In the eight years since The Barr Brothers last released an album, Andrew has been drumming with people like Feist, Mumford & Sons, and Broken Social Scene while Brad released a solo record and underwent incredible personal change. Brad made the huge decision to get sober, which he talks about candidly in our Basic Folk interview.
Anything you read about the new record, Let it Hiss, might allude to his newfound sobriety while not mentioning it directly. The band made a conscious decision not to include it in any press releases specifically so that their audience could have their own relationship with the new music. It seems like getting sober has impacted every aspect of the album, but one could listen and project just about any personal pivotal shift onto these songs. Regardless, I am so appreciative that Brad opened up about his sobriety, so we could better understand the music and the incredible relationship that he and Andrew share.
Elsewhere in our conversation, we talk about Brad’s deep connection to the number 216, its origin, and why he’s kept that number close to him for most of his life. He shares his reflections on the music lessons given to him and Andrew from visiting Malian musicians, who exchanged their services for free dental work from their father. Those lessons completely changed the musical trajectory of the brothers and still impact them today. We also talk about their former band, The Slip (who are actually still active every now and again), a much-loved Boston group that was fully embraced in the jam band world. I find the music of Andrew and Brad Barr to be completely transformative and not of this world – and I’m so grateful for the new record. Please go see them live, especially if you are into celestial experiences!
Photo Credits: Lead image by Sarah Melvin. Alternate images by Meghan Sepe and Pappy’s Portraits.
When Rushmere was released in March of this year – Mumford & Sons’ first album in seven years – critics noted its homecoming feel. The songs, the sound, the oh-so-yearning lyrics; they all combined to take the listener back to the beginning.
Tracks like “Malibu” and “Caroline” do not, perhaps, hit the wild highs of “Little Lion Man.” There’s a subtler expression at play in the album, reflecting an evolution from youthful exuberance to the quiet wisdom that only comes with experience. But a decade and a half on from Sigh No More, the band have clearly doubled back from their more experimental forays – 2018’s Delta; Marcus Mumford’s solo project, (self-titled) – to celebrate what brought them together in the first place. In Rushmere they had returned to their rootsy roots, and found peace there.
This month, the band heads back out on tour to Chicago, Philadelphia, Montréal, and more. In November, they’ll return to Europe, and ultimately to the UK, where their final leg will climax at London’s 20,000-capacity O2 arena. Months on the road this year and playing to sold-out venues have proven one thing: people still can’t get enough of them.
And yet the world is a very different place to when their debut album hit the shelves in 2009. When Mumford & Sons first toured Sigh No More, Barack Obama was President of the United States. In the UK, the biggest question on people’s lips was what Kate Middleton would be wearing at her royal marriage to Prince William.
Today’s social backdrop feels meaner, more fractious, less optimistic. Widening rifts in society have made it harder for people to celebrate shared values, even cherish the same moments together. Mumford have split with one of their own band members as a direct consequence of our rapid political polarization. What is it, then, that felt so fresh back then – and that still appeals today?
Matt Menefee first encountered the Mumford sound when his progressive bluegrass band, Cadillac Sky, were at their peak. “We were heading up out of Texas to play Telluride in 2010, and we played some gigs en route,” says Menefee. “So we’d stopped at a hotel, and there was Marcus on MTV, and someone said, ‘Oh, this band’s headlining the festival.’ Our lead singer already had the record and so we listened to it all the way up there.”
For a group of musicians that favored a raucous, punk rock vibe, Mumford’s gleeful-yet-soulful energy was something new. “We were like, ‘Oh man, this is something else!’” Menefee recalls. “To hear these cohesive, in-your-face anthems… it was raging. The melodies and the lyrics were beautifully crafted as well. It was a force that blew our guys away.”
Mumford’s Telluride set became an instant classic (it’s still spoken of in awe today). “It was just a party,” remembers Jerry Douglas, whom the band had asked to join them on stage. “The guys looked so excited. I’ve been to that festival so many times and you can get jaded. But I’m watching them jump up and down and I’m going, this is what it’s supposed to feel like.” He describes that electric closing set as one of the best he’s seen in Telluride’s 51 iterations.
