7 Artists We’re Itching to See at MerleFest

As winter begins to thaw and festival season creeps in with the spring flowers, we find ourselves looking forward to one thing: MerleFest. Held in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, the four-day festival — taking place April 27-30 this time around — hosts the biggest names in bluegrass, old-time, and acoustic music, all while providing lucky attendees with local grub, artisan crafts, midnight jams, and scenic nature walks. While we wish we could catch every single artist on this year’s stacked bill, we’ve highlighted seven acts we just can’t miss.

Transatlantic Sessions Hosted by Jerry Douglas and Aly Bain

BBC’s Transatlantic Sessions are well-known for bringing together some of the globe’s best musicians for unforgettable performances. Jerry Douglas and Aly Bain are hosting the MerleFest installment, with scheduled guests including James Taylor, Sarah Jarosz, John Doyle, and more.

Tift Merritt

Recent Squared Roots subject Tift Merritt will bring songs from her excellent new album, Stitch of the World, to MerleFest, hopefully throwing in some old tunes from her far-reaching catalog of thoughtful, incisive folk songs, too.

Mipso

BGS favorites Mipso just released Coming Down the Mountain, a newgrass/pop-folk album that should appeal to those longing for the days of Nickel Creek. Look for a lively, jam-packed set from the North Carolina natives who will also be hosting the BGS Midnight Jam.

Jim Avett

Jim’s sons, the Avett Brothers (maybe you’ve heard of them?), may be headlining the festival, but don’t miss this opportunity to see where the young barn-burners got their chops: from their also-talented father.

Chris Jones and the Night Drivers

You’d be hard-pressed to find a better live act than Chris Jones and his crack band, the Night Drivers. Look for Jones and company to perform tunes from their new album, Made to Move.

Sierra Hull

Sierra Hull, our Artist of the Month way back in January 2016, is hands-down one of the most talented young musicians around — she’s a virtuosic mandolin player with songwriting chops and a sweetly strong singing voice, to boot. Live, Hull is a force to be reckoned with, so don’t miss this chance to catch her perform.

Chatham County Line

Raleigh bluegrass band Chatham County Line have been at it for nearly two decades now, honing an acoustic sound that blends traditional bluegrass with forward-thinking arrangements. Their 2016 album, Autumn, shows the band at their most adventurous, and their live set likely will, too.

Tickets for MerleFest 2017 are on sale now and may be purchased at MerleFest.org or by calling 800.343.7857. An advance ticket discount runs through April 26, 2017. Gate pricing begins on the first day of the festival.


Photo credit: Sasha Israel

ANNOUNCING: The BGS Midnight Jam at MerleFest 2017

The BGS Midnight Jam returns to MerleFest 2017 with North Carolina’s own Mipso as the host band. The Midnight Jam takes place at the Walker Center starting at midnight on April 29 and requires a separate ticket that is available for purchase by four-day and three-day ticket holders and Saturday ticket holders. Artists confirmed to play the Midnight Jam this year include:

Mipso
Jim Lauderdale
Donna the Buffalo
Peter Rowan
Bryan Sutton
10 String Symphony
Sierra Hull
and more.

“Many years ago, Tony Rice and a few others came up with the concept and started the Midnight Jam,” remembers Steve Johnson, artist relations manager at MerleFest. “From there, the Midnight Jam has become a highlight of the MerleFest weekend, bringing together unique configurations and surprising ensembles of musicians gathered at the festival. You never know who may walk out from behind the curtain to take the stage on Saturday night in the Walker Center! For 2017, we are extremely excited to have a MerleFest favorite, Mipso, serving as the host band.”

Tickets for MerleFest 2017 are on sale now and may be purchased at MerleFest.org or by calling 800.343.7857. An advance ticket discount runs through April 26, 2017. Gate pricing begins on the first day of the festival.


Photo credit: Sasha Israel

Feeding Pigeons and Eating Pizza with Mipso

It’s a mellow Fall afternoon in Carrboro, NC, shortly before the early-evening hustle to get home. A lot of students make up the little town’s population thanks to the adjacent town of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina, but Carrboro is also a home to artists and other creatives — its cheap living, easy-going attitude, and compact layout make it an attractive spot to set up camp.

The roots music upstarts in Mipso call Chapel Hill home, though they hang out more in Carrboro. Singer/mandolin player Jacob Sharp sits in a small brewery downtown, as the band’s new record, Old Time Reverie, pours out of the speakers. Sharp is quick to admit it’s weird, but that’s one of the perils of the area’s tight-knit music community — it’s as common to hear locals’ tunes playing on shop stereos as anything else.

But this is hardly the most exciting thing going on for Sharp and his cohorts at the time: The day before, the newly released Billboard charts featured Old Time Reverie at the top of its bluegrass listing, at number 20 on its folk chart, and number 23 on its Heatseekers chart. The band spent the previous 24 hours fielding dozens of phone calls about the feat, but they didn’t see it as a big deal. For Mipso, the chart numbers were merely a passing recognition of something the band has already put years of hard work into, and its members hope that Old Time Reverie will help push them along even further toward a sustainable, long-term music career together. Guitarist Joseph Terrell, bassist Wood Robinson, and fiddler Libby Rodenbough join Sharp to discuss the band’s work up to this point and what they hope lies down the road.

