DATE: 05/16/2007 11:17:22 / MOOD: frisky

I was at a show the other day with the band (doesn't matter where) and we began practicing our set of tunes that we were going to perform on stage. There was a guy standing nearby who later walked up to me and said, "I love your banjo playing, but you young guys should play like Earl Scruggs." I had to laugh when he referred to me as one of the young guys, BTW. Now I have mixed feelings on this because I love Scruggs, and I believe he should be the role model when learning bluegrass banjo, but I also think that the music needs to evolve. I am amazed at the myopia of so many people when it comes to this music. I swear there are people I meet who probably think that Bill Monroe and Carter Stanley are still alive and well. What I don't understand is the closed-mindedness, and obscurantism in the world-views of people that treat traditional bluegrass like they would a sacred doctrine of the Christian faith. One can just imagine burning incense at an alter crowded with photos of Bill Monroe, Jimmy Martin, Lester Flatt, and Carter Stanley, with a faint, looped recording of Blue Moon of Kentucky playing. I am going to resist the temptation to lay down all the disclaimers about how I respect and love traditional bluegrass, blah blah blah, since that is nothing more than a CYOA impulse we give into to make sure we're still named among the REAL bluegrassers. I have expressed, MANY times in the past, my affection for traditional bluegrass, but I refuse to continue with playing that game. Bottom line, bluegrass music MUST change or die, and thankfully it is changing. Monroe didn't stick to playing turn-of-the-century parlor music in his day did he? All the old guys were radical innovators in their day, and so should we be in our day. If I hear one more fuddydud say, "That ain't bluegrass," I think I'm going barf. I understand, if you desire to be a clone of Monroe or Flatt & Scruggs, go for it. Play all the cover tunes you wish until the cows come home........I applaud you. But please don't insist this music be defined between the years 1946 - 1970 (or wherever you wish to place the period). Such a line of reasoning, if applied with any consistency, would force you to define a REAL automobile as a Model T, or perhaps we could tell all the pilots after the Wright Brothers, that they're really not flying unless they follow the Kitty Hawk example. Bluegrass music is going to change whether we like it or not, and we don't have to worry that we've committed the unforgivable sin simply because we accept it, and celebrate it.

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