Tag: Jake Blount

Stay On Your Ass: BGS Picks for Your Social Distancing

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

In the past, we’ve been pretty much adamant in our command to GET. OFF. YOUR. ASS. Supporting musicians, writers, and creators means going out to shows, buying drinks at venues, volunteering at festivals, and so much more — except… not right now.

So here’s what you can do to help the music business — and all of your favorite hard-working, paycheck-to-paycheck artists. Just stay on your ass! Each week, we’ll round up a few of our favorite events, livestreams, and COVID-19 coping resources that we’ve scrolled by on our feeds or found in our inboxes.

What music are you spending your time with, now that you’re staying on your ass, too? Let us know in the comments.

Margo Price Plays a Tiny Desk (Home) Concert


Thirteen days into self-quarantining with their two children, dog, and cat, husband and wife Margo Price and Jeremy Ivey play three songs — including an unreleased original, “Someone Else’s Problem” — for a recently retooled version of the ever-popular (and BGS favorite) Tiny Desk Concert series.

A List Of Live Virtual Concerts To Watch During The Coronavirus Shutdown

NPR Music has compiled, and continually updates, this gargantuan list of online concerts and livestreams, sorted by genre. There’s a little bit of something for everyone. Artists and performers: you can submit your show for inclusion here.

Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn’s Banjo House Lockdown Livestream Series


Everyone’s favorite banjo power couple has been making the most of their isolation time, broadcasting on Facebook Live on Friday nights at 7:00 pm EDT (upcoming shows on March 27, April 3, and April 10). Whether you’re a banjo nerd or not, Fleck and Washburn are delightful entertainers, with innovative double banjo arrangements, traditional step dance, and the most adorable cameos made by their two cherubic children. It’s worth a tune-in.

Fleck’s expanded boxed set, Throw Down Your Heart – The Complete Africa Sessions, releases on March 27 and Washburn’s duo album with guzheng virtuoso Wu Fei drops April 3.

IBMA’s Bluegrass Community Resources for COVID-19

The International Bluegrass Music Association is curating a resources page specifically geared toward the bluegrass community and its working professionals, who, due to the grassroots, DIY nature of the genre, are set to be disproportionately impacted by this crisis. While IBMA is careful to point out this is not a complete list, it’s an excellent starting point for any performer who may feel like the proverbial “rug” has just been pulled out from underneath their feet.

MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund

A philanthropic arm of the Recording Academy / GRAMMY Awards, MusiCares has been supporting professionals in music industries with financial support for decades, providing a safety net of critical assistance in times of need. Artists and industry professionals can apply for assistance, but those who are able can donate as well — a rare opportunity for direct action! Find more information here, and apply for assistance here.

Jerry Douglas Performs LIVE to Raise Money for MusiCares

Speaking of MusiCares, the king of the resonator guitar himself, Jerry Douglas, will be going live on his Facebook page tomorrow, March 27, at 2:oopm CDT. So, if you’d like your donation with a side of the tastiest Dobro in the land, here’s your best bet!

WinterWonderGrass TV

Our friends at WinterWonderGrass, who’ve unfortunately had to postpone both remaining WWG events in 2020, remain undaunted! Starting tomorrow, March 27, at 8:00 pm EDT, they’ll release a series of hour-long livestream “episodes” featuring music and performances from artists on WWG’s cream-of-the-crop lineups and sneak peeks at events and highlights of the wintry, ski-centered festivals that make them so special. You can tune in on Facebook, either on WWG’s page, or with your old pals, BGS, too. Two more episodes will follow, on April 3 and 10.

‘There’s Nothing Set Up for Any of Us.’ — TIME Reports on the Music Industry Fallout

Banjoist, ethnomusicologist, and artist Jake Blount was interviewed by TIME regarding the financial repercussions of so many canceled events and shows so quickly. The report details how Blount was on his way to the airport to fly to Norway for a festival when he got word it was canceled. Blount’s upcoming album, Spider Tales, is set for release May 29.

