Bluegrass has a high purist quotient

Here's something I recently picked up from Twitter, and I'm running it with all the Twit hashtags intact:

digg_dugg (Douglas Whitworth): Am I really listening to a #ymsb song that has drums in it? #bluegrass fail #disappointed boys you're making monroe turn in his grave.

He's referring to Yonder Mountain String Band, a Colorado group that mixes its bluegrass with several other musical forms. This group makes no claims that they're the pure stuff. 

I had to laugh at digg_dugg's tweet. I love bluegrass, and of all the genres around, it's the most fun to play. It's a high-energy music. Almost impossible to feel the weight of the world when you're playing or listening to bluegrass. And it's tougher than it looks. While there's nothing terribly complex about bluegrass, an instrumentalist really needs some good chops to play it well.

But bluegrass probably has more purists among its players than any other type of music. Certainly more so than jazz, than country, than blues, maybe even more so than classical. A great many bluegrass players prefer to stay true to its roots.

Here's how the bluegrass purist will explain it: Bill Monroe, who is considered the father of the genre, took old string-band and gospel music, stuck a rocket engine on it, and lit it with his mandolin. Most of his early bands used flat-picked guitar, a fiddle or two, an upright bass, maybe some banjo in the background, his mando, and some great vocal harmonies.

To this day, many bluegrass pickers consider themselves traditionalists, sticking with the Monroe playbook. What's funny is that, although Ralph Stanley was another bluegrass founding father, banjo wasn't really a front-and-center instrument until Earl Scruggs arrived on the scene.

There's also an accepted way to use amplification in bluegrass: One microphone. The vocalists gather around it when they sing, and when someone takes an instrumental solo he steps up to that mic. That's how it's done, and sometimes the instrumentalists will form a line behind the soloist to take a lead.

I'll admit there's a lot of that traditionalist in me. Some years ago I saw one bluegrass band use an electric bass guitar, and immediately shut my eyes. I didn't want to see it. I believe there's a commandment against using electric bass in bluegrass. Maybe it's in Leviticus.

So I can understand what the guy on Twitter means about seeing a bluegrass band using a drum kit. Yeah, that would be enough to bring Bill Monroe out of the grave to put a stop to it.

In string band music, the thump of the bass, the guitar work, and the mandolin "chop" on the two and four beats is generally all the timekeeping you need. It's plenty. Shoot, I don't even like to see someone playing spoons, probably because I've yet to hear one play them with any sense of rhythm.

I've been involved in several late-night debates about traditional bluegrass, mostly because I play harmonica -- which is not considered one of the "genuine article" instruments. But sonically, harmonica is similar to fiddle in that you can do your double stops and sustain your tones, and the two instruments are in about the same tonal range. So most of the time I'd play fiddle lines in a bluegrass setting.

Some years ago bluegrass picker/advocate "Dr. Banjo" (Pete Wernick) created a stir in the harmonica community when he said that harp was OK for bluegrass ballads, but just doesn't sound good on your fast songs. Of course it can, and it does, but the trick -- again -- is to play fiddle runs. One of the best practitioners of this is Cara Cooke, a harmonica player in Austin, Texas. I learned a great deal by listening to her ideas on her Web site, then sitting down to listen to all the bluegrass fiddle players I could find.

For a couple of years, I worked in a bluegrass band with Lane Gregory on guitar, Wil St. John on mandolin, and Jamie McDonnell on washtub bass. "It's an original bluegrass instrument," Jamie would say of his bass. Wrong. Monroe's bands used an upright bass for those low tones. But Jamie's instrument was used for a lot of string-band stuff, which predates bluegrass, so I'll give him his props there. But then, our links to the traditionalists got blown out the window because we amplified our instruments. That's just not done.

A lot of bluegrass folks were wondering what Bela Fleck was thinking when he put together his first Flecktones band: Bela on banjo, Victor Wooten on electric (!) bass, Howard Levy on (!) harmonica, and Future Man on (!!!) synth-drumitar. Yeah, a fingertip-controlled drum machine shoved into the body of an electric guitar. An unbelievable sound, but it sure wasn't pure bluegrass. Bela never claimed that it was; it was as much jazz as it was bluegrass.

Gordon Small, a banjo picker/bassist I used to play with, was probably the biggest bluegrass purist I've ever met. He was quick to tell me what was and what wasn't bluegrass, though he liked what I was doing. But Gordon told me about seeing Bela Fleck play a few traditional bluegrass songs live, on solo banjo. He said it was straight out of the church of Monroe and Stanley. 

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(Photo: Bill Monroe set the standard that still lives on.)

Junior Wells blew up a storm on harp

It was around 1990, I was learning my way around the blues, and my friend Kathe had a CD she wanted me to hear.

Bless Kathe's heart. She had a killer voice and good stage presence, and we'd hit the jam sessions together. I'm still amazed at how she was able to belt out a song like that though she was confined to a wheelchair -- you'd really have to adjust your air column to do something like that. Shoot, just blowing a wind instrument, I can't do it sitting down. I have to play standing up.