Douglas is one of the many Americana musicians that Mumford and bandmates Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane sought out to learn from in their early years and have built enduring relationships with. They included Douglas in their performance at the SNL 50th anniversary show, after he had recorded lap steel for Rushmere track “Caroline” – although he laughingly points out that it didn’t make the final mix. “It changed it, it took the band away from just sounding like themselves. I kind of Jackson Browne-ed them a little bit…”
Those collaborative relationships are one of the reasons that Mumford & Sons continue to matter, not least to the musical communities they’ve done so much to elevate. After their first meeting, Menefee became a regular guest artist with the band and has been their go-to banjo player since Winston Marshall’s departure. “You watch them interact with people,” says Menefee, “and they’re so humble, so sweet, so encouraging. They really look after everybody. They’re good, good dudes.”
In August, Mumford & Sons relaunched their Railroad Revival Tour, whose 2011 iteration involved travelling the Southwest in vintage trains alongside Old Crow Medicine Show and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. This summer’s rolling festival picked up where that one had left off, traveling between New Orleans and Vermont. The long list of musicians joining them on board ranged from Nathaniel Rateliff and Ketch Secor to Lainey Wilson and Molly Tuttle to Trombone Shorty and Chris Thile.
Lucius’s Jess Wolfe was one of the musicians sharing the stage with Mumford, after forging a bond with Marcus at celebrated, now infamous jams arranged by Brandi Carlile in Joni Mitchell’s living room. “Sitting listening to our hero sing – that’s such a humbling experience, it’s going to bring people close quite quickly,” laughs Wolfe. She describes Mumford & Sons as “natural collaborators – they feel like brothers from the minute that you step foot in the room with them.” It’s that comforting familiarity that expresses itself in their music and forms a major part of their appeal.
Having first heard their sound while working on the Brooklyn open mic circuit, Wolfe was struck by how it reflected the songs that her peers were writing, “except that these were songs that everyone could suddenly, with ease and without thinking, just sing along to. It was like a conversation you were having with an old friend.”
Their pulsing, anthemic melodies, underlaid with a signature stomp, quickly became an in-demand and much replicated sound in the industry. Banjo and mandolin players found themselves getting far more calls for session work. For musicians like Menefee who had spent years justifying their choice of instrument and trying to persuade a sceptical mainstream of its charms, the change was remarkable. “When Mumford hit, it was like, banjo’s cool!”
“I’d go do demo sessions for songwriters on Music Row and for years the publishers would ask you for ‘like, a Mumford thing,’” Menefee continues. “And I should say that’s not all they do – their Delta record is one of my favorites, with its beautiful marriage of electro pop and effects. But I witnessed the success of the other bands that followed in Mumford’s wake. They had a huge influence.”
Douglas believes it’s no exaggeration to say they changed the sound of the musical landscape. “And people either liked it or they didn’t. But it’s a heartbeat, you know? That’s the thing about it. It gets people excited and it makes them feel good. That endorphin rush happens and everybody goes to their happy place. And we need that right now. We need to go to our happy place.”
There, perhaps, lies the key to their successful return after seven years away from the limelight. Every night they play, Menefee sees crowds “losing themselves” in the singalongs. “There’s an anger and a vulnerability that really pierces the heart,” he says. “And it’s so freaking singable.”
The band themselves have admitted to be “stoked” to be headlining festivals in the UK again and there’s little sense of ego at their appearances. Instead, they host shows that have the feel of a party at which they themselves are enthusiastic guests. “It’s just so much fun,” says Menefee. “There’s a real joy in it, a rest from all the chaos.”
Perhaps, right now, we all need a bit more Mumford in our lives.
Few words stir up conflict in country music circles the way “authenticity” does. While debates over authenticity rage within every corner of the arts, the tension is especially potent in country, whose unofficial tagline is, after all, a commitment to honest simplicity: “Three chords and the truth.” While “truth” can be a broad umbrella to work under, within country music it tends to encompass a longstanding commitment to sharing the stories and experiences of everyday people, in particular those of the rural working class.
Accordingly, an adherence to and celebration of the very concept of authenticity – nebulous as it may be – is as baked into country music culture as an anti-establishment sentiment is inherent to punk music. Listen to country radio, though, and you might have a hard time finding it, particularly as the bro country of the mid-teens, though finally waning in popularity, still dominates the majority of terrestrial country airwaves.
It’s 2024, though, and it’s way past time to declare that country radio is irrelevant. Glance at Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, which includes sales and streaming data alongside airplay, and you’ll see the top spot isn’t occupied by one of the usual radio favorites like Luke Bryan, Morgan Wallen, or even Luke Combs, the latter of whom has notably found a way to straddle the line between commercial success and critical acclaim.