Also, You Should Register to Vote

This is real, folks. Voting is the best way to ensure that this pandemic and its effects — economic, social, mental, spiritual, and so on — are actually addressed in a way that centers workers and those most at risk, including freelance and gig economy workers who make all of our jobs, our music, and our art possible. You can register to vote or volunteer here, and get more info on voter registration here.

Photo of Fleck/Washburn courtesy of the artist.

 

Celebrate Black History Month with These 15 Artists

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

American roots music wouldn’t exist if not for the voices, stories, and musical traditions of Black Americans. Full stop. Celebrating the Black forebears of Americana, bluegrass, country, and string band music, pointing out their importance and their essential contributions to these genres we all know and love today needs to happen year-round, not just February. 

The BGS editorial team believes strongly in this idea, and though readers will be able to find several Black History Month features and articles in the coming weeks, we encourage you all to also take a dive back into our archives for stories that highlight Black creators and artists from all points across the last year. 

Mavis Staples on Live From Here

Ceaselessly relevant, Mavis Staples recently gave a keynote presentation at Folk Alliance International in New Orleans where she once again gleefully assured the audience she wouldn’t be done singing ‘til she didn’t have anything else to say. And she has plenty left to say! Watch Mavis Staples on Live From Here with Chris Thile. 

Yola’s Year of Debuts

Yola’s debut album, Walk Through Fire, landed on our BGS Class of 2019 lists for Top Albums and Top Songs — and nearly every other year-end list across the industry, too. Naturally she popped up a few times in our pages: In our in-depth interview, when she made her Opry debut, and when she dropped an blazing Elton John cover.

Liz Vice on The Show On The Road

Liz Vice is a Portland born, Brooklyn-based gospel/folk firebrand who is bringing her own vision of social justice and the powerful, playful bounce of soul back to modern religious music. She is following a rich tradition that goes back generations to powerful advocates like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sam Cooke, the Staples Singers, the Ward Sisters, Aretha Franklin, and especially Mahalia Jackson, who was the soundtrack to the civil rights movement. Listen to the Liz Vice episode of The Show On The Road.

Brittany Howard, Artist of the Month and More

Our November 2019 Artist of the Month stunned in a stripped down duet with Alicia Keys at the Grammy Awards last weekend, her well-earned musical stardom solidified by her debut solo album, Jaime. Our Artist of the Month interview anchored our coverage of Howard’s new music, but her Tiny Desk Concert really captured readers’ attention!

Steep Canyon Rangers with Boyz II Men

Yes, you read that correctly. A combination none of us knew we needed that now we can never go without. The Asheville Symphony backs up the two groups collaboration on “Be Still Moses,” a moment transcending different musical worlds and genre designations. You can watch that performance here.

Rhiannon Giddens: Booked, Busy, and Blessed

How much can an artist really accomplish in a year? A quick scroll through the BGS halls shows a Grammy-nominated album, being named Artist of the Month, scoring a ballet, playing the Tiny Desk, debuting a supergroup, and oh so much more. We are more than happy trying to keep up with Rhiannon Giddens’ prolificacy.

Ashleigh Shanti on The Shift List

The Shift List is a podcast about chefs, their kitchens, their food, and the music that powers all of it. On an episode from September we interviewed Chef Ashleigh Shanti of Benne on Eagle, an Appalachian soul food restaurant in Asheville, North Carolina. Her Shift List includes Kendrick Lamar, Nina Simone, and more.

Grammy Winners, Ranky Tanky! 

 

We spoke to Ranky Tanky about their album Good Time in August, less than six months before it would win the Grammy for Best Regional Roots Album. If you aren’t familiar with Gullah music, our interview will help you out.

Americana’s Sweethearts, The War and Treaty

Rapidly-rising folk/soul duo of  husband and wife Michael and Tanya Trotter, The War and Treaty have had a year chocked full of smashing successes. Of course the best way to catch up with them was on the road, so Z. Lupetin set up the mics for an episode of The Show On The Road.

