January 6, 2024 would be the 100th birthday of Earl Scruggs, a musician and artist who helped create bluegrass music and who was and is perhaps the most prominent and well known banjo player to have ever lived. Scruggs passed away in 2012, but this posthumous celebration – to be held at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium – speaks to his undying musical legacy. The performance will benefit the Earl Scruggs Center, a museum in Shelby, North Carolina that’s dedicated to Scruggs, the local community, and its residents, and inhabits the former courthouse just up the highway from unincorporated Flint Hill, where he was raised.
The show, with musical director Jerry Douglas, will feature performances by bluegrass and roots music luminaries such as The Earls of Leicester, The Del McCoury Band, Gena Britt, Alison Brown, Sam Bush, Michael Cleveland, Stuart Duncan, Jimmie Fadden, Béla Fleck, Jeff Hanna, Sierra Hull, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Jim Mill, Justin Moses, Jerry Pentecost, Todd Phillips, Harry Stinson, Bryan Sutton, Tony Trischka, Abigail Washburn, Pete Wernick, and more. Limited tickets are still available and, for those who may not be able to attend in person, the entire show will be livestreamed via Veeps.com for $14.99.
It promises to be a quintessential Nashville evening, a star-studded lineup with endless appearances, special guests, and with certainly plenty of heartfelt remembrances and tributes in store. Livestream viewers will get a rare chance to be invited “flys on the wall” for a magical and one-of-a-kind concert.
Earl Scruggs’ legacy will certainly live on – for another hundred years and, we hope, beyond. BGS and many other roots music and bluegrass communities and organizations will continue to celebrate Scruggs’ centenary throughout the year, so keep an eye out for upcoming content that celebrates Earl Scruggs and his three-finger style.
Lead image courtesy of the Ryman Auditorium; inset graphic courtesy of Veeps.
Beginning Wednesday, May 18, the Folk Alliance’s first in-person conference since January 2020 kicks off in Kansas City. Whether tuning in from the comfort of your home via the virtual option, or connecting in person in the hallways of the Kansas City Westin, one thing is certain: it sure feels good to be back with all our folk friends.
SPOTLIGHTS Spotlight Week is a virtual presentation of talented acts from around the world in one-hour pre-recorded showcases as part of the virtual programming for the 2022 Folk Alliance International Conference.
From May 9-11, eight partners from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Canada, and the USA presented 52 acts total from a wide range of genres. Artist highlights include Aoife O’Donovan, Peggy Seeger, John McCutcheon, and Michaela Anne. All performances are available for repeat viewing within the conference platform for the rest of May. Discover the full Spotlight schedule here.
OFFICIAL SHOWCASES One of the biggest highlights of every Folk Alliance conference is the promise of discovering something you’ve never heard before.
We’re particularly looking forward to The Bluegrass Situation’s official showcase night on Friday, May 20, from 4:15-9pm CT in the Century C Ballroom, featuring Laura Cortese & the Dance Cards, JigJam, Dan Navarro, and Ensemble Iberica.
Stop by and say hello to our editor Craig Shelburne as he emcees the stage for the evening!
PANELS & PROGRAMMING FAI is always a meeting point for some of the most prominent names in the roots music industry to connect and share updates on the state of the folk and folk-adjacent music world.
This year brings us remarks from keynote speakers Shirley Collins and Madeleine Peyroux, plus the International Folk Music Awards, Peer Sessions for artists, agents, labels, and festivals, artist mentorship meetings, and even Affinity Group sessions for communities like BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, Women, Folks 55+, and Folks with Disabilities. Plus the world premiere of a new work from Saskia Tompkins, FAI’s 2022 Artist in Residence.
You can discover a guide to all the daytime programming and panels here.
Even if you can’t be at this year’s conference in person, it’s not too late to register for the virtual conference. Virtual access is available via a pay-what-you’re-able model allowing you to access official showcase performances within 24 hours of their live set, plus exclusive online-only content like the daily Black Opry Hour. You can discover more here, and the full program for the week’s events is available here.
What are you most looking forward to at this year’s Folk Alliance International conference? What are some of your favorite memories and discoveries from past conferences? Let us know in the comments!
