Using an app on his phone and without any explanation, he played an Indian style drone, usually played on a tambura, and then proceeded to play through an Indian influenced “raga.” A raga is played in three distinct tempos using a specific scale, in this case a G pentatonic but replacing the E with an F#, and the goal is to slowly reveal each note as you move up the scale. Lasting at least ten minutes, the effect was mesmerizing and meditative. Béla explained the concepts behind the form and how he approaches the process of “revealing” notes as he goes. For him, the raga is the “sound of tonality” and it has a freedom of escaping both song and rhythm. Again, it is moments like these that are worth the time and money to be part of this experience. Béla is so engaged, curious, and intellectual about everything he does, and it is an amazing experience to be in the same room and hear him explain the hows and whys of playing Indian music forms on the banjo.

The discussion of rhythm forms led Béla to discuss the idea of metronomes and how they can be both important but also restrictive. “If music has absolute perfect timing, then you’re missing something,” said Béla. “The best music is rarely metronomic. All of the music I love has the musicians ‘listening’ to each other and being flexible to the ebb and flow of the timing.”

The students broke into five groups for the next three days, each group would have a “block” with each teacher, ultimately spending two sessions with every teacher. The teaching style of each instructor made each class unique and interesting, from the slow determined style of Béla, to the quirkiness of Tony Trischka (breaking out fantastic Don Reno stories), and the easily relatable Kristen Scott Benson. Each instructor dug into the abilities of each class, starting with basic fundamentals and slowly working their way to advanced concepts.

There’s a certain magic about Béla Fleck that’s so much more than the sum of his playing, recording, and performances. People outside of this unique “banjo world” tend to notice it when watching the movie chronicling his journey through Africa, Throw Down Your Heart. Mention Béla to someone outside our world and that’s a common reaction, “Have you seen the Africa movie?” The movie allows people to see who he is as a person, beyond the stage, and there’s a magnetic quality to how he engages life as a whole that is undeniably compelling and attractive.

You can spend your life learning notes, writing songs, and playing shows, but Béla Fleck has the curiosity and passion for learning and growing that is rare in life; it is those qualities that make this camp an unforgettable experience for 100 banjo students from around the world. Many, if not most, of the students expected to walk away with some blazing technical tricks that would produce a “wow factor” at their next show or jam session—and they will—but the unexpected long-term takeaway is a newly-discovered passion for the instrument and the music.

All attendees left with a rediscovered desire to practice fundamentals, to learn new songs, to write creative new music, and to listen to the music around us with a deeper sense of appreciation. We learned to wake up and engage each day as an opportunity to learn and grow and allow art to make our communities a better place. These students that traveled from around the world, or even just from North Carolina, to attend a summer banjo camp probably weren’t thinking of these things as they arrived, but by sitting and listening to five instructors who lived and breathed music for three days, they quickly realized that being passionate about the banjo is so much more than just practicing an instrument.

Adam Larrabee, banjoist for Love Canon, summed up the experience, “I think the best analogy is Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. We all got golden tickets and were allowed to enter the ‘factory’ for the first time and see how the music was made. It was magical and happened in an incredibly beautiful setting. Huge credit is due to Woody Platt and John Felty for conceiving of it, and all the other faculty and staff for making it seamless—especially for a first-time camp. But extra special thanks to Béla for curating and overseeing the quality control down to the most minute detail and especially for being willing to share his time and energy. A huge undertaking and an undeniable success! I will be back every year—if i can pass the audition!”

Suwannee Spring Reunion closes out in style

Peter Rowan performs at the 2017 Suwannee Spring Reunion Festival (3/25/17) – photo by Brian Paul Swenk

The final day of Suwannee Spring Reunion featured Peter Rowan, Jim Lauderdale, and Sara Watkins.

There are some musicians that have a presence that’s just as entertaining as their music, and Peter Rowan is definitely one of them. With his laid-back California swagger and Cheshire Cat-like perma-grin, Rowan took the stage Saturday night with the confidence of someone who’s participated in the bluegrass world from nearly every angle. At 74, Rowan is understandably slower in both tempos and stage banter, but the legendary personality that made so many of his songs bluegrass standards still shines through with a bemused ease.

Rowan’s iconic song, Midnight Moonlight, has become a campfire classic usually played at fairly quick tempos, but as Rowan galloped through the song at a leisurely pace Saturday night, you realize how much of a true soul singer he is. His voice bounces around the melody, bending notes up and down just enough to make the version unique and deep, but never too busy or forced. Few, if any, singers ever come close to putting so much soul into his vocal melodies.

While many of the songs were played at slower tempos than we are used to hearing them, the young energy of both Chris Henry on mandolin and Mike Witcher on dobro (brother and equal musical talent of Gabe Witcher) kept a palatable level of bluegrass excitement to the set. Their version of Monroe’s Can’t You Hear Me Callin’ was not the typical up-tempo version we know, but it always maintained that certain on-top-of-the-beat push that Bill Monroe created. While Rowan has developed his own style, it’s always easy to recognize the indelible print that his tenure with Mr. Monroe and The Blue Grass Boys left with him.

The Rev. Jeff Mosier stepped out to bring some 5-string energy to the show with the Monroe classic, I’ve Gotta Travel On.