Tui’s Old-time Tunes

Jake Blount, one half of old-time duo Tui with fiddler Libby Weitnauer, is a scholar of Black, Indigenous, and otherwise forgotten, erased, or marginalized American fiddlers in old-time and string band music. His work specifically spotlights the source musicians whenever possible, undoing generations of revisionist history in roots music. Tui’s recording of “Cookhouse Joe” was featured in Tunesday Tuesday.

A Sitch Session with Birds of Chicago

A song with a message well-timed for almost any era, “Try a Little Harder” seems especially perfect for this very moment. Birds of Chicago do an excellent job bringing that message to the world. A suitably stunning Sitch Session.

Dom Flemons Talks Black Cowboys

If you haven’t heard Dom Flemons talk about his album, Black Cowboys, and the narratives and traditions that inspired it, this episode of The Show On The Road is essential. The music is captivating on its own, a perfect demonstration of Flemons’ uncanny ability to capture timelessness and raw authenticity, but with his scholarly takes and his depth of knowledge the songs take on even more meaning and power. It’s worth a deep dive — check out our print interview, too.

Gangstagrass Set the Standard

When you read Gangstagrass’s Mixtape of standard setters the parallels that emerge between foundational bluegrass and hip-hop are certainly surprising, but they also make perfect sense. It speaks to the longevity of this boundary-pushing, genre-defying group — that has been setting their own standard as they go.

Jontavious Willis Goes Back to the Country

“Take Me to the Country” is Willis’ paean to his homeland: “No matter where I go in the world, I can’t wait to go back to the country,” He told BGS in April of last year. “For me, that special place is a rural southern town in Georgia where I grew up. It’s such a quiet and calm place, and somewhere I crave when I’m far from it.” You can hear that truth woven into the music.

Octogenarian Bluesman, Bobby Rush

At 85 years old, Bobby Rush has been playing his brand of lovably raunchy, acoustically crunchy, and soulfully rowdy blues for over six decades. After winning his first Grammy at the humble age of 83, he has no plans of slowing down. We caught up with Rush on The Show On The Road.

Photo of Yola: Daniel Jackson 

Eight Great Cuts of “Eighth of January”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

It’s one of bluegrass and old-time’s favorite days of the year! The “Eighth of January” can be heard from every jam, every folk club, every radio tuned to the bluegrass airwaves – well, it ought to be like that.

To do our part, we’ve collected eight great versions of “Eighth of January,” that is, “The Eighth of January,” or “Jackson’s Victory,” or “Gulf of Mexico” to mark this auspicious day. At the end, we hope you’ve found a new lick to add to your own versions of the tune and we hope “eighth” doesn’t look like a word to you anymore, too!

Tui

Let’s start with a decidedly old-time take from fiddle/banjo duo Tui, AKA Libby Weitnauer and Jake Blount. Here’s hoping you make a stank face when they ever-so-slightly pass over the b7 — if you recall your last music theory course, see also: “the subtonic” — in the B part. (If the parts have been counted wrong, this writer begs your forgiveness.) The frailing rakes by Blount on the banjo, the pair’s playful deviations from each other, only to return, totally enmeshed a moment later… it’s delicious.

Charlie Walden

The old-time fiddler of Missouri, if Charlie Walden doesn’t come up in the first round of results when you search the internet for “Eighth of January” something is very wrong. His command of raw, timeless (and seemingly effortless) fiddling stems from a wealth of talent combined with his insatiable appetite for tunes — he’s collected countless melodies, stories, and songs from fiddlers all across his home state.

Tony Rice

An old-time fiddle tune fully assimilated into the bluegrass canon? This right here is how. That’s Darol Anger and David Grisman on the tasty twin parts, Todd Phillips on bass, and the one and only Tony Rice holding it down and shredding it up all at once. Every time they slightly push, syncopating the tail-end of a random melodic phrase here and there, a shiver should go down your spine.