Photo: Raye Zaragoza via Folk Alliance International
Guitarists spend lifetimes — often gleefully, sometimes manically, or at times frustratingly — finessing techniques, especially with their picking hand. Entire careers can be made or broken by the idiosyncrasies of one picker’s striking and sounding strings. Fingerstyle guitarist and composer Yasmin Williams has mastered myriad forms of right-hand styles, each complicated enough for multiple lifetimes’ worth of study. But she doesn’t merely alternate techniques between pieces; to a transcendentally perplexing degree she effortlessly alternates her entire picking hand approach mid-song.
On her 2021 release, Urban Driftwood, a collection of thoughtful, dynamic, and engaging instrumentals written for fingerstyle guitar and harp guitar, Williams makes many of these technique-swaps while the compositions charge forward, each one earning tailor-made right-hand approaches. As a result, the songs don’t feel encumbered when Williams, mid-melody, goes from right hand fingerstyle to bowing her strings with a cello bow, or plunking out notes on a kalimba taped to her guitar’s face, now positioned laying across her lap. She utilizes hand percussion and tap shoes to fill out arrangements, interposing Afro-descended instruments from around the world into her compositions, and she picks up, puts down, and readjusts her stable of musical tools in realtime — as a foley sound effect artist, prop master, or choreographer might.
In guitar-centered communities — which are, it’s worth pointing out, largely white, straight, and male — where the overwrought, complicated, and mind-bending are regarded as the highest value currencies, you might expect the intricacies of Williams’ compositions, and the physicality of these impressive, visually striking techniques, to be the entire point of the music. But, as Williams explains in our interview and demonstrates indelibly in her Shout & Shine livestream performance — which will air on BGS on March 31 at 4pm PDT / 7pm EDT (watch above) — the acrobatics of her playing are merely a means to an end. While entrancing, each fresh, inventive way Williams creates a dialogue with her instrument is merely a tool for her to execute each individual song, as close to how she hears it in her head as possible.
We began our conversation discussing this phenomenon and how it’s an active, deliberate choice on the part of Williams to serve her own songs.
BGS: There isn’t nearly as much variation in right hand or picking techniques in bluegrass and old-time as you use – tap, lap tapping, fingerstyle, harp guitar, I’ve even seen you bowing your guitar. So many of these contemporary guitar styles that you switch back and forth between are so different from each other, so what ties them all together for you? What does it feel like when you’re thinking about switching between these styles?
YW: I don’t really think about it much at all! Unless it’s logistically for a live performance, like, “Oh, I need to put my bow here, I need to put my kalimba here.” That [stage choreography] is really the only context in which I think about it. These different techniques, I just use them for whatever the song requires. They’re more like compositional tools. It’s more like I’m trying to find the sound that’s in my head or I’m trying to find a sound that’s different from [how] my guitar [already sounds], something to supplement whatever I’m writing. It’s not really like, “I want to make a lap tapping song!” It’s not conscious like that. These techniques are kind of my inventions and I only really come up with them to well, finish the song, basically.
I’ve never really been technique-forward – yeah, guitar culture is very nerdy and I’ve never been very into that, at least in terms of the techniques, I don’t usually care what people are doing. [Laughs] I care more about the result. However you choose to get there is cool, too! But I don’t really scout other people’s techniques or anything.
It makes me think of Elizabeth Cotten, who you have mentioned in past performances and interviews as an influence of yours. She was left-handed and played “upside down and backwards,” playing the guitar the way she needed to play it.
[Laughs] Yes! She just figured it out, she was determined! Elizabeth Cotten and Jimi Hendrix kind of served the same purpose for me. They’re both extremely unique, I love that about them, and they really didn’t care about how they were “supposed” to do things, they weren’t bogged down by tradition. Elizabeth Cotten, I love her because, somewhat obviously, she’s a Black woman who plays guitar fingerstyle, which is very cool — and banjo, too. How she played, I can’t figure it out! It’s fun to figure out and to watch, but it’s even cooler to not watch her play and just listen. All of her tunes are so catchy. She’s great, I’d love to be as great of a songwriter as her one day, hopefully.