Anyway, this album was Bonnie Raitt's first, and it had the feeling of a front-porch picking party. But Kathe wanted me to hear the harmonica player. "He kind of sounds like you," she said.

That was the first time I'd really listened to Junior Wells.

Junior's been dead since 1998, but if he was still around he'd be celebrating his 75th birthday this week. He was a gang kid when he was known as Amos Wells Blakemore Jr., but developed a reputation as a harmonica player. Still in his teens, he was with a group called The Aces.

Among Chicago blues harp players, there was one job in the world to have -- playing in Muddy Waters' band. Muddy knew talent, he knew blues, and he knew harp players. During Wells' Aces days, Muddy had Little Walter Jacobs in the harp slot -- the guy that all harmonica players try to emulate. We have 50 years' worth of harp players using Fender Bassman amps and Shure Green Bullet microphones -- modeled after a taxi mic -- for gear, and they're all trying to replicate the honking, distortion-heavy Little Walter sound.

For some reason, though, Little Walter and Wells traded jobs. Walter got The Aces, and Junior, by virtue of his seat in Muddy's band, became the heavyweight champion of harps.

After his time with Waters, Wells struck out on his own, recording songs like "Messin' With The Kid" and "Hoodoo Man Blues." But it was a long association with guitarist Buddy Guy that kept Junior active and in the forefront.

I have some tracks of Junior and Buddy together, a live set at the House Of Blues in Chicago. It was just those two, playing and singing with no real heavy equipment. Their blues were about as lean as you can get, with Guy alternating between chords and single-note runs, and Wells playing in short bursts, phrasing his stuff. Really an unconventional recording, without filler. A little hard to listen to at first because it's so stripped down, but once you get accustomed to the feel of it, an enjoyable recording.

And no, Junior didn't sound like me. He'd never even heard of me. I wouldn't mind sounding like Junior, if I couldn't sound like myself. Or something. But he was right up there with the Little Walters and Sonny Boy Williamsons in the harp world.

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(Video: With Buddy Guy and a band -- "Messin' With The Kid")

Willie and Mickey still being outlaws after all these years

I've always liked Willie Nelson. There are a lot of reasons why, but what really stands out is that he's loyal to the guys in his band.

It's not often a frontline performer will use the same musicians for decades. Many will record with a fresh set of players, and maybe tap some local talent to fill the backing band while on tour. But Mickey Raphael served as Willie's harmonica player since 1973, when Nelson was still playing local gigs. Texas football coach Darrell Royal introduced them, and Mickey knew nothing from nothing about playing country music.

“When I first got with Willie I had no country background at all,” Raphael told the Las Vegas Sun. “I had one Willie Nelson record … Of course I did this amazing crash course in country music, especially Willie’s catalog. The more I heard, the more I fell in love with his music and his style.”

At the time, Nelson had formidable credentials as a songwriter, but few knew he could sing.

Raphael's best-known work is probably Nelson's "On The Road Again" (a song every bar band knows), but it was his version of "Georgia On My Mind" that really caught my attention. He got away from the usual country-style harp there, made it bluesy, and captured several different moods in that song.

This was during Willie's period when he was struggling to pay back taxes, and he recorded some old pop songs. But while on the surface these albums may sound like a cheap attempt to make money in a hurry, they turned out to be quality stuff. To this day, I'd have to say his version of "Blue Skies" was Willie Nelson at his finest.

Willie's 76 now and looking even more weathered than ever these days, but he's still at it, while Mickey is 58. The two are now on tour, and during a show in Vegas (with Asleep At The Wheel sharing the billing) Raphael talked to Sun reporter Jerry Fink:

LVS: Willie’s underrated as a guitarist, isn’t he?

RAPHAEL:People don’t know what a great guitar player he is. Since (the band’s longtime guitarist) Jody Payne retired almost two years ago Willie’s the only guitar player in the band, and he really gets to stretch out.

LVS: Do you think Willie will ever retire?

RAPHAEL: Years ago when we were playing a lot of scary redneck joints I asked Willie, “How long do we have to play these places?” He said, “If we’re lucky, a long, long time.” He’ll play till he drops. Me, I’m just lucky to be making a living playing harmonica.

Mickey's one of my favorite harp players -- right behind guys like Lee Oskar, Howard Levy, and Charlie McCoy -- and I'm glad to see he's still blowing up a storm. With Willie, where he belongs.

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Hendrix' 'Voodoo Child' chosen as best guitar riff

What's rock music without a guitar to set things up?

Rock has been a haven for fast-fingered guitarists since Chuck Berry, and many of the guitar riffs stick in a person's mind decades after the song was first laid down on vinyl. From the relatively-primitive Berry and Bo Diddley riffs, the music has evolved in the decades since. But you can listen to part of a song, hear someone on guitar, and identify the song at 50 paces. Eric Clapton's “Layla” (which featured Duane Allman on the out solo), Lynrd Skynrd's “Freebird,” and Deep Purple's “Smoke On The Water” are among the most easily-recognized tunes just from the guitar licks.

But Jimi Hendrix' “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” was recently chosen as the song with the best guitar riff by a poll at musicradar.com – edging out “Sweet Child O'Mine” by Guns N'Roses.