Jeremy Stephens

No one alive plays Don Reno-style banjo better than Jeremy Stephens. Full stop. Now, if you’ve already hit play and have listened through to his first solo, you should know this: He recorded Scarlet Banjo at the ripe old age of 16. You know him now thanks to his quintessential sound with High Fidelity, but Stephens has been burning a torch for unencumbered, fully-realized traditional bluegrass for a long time. And it’s always been this good!

Scotty Stoneman with the Kentucky Colonels

The Kentucky Colonels were inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2019 and though Stoneman was not an original member, he left an indelible mark on the band’s legacy, which manifests chiefly through his “hot” fiddling on the band’s essential live recordings. Though fans may be most familiar with hearing the Colonels hold on for dear life in the wake of his bow at truly incomparable tempos, Stoneman is relatively subdued in his captivating improvisations over “Eighth of January.”

Eric Weissberg

Deliverance reverberates throughout the ages for all of the wrong reasons. If you forgot this was on the original soundtrack to the infamous film, we don’t blame you. That’s why we’re here to remind. Weissberg’s banjo playing — especially his fantastic melodic approach, heard here — certainly deserves more recognition than simply being regarded as the originator of “Dueling Banjos” in its modern form.

Johnny Cash, “The Battle Of New Orleans”

We may have neglected to mention earlier that this tune is named “Eighth of January,” commemorating the day of “Jackson’s Victory,” because (cruel, genocidal) President Jackson won “The Battle of New Orleans” that very day in 1815. Yes, this tune has a lot of titles — and lyrics, to boot! Here’s the Man in Black lending the dusky patina of his baritone to our song du jour.

Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves

This particular variation on “Eighth of January” was found in recordings of African American musicians Nathan Frazier and Frank Patterson, who were first recorded in Nashville in the 1940s, so you’ll notice de Groot and Hargreaves stray from the melodic phenotype of the others on this list. It’s a gentle reminder that the way these tunes travel — from picker to picker, across generations, across counties and countries — is just as important to the history of string band music as the tunes themselves. Just about a year ago (hmm, how is that so easy to remember?) we featured this track in an edition of Tunesday Tuesday, solidifying this BGS tradition.

Photo of Tatiana Hargreaves (L) and Allison de Groot: Louise Bichan

ANNOUNCING: BGS and PineCone Present Shout & Shine 2019

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Along with our partners at PineCone, the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music, we are proud to announce our Fourth Annual Shout & Shine: A Celebration of Diversity in Bluegrass. The 2019 iteration will be the event’s biggest year yet, taking over the Dance Tent during IBMA’s Wide Open Bluegrass festival in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, September 27, from 12 noon to 11pm. (See full schedule below.)

In 2016 Shout & Shine became the first event of its kind at the week-long bluegrass business conference and festival. Born as a direct response to the North Carolina General Assembly’s controversial “bathroom bill,” HB2, Shout & Shine’s fourth year continues the showcase’s growth and strengthens its mission of highlighting and reincorporating the voices and perspectives of underrepresented and marginalized artists, musicians, and performers — not only at the showcase, but throughout the convention and festival.

Headlining the year is the Shout & Shine Square Dance Party, led by banjoist and ethnomusicologist Jake Blount and jaw-dropping fiddler Tatiana Hargreaves. The dance will feature Michigan-based square dance caller Boo Radley (AKA Brad Baughman), who specializes in using gender neutral directions for dancers, opening up the square dance — traditionally regarded as a conservative, white, heteronormative space — to non-binary and non-heterosexual participants. All are welcome to participate, with no prior experience or partner required!