It wouldn’t be a Peter Rowan show without the story of the “Bluegrass Breakdown [their bus] living up to its name near Horse Cave, KY,” when Bill Monroe walked up to Rowan and sang the first lines of Walls of Time. Tried and true, the hauntingly beautiful song is one of the most iconic slower tempo bluegrass songs we’ve ever had.

Earlier in the day, everyone’s favorite troubadour, Jim Lauderdale, played his bluegrass set on the main stage, under the looming Spirit of the Suwannee sign.

After his set, I asked Jim if he had any new bluegrass albums coming our way, and his answer was, let’s just say, very unexpected.

Jim Lauderdale: “Actually an old bluegrass album that I recorded in 1979. I went to Nashville to hang out for about five months, and my goals were to hang out with George Jones and Roland White. I was really into the Kentucky Colonels with Roland and Clarence at that time. I had gotten out of college and went to Nashville, and I never got to hang out with George Jones, but I got to hang out with Roland.

Bluegrass Today: “Were you much of a bluegrasser back then?”

JL: “Oh yeah! My goal back then, even a few years before that when I was still in high school, was to make bluegrass records. I was a banjo player, but I just didn’t have it together to make that happen. Then Roland and I got to be pals ,and sang a lot together and harmonized well together since I’d heard so many of their records and was in tune with what they were doing, so we did this record. It had Marty Stuart playing guitar on it, Johnny Warren is on fiddle, Terry Smith is on bass, Gene Wooten is on dobro, and Stan Brown is playing banjo. So we recorded it in Earl Scruggs’ basement, which was called ‘Scruggs Sound’ back then. Earl would come down sometimes and bring coffee on a silver tray for us! I mean it was surreal! I had written a few songs for the record and then some of the songs were older, but about half the record is duets without banjo, and the other half is straight-on bluegrass. But then I couldn’t get a deal for it. I tried taking it around when I had some mixes of it on cassette tapes. I’d mail them to the bluegrass labels, but it was a catch-22 because I wasn’t an established artist on the circuit — even though Roland was involved, it was still mostly a duet record. So anyway, it was real discouraging. Then I moved up to New York and started doing more country, and thought ‘Well, that was my bluegrass career.’ And it wasn’t until I started recorded with Ralph Stanley that I started doing bluegrass albums again.”

BT: “Wow! That was a big gap of time!”

JL: “Yes, a huge gap! And then last summer Roland was sitting in with me at The Station Inn, and as he was leaving the stage he said to me, ‘Oh, by the way, remember those tapes we lost? Well my wife just found them in a box’”

BT: “When will the album come out?”

JL: “I have another album coming out soon this year, so I’ll probably wait until 2018 for that album. But I’m also overdue for an all-new bluegrass album as well”

BT: “How long have you been playing this festival?”

JL: “I think I started coming here around ‘99 or 2000.”

BT: “This festival seems really important to the people that come every year. They say it feels like a homecoming or a family reunion.”

JL: “Yeah, I think so. And this is more of an intimate year. There’s one less stage and I think it works even better.”

BT: “Thanks for talking with me and giving us such a scoop!”

JL: “No problem. That’s your Bluegrass Today exclusive!”

Between Jim Lauderdale and Peter Rowan, the festival audience was treated to a set by multi-talented and multi-instrumentalist Sara Watkins. Last July, Sara released her solo album Young In All The Wrong Ways. “I’ve been touring around that a lot,” says Sara.

“We toured all fall and went to the UK for a few weeks; we’ll be continuing that promotion through this summer. But I’m really glad to back here to do a solo show.” I asked her how she’s describing her music these days, and she said, “I’m not really. Everyone comes from somewhere, and I came from bluegrass; and that’ll always be a part of what I do with the fiddle tunes in my set, but mostly I’m a singer/songwriter at this point.”

Her set did feature some of her new solo songs as well as diving back into her Nickel Creek days with Destination, from the 2014 album A Dotted Line. She showed those bluegrass roots as she brought up her friends from the band Turtle Duhks featuring Jordan McConnell (guitar), Leonard Podolak (banjo), Lydia Garrison (fiddle) as they ripped through Billy In The Lowground, Hold Whatcha Got, and John Hartford’s classic, Long Hot Summer Days.

From the festival attendees to the musicians on stage, the common theme of the weekend was how much the Suwannee Spring Reunion felt like an actual family reunion. There’s a unique aspect to this event in that people come to meet their friends—sometimes for the only time of the year—as much as they come for the great music. So many music festivals have a physical element that you agree to suffer through for the sake of the music: long distances between camps and stages, blazing sunshine, overbearing temperatures, and very little sleep. The Suwannee Spring Reunion had little, if any, of those issues.

It’s a beautifully run event that keeps family and friends coming back year after year.

Suwanee Spring Reunion ’17 – Day 2

The Earls Of Leicester at the Suwanee Spring Reunion Festival (3/24/17) – photo by Brian Paul Swenk

Day 2 of the Suwannee Spring Reunion Festival featured the time-machine of Jerry Douglas and the Earls of Leicester.