Rather, at the time of this writing the number one country song in America is “I Remember Everything,” a duet between the relatively new artist Zach Bryan and one of the genre’s more adventurous stars, Kacey Musgraves. As a song, “I Remember Everything” isn’t necessarily groundbreaking. Bryan’s and Musgraves’ voices play nicely off one another, with his achy grit contrasting sweetly with her smooth twang. The production is simple, underdone even, and lyrically the track travels well-trod territory: romantic heartbreak.
So, what, then, has kept “I Remember Everything” firmly situated in that top spot for 14 straight weeks (and counting)?
If you’ve paid even the least bit of attention to country music in the last couple of years, you’ve no doubt encountered Zach Bryan and his genuinely singular approach to the genre. With his raw sound, confessional lyrics, and decidedly DIY approach to business, Bryan radiates the kind of authenticity that fans crave. He joins a host of other recently established and emerging artists – including but not limited to Tyler Childers, Lainey Wilson, Colter Wall, and Billy Strings – who found success by foregoing the traditional route to country stardom, one that typically involves following an out-of-date formula honed over time by profit-driven record labels.
Zach Bryan debuted with DeAnn in 2019, finding an audience online thanks to the viral success of “Heading South” on DeAnn’s follow-up Elisabeth. He quickly built a fanbase on TikTok and YouTube before releasing his 2022 breakout LP, American Heartbreak, which had more opening week streams than any other country album that year. In the lead-up to American Heartbreak, Bryan, who served as an active-duty member of the U.S. Navy for eight years, was honorably discharged in 2021 so he could pursue music in earnest.
In addition to topping charts, American Heartbreak set itself apart from the rest of the year’s crop with its unadorned production, heavily narrative songwriting, and sheer ambition – the record clocks in at a lofty 34 tracks, with less filler than one would anticipate. The album’s biggest single, “Something in the Orange,” earned Bryan a Grammy nomination for Best Country Solo Performance and, for a time, landed him atop Billboard’s Top Songwriters chart.
That record, along with a handful of EPs and loosies released in between, teed Bryan up for his 2023 self-titled LP, a much more focused effort (a mere 16 tracks!) that found Bryan firmly situated as a real-deal country star, one who can tap the likes of Musgraves, the War and Treaty, Sierra Ferrell, and the Lumineers to come join the proceedings. While it no doubt shows the depth of his rolodex, that guest roster also points at the breadth of Bryan’s influence, as each artist comes from a different part of the broader country/Americana ecosystem.
‘First ever’ is fuckn insane, one of the best songwriters to ever do it https://t.co/GdkuWiWDvq
And while he considers himself a country artist, Bryan’s roots are more indebted to the folk-rock revival of the late-aughts and early teens, when acoustic acts like Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers grew so big as to cross over into Top 40, eventually helping spur an explosion in popularity for Americana and roots-adjacent music. It’s fitting, then, that the Lumineers feature on Zach Bryan, joining on the track “Spotless” so seamlessly it isn’t always easy to tell who is singing: Bryan or Lumineers frontman Jeremiah Fraites.
It’s on these collaborations, in particular, that you can hear Bryan’s joy at being able to do what he loves. His vocals are raw, but never phoned in; in fact, sometimes he seems to be straining so hard to communicate a particular emotion that you worry his voice will give out. It never does.
In other words, Bryan is a fan’s musician, one who geeks out about his favorite artists the way his own fans do about him. In a post about the duo the War and Treaty, who joined Bryan on the standout Zach Bryan cut “Hey Driver,” he writes, “I can tell you the first time I heard War and Treaty live and I looked to the person next to me and said, ‘Are you hearing this?’ I talked to them later that night and they were the kindest couple I’d ever met.” In the same post, he says of the Lumineers, “I can tell you about how when my Mom went on home I got the Lumineers tattoo on my tricep after hearing ‘Long Way From Home’ for the first time and how Wes [Schultz] and Jeremiah are some of the most welcoming humans I’ve ever met.”
This post points to a major piece of both Bryan’s appeal and the air of authenticity that surrounds him: His direct line of communication with his fans. He manages his social media accounts himself and is no stranger to getting vulnerable in his messaging, often posting progress updates on new songs he’s working on or taking a moment to express gratitude for his success. For fans, it’s almost like there are no barriers between them and Bryan, which reinforces the relatability at the core of his music.
