Tag: Ryman Auditorium

East Nash Grass Bring Their Weekly Residency to the World

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

The avant-garde, southern rock icon Col. Bruce Hampton had a belief that defined his career: don’t take yourself seriously – take what you do seriously. That saying holds strong for East Nash Grass, a group who have entertained the crowds at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge (in Madison, Tennessee) with incredible bluegrass and charming stage antics every Monday night for nearly six years.

Bluegrass music has a longstanding tradition of bands performing recurring shows. In the 1970s, J.D. Crowe & the New South rose to popularity while performing five nights a week at the Red Slipper Lounge in Lexington, Kentucky. Meanwhile, the Seldom Scene was gaining traction in the Washington, D.C., area with weekly performances at the Red Fox Inn and later the historic Birchmere. Performing that much allowed those bands to not only grow musically, but to grow their own, almost cult-like fanbase.

While the members East Nash Grass – Harry Clark (mandolin), Maddie Denton (fiddle), James Kee (mandolin), Gaven Largent (Dobro), Jeff Picker (bass), and Cory Walker (banjo) – are getting ready to celebrate six years of performing Monday nights at Dee’s, their sophomore record Last Chance to Win is charting No. 4 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Chart, they’re booked at festivals all over the country, and they’re nominated for IBMA’s New Artist of the Year award. 

BGS recently caught up with James Kee and Cory Walker to discuss the new album, the origins of the band, and the longstanding residency at Dee’s.

East Nash Grass started with a rotating cast in 2017, playing every Monday night at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge. Can you tell me about the origins of the group, and when the lineup came together as something more than a weeknight pickup band? 

James Kee: We had a lot of lineup changes in the early days – we solidified that lineup by 2018 or so, but it wasn’t as strong as the current lineup. We had Maddie [Denton] then, but Cory started playing with us full time in 2019, as did Harry [Clark]. And when that happened, East Nash Grass became serious. We just gelled together. It was super comfortable musically, and also professionally. 

Cory Walker: I got a gig in 2015 or ’16, at Arrington Vineyards, and came up with the band name then. There was such a resurgence of bluegrass in the East Nashville area. Putting together the band, if I couldn’t get this one person on mandolin, there were five others I could call. Then, Harry and I met this guy that worked at Dee’s and wanted to put together a weekly bluegrass show. So that’s how we were associated in the very beginning. But I wasn’t playing every Monday night, and around that same time Harry moved to Lexington for a couple of years to play with the Wooks. 

You’ve definitely become known for your unique stage presence and antics, between (and often during) songs, and you take that same energy from Madison to stages all over the country. How has playing a weekly gig for six years shaped the way you perform?

CW: I’ve played with so many people who use the same old formula. I don’t want to be a mouthpiece for the thing that has always worked. That’s one of the things I love about playing in this band, turning peoples heads upside down. It’s fresh air. 

JK: We’ve each been a sideman in all these different bands, and so many can suck the air out of the room between songs. They’re great, but we really wanted to loosen up from that. I have the same irreverence for the “same old” that Cory does. 

How has your stage presence been received in more traditional performance spaces?

JK: It’s not for everyone, but never any negative experiences. Often, they’re not sure what to think. People might think we do something different than other bands, but we do a lot of the same, just in our own way. We got on the Ryman stage and thanked Tim Allen – twice.

CW: But, he was there… this is really new territory, as far as the stage show. I love to go back to the Dee’s stream from the past week and watch the clown moments, where somebody does something off the wall and then everyone else responds to it in some way. In any other band scenario, that person would be fired, immediately.

Your performances are always unique, but so is this new record. How did you choose material, and go about recording Last Chance to Win?

JK: We knew there were some songs that people wanted us to record, that we’d already been doing. That was “Slippin’ Away,” “How Could I Love Her So Much,” three or four songs. We went in and cut those and got used to the environment, this particular studio and this first album with Jeff [Picker] on bass. I brought a lot of material to the first record, and I wanted to see what everybody else would bring to this one. It ended up having this old-time vibe that just naturally occurred, and so we ended up finishing out the record with more songs that fit that. 

Everyone in East Nash Grass seems to get their own voice, despite each of you having worked for countless solo artists. What’s it like to all come together and cultivate your own fanbase?

CW: Having a band where everyone has a say really makes people care more about the music and want to stick around. Even though we’ve all worked for bigger acts, we’re getting in together at the bottom floor. The people at our release show were primarily our age and younger. Those people will stick around, too. 