Some of the songs on Urban Driftwood feel so huge and expansive, but some feel so introspective and meditative, despite the fact that most tracks have very similar, stripped down, simple instrumentation and arrangements. It’s not a lot of production and arranging. How do you accomplish that dynamic range? What is your own dialogue with your instrument like during the creative process, during recording and writing?
That’s a really interesting question! But, I don’t know! [Laughs] Sorry to say that, but I really need to think more about this.
Some songs, I definitely did want to be more introspective, like “I Wonder.” That was definitely one I wanted to be very intimate. And I did think about, in a live setting, how I wanted the song to feel more quiet and more intimate than other arrangements. “Swift Breeze” is another one I wanted to have an edgier sound. I don’t really think about it, I guess I’m just extremely tunnel-visioned. At the time of writing or recording a song I only think about what the song needs. Whatever that particular song that I’m working on in that moment needs. I didn’t think about live performance at all until after the album was already out and finished, which was probably not the best idea, [Laughs] I’m kind of regretting it now, but I’m working it out.
I did think about the arrangement for “Urban Driftwood” a lot. I didn’t want to use tons of overdubs or multi-tracks on many of the songs [on the album], because I don’t really “believe” in it, I guess. That one, I wanted it to sound expansive, but also I wanted it to be able to work in a more intimate setting, too. But even so, I’m not really thinking about it that much.
The guitar, when you take it out of the context of the average player’s experience — which is usually playing with a pick and using three or four chords — when you remove it from that context so many new and exciting ideas have to start flowing, like when you pick up a bow instead of a pick. What is your experimentation like when you’re composing/writing?
I tend to repeat things I like over and over again. I can do that for hours. [Laughs] It’s a bit of a mess, it’s not the most efficient way to write something, but I can make up a melodic line that I really like and play it for hours and hours and hours. Other things will start to form while I’m playing that. Then I’ll record it, or write it down in notation, whatever I need to do to remember it. That process can go on for months before I even finish a song.
I love experimenting. I love finding new, different things to use. Like a hammered dulcimer hammer or a bow or tap shoes, which are something else I use. Those were another example of problem solving. Now I’m into pedals a lot more so I’m experimenting with those, too. There are tons of great pedals out there, so it can be pretty difficult. It’s another world on its own! I’ve always been an experimental player, ever since I started playing.
Who are you listening to now who inspires you? And who – you already mentioned Jimi Hendrix and Elizabeth Cotten – do you look to and who influences you from past generations?
I kind of want to go back to where I’m from [in Northern Virginia], Chuck Brown is an influence — maybe not directly, I don’t really model my playing after his at all. He’s a guitar player from the D.C. area, he plays go-go music, a kind of regional style of music here. I’ve always loved him, from when I was a kid.
Libba Cotten, obviously, is a huge influence. I wish I had known about her when I was younger. I think I could’ve saved a lot of time by not trying to be something I was never going to be. I really wanted to be a shredding, metal-type guitarist. I think that’s what I associated the guitar with–
Is that where the tapping came in?
Yeah!
That’s amazing. There are a lot of post-metal pickers in bluegrass! We have quite a few.
[Laughs] I mean, I used to play Guitar Hero and that had so many rock songs and metal songs on it and tapping stuff. A bit of southern rock, too. But it was really rock- and male-centered and it would’ve been great to find Elizabeth Cotten sooner. That would’ve been great. I still like Paul Gilbert, I still like Buckethead, all of them, but it definitely would’ve been better if I had found Libba Cotten or Sister Rosetta Tharpe or Algia Mae Hinton sooner.
Ah! I love Algia Mae, when you mentioned tap shoes earlier I immediately thought of her and the tradition of buck dancing and clogging connected to finger-picking.
I know! I didn’t know anything about that until recently! I didn’t really know anything about that until the past couple of years, I’ve definitely gone down the rabbit hole of all of that now, though.