Joseph, you mentioned in another interview that bluegrass was a big tent, and I think we’ve all talked about that together, at some point. Could you talk about that a little more and how y’all fit into that?

Joseph Terrell: I think there are a lot of great young artists that we’ve gotten to know, touring over the last couple of years. We have great respect for some of the early bluegrass guys like Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, Flatt & Scruggs, and the Stanley Brothers, but don’t feel like loving them and respecting them and playing music that feels informed by them necessarily means playing music that sounds exactly note-for-note like them.

Jacob Sharp: Within the context of the charts, it’s funny, because we’re also on the folk one, which is probably how I think more people would understand this album if they hadn’t seen the tags beforehand. I would think it’s a little more naturally under that point. I think it’s cool for Billboard to put it up on a couple, and I think it’s good for bluegrass that — as a genre and as a home — it’s become broad enough to sneak over there because, previously, that probably wasn’t as much the case. There were enough bands that pulled heavily enough from bluegrass to get cross-catch, but I don’t think any of us would really say this is a bluegrass album or that we’re a bluegrass band. But we’ll totally take being on the charts, and we love learning from that place and being a part of that community.

JT: I think it’s interesting from the charts' perspective, too, because the folk charts have Jason Isbell and Ryan Adams’ 1989 album. And that’s rock ‘n’ roll. They’re all a bit blurry, I think, right now. And I can imagine traditional bluegrass people saying, “Wait a second: If you’re not going to use this as a bluegrass chart, then why have it? If you’re going to broaden it to be acoustic music, then call it acoustic music, not bluegrass.” So I can understand how the terms get frustrating when you try to really understand what they mean.

You’ve spent a lot of the last year on the road. How has that been? Do you feel like you've gotten into the swing of it now?

JT: It’s definitely been a big adjustment. We live in Chapel Hill, but to say we live anywhere is kind of a stretch. At some point in a touring musician’s life, when you’ve been a musician for a long time and traveling a lot — for example, like we were talking about earlier, when you wake up on a Tuesday in the middle of Iowa in February, you have that sense of, “How did I get here? Where am I going? What am I doing?”

JS: That question of “How did I get here, where am I going” is in both senses — like, “Where was I yesterday? How did I actually arrive in this location? And what happened over the last two-and-a-half years of my life that I thought this was rational? What major glitches in logic have I found?”

JT: There are great things, too. We’re all grateful for having gotten to know so much of the country. I think that sounds like you’re trying to find a way to make it sound good, but genuinely, it’s been super cool.

Before you hit the road, how much of the Old Time Reverie was done? How did you fit recording and writing into your touring schedule?

Wood Robinson: The songs were pretty much written before we got in the studio in December of last year. We had a week there, and another week in early January, and a final week in early February between the Northeast run and the Midwest run. It was basically all done before the breadth of the year happened.

JS: When we were touring in 2014 — Summer and Fall — that was really our transition into full-time touring. We had carved out time. We wanted to understand the motions of touring before getting into the studio.

Libby Rodenbough: There were very discrete sections. We had to very intentionally set aside time for recording, and it was very scheduled. I know some people who record as they’re on the road, and they do a few days here and leave for a few weeks, and do a few days here. For us it was like, “This is now studio time,” and then back to the road again after that.

Many contemporary folksy bands style themselves to be sort of old-timey looking, and y’all definitely don’t do that. Has that been a really conscious choice?

LR: It is not really that important, and I don’t think that we spend so much time thinking about it. But it is kind of tricky to negotiate that. I find myself wondering sometimes if I’m playing too much into a stereotype. I think, even though we dress in regular 21st-century clothing, it’s also kind of influenced by our general aesthetic tastes. It’s not a mistake that we’re all from this area, and we all listen to some acoustic music, and we like leather boots. We like rural-influenced-type clothing — it’s not like we’re dressing up like cowboys all the time, but we have those inclinations.

 I think it has to do with family history, but also, in our lives, we’re drawn to many things like that. I studied a lot of folklore in school, and I’m drawn to the traditions of the South — musically and culturally, generally, and also aesthetically. So I think that’s part of the way we dress, for sure. But you don’t want to be too thematized in a band in a certain genre. And I think that has to do, too, with the fact that we don’t want to be pigeonholed as playing a particular type of music exclusively. And if we were to dress a certain way and have a banjo in our band — there are certain cues you can give your audience, and we don’t want to give them those cues.

JS: I think style, like everything else you do from day to day, the more you do it, the more you think about it in more nuanced and critical ways. Going into this album process, we were thinking about the imagery of the cover and the clothes we were wearing in a different way than we had previously. Libby thinks about that stuff a lot, individually, and we thought about that stuff, collectively. This time, we worked with Dear Hearts, from Durham.

LR: I think it is worth noting for someone like me — who spends way too much time and way too much money on clothing anyway — I would be doing this regardless of whether or not I was a performer. It’s just a passion of mine. But when you get to be onstage and wear some of this stuff, there is some semblance of justification for it, which makes me feel better about myself. I would say it’s one of the perks of being a performer that, if I buy, for example, gold sequin pants, I can be like, “Well, this is for the stage! This is just a business purchase.” I don’t write it off, but I do buy some things like that with a very slight sense of justification, and I appreciate that.