Photo Credit: Kaitlyn Raitz

BGS 5+5: Alex Williams

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Alex Williams
Hometown: Pendleton, Indiana
New Album: Waging Peace (October 21, 2022)

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

It’s hard to pin one artist down that has influenced me more than another, but I would say Todd Snider was the first songwriter I was exposed to as a kid. My parents used to play his Step Right Up in the car constantly. I’ve been a huge fan of all of his records since and he inspires me to this day.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

The moment I wanted to become a musician was after my dad persuaded me to take the first song I had written to my high school winter talent show and play it. I knew I was destined to write songs and play them for people on the road after that night, so I immediately dove headfirst into playing anywhere I could get a gig.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

My favorite memory from being on stage is probably when I got to play the mighty Ryman Auditorium with my friend/musician Whitey Morgan a few years ago. Lot of magic in that place, and the sound is just absolutely incredible.

What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?

I’ve received a lot of advice from friends in this business and fellow friends/musicians, but the one thing that’s remained consistent and stuck with me is to always be unapologetic, to be as honest as you can be, and to understand that life as a musician is a lifelong journey in every regard and there are no guarantees. That within itself over the years has made me appreciate every moment a hell of a lot more as I get older, whether it’s writing songs or playing out on the road.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I’d probably say a Buffalo chicken sandwich with Jim Croce if he was still with us. I would love to pick his brain about his writing process and how he came up with all of those great chord changes and melodies. He’s a huge inspiration for me and was gone way too soon. The sheer body of work that he left behind in such a short amount of time is amazing and a prime example of why he is one of the greatest songwriters that has ever lived.

Photo Courtesy of Lightning Rod Records

Vandoliers Drop the Banter to Develop a Sound Shaped by Country and Punk

Posted on by Editor

Right now, no band is blending country and punk music better than Vandoliers. Although that mash-up has been attempted for decades, it’s rare to actually find a band that disregards the rules completely and still sounds like they just might belong in a late-night honky-tonk. For years and years, that’s likely where you would find this Dallas/Fort Worth-based band. And if you’re gonna play in Texas, as the old country song goes, you’ve gotta have a fiddle in the band. While that instrument does provide a definitive fire to their show, it’s just one component to an invigorating sound that sets them apart on the local landscape.

However, the band has tapped into a market well beyond Texas, hitting the road with artists like Flogging Molly, Lucero, Old 97s, and their own personal heroes, Turnpike Troubadours. When the group’s European tour kept getting delayed during Covid, a disc jockey in Spain kept playing their songs anyway, and by the time they wound up in Madrid, they were selling out clubs to crowds who knew every word. Beyond just singing along with “Every Saturday Night,” which they’d heard on the radio for years by this point, the Spanish fans were almost certainly responding to the blasting, somewhat unexpected trumpet solos that punctuate anthemic songs like “Before the Fall.”

Most impressive of all, they managed to bottle up their on-stage energy and inject it into their first album in three years, The Vandoliers. While the band had a day off in Lawrence, Kansas, lead singer and principle songwriter Joshua Fleming filled us in about their first time at the Ryman Auditorium, kinda learning how to play guitar, and the unmistakable influence of country star Marty Stuart.

BGS: When I saw you at the Ryman, what struck me the most was your showmanship. You guys were full throttle from the moment you walked out there. What does it feel like in those moments before the stage lights hit you?

Fleming: We play this song [backstage] called “Urban Struggle” by the Vandals, and it’s an old punk song from the ‘80s. Evidently there were two clubs — a punk bar and a country bar — that were right next to each other, and that song is about the fight that would ensue because of that. Every time that comes on, we all just get super excited. It’s really those moments of excitement. Like at the Ryman, I had a moment where I went out back and hung out in the alley where all the musicians hung out before the show. I’ve been doing this thing where I’ve been writing a tour journal, and I wrote a little paragraph. Instead of posting it on Twitter or Instagram, I have this little book that I’ve been writing in, just trying to gather my thoughts, because there’s been those moments.