I guess I am listening to more guitar music these days than I ever have before. When I first started playing I didn’t really listen to any, because I didn’t really like it, the fingerstyle stuff and the technical stuff. Whatever you want to call it. But now, it’s great. There are a lot of contemporary players I really enjoy, I love Daniel Bachman’s stuff. [The band] The Americans have cool stuff. Chuck Johnson and Sarah Louise. There are a lot more people releasing music that isn’t just a derivative of what already exists in the guitar canon or in traditional guitar scenes.
This topic has come up recently — in my interview with Jackie Venson and also with Sunny War — but more and more when I find myself engaging with contemporary guitar music, it’s made by women. To a degree, I think the music women are making in fingerstyle guitar and in “guitar culture” right now is just not what you hear like… in the halls at NAMM. As a queer person, I think I avoid guitar culture a lot because it feels so toxically masculine. Do you feel that, too?
Yeah, I feel that now that I’m in the scene more. When I released my first album — and before that, when I was just learning and coming up — I didn’t feel anything like that, because I think I just ignored it. I didn’t really care. (I still don’t really care.) [Laughs] There are nicer sections in the guitar world as well as more “competitive” or kind of douchey sections. [Laughs again] Like the guy who will turn my amp on, cause he thinks I can’t turn it on. That happens a lot.
Looking ahead to the future, with vaccines rolling out and it feeling like we’re at this transition point from pre-COVID to the beginning of post-COVID — and you’re gaining so much momentum with this record even during the shutdown — what are you looking ahead to? And what does this transition from “before times” to “after times” feel like to you?
I’m actually kind of thankful for it. It’s giving me time to reflect — not only on the album’s success, but it’s giving me time to not worry about shows. I can plan and build a team around me and become more “professional” [to be ready] when touring does start up and venues do start opening again.
Creatively and musically I am all OVER the place! [Laughs] I’m writing a piece for a berimbau group called Projeto Arcomusical, the berimbau is an old, Afro-Brazilian instrument. I’m really excited for that, I can finally use my college degree and be a composer for once. I’m working with another group, based in NYC, called Contemporaneous, arranging songs from my new album for a summer concert, which is fun. I’m working on new music, trying to write more harp guitar stuff, playing my twelve-string guitar more. My head’s all over the place, really.
I definitely feel a sort of rejuvenation now that I’ve gotten past the “WTF is going to happen?” Now I’m just like, “Whatever happens happens,” and I’ve gotta make new music!
Among the many reasons why we love bluegrass is the innate sense of community and wholesomeness that the music carries. The California Bluegrass Association (CBA) has taken immense strides to foster that kinship and community over the years by investing in programs and opportunities for young bluegrass musicians to learn and perform. Perhaps their biggest endeavor is the Youth Academy, a four-day camp that takes place during their annual Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival. Due to COVID-19, the event has been canceled for the second year in a row. In response, the CBA hosted a 50-hour livestream event last month that featured more than 100 musicians from around the world and raised more than $25,000 in donations.
The livestream event was hosted in the format of a telethon and aptly named “Jam-a-Thon.” The funds raised were split between the participating artists and an effort by the CBA to build an educational website for young learners interested in bluegrass. Joining the event were many big names in bluegrass, including Sierra Hull, Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, and even BGS contributor Tristan Scroggins. If you missed the event, fret not, as there is still ample opportunity to donate and to watch the stream, which was conveniently archived into eight portions on YouTube. Peruse through the many highlights from the stream below and celebrate a noble cause!
Jackie Venson, Austin, Texas’s resident singer, songwriter, guitar shredder, and joy dispenser, took a couple of months to restart the locomotive momentum of her career after it was halted by the coronavirus pandemic in March of 2020. A summer of stepping up her touring and festival appearances trashed, she had to purposefully and intentionally consider a way forward.
She chose the path less traveled, but she never trekked it alone. By the end of 2020, Venson’s totally independent team had landed her at number 10 on Pollstar’s Top 100 livestreamers chart for the entire year — higher than superstars Luke Combs, Brad Paisley, and even K-pop, heartthrob boy band BTS’s stream counts, with streams totaling more than 2.8 million viewers.