JT: An example for me is, I recently saw a band performing with a microphone that was as big as a dinner plate. I said to the other guys that I thought that it was a real failure of the microphone that it amplified the voice well, but it distracted from the performance completely. If I wore gold sequin pants, and someone left the concert and all they thought about was my gold sequin pants, I think that would be a failure of my style. I want people to leave our concerts thinking about music and thinking about our songs. That being said, it starts to make sense to be thinking about how your clothes play a role in what people think about you. I don’t think it’s wrong to wear something you think is cool, but we’re not David Bowie exactly.

LR: We are the David Bowie of bluegrass.

What do you see for yourselves in the next year-plus?

LR: I think a lot of what we see is the same … but more. The same … but better. Probably hitting a lot of the same areas and doing a similar level of touring, in terms of how many days on the road, but hopefully better gigs and better attendance and cooler venues. The things that we see happening already — the people that we’re meeting, the bands we’re getting to play with and stuff — leads me to believe that that will happen. It feels like we’re headed in the right direction.

JS: It’s a funny thing to be learning about. You start to understand it in these cycles that are, like, 16 months in the future. This album was done in January, the songs are just now new to the stage but they’re old songs to us. We’re excited to get into the studio, but we understand that when that happens sometime later next year, there’s no way it can come out before February of 2017. You start to understand stuff in a weird world, these chapters that kind of have a slow roll.

LR: Somebody asked me recently, “Is it full-time?” I thought, it’s way more than full-time. It’s full life. It’s what I think about all the time. When we’re on the road, it’s pretty hard to fit anything else into your brain that isn’t band-related. I would love to have the time and, thus, the brain space to remember the other parts of who I am. I love being invested in the band, but I think it can get a little too much and, if we’re looking at longevity as a group, I think that actually depends on having some individual focuses that are far afield.

WR: There are only so many years you can tour 180 shows, which translates to, like, 220 days a year. You just can’t. You physically reach a wall, and we’re young enough to maybe prolong that wall a little bit further down the road. But it feels good to be consciously making changes in that regard.

Do you find it difficult having to balance thinking about all these long-term things with being present in everyday life?

WR: The one thing that catches up with me — it is my life, so it’s relevant and it isn’t just business. But, often times, when I call a friend, I don’t want to talk about music. And that’s impossible if that person is in music. It feels fake or something like that, sometimes, when you’re talking about your career, because it feels like you’re having a business talk about your hopes and dreams and stuff like that when you’re talking to a friend you’ve had for years. It subconsciously happens. You’re not actively trying to push your career on other people, but that is basically everything we do, so that is what’s been going on.

LR: And you get used to conversations that are kind of about you, and they’re uncomfortable, a lot of the times. There are a lot of conversations after shows, where you’re trying to learn how to gracefully reply to a lot of compliments that start to feel kind of meaningless. I find that when I return to talking to a friend who doesn’t give a shit that I play shows, it’s refreshing but also kind of disconcerting. I sort of snap out of a fog I’ve been in on tour. And, when you have those moments, you realize a certain kind of unreality or different reality that you’re in when you’re on tour. But sometimes it’s not other people imposing it on you. You can’t get yourself to stop talking about work. I’m in my own head, fighting with myself, like, “Stop talking about the band,” but I can’t think of anything else, because it’s all I do and think about most of the time.


Photos by Katie Chow for BGS

Shout & Shine: A Celebration of Diversity in Bluegrass

From its founding, the Bluegrass Situation has intentionally, thoughtfully explored and expanded roots music and the culture around it. That means proudly and purposely supporting artists who color and exist outside the imaginary lines of the historical genres. We've used the BGS platform to create a safe space for conversations with Sam Gleaves, Mipso, Kaia Kater, Amythyst Kiah, and more.

This week at World of Bluegrass, we're taking it to Raleigh's Pour House stage with our "Shout & Shine: A Celebration of Diversity in Bluegrass" showcase featuring performances by a wide array of outliers and allies. Banjo player Justin Hiltner, who helped us coordinate the event, will serve as the evening's host. "This event isn't something that's gratuitously political or activist," Hiltner says. "We're not trying to position ourselves in opposition to anyone. We're simply trying to carve out a place for representation in bluegrass and roots music that hasn't existed until recently. We want to celebrate diversity in bluegrass — not because bluegrass is becoming more diverse, but because bluegrass has never been as homogenous as the narrative might suggest."

Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue: A Conversation with Sam Bush

I first heard Sam Bush in the early 2000s — I was 11 or 12, probably — when my dad brought home Glamour & Grits. The CD jacket was a minor epiphany. Here was this wildcat-looking guy wearing big, black shades and a cheetah print headband. In his hand was a busted old Gibson mandolin. Not a Les Paul. Not a Strat. A mandolin. Something in my tiny little music-obsessed mind said "DOES NOT COMPUTE."

From there, I found New Grass Revival, the genre-expanding string band founded in the early '70s. I started with On the Boulevard, featuring R&B expatriate John Cowan and a very cute-looking banjo player named Béla Fleck, and moved on to Fly Through the Country, where Sam’s Duane Allman-inflected slide mandolin solos gave my pubescent mind something else to struggle to categorize. Through my teenage years spent banging on guitars in garage bands, it was Sam Bush who kept me holding out hope that there could be something interesting — something cool — in the otherwise hokey genre my dad loved called bluegrass.