It’s very rare that you get to feel the genuine sense of time travel, but Jerry Douglas and the boys have the ability to take the crowd back to the 1950s for a full 90 minutes. Their recreation of the heyday of Flatt and Scruggs is near perfect in every way. Charlie Cushman on banjo, Johnny Warren playing his father’s fiddle (the same fiddle his father played when he was with Flatt and Scruggs), Barry Bales on bass, and, of course, the dobro wizardry of Douglas recreating Uncle Josh’s iconic licks and phrasing with a joyful ease. But the man that makes all of this possible is Shawn Camp and his method-acting devotion to the crooning voice and onstage persona of Lester Flatt. The instrumentation could be switched out with a modest level of musical parity, but this unit’s success (including a Grammy win for their first album) exists because of Shawn Camp.

I was able to catch up with Charlie Cushman beside their sparkling white Prevost tour bus after the show, and asked him about what it’s like to play in a group like this.

“The guys in the band have the same teaching I do. We all trained the same way by listening to the old Flatt and Scruggs records. When we get together to do a show, I’ll use Jerry’s (Douglas) quote, ‘It makes me feel like a kid again.’” It was pleasantly surprising to hear the time-machine effect is just as strong on the band as it is the audience.

Cushman talked about how this music affected him as a kid. “Flatt and Scruggs were the first bluegrass band, even though they didn’t like to be called a bluegrass band, they were the first to play with specific organization. They created a consistent musical product. That’s what I got used to. My other favorite band was Don Reno, Red Smiley and the Tennessee Cutups, and they were the only other band to stay consistent. Everyone else was constantly changing sidemen and their sound was always changing. The people playing with the other groups didn’t have the commitment to make a specific ‘product’ like Lester and Earl did. Earl told me one time that Lester wrote songs that specifically fit his banjo style, and that meant a lot to him.”

One of the highlights of the show was Cushman playing the Scruggs’ style 3-finger guitar on the deep cuts, Road To Glory Land, and the patriotic, war-time song Pray For The Boys.

Don’t forget to often pray for the boys so far away
They have gone to fill your place out there
They’re on the battle line in defense of yours and mine
Hold ’em up to God in humble prayer

Charlie talked about Earl’s decision to pick up a guitar during their shows. “I asked Earl one time, ‘What prompted you to play the 3-finger style on guitar, and he said to me, ‘Well, we were trying every way we knew to not be like Bill Monroe.’ They had just came from his band and they didn’t want that sound attached to them, and for people to say ‘Oh that’s just Bill Monroe’s old band.’ And I think they succeeded. I knew Earl real well for 35 years and I could ask him anything, and that’s what he said.”

I asked Charlie about how important Shawn Camp is to this group. “Shawn Camp portrays these songs with everything he’s got. He acts the songs out like it means something to him, which it does.”

The experience of seeing this band is unique and singular. If you’re a fan of the classic bluegrass style of strong harmonies, driving rhythms, and the graceful onstage dance to get in and out of the single vocal mic, then you owe it to yourself to find a show near you.

“We’re honored to be standing in the shadows of that great band with that great material,” says Cushman, “and hopefully be playing it with the same spirit as they played it. We do it out of love because we love what they did.”

Earlier in the day, banjoist Jeff Mosier, along with his lifelong musical partner, fiddler David Blackmon, performed with the family band Pickled Holler. An easy blend of bluegrass and old-time, the band summed up the overall vibe of the weekend with not just blended genres, but a down home Carter Family feel.

David Blackmon, back in action after laying low a few years with medical issues, took the mic and gave the audience an entertaining story about how he was always a “very confused fiddle player.”

“I was classically trained on violin as a kid,” said Blackmon, “but my older brother brought me an Allman Brothers album, Live at the Fillmore East, he didn’t like it, but I LOVED it. Then after that I went to the old Union Grove Fiddler’s Convention and discovered bluegrass and old-time fiddle playing! So as you can imagine, I was always a very confused fiddle player, as you’ll hear.” The band then started the iconic intro to The Allman Brothers Whipping Post, before gliding into Old Joe Clark.

I spoke with the Rev Jeff Mosier about what the festival means to him. Jeff is not just known for his great banjo playing, but also for his deep and introspective philosophies on life and art.

“This festival is, to me, what music is all about. Music is not just entertainment. It’s a community building, life saving venture. It’s a medicine we created ourselves as human beings because we kind of live in a movie that we know the ending to. I think songs suspend us from our pains, and when we get together like this with the ritual and the history, it all of a sudden makes our culture really rich. It’s like the yogurt you buy with the nuts and the different ingredients that you have to mix together—that’s what festivals do. They mix various ingredients and you get to hear the sum total of the parts. And that’s what a band is. It’s people yielding their ear, one to another, in hopes they can become bigger than their individual parts as a group.”

“I’ve always gravitated towards the kindness in the music that’s played here, and played by groups like the Grateful Dead. There’s an empathic sense that you’re included if you’re in the audience. ‘We want you to dance, we want you to sing along, we want you to participate’ and there are many people in this country that don’t have families, and they come here to feel like they belong.”

Non-bluegrass highlights of the fest that should be mentioned:

Jason and Nikki Talley’s opening set Friday morning. They are a husband and wife duo that quit their jobs 5 years ago, bought a van, converted it into their traveling home and haven’t looked back yet. Nikki takes songs from the traditional and old-time world and makes them her own with a sweet tenderness, while husband Jason plays fluid guitar lines with an endless creativity.