The beating heart of Zach Bryan, for me, is “East Side of Sorrow,” a song that grapples with hope and religious faith by connecting the grief Bryan felt after losing his mother to his time being shipped overseas while serving in the Navy. Despite – or perhaps because of – these vivid references to specific experiences, like being “shipped… off in a motorcade” and losing his mother “in a waiting room after sleeping there for a week or two,” the song is deeply emotional and relatable, a wrenching but empowering anthem encouraging the hopeless to try to keep it moving. These days, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who couldn’t use such a message, this writer included – Apple Music tells me it was my most-played song of 2023.
It would be – and for a lot of folks, already is – easy to accept Bryan’s every word, to believe that his hardscrabble songs about “rot-gut whiskey” and manual labor are honest reflections of the life he’s lived and the person he is. Then there’s the cynical interpretation, that Bryan’s anti-marketing is, actually, still marketing, that a young musician could only know so much of the realities of the struggle of the working class, that it’s the same twang to a different tune. Bryan has, after all, had a few bumps along his road to fame, including some less than flattering encounters with police that negate his humble personal.
But the truth, as it so often is, is likely somewhere in the middle. With such personal material, it’s easy to trace one of Bryan’s songs to its point of inspiration – “East Side of Sorrow,” for example, is undoubtedly ripped right out of his lived experience. And Bryan isn’t afraid to admit the gaps in his experience, like when on “Tradesman” he sings, “The only callous I’ve grown is in my mind.” Compare that to, say, the sheer tone deafness of a song like Blake Shelton’s “Minimum Wage” and Bryan’s instances of stretching the truth feel trivial.
Bryan is only the latest in a long line of country artists for whom authenticity is both a blessing and a curse. Genre giants like Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings are often held up as unimpeachably authentic pillars of the genre, despite weathering their own brushes with the authenticity police earlier in their careers. And these debates, which tend to center white, straight, cisgender men, aren’t nearly as hostile in their scrutiny as they are for marginalized artists, against whom the idea of authenticity is typically wielded as a gatekeeping weapon.
Wherever you fall on Zach Bryan, it’s hard to deny that the gravel-voiced, baby-faced boy from Oklahoma has changed the very fabric of contemporary country music. What he does with that power moving forward could break the genre open for good, making space for artists with unusual paths, atypical backgrounds and a disregard for the flavor of the week. If Zach Bryan is who he says he is, he may very well do it.
In early 1993, David “Dawg” Grisman, Jerry Garcia, and Tony Rice gathered around a few microphones in Dawg’s Mill Valley, California recording studio. It was a casual, after-hours jam session during the recording of Tone Poems (Grisman and Rice), but engineer David Dennison kept the tapes rolling, capturing and preserving one of the most significant moments in American music history.
As a kid growing up in central Appalachia, bluegrass music was, at times, painfully familiar. In childhood memories, I’m being dragged to bluegrass concerts on the weekends by my parents, or even spotting Ralph Stanley dining at local restaurants. But these things weren’t special to a 14-year-old Gen Z, no matter the popularity of new, genre-adjacent bands like Mumford & Sons or the Lumineers.
Sometime though, in those early teenage years, I was digging through my dad’s CD collection (which in 2012, already being rendered obsolete, had been stored in a closet) when I found a copy of The Pizza Tapes. I was vaguely familiar with Jerry Garcia from his association with the Grateful Dead, and remembered seeing Tony Rice as a 7 or 8 year old kid, and despite my dad insisting how important he was, being bored out of my mind. But when I picked up the CD and turned over its pizza-themed cover (“It’s Hot!”), I recognized songs like “Man of Constant Sorrow,” “Knocking on Heaven’s Door,” and “House of the Rising Sun.” This familiarity is what put the CD in my hands, but the mandolin never left them once I heard Dawg’s playing.
The Pizza Tapes, to summarize, was an accident gone right. While these recordings may have eventually been packaged into an album, that certainly wasn’t the case when the bootleg started making the rounds. The story surrounding the tapes was practically folklore, with various narratives centered around a pizza delivery worker getting them in some way from Jerry Garcia. After Grisman’s label, Acoustic Disc, formally released the recordings in 2000 (ultimately providing access to the recordings to even more listeners) their significance in acoustic music was further embedded.