Though I wasn't around to witness the string band world of the '70s, I’ve learned to revere those heady days. All my heroes were buddies: There was John Hartford, the hip eccentric with steamboat stories; Norman Blake was the traditionalist who looked more like a train conductor with his wire-rimmed glasses and worn-out shoes; and Tony Rice landed somewhere near Richard Petty on the redneck scale and mostly dressed like a lounge singer, but he and David Grisman had dominant 9th chords, goddammit, and they weren’t afraid to use them. Sam Bush, on the other hand — Kentucky-born mandolin-toter though he may have been — was cut from a different cloth. He was rock 'n' roll, 100 proof, who managed both to piss off Bill Monroe (“Stick to the fiddle, son”) and to introduce the Big Mon’s licks to a new generation.

I got to talk with Sam this week about his new record, Storyman. We touched on his songwriting process, festivals in the 1970s, and the future of his instrument of choice: the mandolin. These days, 46 years into his career, he’s often praised with patriarchal titles — Father of Newgrass, King of Telluride — but while he embraces his role as elder statesman, I got the sense that he mostly thinks about playing music, discovering new records, and writing songs with new friends or old heroes — for a man in his fifth decade of professional music making, he still brings to the stage a surprisingly joyful, boyish energy. In fact, if you see him off stage at a festival, he’s probably jogging to another set, mandolin case in hand, floppy curls bouncing above his unmistakable grin. He’s still loving it, even after all these years.

I’m struck that Storyman really showcases a band. It’s not just a backing band, but a band band.

Absolutely, yep. And that’s my love. That was my first wish as I tried to accomplish this singer/songwriter record. Really, my favorite musicians I get to play with are those four guys. We’re all in a band together.

That’s cool. It’s a pretty eclectic batch of tunes.

We did a couple of different treatments on this one, with an out-and-out country shuffle song on the duet with Emmylou [Harris], and then a Jimmie Rodgers kind of song with the one Guy [Clark] and I wrote, "Carcinoma Blues." Within our group, keeping it all acoustic, that seemed to be another thread to follow. Because I love to play electric music and to mix the two, but these songs were all definitely acoustic-style songs to me, so in that way, the obvious choice was our band.

Guy Clark and Emmylou Harris are a couple of my favorite songwriters. What was it like writing songs with those two?

Guy was the most masterful songwriter I’d ever worked with. With Guy, it’s kind of like the way he made his guitars: simple, to the point, not one wasted chisel. He liked his guitars plain and unadorned, just like his songs. And with Emmylou, you know, I played in her band for five years, so she’s taken on the role of big sister for me. For us to write together and sing together, it’s really a comforting feeling.

So there’s the country-style song, “Handmics Killed Country Music,” with Emmylou, and there’s even a little reggae thrown in there on “Everything Is Possible.”

Yeah, that tune with Deborah Holland! Steward Copeland and Stanley Clark and Deborah Holland, the three of them were in a band called Animal Logic. She’s a tremendous talent. So Deborah and I wrote this tune a number of years ago, and she had these real positive lyrics already going, so we said, we need to make this a Bob Marley-sounding song. So we put it together.

Funny you mention Bob Marley. When I was a kid, my dad’s two favorite bands were New Grass Revival and the Wailers. And you guys played Marley tunes, so I grew up thinking that combination of newgrass and reggae wasn’t weird at all. But sometimes people talk about you as if you dip your toes into separate styles — a little bit of reggae, a little bit of country, a little bluegrass — as if the genres are a buffet line. Do you think of those divisions when you’re arranging or writing a tune?

I don’t think about the genre divisions when we’re actually sitting and arranging. And that’s fine with our band, because there are different areas we can play in, so we’re fortunate that we can just think about the song. The way these songs were written kind of dictated the arrangements.

How was the recording process?

Really, we just went into the studio down in Florida, and the way the banjo and mandolin solos sound, that’s the way we played it that day. Boy, when you think of it, Scott Vestal is kind of the star of the record to me. He just plays so beautifully. His parts, his banjo picking is just perfect to me. I never suggest anything for him to play, and Stephen Mougin the same way. As Stephen and I were writing “Play by Your Own Rules,” we were trying to find a little fiddle tune-style melody to go with the lyrics. Those kinds of songs really turn me on. I guess we’ve got a couple of those on the record, that one and the one called “Bowling Green.”

Your hometown, right? Tell me about that one, “Bowling Green.”

On that one, Jon Randall came over to the house one day and he already had most of the first verse written, which was about my mom and dad, of all things. [Laughs] He had me and Lynn in tears. I said, "Well, hell, let’s finish that one." In that one, we specifically mention a couple of fiddle tunes. My dad, man, he loved the fiddle. God, he couldn’t have enough fiddle. His favorite tune in life was "Tennessee Wagner" and he just called it “The Wagner.” He loved fiddle contests, and all the Texans would come up to the fiddle contests and they would add an extra chord to the song. So my dad would say, “I don’t want to hear that 'Texas Wagner.' I want to hear the one from Tennessee!” So that’s why the song says, “He loved to saw 'the Wagner' / The one from Tennessee.”

That’s cool that it’s an homage, not just to those fiddle tunes, but to the music in your family.

Yeah, and that song’s true, you know. We would work in the tobacco fields and come in for the midday meal, which wasn’t lunch — it was dinner. And then at night, it wasn’t dinner — it was …

Supper!