The day will kick off with Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, prodigies from the Bay Area led by Asian American brothers Teo and Miles Quale, who have just returned from a tour of Finland and are fresh off an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. Percussive dancer and ethnochoreologist Nic Gareiss will give a step dancing performance with old-time banjoist Allison de Groot, followed by a set of music from Hubby Jenkins, who is a blues and old-time multi-instrumentalist, Grammy winner, and veteran of the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Prolific folk, children’s music, and bluegrass stalwarts Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer bring their Grassabilly Rockets, featuring Jon Weisberger and George Jackson, to the dance tent as well, followed by their friends, compatriots, and IBMA Momentum Award nominees Cane Mill Road — North Carolina natives who will be joined by Williette Hinton, buckdancer and son of acclaimed blues musician and dancer Algia Mae Hinton.

Realizing a longtime goal of Shout & Shine’s producers, the showcase will feature an Indigenous artist for the first time, Lakota John, a local North Carolinian and his trio with deep roots in Piedmont blues and old-time, down-home acoustic music. Finally, bluegrass legend and trailblazer Laurie Lewis will headline the evening with her band, the Right Hands, before the night’s rollicking, square dance conclusion.

Shout & Shine is made possible by these partners: the Raleigh Convention Center, the Greater Raleigh Convention Center and Visitors Bureau, and IVPR. Shout & Shine 2019 presenting sponsors are Ear Trumpet Labs, Jamie Dawson of ERA Dream Living Realty, Pre-War Guitars, and Straight Up Strings. The Dance Tent is sponsored by WakeMed, FOX50, and Golden Road.

Shout & Shine 2019 is dedicated to the memory of dancer, choreographer, innovator, and roots music luminary Eileen Carson Schatz. Admission is FREE. More information can be found through IBMA at worldofbluegrass.org.

Full Schedule:

12:00-12:45pm – Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band (open dance)

1:15-2:15pm – Nic Gareiss & Allison de Groot (step dance demonstration)

2:45-3:30pm – Hubby Jenkins (open dance)

4:00-4:45pm – Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer and the Grassabilly Rockets (open dance)

5:15-6:15pm – Cane Mill Road with Williette Hinton (open dance, buckdancing demonstration)

6:45-7:30pm – Lakota John (open dance)

8:00-9:00pm – Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands (open dance)

9:30-11:00pm – Shout & Shine Square Dance Party with Jake Blount, Tatiana Hargreaves,
Boo Radley (caller), and friends (inclusive square dance)

 

Tui, “Cookhouse Joe”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

“Old-time.” The moniker itself seemingly contains eons of musical cross-pollination, generations of aural tradition, lifetimes of carefully and purposefully — and haphazardly and accidentally — passing down the skills, stories, community, and tunes that make up the musical form. A new crop of old-time pickers has been slowly but surely emerging from the tight-knit, often insular (but almost never outright forbidding) ranks of the genre, with a continuing focus on the decades that have come before, but through a new lens. One of reclamation and representation, of mining stories and songs, one of painstakingly undoing the erasure that has prevailed over the history of any/all non-white, non-colonial, non-Christian, non-normative musics in this country.

Tui (pronounced TOO-EE), an old-time duo that includes fiddler Libby Weitnauer and multi-instrumentalist Jake Blount, perfectly epitomizes this new generation, this fiddle + banjo changing of the guard. In title and song roster their upcoming release, Pretty Little Mister, subverts the usual narratives of old-time — whether by turning the staple “Pretty Little Miss” on its gendered ear or by meticulously crediting and tracing back each track’s origins, often to fiddlers and pickers of color and other otherwise underrepresented folks of bygone eras.

“Cookhouse Joe,” the final tune on the album, was originally learned from a late-in-life recording of Kentucky fiddler Estill Bingham. And it’s okay that you might not recognize that name — that you probably will not is almost the entire point of the record. Tui has already done the work for their listeners, putting in the time to make sure that the old-time they create, for years past and the ages to come, tells the whole story of how and by whom this beautiful artistic tradition came to be. And on Pretty Little Mister it’s not only beautiful, it’s so much more.