Like when we first started, when people would tell us we weren’t country enough, which they were probably right, you know? But we love that music so much and we love that heritage and we love that legacy. This is just how we get to be a part of it, by sounding like this, because that’s just where we’re from. I’m not from the hollers or the hills of Kentucky, or anything like that. I’m not from Nashville, Tennessee. I’m kind of stuck in the middle between Fort Worth and Dallas. … That’s where I grew up, so this is just the sound that I love, and these are things that remind me of Texas and where I’m from. When you get to play at the Ryman, especially for a band like Turnpike, who’s been a massive influence on us, and being accepted by your peers after seven years of kind of being the red-headed stepchild, it’s really surreal!

Do you have any influences in terms of the way you present yourself on stage? Did you ever see a band and say, “THAT’S what I want to do!”?

All the time! We’ve played a lot of empty bars and had to get people out of their chairs to get the excitement. We’ve also gotten to learn tricks from Old 97s, Lucero, and Flogging Molly, and those bands kind of taught us and showed us the ropes of how to put on a show and get people moving. When I was out with Flogging Molly, Dave [King, the lead singer] just completely commands not only the crowd’s emotions, but also their bodies. He can get their hands up, waving, and they can get people moving. And with Lucero, every Lucero show is just the crowd singing Lucero songs with Lucero. I saw that and I was like, “THAT’S the kind of show I want.” What I really want is a cathartic release and if I’m lucky enough to write some songs that people want to sing with me, that means a lot.

This was my first time seeing you and I noticed you don’t spend a lot of time on stage banter.

Oh yeah. I hate banter! I come from the Ramones school of “1-2-3-4, ‘Good night!’” I want every song to sound like they run into each other. I don’t want that energy to stop. I don’t want to shut the crowd out; I just don’t want to turn it into this soapbox because I want to play as many songs as possible.

I was very surprised that Turnpike gave us an hour at the Ryman. I had [prepared for] a 45-minute set so I actually got to add songs instead of take away, and that was super fun. But I shoved 16 songs into an hour. I think I gave myself three minutes to say our band name. And tune. [laughs] And to say thank you to Turnpike because they’re the reason we were there. It was really great that they allowed us to be a part of their coming back. We played their first two shows at Cain’s and those were amazing. But playing the Ryman, I mean, it was their first night at the Ryman, too, so we got to share that feeling together. That was such a cool bro thing to do. [laughs]

I read an interview where you said Marty Stuart was the reason you started the band. What did you mean by that?

I mean, I’m constantly learning and there’s so much music I don’t know. And when I found Marty Stuart, it was this perfect time. Hank III was on his show and I just gotten into Hank III. Marty Stuart is a Hall of Famer and absolutely brilliant but he wasn’t quite as in-your-face as other artists I had seen and heard all my life. So, when I discovered him, it was through The Marty Stuart Show. I watched the episode with Hank III, and I was like, “This is RAD! This is rockin’!” There’s an electric guitar up there and he’s ripping — Kenny Vaughan is up there, just crushing. And their harmonies were perfect. Harry Stinson is of the best singers ever while also being one of the best drummers. It’s really unfair that they’re so talented!

My wife and I, one of our favorite bands is T-Rex, so that glam rock thing was very fresh in my mind at that time, because we had just met and I was showing her these records. We walked down the aisle to The Slider and “Metal Guru” was the song. I really love glam rock. So, anyway, I see the glam in Marty. I see the talent. I see the stories. It was everything that I loved from all of these different genres, and also very traditional and amazing.

So, I run in to find my wife, who’s a huge country fan, and I’m like, “Look at this guy! He looks like a country Marc Bolan!” She’s like, “Oh, that’s Marty Stuart. He’s awesome.” And goes back to bed like it’s no big deal. [laughs] I got obsessed and watched every episode of that show and bought records and tapes and CDs. And one day I got to open for him, going out with them for three shows with him in Texas, and he was one of the kindest people in the world. He is so cool and everybody in that band is the coolest. If Marty Stuart can accept me and be kind to me, then the sky’s the limit, right?

When did you learn to play guitar?

I started banging out chords when I was, like, 11. I wasn’t very interested in being a virtuoso, like a guitar-solo guy. I was more into that outlet to speak and write my feelings out. And I also really liked the idea of being in a band. I played sports but there was always somebody on the bench. No one’s on the bench in a band. Everybody gets to play and it gives you a little bit of a social scene, too. Those were the things that I was really interested in at the time. I started my first band when I was 12. I played roller rinks and movie theaters and little DIY shows for all the kids in my middle school. And then I moved to high school and I played all-ages clubs and theaters with my ska band. Then I moved into cutting records and learning about recording and going to school for recording. It’s been a long journey.