Musical icon and genre bending master Joe Craven sat in on percussion with The Josh Daniel and Mark Schimick Project. From The Meters’ Cissy Strut, to blazingly fast traditional fiddle tunes, this group never sits still, and in my opinion is they are easily one of the best acoustic bands in North Carolina.

Traveling troubadour Jim Lauderdale played a full set with festival favorites Donna The Buffalo as his backing band. From crooning country to deep reggae rhythms, the grooves were nothing short of infectious and intoxicating. It’s unique moments like this that make music festivals so special.

Day 1 at Suwannee Spring Reunion

Grandpa’s Cough Medicine at the 2017 Suwanee Spring Reunion – photo by Brian Paul Swenk

Brian Paul Swenk will be posting daily updates from this year’s Suwannee Spring Reunion festival.

There’s no better way to start the music festival season than with Suwannee Spring Reunion near Live Oak, Florida. Whether you’ve been coming for 20 years, as a lot of the festival goers proudly proclaim, or it’s your first time, people tend to describe the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park with the same phrase, “It’s the best festival grounds I’ve ever seen.” The tall pines and oaks with their hanging moss lazily drooping down provide a natural shade canopy around most all of the park.

The first day of the festival got off to an energetic start with a strong bluegrass showing from Bobby Miller and the Virgina Daredevils. The Asheville based band, led by mandolin player Bobby Miller, with Griff Martin on guitar, Billy Gillmore on banjo, and Greg “Stig” Stiglets on bass, blazed through some bluegrass standards like Dear Old Dixie before surprising the crowd with their version of the Cuban folk song El Cumbanchero. I spoke with Bobby after their set and asked him about how he found the unique song. “I went to the oldest recording I could find of it, which was Desi Arnaz,” says Bobby. “I believe it was Arnaz that introduced the song into the American music lexicon. I tried to learn as much of the big band feel of it as I could, and then later when I heard the Don Reno version of it I realized we both probably learned it from Arnaz, but we’re both interpreting it quite differently.”

Bobby’s first trip to the Spirit of the Suwannee music park was in 1998 to see a rock band with some friends and quickly linked up with the festival promoters and has been playing off and on ever since. “As soon as I set foot on this property each year it feels like a family reunion for everyone,” says Bobby.

There was a definitive common connection for all the bluegrass acts on Thursday, and that’s the beautiful town of Asheville, NC. Bobby Miller and his band have been bluegrass stalwarts there for over a decade, and the next act on stage, Grandpa’s Cough Medicine, just relocated there from Jacksonville, FL.

Grandpa’s Cough Medicine is quickly becoming a force in the bluegrass festival world with their self-proclaimed “outlaw bluegrass” style. “There’s a lot of the traditional elements that we respect, like the instrumentations,” says guitarist and band leader Brett Bass, “but the lyrical content of our songs puts us into the ‘outlaw’ category. That’s where we deviate from typical bluegrass bands.” Mixing their original songs with instrumental standards such as Clinch Mountain Backstep, and Daybreak in Dixie, the band performs much of its show at near supersonic tempos. “The speed is what drew me to bluegrass,” says Bass. “As a teenage metalhead the speed was very appealing to me.” If you think Bass is alone in that musical journey, you couldn’t be more wrong. The amount of great bluegrass pickers that were metalheads in the ’80s and early ’90s would amaze you. The love of speed, intensity, and precision easily crosses many genres.

Grandpa’s Cough Medicine just gave up one of their most uncommon attributes—being a powerhouse bluegrass trio—as they’ve added a fourth member, Brett’s wife Christina who just started playing bass 2 months ago. Yes, you read that right. 2 months in and she’s performing on a professional level at breakneck speeds.

The night ended with festival favorites Grass Is Dead, which as you can probably guess, is a group that plays the music of the Grateful Dead in traditional bluegrass style. Led by Billy Gilmore (who you might guess at this point also has Asheville, NC roots) the band was a perfect choice to close the night out as the crowd was soaking up two of its favorite musical styles at once: The Dead and bluegrass music.

Stove Up – Danny Barnes

When a Danny Barnes album shows up in the mail, you have no idea what to expect. His creativity and musical adventures have kept him from being pigeonholed into any specific genre or style. So as you open his new disc, Stove Up, which is made up mostly of hard-driving traditional fiddle and banjo standards, you see Barnes with his mischievous, merry prankster style grin, as if he’s saying, “Gotcha!”

“After 45 years of practicing, this is the first acoustic bluegrass record I’ve ever made,” says Barnes. And what a bluegrass album it is! From the great traditionals Paddy On The Turnpike, John Hardy, and Bill Cheatum, to the Grandpa Jones classic Eight More Miles to Louisville, Barnes takes us on a musical journey through his life with the 5-string.

Any banjo player worth his salt has to pay homage to the man that started our obsession with the instrument. Barnes chose two of Earl Scruggs’ best: Flint Hill Special, where he forgoes mechanical tuners and plays the iconic melody notes manually, and the underappreciated Fireball, which is the perfect blend of Earl’s right-hand timing with Barnes’ subtle but unique melodic runs and licks. Even the most ardent traditionalists will appreciate how Barnes adds his own style without removing the essence of Earl’s musical stamp.