“It felt like the train stopped and then I created work for myself,” Venson admits, describing an intentional pivot to virtual, streaming shows and alternative programming that never felt like she was giving up the most important parts of her art and expression. Just the opposite. Venson is a rare example of a musician who has utilized the pandemic to not only discover a new, novel way forward in an industry that promises burnout, extractive power dynamics, and the commodification of selfhood even in the best, most profitable cases. She also grew her fan base, her community, and found enough time to release five projects in the last calendar year, as well.
Jackie Venson’s Shout & Shine livestream (viewable in the player above or here) — which highlights many of the entrancing, charming, entertaining aspects of Venson’s music, creativity, and most of all her stunning improvisation — will debut on BGS on Wednesday, February 3, at 4pm PST / 7pm EST. We began our interview talking about joy, which is not only present in every note of Venson’s playing, but is the first song of her Shout & Shine concert and the title track of her 2019 album.
I wanted to start by asking you about joy. It feels so obvious and palpable in your music, especially in your playing style. Not just in how you’re so engaging and charismatic, and not just because it’s the title of your 2019 album, Joy. On “Surrender,” for instance, you sing, “Feet are so tired, but I keep running/ Heart is so heavy, but I keep singing.” That sounds like the radical act of choosing joy, to me.
JV: Well, it’s literally what I’m feeling while I’m actually playing the music. It’s just really cool to be able to play the guitar. I worked really hard to be able to play the guitar and when I look in the mirror I see the same face who started guitar, I guess ten years ago now, except this person can play the guitar! This person can play the guitar, and everybody likes listening to this person who can play the guitar. Not only is this person having a really good time doing something she set out to do ten years ago, but everybody else is enjoying it and having a good time on a base level — and by base level I mean, often they’ve just walked in the room. [Laughs] They weren’t there ten years ago! They’re enjoying it, objectively, and I’m sitting here looking at the depths of [the music] and then I’m watching other people, who don’t even know the story, just having a good time. That is pretty awesome and actually, I’m pretty sure that’s why most people set out to play instruments. They see somebody having fun doing it and they want to have fun, too.
It sounds like gratitude is equally important to you. You’re clearly expressing so much gratitude for being able to do this thing that creates so much joy in your own life and in others’.
Well, absolutely. Gratitude is the foundation of joy. You can’t really have joy if you don’t have gratitude.
One thing that jumped out at me from your livestreams and performances is the way you sing along with your guitar lines, the way you’re constantly in dialogue with yourself and your own voice. It made me think of the age old tradition of fiddling and singing along with yourself — and of course, it makes me think of jazz and bebop solos as well — but I wondered where singing along with the line in your head came from for you?
My dad told me the best way to learn how to improv solos. I had been working on trying to improv from even the time I played piano from when I was like fifteen. I remember getting another piano teacher who knew jazz so that they could teach me how to improvise. Obviously, [Laughs] that’s the wrong angle. I was four years into playing guitar before I learned that I was approaching improvisation the wrong way. The funny thing is that my dad told me, when I was fifteen, he was like, “All you need to know about improvising is that you just think of a melody and you play it, and after you play the melody you thought of a few times, you start messing with it.” So you play it, and add a note here or subtract a note there, and he’s like, “That’s all you’ve got to do and then it’s a great solo!” Because a melody isn’t just playing notes randomly, it has purpose. You want your solos to have purpose. My dad told me that fifteen years ago and I just didn’t hear him. I wasn’t ready to hear him. It took the guitar and years and years of singing, as well, to put it all together and arrive at the destination my dad tried to usher me to.
I’m a picker and a teacher as well, and I’m sure you’ve had this happen, you’ll get students who are so intimidated by the idea of improvising, I’ve had students just cry when you say, “Can you try improvising something?”
It’s a touchy subject! It’s like singing, how people are way more sensitive about their singing. They’ll show you their drum licks all day, but you ask them to sing and they’re like, “Noooo!!”
It’s the vulnerability!