So, did I “learn guitar”? Kinda. I learned how to write a song and I learned how to be in a band — and it’s been great! I think that’s why I liked punk in the beginning because it made me feel like I could do it. I didn’t have to worry about having some pedigree. I didn’t have to be the son of some famous dad. I was from a small town very far away from L.A., Nashville, New York, and Chicago. It was more of just me being able to have a little place in my social scene and it kind of grew from there. Then I started touring and traveling.

Is that where the song “Sixteen years” comes from?

Yeah, that’s actually exactly it. You can take it any way you want, but in the song, story-wise, my dad’s not a preacher. That’s actually referencing one of my songs from my punk band, The Phuss. Like, “A poor man’s song that no one wanted to hear” was “Bottom Dollar Boy,” which we re-recorded for Bloodshot, but it came out on our first EP that didn’t sell very many. [laughs] I wasn’t famous because of that song but I really love that song. It’s just referencing trial and error, trial and error, trial and error. And it’s not about being successful. It’s just about doing it. So, even if it takes me forever, I’m still going to do it. And even if I don’t even make it, whatever that means, I would still do it. I love it so much.

Photo Credit: Rico DeLeon

Emmylou Harris Revisits “Roses in the Snow” in Lost Concert, Vintage Video

Posted on by Editor

The year was 1990, and after more than a decade with the celebrated Hot Band, Emmylou Harris hit the road with a group of bluegrass all-stars — Sam Bush, Roy Huskey Jr., Larry Atamanuik, Al Perkins, and Jon Randall Stewart — and called them the Nash Ramblers. Although the group represents only a small portion of Harris’s decorated career, the music they made was exciting and powerful. After the band’s first year together, they recorded At the Ryman, a 1992 project that not only won a Grammy but also helped bring about a second life for the Ryman Auditorium as a premier concert venue.

It was in the band’s earliest days, at the conclusion of their first tour in 1990, that the Nash Ramblers made their Nashville debut. The performance was recorded at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center on September 28, 1990, and until now, has never been released to the public. In September, Nonesuch Records issued it after its discovery by Rhino Records’ James Austin. The live album, titled Ramble in Music City: The Lost Concert features a slew of songs that were not performed on At the Ryman.

Harris says, “When James Austin, in my humble opinion, the world’s best and certainly most devoted music archeologist, unearthed the tapes of this ‘lost’ concert, I was taken aback by their very existence, like finding some cherished photograph misplaced so long ago the captured moment had been forgotten. Then the memories came flooding in, of the Nash Ramblers, hot off the road from our first tour, ready to rock and bringing their usual A-game to the hometown turf.”

She continues, “It only took one listen to realize not a single note was out of place or in need of repair, a truly extraordinary performance by these gifted musicians. What a joy it was to share the stage with them.”

In promotion of the album release, Austin City Limits shared its own video of the ensemble performing “Roses in the Snow” on the celebrated Texas stage in 1993. (The title track from Harris’ 1980 beloved bluegrass album leads the live record, too.) Enjoy this vintage video from Emmylou Harris & the Nash Ramblers and their timeless musicianship.

Photo credit: Paul Natkin/Getty Images, circa 1997

BGS 5+5: The Accidentals

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Accidentals
Hometowns: We split hometowns of Traverse City and Nashville; we have houses in both (Sav and Katie) and Michael is from Grand Rapids
Newest Album: TIME OUT (Session 1)
Nicknames: Savannah is Sav, Katherine is Katie, Michael is ALWAYS Michael. haha.
Rejected band names: Flavor Monkeys, Savage Kittens (now our publishing company), Go Dog Go, Jalapeno Honeymoon, Comfort and Dismay. We were The Treehuggers before.

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Katie: Brandi Carlile is one of those through-line artists we bonded over when we were teenagers and have never stopped learning from. I’ll never forget hearing “The Story” for the first time and doing a double take when the music drops out and she belts the chorus like there’s no tomorrow. As a socially anxious kid I wanted nothing more than to be able to hurl my feelings out of my lungs the way she does. Over the years we’ve watched her do everything from producing records to making her own music festival in order to support women artists.