[Laughs] Supper, that’s right. So we’d come in for dinner and we’d play a tune or two. It’s all true. Then we’d listen to the Opry. It’s just like the scene out of Coal Miner’s Daughter. We’d sit around and listen to the Opry on Friday and Saturday nights, gathered around that radio. My dad would just sit and wait for somebody to play a fiddle tune.

You know, I grew up with a lot of music, including some bluegrass, but I’m still pretty new to the insider’s bluegrass world. I’ve been to the last few IBMAs, since they’ve been held in Raleigh, and it’s always cool to see the mix of bluegrass communities that come out of the woodwork. From the real dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists from Southwest Virginia, to the Colorado folks with Grateful Dead T-shirts on …

Yeah, and that’s been true for all of my professional life, which started in 1970 when I got out of high school. That Spring, before I graduated, I went to the Union Grove Fiddle Festival, and that was the first time I found hippies out in the field playing. They were called the New Deal String Band from Chapel Hill. They were a little older than me, and I made pals with them. Of course, there were old-time traditionalists. You had the hippies and rednecks, the young people and old people. And that’s the great thing about acoustic music, bluegrass, old-time, folk music — the music was the tie-in. It isn’t just for one age group. I’m hoping this record is that way, too. It’s not for one age group.

I’ve heard Union Grove was a wild time back then. A lot of folks think of ’71 at Camp Springs, too, as a real watershed moment when you and Tony played with the Bluegrass Alliance. Now it’s been 45 years. Did you know it was a big deal at the time?

No, we were just trying to stay in tune! Camp Springs in ’71 — now looking back I know that, right around that very weekend, a lot of things turned around in bluegrass. Tony Rice’s last performance with the Bluegrass Alliance was that weekend. Tony was leaving our band to join J.D. Crowe’s band. That was a big turnaround in bluegrass music when Tony went on with Crowe. And the reason J.D. Crowe’s band had a vacancy is cause Doyle Lawson left Crowe to join the Country Gentlemen. And the reason there was a vacancy in that band was because Jimmy Gaudreau left the Country Gentlemen to form the Second Generation with Eddie Adcock. I mean, four bands turned around within a month.

And then, within two months, the Bluegrass Alliance became Newgrass Revival. Probably within the next year, they started getting the Seldom Scene going in D.C. And you still had the New Deal String Band over in Chapel Hill. And the Osborne Brothers, to me, were just outrageously great then. They were totally the kings of progressive bluegrass-style music. So those early '70s were really important. But right off the bat, it was obvious to me that bluegrass-style music wasn’t for one age group. It wasn’t for one type of person. And it doesn’t revolve around trends. It revolves around people learning to play and sing.

Talking about trends and tradition reminds me of Nick Forster’s speech at IBMA last year, where he said something like, “I love the Earls of Leicester, but we should realize that we gave our Grammy to a cover band …” What do you think about that? Too much homage being paid to the traditional stuff?

You know, I think bluegrass-style music has been in a good spot for a while now. Unfortunately, we just lost Ralph Stanley. I was privileged to see the Stanley Brothers in ’65, and, when I first saw Ralph, I knew I was seeing an incredible musical force, and he always has been. And he sure will be missed. But we still have some of the greats. The next great king of bluegrass for me is Del McCoury, and boy is it resting in great hands. And, of course, the Travelin' McCourys are a force — and then you think of Sierra Hull, and way on the top of the scale, the Punch Brothers, and then over on the West Coast, David Grisman has the David Grisman sextet, and then on the rock 'n' roll side, you’ve got the Sam Bush Band. We all give a nod to old-time bluegrass all the time. Too numerous to name them all because they’re all great — and anybody younger than 50, I think of them as the young bands! Within the world of bluegrass, the variety is pretty healthy I think.

I just saw Sierra play with the McCourys at DelFest, and, man, she’s great. I’ve seen you a few times now at Tony Williamson’s Mando Mania workshop at Merlefest. I take it you’re feeling good about the future of the mandolin?

Oh, the future of the mandolin is really rolling right along. Tony Williamson does such a great job with Mando Mania because, every year, he introduces me to a new, young player that I haven’t met. So Tony’s the one out there with his ear to the ground paying attention to all the young mandolin pickers, and, once again, he brings someone new that I haven’t met before that I’m always knocked out with.

As far as mandolin itself, I hesitate to start naming mandolin players because I’m a fan of all the young pickers. Now, with the advancement of people like Adam Steffey and Chris Thile, and now Sierra Hull — I see her as kind of having learned from Chris and Adam — the bar is being raised. I’m fascinated by the things they can play. I’m just glad to be in there somewhere!

You think [Bill] Monroe’s style is going to stick around alongside all the modern stuff?

As far as Monroe style, you know, that’s alive and well very much in the hands of Ronnie McCoury, Roland White, and especially Mike Compton. I really believe there will be people that always will want to play like Bill Monroe. Actually, it’ll be interesting: I think in the next 20 years we may see more people playing like Monroe than we have lately. The same way that guitarists love to dig up stuff from Muddy Waters and Elmore James and Skip James, you know, Freddy King and Albert and B.B. King. The way guitarists are honoring them, I have wondered if there might be a resurgence in Bill’s style, the same way that all banjo players want to play like Earl Scruggs.