An honest testament to Barnes’ songwriting is the fact that his three original tunes, Isotope 709, a high-speed Charlie, and his most well-known song Get It While You Can hold their own on an album with such bluegrass classics.

Spoiler alert here: If you listen to the album without reading the liner notes, there’s a particular moment, a particular song, that crashes two worlds together, and that’s the Don Stover classic Rockwood Deer Chase. It’s in this moment (and I’m sorry for ruining the potential of self-discovery here, but I have to write about it for an honest review) that you realize Barnes’ playing is a direct, and I mean direct, descendant from the late great Don Stover. Don’s playing was such a unique mixture of technical proficiency, quirky melodic exploration, and probably the best example of “loose but tight” right-hand timing we’ve ever seen. And is there any better way to describe the playing of Danny Barnes? Upon further exploration in the liner notes, Barnes writes about his love and dedication to Mr. Stover. “That record, Things In Life, was a life changer for me because Mr. Stover wrote songs, fronted a band and could play lots of different —ultimately his style of course. I don’t think you can find a better song in the bluegrass cannon than Things In Life.” He also writes, “Mark Rubin, my partner in the band, and I used to joke that we called ourselves Bad Livers because it had the same amount of syllables as Don Stover, we were both nuts about him.”

If you’re a banjo player/nerd, then let this be your one take-away: Purchase the physical copy of Stove Up so you can read Barnes’ talk about Don Stover. It’s worth every penny.

The album also features an impressive collection of players and production cast who all exist easily within the strict traditionalist world, as well as in today’s burgeoning progressive scene. Producer Nick Forster (E-Town and Hot Rize) finds a rare sweet spot with the musicians to create an overall sound—live and loose without being overproduced—that was common decades ago, but is rare in today’s recording world of digital perfection. There’s a certain spirit that gets taken out of recorded music as it’s run through all the engineering toys available in today’s studios. Listening through the songs you hear musicians reacting to each other, not to a click track. As Tim O’Brien says of the album, “You can almost hear the musicians smile.”

The album features Jason Carter on fiddle and Mike Bub on bass, who share an undeniable musical connection from their decades in Del’s band. When you have two musicians that know each other this deeply it becomes easy for Barnes and Chris Henry (mandolin) to take musical chances. Each musician plays more freely knowing you have a group that has your back, and will instinctively know where you are and what you need.

If Stove Up had been released in the early ’70s it would easily be in the conversation of the most influential banjo albums that sparked the newgrass/progressive movement: John Hartford, Bill Keith, McEuen with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Tony Trischka and Pete Wernick with Country Cooking, Courtney Johnson with Newgrass Revival, and of course the great Don Stover. Stove Up sits squarely in this pantheon of players that changed the course of bluegrass and opened our idea of what’s possible on the banjo. Danny Barnes has been practicing for 45 years to make his first bluegrass album. If you love the banjo, this album is a must-have.

Triangular – The Jon Stickley Trio

If there was some type of IBMA momentum award recognizing “The band that defies all odds,” The Jon Stickley Trio would need to clean a spot on their mantle.

The Jon Stickley Trio is surprising everyone, probably even themselves, as they quickly move into the national scene with their unique, all-instrumental sound. Their recent EP release, Triangular, was recorded in Harrisonburg, VA with studio time awarded for “Best New Artist” at the Red Wing Roots Music Festival. “The prize was two free days of tracking at Blue Sprocket Sound in Harrisonburg, VA,” says Jon. “So we took a trip up there and tied in a performance at The Clementine. We really enjoyed getting to know Harrisonburg, and the out-of-town session helped us focus on the music”.

The EP starts out with the syncopated cross-picking of Blackburn Brothers, a song Jon wrote with his brother Jeff about a fresh seafood market in Carolina Beach. “I recorded it on a little-heard solo recording of mine named Stickley… ,” says Jon, “and the trio worked up a fresh rearranged version for the EP. We kick off a lot of shows with that tune.”

The second track, Plain Sight, was written in response to the Paris nightclub shootings. It builds a frantic yet muted energy through the song, representing both the fear and confusion of the innocent people trapped in the event, as well as the helplessness we all felt from so far away. The tension of the song releases into a beautiful interlude that shows how well Stickley and fiddler Lindsay Pruett work together to craft one cohesive melody. Like two hands on a piano, they each play their part to form a singular, completely unified sound. This effect is so mesmerizing you easily forget there are two distinct instruments playing and begin to hear them as one body, one sound. An experience so rare you have to reach into the stratospheres of musical genius duos—Bela Fleck/Chick Corea, or Darol Anger/Mike Marshall—to find applicable comparisons.

Palm Tree, was a song first recorded with Andy Thorn (banjo – Leftover Salmon) and Bobby Britt (fiddle – Town Mountain) and released on the first Trio album. “I wanted to record a version with Patrick (drums) and Lyndsay that was more like the version we play at shows,” says Stickley. “It’s a blast to play because the time signature switches between 5/4 and 6/8.”