David “Dawg” Grisman, while known primarily as a mandolinist, has a reputation for recording everything, and an equally important legacy as an instigator of collaboration. His friendship with Jerry Garcia, dating back as early as 1964 (when Garcia traveled to the east coast chasing the roots of bluegrass music), led to the bay area bluegrass supergroup Old & In the Way in the early 1970s. Meanwhile in Kentucky, Tony Rice was departing from J.D. Crowe & the New South, and moving to the bay area to play Dawg’s original music – starting the group that in 1977 became known as the David Grisman Quintet.
The Pizza Tapes are special for countless reasons, but the obvious attraction is the coming together of these two legendary guitarists, highlighting the distinctness of their two original playing styles, musically glued together by Dawg, their mutual friend and collaborator. Though the two guitarists already had a large portion of their careers behind them (Rice lost his voice in ‘94, and Garcia died in ‘95), it wasn’t until February 4 and 5 of 1993 that Dawg successfully sat them down together with guitars in hand. As is the dialogue on track 3, “Appetizer:”
DG: Trip seeing you guys together, man. TR: Shoulda happened a long time ago. JG: This is gonna be a hoot!
While both guitarists were of obvious importance to Dawg, their influence extended far beyond his Bay Area recording studio. By the ‘90s, Tony Rice was (and had been for some time) the very definition of bluegrass guitar, with the same being true for Jerry Garcia in the jamband world. For these two genres, which had already begun to cross pollinate, this laid-back jam session was something monumental, a bridge between the musical worlds of Tony Rice and Jerry Garcia.
In a world where recorded music is continually valued by its commercial success, albums like The Pizza Tapes are a breath of fresh air the listener can always return to. There was clearly no goal of marketability or profit in mind when these three sat down to jam – the recordings are intimately casual, made clear by Garcia’s words in the first 10 seconds of the album, when they fumble the kick-off to “Man of Constant Sorrow.”
There are so many lovable moments between and during these songs – Dawg’s slightly out of tune A-strings at the end of “Man of Constant Sorrow,” Tony’s fiery but loose guitar solo on “Rosalee McFall,” or most notably, the album’s fade-out with Jerry noodling on Tony Rice’s famed “Holy Grail,” the 1935 Martin D-28 (#58957) which had previously belonged to Clarence White, another friend and collaborator of Grisman’s.
JG: Tony gets a better tone actually than Clarence did. DG: Don’t say he’s got a better tone – he’s louder. JG: Louder is better David – on this planet, louder’s better. (from “House of the Rising Sun)
As I discovered the rest of Dawg’s discography, I gravitated toward the more intentional David Grisman Quintet (1977) and Home Is Where the Heart Is (1988) as a rubric for my mandolin schooling. But over a decade later, I still go back to The Pizza Tapes to be reminded of why I play the mandolin, and ultimately music. It’s not to make money or achieve popularity, but to be playful, conversational, and to above all else make good music with my friends – tenets that were all exemplified by Dawg, Tony, and Jerry on those winter nights in 1993.
J.D. Crowe, Jerry Douglas, Sarah Jarosz, and Ronnie McCoury are just a few of the artists taking part in the IBMA Virtual World of Bluegrass, which begins today, Monday, September 28. Kristin Scott Benson, Doyle Lawson, and Mumford & Sons’ Winston Marshall are also confirmed to participate.
IBMA Virtual World of Bluegrass is an annual bluegrass music homecoming and convention that takes place online this year, encompassing the IBMA Business Conference, IBMA Bluegrass Ramble, the 31st Annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards, and music festival IBMA Bluegrass Live! powered by PNC running through October 3. See the full schedule.
Check out our General Information page regarding IBMA Virtual World of Bluegrass. You’ll find our full-week schedule…
Conference registration is available at a lower price point than in years past: $99 for IBMA members, and $149 for non-members. Register here.
To stream the following sessions, as well as many others, IBMA Business Conference registration is required. Business Conference registration also allows access to other valuable content: an online version of the Gig Fair (one of the most popular conference events each year) the Songwriter Showcase, two virtual in-the-round Song Circles, the Annual IBMA Town Hall Meeting, the IBMA Virtual Exhibit Hall, and much more.
As previously announced, Sarah Jarosz will deliver the Keynote Address on Monday, September 28 to kick off this year’s virtual IBMA Business Conference. “Having attended IBMA as a young kid just getting into bluegrass, and having returned more recently as a performer at their Raleigh conference, I’m deeply honored to have been asked to be this year’s keynote speaker. I look forward to helping kick things off!” said Jarosz.