Thinking of all the distinct styles of heroes like Scruggs or Monroe — you know, the first name guys, Doc [Watson], J.D. [Crowe], Clarence [White] — they sound now like they came up with their own style out of whole cloth.

Yeah, true.

A lot of young folks nowadays — and I mean friends of mine, great pickers — are coming out of programs like Berklee. Do you think there’s anything lost with the more conservatory-style instruction?

No, I think it’s just a different way to look at it. Once again, it sure hasn’t hurt Sierra Hull to go to Berklee for a couple years. You know what, great musicians come from both areas, whether you were schooled or simply learned by ear and are following the traditions. What’s the old joke? “Can you read music?" "No, not enough to hurt my playing.” Or, "How do you get an electric guitar player to shut up in the studio?"

Show him some sheet music?

[Laughs] To me, I mean, I chose to start playing after graduating from high school. I chose to move to Louisville from Bowling Green, Kentucky, and I started playing five or six nights a week in a bluegrass band. I was either going to go to college and play violin or do that. And I chose the more improvisational side. Of course, they’re both valid, but for myself, I believe I chose correctly. I tell you what — nothing will make you tighter than five nights a week playing in a bluegrass band. You spend a number of months in the wintertime doing that, when you hit your first festival, you are ready. You have done your homework. It was that way with New Grass Revival. When we recorded our first album, we were playing so much that, when we hit the studio for our first record, I know we did the whole thing in three days. We knew those songs — bam! — like the back of our hands. We were ready to go.

Any new stuff outside of bluegrass you’re digging these days?

You know, my listening tastes are pretty eclectic, I guess. Let’s see, what am I into these days? John McLaughlin’s new record called Black Light. The new Eric Clapton record called I Still Do has got some really great stuff on it. There’s a record called D-Stringz, and it’s Stanley Clarke on bass, Biréli Lagrène on guitar, and Jean-Luc Ponty on violin. And then, on the other side of the coin, I’ve been looking for this Country Gentlemen record on Mercury called Folk Session Inside forever … for I don’t know how long. Lynn and I walked in a great record store in Louisville, Kentucky, called Matt Anthony Records, and there it was — for eight dollars. [Laughs]

Man, that’s a good feeling.

So I finally just got Folk Session Inside — I’d had a tape of it, of course, but I’d never owned the record. Just when I least expected it, I was walking out of the store with that Country Gentlemen record and I was totally thrilled.


Photo credit: Shelley Swanger

ANNOUNCING: The BGS Midnight Jam at MerleFest 2016

The BGS is very, very pleased to announce that we will, once again, host the Midnight Jam at MerleFest this year. Our popular Saturday after-hours hootenanny gathers many performers from the festival for impromptu artistic collaborations and one-of-a-kind superstar jams that have become legendary in the festival’s history. Artists confirmed to play the BGS Midnight Jam include Donna the Buffalo as the house band, along with Tommy Emmanuel, Peter Rowan, Mipso, Jeff Scroggins & Colorado, Wood & Wire, Billy Strings, Becky Buller, South Carolina Broadcasters, Jim Lauderdale, Lindsay Lou and the Flatbellys, and Joe Smothers. Additional artists may also be added.

“Many years ago, Tony Rice and a few others started the Midnight Jam,” remembers Steve Johnson, Artist Relations Manager at MerleFest. “From there, the Midnight Jam has become a highlight of the MerleFest weekend, bringing together unique configurations and surprising ensembles of musicians gathered at the festival. You never know who may walk out from behind the curtain to take the stage on Saturday night in the Walker Center! And, for 2016, we are extremely excited to have MerleFest fan favorite Donna the Buffalo serving as the host band along with the Bluegrass Situation.”

Here's a little taste of Midnight Jams past:

The BGS Midnight Jam takes place at the Walker Center; a separate ticket is required and available for purchase by four-day ticket holders and Saturday-only ticket holders.  

BGS Class of 2015: Albums

From Jason Isbell debuting at the top of three Billboard charts to Chris Stapleton sweeping the CMA Awards to Alabama Shakes nabbing five Grammy nominations, this year has proven that roots music is alive and very, very well. But, because our coverage area is so dang wide and deep, we decided that making a ranked list wasn't fair to anyone. After all, Sam Lee is baking apples while Dawes is juicing oranges. So, here are 21 of our favorite graduates from the BGS Class of 2015: Albums. For a whole bunch of others, check out BGS Class of 2015: Songs.

Valedictorian/Prom King/Class President: Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free

It's no wonder this album topped the rock, folk, and country charts when it dropped. Jason Isbell made another masterpiece of an album that absolutely defies the lines of genre and the limits of genius. Meandering through throwback country-rock and contemporary folk, Something More Than Free is a cornucopia of sonic goodness and solid songwriting. — Kelly McCartney

Best Avoidance of the Sophomore Slump: Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color

If you've only ever heard Boys & Girls, forget what you know — or think you know — about Alabama Shakes. Brittany Howard had a vision and, on Sound & Color, she let it rip, roar, rock, and roll. This album blasts soulful Southern rock into a whole new dimension. Indeed, the last third gets pretty trippy, but it's a ride worth taking. — KMc