It’s a new level of vulnerability. But here’s the thing, it’s not very hard, all you have to do is just listen to a crapload of music, stuff a bunch of melodies into your brain, and then, just think about all of the melodies you know and think about them a lot. Always listen to music. Keep listening to the music you already have listened to and listen to new music. If you’re constantly listening then you’re going to be sitting on stage and everyone’s going to point to you to solo — say Cm going to F — BOOM! All of a sudden you’re playing, [Sings] “They smile in your face/ All the time they wanna take your place” on the guitar. You’re playing “Back Stabbers,” because suddenly you’re going from Cm to F7 and you know it will sound good. You know? [Laughs] Because you’ve heard that melody and it’s not very hard! A beginner could play it. [Hums line] But you’re crushing it with some tone and everybody in the audience is thinking you’re a master. When really, what you’re playing is not that hard. It’s just musical.
My jaw literally dropped when I was doing my research for this interview — you released five projects in 2020. Two double, live albums, the two volumes of Jackie the Robot, and also Vintage Machine. You also landed in the top ten of Pollstar’s livestream chart for the entire year. I hear you say “the train ground to a halt,” and I see a new train that didn’t just start up, but is roaring. I’m sure you see that, too. What does that pivot feel like now that you’ve got some retrospect.
In that moment, it felt really busy, but it also felt kind of maddening. I was busy, but I was never leaving my house. Then it felt crazy. And in the next moment after that, the numbers started to juice. For a couple of months it was full stop, for a couple of months it was maddening like, “Wow, these numbers are really rad, maybe this is the way.” A couple of months after that I knew this was definitely the way. I stumbled upon the way. I was walking along on a path and then that path had like, a giant tree fall over it and I couldn’t go down it anymore. I saw this side path — you know when you’re in the woods and you see a path but you’re not sure it’s a path or if your eyes are just tricking you?
“Is that a deer trail or is that actually a trail?”
Right. Is that really a trail? It’s like, “I don’t know… but there’s also a giant tree over the path I was on. Can’t go that way. I guess I’m going to go down this path, I hope there’s not too much poison ivy…” [Laughs]
That was the livestream path. There was maybe one creature that walked down this path, one way, one time. It appears there’s a path, but it clearly hasn’t been followed very often. That’s what it felt like, to be on this uncertain path, which then ends up opening up and it turns out I was right the whole time. The way I feel now is not the way I felt when it was all happening. The way I feel now is all because of having retrospect on my side. And the development — the direction things are going in. It’s a lot more clear than it was six months ago.
As if today couldn’t be any more extra… Y’all, I just found out I was named number TEN on @Pollstar‘s top 100 live streamers for ALL OF 2020. Completely independent, my team is small but we fight hard! ❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/d1kkaF4teX
I have found myself repeating throughout the pandemic that we should be building the world we want to exist after the pandemic while we’re in it. To me that’s what it sounds like you’re describing, finding this other path. Looking to the future, what will you be bringing with you from this time, into whatever a post-COVID reality looks like?
The thing I’m taking with me is the fact that there’s never any need to be desperate, there’s never any reason to act out of desperation. There’s no person or contract to be signed that holds the “keys to the kingdom.” There is no kingdom. We are IN the kingdom. We just exist within different perspectives of it. Maybe your perspective in the kingdom right now is that you’re a baby band, you’ve just established yourself. You’re in the same kingdom as Beyoncé! You’re just standing in a different spot than her. There are thousands of spots you can stand in this kingdom. Beyoncé’s spot isn’t the only one that’s good. There are lots of places to stand! Millions of artists, that you don’t know about, are standing in pretty sweet spots in this kingdom that we all exist within, together.
There’s no person that’s going to give you her spot. She got to her spot by her own weird, twisty trail to get there. Maybe a deer walked down it once! She took her own path. You’re not going to be able to recreate that, but she just took a path to get to a spot, not the kingdom itself. You consider that spot the kingdom, but we’re all in the kingdom already. The way we used to live had this weird illusion that we all had to climb these ladders, but really you just need to get where you want to be. You don’t need to climb that same ladder just because someone else climbed it, and they’re famous, and you’ve got to do what they did. It doesn’t make any sense, it’s completely futile, and you’re going to just be spinning in your hamster wheel, stuck in the same vantage point. There’s not one guy or gatekeeper who can unlock everything for you. There are people who will say they can, but what happens? You end up stuck at one spot, one vantage point. There’s no one person, one artist who has it all.