The album ends with a little bit of a surprise as Stickley tackles the Tony Rice classic Manzanita. A courageous choice as it is a song that every note and every phrase is burned into all of our brains with unquestioning familiarity. “At first, I was really scared to record one of my hero Tony Rice’s most well known pieces,” says Jon, “but I ultimately decided to do it because I thought there was a chance it could lead more people to his amazing music. I think of it way more as a tribute to my hero than my ‘reworking’ of the original. I play it pretty straight, and it’s still so hard!”

The band has just come off a national tour with Railroad Earth that went as far as San Francisco, where they played “a bucket list” venue—The Fillmore. The Trio is gearing up for 2017 to be the busiest year of their careers, including their up-coming full length album with producer Dave King of The Bad Plus. They will keep an active tour schedule while hitting multiple nationally known festivals including WinterWonderGrass, Anastasia Music Fest, FloydFest and many others.

The current resurgence of progressive bluegrass has been a hot topic lately with Stickley and his good friend and fellow guitarist Billy Strings leading the way in bluegrass flatpicking. “There is definitely a progressive bluegrass movement happening right now,” says Stickley. “I think that most of the artists who are a part of it are traditional bluegrass fans at heart. That said, they obviously have other influences as well, but what I think people are honing in on is that there has to be some type of bridge for listeners between whatever they’ve heard before and bluegrass. The discovery of bluegrass happens backwards for a lot of people, myself included. Coming from a punk rock background, I was more drawn to the music of Sam Bush, David Grisman, and more modern groups like Yonder Mountain. I couldn’t connect with the music of Bill Monroe and The Stanley Brothers right away… it took some time for my ears to understand what was happening. Now the Stanley Brothers are my favorite band!”

As the traditionalists and the IBMA slowly come around to accepting these progressive, and sometimes very progressive, groups into the scene as respected members, there is not a better argument for the need of this acceptance than Jon Stickley’s path from punk rock to The Stanley Brothers.

For tour dates and album purchases, visit the band online.

Laws Of Gravity – The Infamous Stringdusters

So long to this cage I’m in
I don’t belong anywhere I’ve been
I need a new song as I hit the road again
Into the wind

The opening verse on the Infamous Stringdusters’ 7th studio album, Laws of Gravity, perfectly captures the spirit and essence of arguably the hardest working band in today’s progressive bluegrass scene. In typical fashion, the Stringdusters have surprised everyone again by releasing an album grounded in traditional bluegrass rhythms and forms.

It would be easy to write the band has went “back” to their “roots” and “traditions,” but the Stringdusters, by nature, don’t seem to have the ability to go backwards. While Laws of Gravity does sound more traditional than their last couple of albums, they still have their subtle and unique ways of pushing the classic bluegrass sound forward.

“This is an important record for us, coming off the Ladies and Gentlemen project,” says Andy Falco. “That album exposed us to a lot of new fans and we toured so hard this year, it really feels like a great time in the history of the band. We think Laws of Gravity is a quintessential Stringdusters record, and that all facets of the group are represented on the album in a cohesive way.”

Progressive bluegrass, along with its red-headed step-child “jam-grass,” is stronger than ever at this moment, in large part due to the ‘Dusters making a conscious effort to become leaders in the genre. Their embrace of the progressive movement resulted in a sudden maturation that placed songwriting and tight, creative vocal harmonies on the same level of importance as instrumental wizardry and free-form jamming. What started as party music in the mountains of Colorado is now featuring some of the best songwriting in all of Americana and bluegrass music. Laws of Gravity removes all doubt about this.

The album succeeds on several levels—notably production and performance—but its ability to keep the listener engaged, whether they are ardent bluegrass fans or neophytes, is what will put it at the top of many “Best of 2017” lists. Each song has such a unique identity that consuming the entire album in one sitting is as easy pushing “play” for track one. From the straight-ahead (and much appreciated) traditional bluegrass G-run/Scruggs kick-off of A Hard Life Makes A Good Song to the prophetic visions of Black Elk, inspired by the John Neihardt classic Black Elk Speaks, each song explores its own universe fully.

Bluegrass is known for instrumental ability that at times reaches cosmic levels of proficiency, yet it’s still 4 or 5 voices singing in perfect harmony that brings down the house at the end of the night. We learn this lesson again as the Falco-penned This Ole Building stands out on an overall solid album. As outdoors enthusiasts, the Stringdusters are passionate about the environment in the same way they’re passionate about music and arts. These passions are inextricably linked to the current state of our country, and This Ole Building serves as a warning to take care of what matters to us.

Once it’s down you wish you could
Build it back, but it’s gone for good
And don’t look back, you won’t see
The home of the brave the land of the free

I don’t think it’s controversial to say The Infamous Stringdusters are the most important band in today’s progressive bluegrass scene. Their live shows are filling up large music halls all over the country as they bring new fans into the scene. Their albums are constantly surprising as they explore new rhythm structures—in fact, Travis Book deserves a feature article dissecting his amazingly creative approach to playing the bass—and seemingly boundless songwriting. The ‘Dusters are the vanguard progressive band of our time.

For upcoming performances, visit www.thestringdusters.com.