Best Ameripolitan Hat Tip to '70s FM Radio: Andrew Combs, All These Dreams

Andrew Combs has been in and around the Nashville music scene for years now, but it's with All These Dreams that he truly came into his own as an artist to be reckoned with. From the gentle melancholy of "Rainy Day Song" to the heartful vulnerability of "In the Name of You," Combs proves that all those years listening to Guy Clark and Mickey Newbury have paid off in spades. — Brittney McKenna

Most Likely to Give You Hope for Contemporary Country Music: Ashley Monroe, The Blade

Since she couldn't make a better record than 2013's Like a Rose, Ashley Monroe made a different record with The Blade — one that is equally exquisite. Much like Lee Ann Womack, Monroe turns heartache into an almost enviable position. This is what country music is supposed to sound like. — KMc

Most Likely to Make You Shoot Some Whiskey: Chris Stapleton, Traveller

Bearded, burly, and bounding with heart and soul, the rise of country music's "new savior" is no surprise when you speak of Chris Stapleton. The Kentucky-born, Nashville-based songwriter (and former bluegrasser) has been penning tunes for big stars for years. Now it's his time to shine. Traveller isn't your typical country album: Influenced by R&B and Southern rock, it'll throttle you with different shades and colors of the genre — in a good way. — Cameron Matthews

Most Likely to Be Played in Parked Cars: Dawes, All Your Favorite Bands

The title song says it all: "May all your favorite bands stay together." Please Dawes, never never never break up … if only so we can always have albums as wonderful as this. — Amy Reitnouer

Most Likely to Make You Want to Be a Sea Captain: The Decemberists, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World

It would be easy to take the Decemberists' joy and jauntiness for granted, if not for the humility and humanity that they temper it with. As evidenced by the title, this one balances out those scales pretty gloriously and very gracefully. — KMc

Most Likely to Make You Give Up the American Dream: Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear

Who knew that the twilight of the American Dream could be a time of celebration? Singer/songwriter Josh Tillman's sophomore release as the dirty reverend, Father John Misty, encapsulates all of our fears of earning less, dying younger, living harder, and feeling nothing. But Misty wants you to be in on the joke. He's not laughing at how you bought into it all. He's laughing with you, man. I Love You, Honeybear is a brilliant satire, an absurdist love story, and, above all, one of the most important albums of the decade. — CM

Most Likely to Get You into Bluegrass (Least Likey to Start a Blood Feud): The Gibson Brothers, Brotherhood

The hermanos Gibson are a powerhouse of emotion and vocal talent in the world of bluegrass and folk music. On Brotherhood, the pair cover myriad brother bands — like the Everlys and Louvins — with grace and crystalline vocal arrangements. Put this one on the ole speakers and, after you're finished sobbing, realize that you've been a bad brother and call up Missouri asking for forgiveness. — CM

Best Soundtrack to a Love Affair: Glen Hansard, Didn't He Ramble

The man who gave us one of the most heart-wrenching love stories ever on film (He won an Oscar for Once.) is back with an equally emotional second solo record. The songs on Didn't He Ramble are all about asking for grace, forgiveness, and mercy, and by the end of the record it's the listener — like the jilted lover in one of his songs — who comes crawling back for more. — AR

Most Likely to Help You Through Some Dark, Dark Times: Gretchen Peters, Blackbirds

On Blackbirds, Gretchen Peters stretches out her glorious wings and soars into some deep valleys. This album offers not so much a light at the end of the tunnel as a candle along the way. — KMc

Most Likely to Make You Wish You Were a Better Songwriter: John Moreland, High on Tulsa Heat

With his sophomore album, In the Throes, John Moreland proved himself one of the best songwriters making music, and he somehow managed to out-do himself on this most recent collection — one that is a truly jaw-dropping listening experience from start to finish. — BMc

Most Likely to Bring About a Soul Revival: Leon Bridges, Coming Home

Soul music had a good year this year. Much of it, though, came in the blue-eyed form, from guys like Anderson East and Nathaniel Rateliff putting a modern spin on an old sound. What sets Leon Bridges and Coming Home apart is his attention to detail, as evidenced by the album's art. He's not remaking the music in his own image; he's doing exactly the opposite. And it flat out suits him. — KMc

Best Aural Equivalent of Red Wine: The Milk Carton Kids, Monterey

The Milk Carton Kids have long been known for their intricate guitar arrangements and gentle harmonies, becoming outliers in a genre that often favors banjos and bombast. On Monterey, they double-down on what sets them apart, crafting a gorgeous, cinematic album that proves sometimes it's the quiet guys who have the most to say. — BMc

Best New Kids on the Block: Mipso, Old Time Reverie

The guys and gal of this North Carolina quartet are an exciting distillation of modern bluegrass. They dress in the fashions of today, sing about issues new and old, and incorporate the athletic musicianship necessary to be a top-notch string band. Mipso's sophomore release can best be described as deliberate and care-filled. Each song is executed with a steady hand, beginning with the palindromic "Marianne." But it's the addition of Libby Rodenbough on fiddle that makes Old Time Reverie required listening. Prepare yourself a tall bourbon and enjoy this one on your city balcony. — CM

Most Likely to Make You Cry and/or Burn a Box of Photos of Your Ex: Natalie Prass, Natalie Prass