By the time Sean and Sara Watkins were about to launch a new Watkins Family Hour album and national tour, the live music industry (and life in general) got turned upside down by the sudden need for social distancing and sheltering at home. It could have been a major blow for the band, considering that they have built the WFH brand through live, multi-artist performances at the Los Angeles club Largo.
Nevertheless, the siblings are used to making decisions on the fly, so they put their heads together and figured out how to keep the spirit of their famous Watkins Family Hour shows intact. The result? Work From Home, a livestream series on Zoom every Thursday in May that begins at 4 pm PT. (However, your ticket purchases allows you to watch whenever it’s convenient for you.)
A portion of all ticket sales benefit MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund. Artists such as John C. Reilly, Mandy Moore & Taylor Goldsmith, Ruston Kelly, The War & Treaty, Mandolin Orange, Mike Viola and Tré Burt have all confirmed appearances for the series.
During an afternoon phone call, Sean and Sara shared the silver lining of virtually introducing their new album, titled brother sister, to the world, and the satisfaction that comes with launching a successful livestream.
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BGS: What kind of vibe did you want to capture in this Work From Home series?
Sara: We wanted to try and give people the sense of some kind of normalcy. Maybe if people are sitting at home in front of their TVs or their computers watching it, maybe they can for a second forget that they’re not able to go to shows and enjoy some of the genuine back-and-forth that would happen at a normal Family Hour show. It’s been really nice so far having these moments on screen to catch up with our friends and just connect, in a way, because a big part for everyone’s isolation is that feeling of disconnect.
It’s been surprising to both Sean and me how good it feels to do these shows. We’re putting a lot of thought into the shows and learning how to do them on the tech side. They’re live, so there’s a little bit of a countdown. It’s been a nice, familiar rhythm of, “OK, we’ve got to get ready! We’ve got 15 minutes!” Getting everything ready and making sure we have all the things we need — the set list, any notes we have to ask the guests, and then it starts! And we’re live!
That’s a huge part of our life when we’re working, and then afterwards, it’s a release. And it feels good to play these songs. So, on a selfish level, it’s so nice to have that familiar rhythm. The greater hope is that we’re able to share the genuine camaraderie that we have with other musicians and with each other, and to commune in these very strange times, and to hopefully give company to everyone else who’s in their own isolation.
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The banter makes the viewer feel like they’re part of the conversation, too.
Sara: Yeah! That’s what we hoped for. In the first week, we were able to ask for requests and do one of them, and that’s nice. But instead of chatting with people on this particular series, we’ve just been trying to play a show.
Sean: One thing that we always aim to do at Family Hour is to bring an element of what goes on backstage onto the stage. And a big part of what goes on backstage is conversations about music and life. There’s a tendency to have this onstage personality, or way of talking about things, and an offstage version. I think we’re trying to blend those two. There’s good stuff that gets talked about backstage. A lot of it can be boring for most people but a lot of it can be really interesting.
Sara: The thing about Family Hour is that every show is different, and typically there are a lot of guests coming on and off stage, so there’s not really room for a script, or even a rhythm. So, that has taught us that we need to be prepared and nimble, and to be professional, but in a way that feels natural and honest with the relationships we have with the musicians on stage. This is something that we really care about — these conversations — and we don’t want to fake moments on stage with our guests. We want to have genuine interaction. And a lot of audience members want to see what we genuinely care about, and talk with our friends about.
What has been the reward for you in seeing this Work From Home livestream come together?
Sean: Just being able to do a show for people and see that they’re listening, and hear back from them. A lot of the comments are from people saying where they’re listening from. Typically when we do our shows, it’s just LA people that are coming to Largo, so that’s really a cool aspect of doing these online. We did a fair amount of work and preparation for these shows, and when they go off, especially with technology in play, it feels really good to get to the end of it and to have done it! We’ve done two of them and it felt really good. It felt like walking off stage, kinda. [Laughs]
Sara: We’re learning new things about mediums every week and ways that we can make it look better and sound better. Sean is always trying to up the sonic level, but it sounds really good and it’s nice to be able to have a reason to practice different things, learn different things. The cyclical rhythm is really pleasing and I love that people are building us into their week. It seems like people either have all the time in the world, or no time at all, during this, and it takes an effort to carve out an hour in your day, so I really love that and appreciate that.