Mountain Voodoo – Balsam Range

When Balsam Range came onto the scene in 2007, we all knew this Haywood County band would quickly become a major name in our beloved bluegrass world. It wasn’t because they were instrumental and vocal heavyweights—that’s common in our world; it was because they had that intangible thing, that mojo of musical symbiosis. Each person brings just the right combination of voice, timing, groove, energy, and picking to fill every gap. Replace just one person and they’d still be good or even great, but they wouldn’t be be this Balsam Range. And why is that distinction important? Because this Balsam Range is arguably the finest example of today’s bluegrass music.

Fans of Balsam Range have long since stopped asking if a new release is good, instead they’ve been conditioned, and honestly so, to ask “Well, how great is it?”

Mountain Voodoo is officially released on November 11, and it is one of those albums that should make you feel guilty streaming for free. Maybe it’s just me, but a couple times a year I’ll come across an album or artist so good that I need to know that they have some of my money in their pocket. It’s a small way of keeping the artistic world spinning on its proper axis. Balsam Range, once again, has that effect.

One of the most noticeable aspects of this album is just how good it sounds from a production standpoint. (Bluegrass bands and musicians take note: engineer Scott Barnett with mixing and mastering by Van Atkins at Crossroads Studios in Asheville, NC can compete with any studio anywhere.) From recording to mastering, your goal is to combine the crispness of instruments and voices with a final silky soft clarity. Much like combining sweet and spicy flavors on good chicken wings—the country version of yin and yang—the right mixture of these seemingly opposite things creates a wonderful experience. (Yes, I went there)

The first notes you hear on the opening of Something ‘Bout That Suitcase, come from guitarist and guitar luthier Caleb Smith. If there is an unsung hero in this band, it’s Caleb. His calm stage demeanor belies his blazing Larry Keel-like guitar breaks that quickly sneak up on you without warning. This opening track features the undeniable voice of Buddy Melton, a voice that brings new life into familiar topics such as wanderlust, the longing for home, and the tragic beauty of life in the jagged North Carolina mountains.

Blue Collar Dreams is one of the more traditional bluegrass songs on the album and features both the amazing right hand of banjoist Dr. Marc Pruett, and the vocal duo work of Smith and Melton. This track also shows off the mandolin of Darren Nicholson, a guy whose playing matches his stature, strong and solid. His mandolin becomes the de facto foundation that holds tight through any ripping bluegrass tornado.

Then we get to Voodoo Doll. From the opening notes, it is apparent this is a pivotal track on this album. Bassist Tim Surrett forgoes traditional rhythms and brings a smooth determined patience to the verses that move with the haunting nature of Louisiana backwater bayous. There’s a calm reckoning in Melton’s voice as he sings, “You must have a voodoo doll of me / You must have a deal with the devil himself.” Between the erie dobro slides and the tasteful bass solo (a welcome surprise!) near the end, Surrett drives this song.

Eldorado Blue, Rise and Shine, and Wish You Were Here feature vocal harmonies on par with the best of the best. Winners of the 2015 IBMA Vocal Group of the Year award, we should expect to see this album be a front-runner for the same award for 2017.

Each member brings expert level picking abilities to the plate, but we have to specifically mention the banjo playing of Dr. Marc Pruett. In Chain Gang Blues we hear the right hand that played a massive role (pun intended) in helping Ricky Skaggs record one of the best bluegrass albums of modern times, Bluegrass Rules. A handful of years later (wink, wink) Pruett’s banjo rolls are still so clean and precise that each note has a unique soft quality, much like a single rain drop, but put together they become a life sustaining, inescapable torrential downpour.

From traditional bluegrass to soft Gospel styles, with some Texas-flavored swing and Earl Scruggs-inspired surprises sprinkled through the back half of the album, the thirteen tracks provide an encompassing tour of life in western North Carolina. But the music of Balsam Range doesn’t just speak for this little slice of Appalachian heaven; it speaks to how beautiful this music has become without losing its foundational roots. It speaks to the deep mines of discovery still to be explored within Earl Scruggs’ rolls and Bill Monroe’s double stops. It speaks to the power of five mountain boys that stand onstage and show us bluegrass music is still one of the most beautiful artistic experiences we have.

Mountain Voodoo will most likely be featured at next year’s awards ceremonies. So buy the album. Put your money in their pocket. And sit back knowing you’ve made a wise investment in today’s bluegrass.

Keep up with Balsam Range here for tour dates and news. Mountain Voodoo is available wherever bluegrass music is sold.

Hank, Pattie & The Current debut music video

Hank, Pattie & The Current is a brand new group from Raleigh, NC making some waves through the southeastern bluegrass music scene.

Today they’re proud to premier their first music video, Losing My Mind.

Banjoist Hank Smith, known for his Béla Fleck and the Flecktones tribute band among other successful musical ventures, teamed up with fiddler Patty Hopkins-Kinlaw this past fall to explore their creative ideas within the bluegrass, jazz, celtic, and folk styles. The group is rounded out by bassist Scott Warren, and Ben Parker and Robert Thornhill on mandolin and guitar who also bring their distinctive duo singing style.

Hank and Pattie shared these thoughts…

“Directed by Gabriel Nelson, edited by Carter Reedy, and shot on an undisclosed location in Raleigh, NC, the video for Losing My Mind captures the slip we all feel sometimes that can lead to a downward spiral. While this song seems depressing or may hint at negativity, it’s actually a story of getting away from that mindset, or ‘breaking the spell’ and finding release, redemption and rebirth. The location captures the essence of something once vibrant, but now in decay and the band leads the way back into the light.”