Organizers have added three presentations to lead each day’s conference activities, Tuesday through Thursday:
Tuesday at 11 AM ET: Artist-2-Artist with J.D. Crowe, Winston Marshall, and Jerry Douglas
Hall of Famer J.D. Crowe’s infusion of new ideas into bluegrass banjo took the music to a decidedly younger and more diverse crowd, inspiring a new generation of pickers and fans. His music would influence a young banjo player across the Atlantic named Winston Marshall, who would take the banjo to millions of fans worldwide. As a member of Mumford & Sons, Winston has helped completely transform the image of the banjo in popular culture. Jerry Douglas has used his dobro to build musical bridges throughout his storied career. He has shared both the stage and the studio with J.D. Crowe and Winston Marshall, and he invites you to join him and these two groundbreaking banjo players for a fun conversation about how music unites.
We just announced special feature presentations to kick off each day of the IBMA Business Conference:
Wednesday at 11 AM ET: Artist-2-Artist with Doyle Lawson and Kristin Scott Benson
Doyle Lawson has been a leader in bluegrass music for decades. He and Quicksilver played at a festival in Dahlonega, Georgia in the mid-eighties, and it changed the life of a young girl in the audience named Kristin. Three and a half decades later, Kristin Scott Benson is one the most celebrated banjo players of her generation and is the reigning IBMA Banjo Player of the Year. She sits down with Bluegrass Hall of Fame member, Doyle Lawson, to talk about the impact he and his music have had on her and on the bluegrass community at large.
Thursday at 11 AM ET: From the Bay, to Bean Blossom, and Back
Jerry Garcia is unquestionably a towering figure in American culture, and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He and the Grateful Dead set the template for a new style of music that would inspire generations, much as Bill Monroe, The Father of Bluegrass himself, had done. What’s less known about Jerry, is that long before, during, and after the Grateful Dead, he was a banjo player, a bluegrass musician, even an aspiring Bluegrass Boy. Join Ronnie McCoury, filmmaker Brian Miklis and others in a conversation diving deep into the relationship of a true giant of American music, and the music that inspired him.
The Bluegrass Situation will proudly present our fifth annual Shout & Shine Online on Saturday, October 3rd at 2pm ET. And at press time, 30 artists have also been confirmed for a series of showcases known as the Bluegrass Ramble.
The virtual music festival IBMA Bluegrass Live! powered by PNC, will take place Oct. 2-3. Special performances by The Travelin’ McCourys with special guest Del McCoury; Steep Canyon Rangers; Jerry Douglas & Odessa Settles; Sierra Hull & Molly Tuttle are just some of the highlights that bluegrass fans can look forward to.
In addition, PNC Bank is boosting its support for the IBMA and bluegrass artists experiencing financial hardship due to pandemic-related performance cancellations. PNC Bank, the presenting sponsor of IBMA Bluegrass Live! powered by PNC, has announced it will match all 2020 donations made to the IBMA organization and the IBMA Trust Fund, for a total up to $50,000. (Donate now.)
IBMA is the nonprofit professional organization for the global bluegrass music community — connecting, educating and empowering bluegrass professionals and enthusiasts while honoring tradition and encouraging innovation worldwide. The organization has suffered financially this year due to pandemic-related health precautions that are preventing the IBMA World of Bluegrass event from being held in Raleigh, N.C. The IBMA Trust Fund, which is administered by IBMA, was established in 1987 as a means to offer emergency financial assistance to bluegrass music professionals. In 2020, requests for assistance have increased tenfold due in large part to COVID-19.
As the presenting sponsor of IBMA Bluegrass Live! powered by PNC since 2013, PNC Bank has helped bring bluegrass music and culture to Raleigh for what has become one of the city’s most beloved live, free events. While IBMA Bluegrass Live! powered by PNC cannot be presented as an in-person event in 2020, PNC remains committed to supporting this event and community tradition by helping deliver bluegrass programming in a virtual setting, Oct. 2-3.
Donations may be made online; additionally, those registering for the free IBMA Virtual World of Bluegrass Music Pass have the opportunity to make a donation during the online registration process. The Music Pass includes access to all music performances during the week, including IBMA Bluegrass Live! powered by PNC, the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards presented by Count On Me NC, and IBMA Bluegrass Ramble presented by Count On Me NC.