According to The London Telegraph:

When the site's sister magazine Total Guitar last conducted the survey five years ago, the list was headed by the G N'R song ... the list shows that the older riffs are the best. Just two from the past decade make it into the top 20 - Muse's Plug In Baby at 11 and The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army at 15 ... Michael Jackson's Beat It, with its Eddie Van Halen guitar part, props up the top 20 ... Voodoo Child - with its distinctive 'wah-wah' opening - was first released on Hendrix's Electric Ladyland album and led on from an earlier track, Voodoo Chile, which was a 15-minute blues jam ... confusingly, by the time it was released as a single in 1970 it too had been named Voodoo Chile.

No surprise there. Hendrix was a monster, and Voodoo Child was just part of his body of work.

A few years ago, Guitar Player Magazine chose Hendrix the best guitarist ever, beating out the Claptons, the Stevie Ray Vaughans, the David Gilmours, and the Eddie Van Halens. So many choices, so many choices ...

Hendrix was an oddball in the guitar-playing world. A southpaw, he played a guitar strung for a right-hander – meaning he had to flip his guitar upside down and use his thumb to form part of his chords – something no sane guitar teacher would allow. But, like fellow lefty blues guitarist Albert King, he had his own immediately-recognizable sound that, I think, could only be done on an upside-down guitar.

Really, the only one I can think of who came close to Hendrix's sound was Ernie Isley of the Isley Brothers (a really underrated guitarist – check out some of his stuff in the late 1970s and early 80s). But there's a reason for that. One of Hendrix' first regular gigs was as a touring guitarist with the Isley Brothers. It wasn't Isley building his sound from what he heard Hendrix play, but it might have been the other way around.

Some years ago, a band I was in played “Little Wing,” one of my favorite Hendrix songs. It's a heavy, bluesy piece, with lots of sustain and serious note-bending. We did it in E minor, and our guitarist (Stef Rodman) took his solo on it. Then signaled me to take a lead. Man, I remember telling myself, you don't know what you're getting into here.

Apparently I didn't screw it up too badly; that song became a staple of our set list. Years later, I did “Little Wing” with local guitarist Everette Bigbee at a jam session. Ol' Ev is a real beast on guitar and has probably heard everything twice, but he blew his mind at the thought of someone “doing Hendrix” on harmonica.

One hoary Internet rumor I've heard floating around was that, shortly before he died in 1970, Hendrix came friendly with jazzman Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and they played together informally a few times. Now, this is entirely plausible. Hendrix was definitely headed in a jazz direction, and Rahsaan was, well, Rahsaan. A totally singular performer who could play three saxophones at one time, sing over the mouthpiece of his flute, and shift from Dixieland to avant-garde without using a clutch. Jimi had often cited Rahsaan as his favorite musician, so such a meeting was not only possible -- but likely.

Shoot, if the two recorded anything together – even a tape of them tuning up in someone's apartment, it would be worth moving heaven and earth to get.

Check out: The musicradar.com site -- cool slideshow!

Hendrix on last.fm, All Music Guide.

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You tell me: What was your favorite guitar lick? Have you ever been able to “do Hendrix” successfully? Use the comment section for feedback.

Jam Session, Reloaded to explore music at several levels

I've been threatening to do this for some time.

As if a fella doesn't have enough blogs going around, I just had to introduce a new one. What you are now reading is the latest of the Reloaded line, The Jam Session Reloaded.

There's a good reason for this.

I am a person with many interests, as you can probably figure. I'm a news junkie. I can get a little outspoken in discussing politics. Really strange news captures my attention. And yeah, I've been known to disassemble a computer or three, and I've reprogrammed more than a few.

A quick way to determine one's passion is to ask yourself: What is it you'd rather do than eat? Of course, if your passion is eating, then you may want to try a different benchmark.

None of these aforementioned pursuits have ever stood in the way of a good meal. OK, I may scarf something down real fast while ripping into the guts of a computer, but you know what I mean.

When it comes to music, though, it's a whole different matter. To me, listening to a good live performance will make me forget I'm hungry. And if I'm in the middle of it all, playing that music, then that's going to trump any stomach growling any time.

So there it is.

Credentials: I started enjoying music as soon as I became aware of it. Started playing harmonica, got proficient, began playing in public in the mid-1980s. First got paid doing this in 1986. Added some flute to my arsenal; that's still under development. Played in a number of bands, led some, recorded a couple of times (none of the results are in print), played probably a few thousand live sessions in venues ranging from living rooms and front porches to festivals, from bars to churches. Attacked genres as diverse as jazz, bluegrass, blues, folk, rock, country, even Mexican folk songs and Slovenian polkas (which is a story in itself). And loved every minute of it all.

But this blog isn't about me. I'll share a personal anecdote every now and again, maybe plug a project I'm working on, but that's not what this is about.

I'm working this from several levels. To the layman, I'll relate some of the wonderful sounds I've heard. To the accomplished professional, I'll discuss some of the finer points of the creative process, of musicianship. So if there are times I get a little too technical for the layman, just bear with me. I'll get over it shortly.

The jam session is starting. Be there.

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