Break-ups suck and if, like Natalie Prass, you need to turn love lost into found art, you might as well do it with a kick-ass horn section. Lyrics like "our love is a long goodbye" may have you in tears, but the '70s-inspired brass will have you dancing on your way to grab those Kleenex. — BMc

Best Dystopian Opera by a String Band: Punch Brothers, The Phosphorescent Blues

Punch Brothers' latest album is the band's most mature offering to date — it's also their most difficult to handle. Lyrically, The Phosphorescent Blues is heavy, even burdensome, but it saves itself from being a droll appraisal of modernity through boundary-pushing string music. Fiddle player Gabe Witcher introduced drums into the Brothers' world, while the rest of the band acheives a synergy they have not seen before. If we're talking simply, it's like Yes made a strings album with the lyrics of Louis Carroll. — CM

Most Likely to Make You Love a Kanye West Song: Ruby Amanfu, Standing Still

Not every singer knows how to make a song their own. Ruby Amanfu does and, with Standing Still, she offers a master class in the art of interpretation. Here, she takes tunes by Bob Dylan, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and, yes, Kanye West and turns them on their ears. The results are stunning to behold. — KMc

Best Gypsy Revival Not Starring Patti Lupone: Sam Lee & Friends, The Fade in Time

Every artist in the "heritage" movement could learn a thing or two from UK artist and song collector Sam Lee. The Fade in Time is a mystical mix of traditional folk songs and gypsy tunes — often incorporating the original recordings that Lee himself has captured — with innovative, modern, and at times tribal sounds. Highly recommend turning this up during late-night trips driving through the desert (as we did en route to Telluride Bluegrass this June). Pure magic. — AR

Most Likely to Make You Re-Think the Blues: Son Little, Son Little

Blues is one of those genres that people love to debate: Is it still alive? And, if so, is it well? Son Little is here to tell you that, yes, the blues is indeed alive and, in capable hands like his, it will be well for many years to come. — BMc

Best Multi-Generational Supergroup: Watkins Family Hour, Watkins Family Hour

When WFH announced their record early in 2015, we had serious doubts as to whether anything could encapsulate the special experience that is Sara and Sean Watkins' monthly variety hour at Largo in Los Angeles. But lo and behold, this self-titled record not only captures the warmth and camaraderie that makes the live show so special (featuring the likes of Benmont Tench, Fiona Apple, Greg Leisz, and others), but it stands up as one of the best roots albums of the year. — AR

 

For more musical goodness, check out the full Class of 2015. Follow the playlist on Spotify and add your own favorite songs to it:

LISTEN: Mipso, ‘Bad Penny’

The New South is a hot topic these days, in certain circles. Younger generations are dragging older traditions into the 21st century whether they want to come or not. With their upcoming album, Old Time Reverie, North Carolina's Mipso is on the case. It's their third release in five years, and their first since adding fiddler Libby Rodenbough to the roster last Spring, turning the once-trio of Jacob Sharp, Wood Robinson, and Joseph Terrell into a foursome.

As Terrell tells it, “The process of adding Libby to the band was a great re-education for us. It changed the way we thought about writing and arranging. Libby can definitely hang at a bluegrass jam, but she's really a student of old-time and Irish music — two old traditions where the fiddle isn't just a melodic garnish. It's a rhythmic force on its own.”

Of one cut, in particular, Terrell says, “'Bad Penny' is an example of how we've learned, or started to learn, to incorporate some of that old-time feel. The song is basically my answer to that age-old question, 'What if you were haunted by Abraham Lincoln's ghost? And what if he chased you around New York?' You could say it's a thought experiment. My Abe ain't happy.”

Tour Dates

August 21 – Winston-Salem, NC – The Garage
August 22 – Knoxville, TN – Barley's Knoxville
August 23 – Nashville, TN – City Winery Nashville
August 26 – Owensboro, KY – International Bluegrass Music Museum
August 27 – Lakeside, OH – Lakeside Chautauqua
August 28 – Lexington, KY – Natasha's Bistro & Bar
September 3 – Cheraw, SC – Theater on the Green
September 4 – Carrboro, NC – Cat's Cradle (seated show)
September 5 – Carrboro, NC – Cat's Cradle
September 6 – Strasburg, VA – Appaloosa Festival
September 9 – Northampton, MA – Iron Horse Music Hall – with Kristin Andreassan
September 10 – Somerville, MA – Thunder Road Music Club & Restaurant – with Dan Mills
September 11 – New York, NY – Mercury Lounge – with Dan Mills
September 12 – Washington, DC – Gypsysally's – with Dan Mills
September 13 – Philadelphia, PA – World Cafe Live – with Dan Mills
September 17 – Ashland, VA – Ashland Coffee & Tea – with Skylar Gudasz
September 19 – Charlottesville, VA – The Southern Cafe and Music Hall – with Skylar Gudasz
September 20 – Charleston, SC – The Charleston Pour House – with Skylar Gudasz
September 22 – Athens, GA – The Foundry
September 23 – Decatur, GA – Eddie's Attic
September 24 – Asheville, NC – Isis Restaurant and Music Hall (seated show) – with Front Country
September 25 – Asheville, NC – Isis Restaurant and Music Hall – with Lindsay Lou & the Flatbellys
September 26 – Wilkesboro, NC – Carolina In The Fall
September 27 – Greensboro, NC – Doodad Farm


Photo credit: D.L. Anderson