BGS co-founder, actor, and comedian Ed Helms appeared on the #ConanAtHome iteration of Conan O’Brien’s TBS talk show on Monday, May 11, to talk about Whiskey Sour Happy Hour, as well as the meme-sharing group text he and his fellow cast members of The Office have going and the cardboard locomotive he made for his young daughter while in coronavirus isolation. He even picks a little on an early 1900s piccolo banjo, too. (Jump ahead to approximately 9:00 for banjo goodness + Whiskey Sour Happy Hour.)
With a tour scrapped and a new album to unveil, The White Buffalo (musician Jake Smith) will be bringing the concert experience — and a bunch of previously unheard songs — directly to fans for a live-streaming experience on Sunday, April 5. By email, Smith fielded a few questions from BGS about what his loyal listeners can expect, both from the streaming concert and the upcoming project, On the Widow’s Walk, out on April 17.
BGS: You have found an interesting way to connect with fans during this time. Can you tell us what the visual component of this show will look like?
The White Buffalo: It won’t be a bunch of smoke and mirrors. That being said we are shooting for something of a much higher quality both sonically and visually. It will be lit and shot on multiple cameras. We are really trying to elevate the live online streaming experience and people’s homes.
How about the sound — acoustic, full band, or a mixture of both?
We are recording in a studio so the sound will be of the highest quality. It’s going to be full band, a trio like we’ve toured with for years. This time we’re going to have Christopher Hoffee who plays bass on piano on some songs and I’m trying to elevate my guitar tone to bring some dirtier sounds to match the new album.
This event differs from a tour date to some degree, but what goes through your mind in the moments before taking the stage?
I just try to step back and appreciate that this is my job. I feel very lucky to have people care and connect with what I have to say. The live setting cannot be replaced. I think it’s the most visceral way to absorb music.
With a new record on the way, I am sure you will drop in some new material. What is that experience like for you as a writer, sharing something new for the first time?
It’s a bit nerve-racking playing songs that no one’s ever heard but it’s exciting for the most part. On the upcoming album I again tried to run the scope and breadth of emotions. Dark, gothic, lighter, hope-filled, optimistic, heartfelt, heavy… It’s hard to judge what songs will really resonate with crowds until you get out and play them.
You have already introduced the world to “The Rapture” prior to the album. What was on your mind when you wrote that?
That one’s a twisted, primal tale of murder. The first few lines just spilled out of silence as they do. From there I put myself in the shoes of this fantasy character and it was obvious to me where he’d end up. He’s trying to restrain his evil ways but the animal in him is too wicked and strong.
What surprised you the most about the time you spent making the new record?
Truly how fast everything came to be. I wrote and finished the bulk of the songs within a couple weeks after an inspired and validating meeting with Shooter. During two sessions we recorded the whole thing in 6-7 days. The recording process was the most honest, organic thing we’ve done to date. With Shooter Jennings producing and sitting in on piano, we’d all sit in a room and record what happened. Recording and documenting live takes until we felt like we had the right feel and emotion for the song. It sounds simple but it was about catching those real, live, special moments.
So much of the live experience is about connection. Will there be a way for fans to have that interaction with you during this event?
I’m hoping so. I’m hoping they’ll feel it. We plan on bringing the same unbridled passion for performance as we do to live shows. There will be an interactive part of it as well, a little Q&A. That’s something we don’t do at shows, so trying to fill the distance a bit with that.
What would you like your audience to take away from this experience, in the midst of these uncertain times?
Hoping to give people an escape. To connect with them through the music… make them feel pain, joy, hope, fear… Take them on an emotional journey… for them to have a respite in the these crazy times and be entertained and lose themselves in the moment.
Photo credit: Cheyenne Ellis
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