An instrument as agèd, storied, and established as the violin — henceforth in this piece obstinately referred to as “fiddle” — carries with it vestiges and artifacts of its own history into any/all of its new musical forays. It’s one of the most charming qualities of the instrument, that whether a rosin-laden bow grinds and saws against the strings or whether it floats, gently ringing an intransigent harmonic, a fiddle is still a fiddle. It is the sum of its disparate parts.
Many virtuosos, hobbyists, and career musicians have staked their entire artistic worldviews on the paradoxes contained within the instrument. We in roots music quite often enjoy the musical aftereffects, songs and compositions that gleefully train magnifying glasses on paradigms such as classical versus jazz, old-time tunes versus minuets and cadenzas, or perhaps a chamber orchestra versus a square dance band. Ross Holmes, a session player, composer, and fiddler (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Mumford & Sons), counts himself among the violinist vanguard tinkering with the existential building blocks of the violin fiddle – a tradition and subculture he grew up with. “Overture,” an original, grandiloquent composition from Holmes, is something of a manifesto on the concept. (Listen below.)
The nearly fifteen-minute-long piece is performed entirely solo, beginning with a meditative, droning theme that Holmes describes as a “secular prayer.” As he carefully, intricately unspools each melodic turn, infusions from across the map — geographical and genre — are delivered directly from Holmes’ brain-as-musical-sponge to the listener’s ear. Each fluttering bow stroke, aggressive shuffle, and stunning double-stop speaks to the contributions of the fiddle in nearly every culture on earth. Throughout “Overture,” these global influences reflect the United States’ “melting pot” status — the greater piece for which this is the overture, after all, is titled: American Fiddle Suite. (Its remaining movements are a work-in-progress.)
Fiddling, by its nature, will be an outgrowth of all of the history, culture, and art that has flowed through it over the course of its centuries-long existence. What distinguishes Holmes and “Overture,” however, is the intention with which he connects all of these widespread dots. It makes sense, it’s tangible, and at its essence, it’s beautiful. It’s all the more impressive then, that though “Overture” is an entirely composed, ostensibly “classical” piece, not a note is yet written down. Holmes plays it all by memory — his memory, and the fiddle’s, too.
Artist:Mumford & Sons Hometown: London, England Song: “Forever (Garage Version)” Release Date: May 8, 2020
Editor’s Note: The demo recording heard in this video was performed almost completely live and rediscovered while going through some of the band’s recording archives during the coronavirus lockdown.
In Their Words: “Back in 2013, off the back of touring Sigh No More and Babel we decided we needed to take a bit of a break from the road, catch our breath and regroup. The first time we really hung out to make music together was after a couple months living our lives, and it was in the back garden of a friend’s house deep in Brooklyn. That friend was Aaron Dessner from The National and he had a built a studio in the garage in his garden. Between catching up, eating burritos, and having a couple of drinks, we messed around a bit with some new song ideas. This was one of those moments.
“Many of the songs that began in that garden ended up on Wilder Mind, whereas the later version of this song we saved for Delta. We just thought it’d be fun to share the journey that these songs go on sometimes. Hope everyone is staying safe x” — Mumford & Sons
Get off your couch and go hear some live music with Britain’s Got Bluegrass! Here’s the BGS-UK monthly guide to the best gigs in the UK and Ireland in June.
Mumford & Sons, 14 and 15 June, Malahide Castle, Dublin
The superstar nu-folkers are back, big time. Amid a worldwide arena tour to promote their new album, Delta, they’ve been presenting more of their awesome Gentlemen of the Road events. Mumford & Sons put on a fantastic party at All Points East festival in London, and there are two more opportunities to catch it in Ireland, where the band will be appearing with special guests Dermot Kennedy, Wild Youth, and Aurora. Throw on your waistcoat and join the fun.
Justin Townes Earle, from 20 June, nationwide
The son of Steve Earle and Carol-Ann Hunter was always destined to be a musician – how could he avoid it, being named for Townes Van Zandt? There are numerous opportunities to hear Justin Townes Earle this month, including at the Black Deer Festival in Kent and Union Chapel in London. But we think his latest compelling, political songs will speak even more powerfully in intimate spaces like the Deaf Institute in Manchester, or Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. He’s also playing Newcastle and Glasgow.
Sam Morrow, from 7 June, nationwide
Hailing from Houston, Texas, Sam Morrow plays “countrified funk” and his latest album, Concrete and Mud, is a reflection on the experiences that made him what he is today. Think classic rock refracted through a Los Angeles lens, with a blues-soul feel. Think Sturgill Simpson meets Sam Outlaw. Then go hear it, and find your own description. He’s on a 12-date tour including Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Corby, Bristol and the southeast.