Tour dates:

4/22 – Kings Barcade, Raleigh NC
4/24 – The Music House, Greenville NC
5/28 – Barrels & Bluegrass Festival, Hilton Head SC
7/17 – The Rooster’s Wife, Aberdeen NC
7/28-31 – Rockygrass Festival, Lyons CO
8/25 – Back Porch Music on the Lawn, Durham NC w/The Gibson Bros. (Official CD Release)
9/18 – Midtown Park, Raleigh NC
9/27-10/1 – IBMA World of Bluegrass, Raleigh NC

Keep an eye out for other shows and festival appearances this summer through their website.

Southern Crescent – Town Mountain

Asheville’s Town Mountain finds some Louisiana groove on their new release, Southern Crescent.

It’s hard to find a list of “Best Places To Live” that does not have Asheville, NC on it. The people, the community, the arts, the Blue Ridge Mountains: all combine to keep Asheville high on any list for people searching for an upgrade on quality-of-life. When writers scratch the surface they discover a local bluegrass music scene that draws from and gives back all of these qualities.

There’s no better example of this than Asheville-based bluegrass band Town Mountain. What started as a local project has quickly became known throughout the national bluegrass music scene for heartfelt songs, crisp and clean picking, and the unmistakable South Georgia voice of Robert Greer.

Town Mountain is releasing their fifth studio album, Southern Crescent, on April 1st. The album was recorded by producer, Grammy winner, and all-around music genius Dirk Powell in his home studio in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. The studio, dubbed The Cypress House, lives up to its name by being fully constructed with cypress planks. “We wanted to get a little South Louisiana flavor in it!” jokes Greer, Town Mountain’s lead vocalist and guitarist.

Southern Crescent has the feel and groove of a live album with professional studio recording quality. “We walked into the studio and had never met Dirk before, so it’s kinda strange, because you’re going to get after some serious work for large amounts of time,” says Greer. “We go in and he’s got 3 mics set up in this awesome room and says ‘A’right, let’s get to it!’ He wanted us to work it like we’re onstage. I sang everything live and we recorded like we were standing in his living room. It was a great experience, and we all loved working with Dirk. I came out of that experience thinking that’s how I want to record every record from here on out.”

Much like the first generation bluegrass bands would start shows with a short and to-the-point blazing instrumental to grab everyone’s attention, this album comes out hot with Bobby Brit’s fiddle-led St. Augustine. Brit’s fiddle is consistently creative and smooth throughout the album and an absolute show-stopper in their live shows.

The second track, Ain’t Gonna Worry Me, slows it down to feature the deep and comfy groove these guys find with each other. You’ll be excused if you don’t readily notice the drums played on this track by Dirk Powell. Powell’s ability to layer non-bluegrass instruments into this album, providing both groove and a sonic thickness without drawing explicit attention to them, is quite impressive and highlights his producer capabilities.

The title track, Southern Crescent, presents the voice of mandolinist Phil Barker, and is one of two songs he co-wrote with Charles Humphrey III, the bassist for Steep Canyon Rangers. (Humphrey is a prolific songwriter and is fresh off accolades for the 3rd release with his sideband, Songs From The Road Band.) A hard driving train song, Southern Crescent features tight vocal harmonies, as well as Jesse Langlais’ unique banjo style that combines impressive Scruggs-style timing with subtle blues licks that always seem to fit perfectly within each song.

The bluegrass coming out of Asheville, NC is arguably some of the best in the world. I would even claim that in passion, picking, and individuality it rivals Nashville, TN. Balsam Range and Steep Canyon Rangers have been on the forefront of taking the Western NC sound to national and worldwide audiences, and Town Mountain is on their way to completing this trifecta of nationally known Asheville bluegrass bands. There are several prominent reasons for their rise, including songwriting, creativity, and instrumental prowess, but one that stands out is the voice of Robert Greer. His singing voice and speaking voice are nearly one and the same with a deeply southern Georgia accent that, for many of us, produces a sense of hometown-like comfort. Greer grew up singing in the Methodist church, but he didn’t start playing bluegrass guitar until he was 25. “I was tired of asking my friends to accompany me on bluegrass songs I wanted to sing, so I figured I better learn how to play,” says Greer.

The bluegrass bands that will find success in today’s musical multiverse are going to embrace their individual voices and steer towards a more genuine sound as opposed to one that is digitally polished and bland. Town Mountain is leading the way in this aspect, from their studio recordings and their live shows to the national praise they’ve received for their unique take on Springsteen’s classic hit I’m On Fire. Atlantic Monthly chose it as one of the “most transformative cover songs of the year” and wrote, “They dropped the synthesizer, added a banjo, a fiddle, and another singer for harmony, and made a gem.”

Southern Crescent is a near-perfect balance of tradition and young, raw energy. On the surface it’s solid bluegrass, but astute listeners will hear more. They’ll hear a hundred years of southern musical culture bubbling up and finding a common point where North Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana meet as old friends. Town Mountain’s style and sonic footprint comes from a foundation of rhythm and groove that comes not from just loving the music (that’s too easy) but from living the music.

Southern Crescent releases April 1 on LoHi Records.