Sharon Shannon & Band, 16 June, Sheffield
It’s always great to hear Sharon Shannon’s incredible collaborations, fusing Irish music with sounds from all over the world. Shannon has played her button accordion with everyone from Jackson Browne and John Prine to Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss, and her upbeat rhythms gladden the saddest of hearts. This show promises to be special – she has special guest Seckou Keita bringing a Senegalese beat with his drums and kora.
Mairi Campbell, 11 June, Glasgow
A unique and heartwarming blend of fiddle and theatre, Mairi Campbell’s show Pulse was a huge hit at the Edinburgh Fringe. Her autobiographical love story to the viola starts with a traditional classical training, moves on to Mexico and Cape Breton, and returns to her beloved Scotland in a skilful mix of song and storytelling, music and animation. You can catch it in Glasgow at the Admiral for a tenner, and we think that’s the best value you’re going to get out of any gig ticket this month.
Artist:Greg Holden Hometown: London, but now taking up the LA life after a stint in NYC Latest Album:World War Me
Sounds Like: Jack Savoretti, Joe Pug, Butch Walker
Why You Should Listen: Some people seem to be able to turn their hand to anything. Take Greg Holden — at first glance, the Scottish-born singer-songwriter leads a charmed existence. At least, that’s how it seems if you follow the blog that documents his globetrotting travels and the Instagram that captures his delicious vegetarian meals. He’s a great writer, an ace photographer, and he has even used his musical talents for good. His charity single “The Lost Boy,” inspired by Dave Eggers’s book What is the What about Sudanese refugees, raised tens of thousands of dollars for The Red Cross and helped build schools in Africa. “Boys in the Street” was written for Everyone Is Gay, an organization that helps LGBTQ youth.
Still, if you dig beneath the surface you find that Holden has had his own trials and tribulations. Now he’s taken his battle scars and made beautiful music with them. Born in Aberdeen, Holden grew up in Lancashire in the north of England, and didn’t even play guitar until he was 16, when a friend introduced him to Bob Dylan while he was working at a fast food restaurant. From then on, he knew he had to learn to play so he could sing those songs — and he knew he wanted to one day live in New York.
But he almost quit music eight years ago. Holden’s record label went bust, and he nearly did too: mired in debt, he reached a crisis point midway through a tour of Europe. Out of that difficult time came the songs on the album I Don’t Believe You, including powerful evocations of loneliness, discouragement, and drinking too much.
Life turned around for Holden with “Home,” the song that went on to become a major hit for American Idol’s Phillip Phillips (and won the approval of fellow Brits, Mumford & Sons). His new single, “I’m Not Your Enemy,” was written with his friend Garrison Starr, who I’ve long been a fan of, just after the election — you know the one I mean. It’s an answer song to a world gone mad. Greg Holden is an artist who wants to do good, a tall order for anyone nowadays, but I feel safe with him leading the charge.
As a radio and TV host, Baylen Leonard has presented country and Americana shows, specials, and commentary for BBC Radio 2, Chris Country Radio, BBC Radio London, BBC Radio 2 Country, BBC Radio 4, BBC Scotland, Monocle 24, and British Airways, as well as promoting artists through his work with the Americana Music Association UK, the Nashville Meets London Festival, and the Long Road (the UK’s newest outdoor country, Americana, and roots festival). Follow him on Twitter: @HeyBaylen
It seemed that this year’s unanimous refrain from Newport Folk Festival, from veteran attendees and newcomers alike, was a resounding, “I THINK I LOVE THIS FESTIVAL.” We think we do too. Based on these gorgeous images from NFF, we’d say each and every human being on site — on stage, in the crowd, or rocking on the waves — loves it, too. And that overwhelming love translates into palpable joy, from Mavis Staples’ first smile to Brandi Carlile’s final headbang, and in every strum, lick, and beat in between.
John Prine
The Weather Station (AKA Tamara Lindeman)
The War and Treaty (Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Blount-Trotter)
Jason Isbell
Bedouine (AKA Azniv Korkejian)
Brandi Carlile
Kaïa Kater
Valerie June
Tank and the Bangas
Margo Price
A surprise performance by Mumford & Sons -- and a few special guests.
Phoebe Bridgers
Mavis Staples leads a star-studded finale.
Photos by Daniel Jackson
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