One of the last shows we saw before the lockdown was Brandi playing with Kim Richey at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. We had just moved to town and as we sat on the worn wooden pews overlooking the stage, I was moved to tears watching the young girls in the front row throwing their heads back and belting along to “The Story.” Never in a million years would we imagine that a few months later we’d be writing music for our TIME OUT EP with Kim Richey, but we’ve learned even our heroes are humans who we can talk to on Zoom while wearing sweatpants and talking about bread baking. When we cancelled all our tours in 2020 we started feeling lost, but so many artists including Brandi reminded us that you never have to give up collaboration, activism, hard work, and heart.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Katie: Looking back, I have to say that 90% of my favorite moments were the unplanned ones. In 2018 we had the opportunity to sing on stage with Joan Baez for the Ann Arbor Folk Festival. I had just finished reading her biography and was starstruck, but once we were onstage her voice made everyone at ease and soon there were thousands of voices singing along. While everyone was walking off stage she grabbed my hand and I felt like my feet were floating.

Another favorite memory was playing Summerfolk Festival in Ontario — they have a tradition of pairing up two bands at the festival who’ve never met, and put them on stage together to play an after-party set. We had no idea what to expect when we loaded in our gear, but ended up playing an insanely fun hour-long set with Turbo Street Funk, a five-piece brass funk band including electric guitar, drums, sax, French horn and a hand-painted sousaphone plugged into a bass amp. We improvised on each other’s tunes all night, throwing in covers of “Ghostbusters” to The Yeah Yeah Yeahs to the Black Keys. We’re friends to this day, it was amazing.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

Sav: Katie and I pick up inspiration everywhere we go. Usually every song is a culmination of things we’ve picked up around us – a piece of an Edgar Allan Poe poem here; the first sentence of Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief paraphrased; a story in the New York Times about an endangered kind of parrot; an art piece made entirely of thread in the Crystal Bridges Museum, or if you’re Katie, sometimes a perfectly made plate of zucchini noodles is all it takes to be inspired.

We never really know where the moments of inspiration strike. I keep voice memos on my phone of little ideas as they come to me (usually in a public place, so I have to mumble them into my phone like a nerd) and a whole list of sticky notes of random billboards saying ominous phrases or things I pick up in conversation. There’s an episode of the Song Exploder podcast featuring John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, who talks about keeping a whole list of song titles written down at his disposal, so I started picking that up recently, too.

I will say that being in the music industry requires you to know a little bit about other art forms like film and visual art, because you never know when you’re going to be writing a treatment for a music video, or brainstorming / creating an album cover from scratch. Seeing how projects like TIME OUT EP or our upcoming album Vessel translate into film or visual art is fascinating, because it shows how when an art piece becomes multimedia, it starts to feel like you’re not just looking at a picture anymore – you’re standing in a room full of color, and you can see how it all fits together.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

Sav: I think the answer would be different for both of us — our processes for writing vary song-to-song, but also Katie and I are really different writers. Katie usually takes her time with writing, and she’ll work on the same song for months at a time until it’s perfect. I usually like to knock out a song by sitting down once in a blue moon and just getting it down in two hours. So a process like “Night Train,” co-written with Dar Williams over the course of many Zoom calls, was pretty tough for me. That song had a Leonard Cohen-like aspect where it had infinite verses; the stories Dar told would have amounted to at least ten different songs. It was really hard to pick and choose what best told the story we were trying to tell.

Ultimately the version we kept is a travel journal about the power of community, the magic you experience in meeting strangers and finding common ground. The song is about coming to the realization that we are more alike than not, and there is more goodness in the world than we might believe. We wanted a song that would speak to every generation and community, a song about healing and investing in our future, because there’s still work to be done.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Sav: This is one of the very first things Beth Nielsen Chapman called me out on when Katie and I were doing our first co-write with her (which was also our first co-write in general). Beth made a good point that using “you” too many times in a song starts to sound pretty accusatory. If that’s what you’re going for, great! Ha ha. She went further to say that saying “I” makes it more personal. I definitely have a habit of doing this — putting “you” where “I” should be — and sometimes I still do it, but I’m watchful of it now.

One thing we picked up this year is that songs don’t always have to be about us, necessarily. They can be from someone else’s perspective, while still using “I” and “me.” On one of our weekly Monday writes with Tom Paxton, he told us one of the best ways to get started was to pick up a newspaper, read a story, and write like you’re a person standing in the room where it happened. There will always be some personal piece of you invested in it by the time you’re done. The goal is to get outside of yourself for a moment and write for the sake of the story. That was a good lesson to take away after a year of isolation. It’s human nature to tell stories — whether that story is to heal, to inspire, to relate, or to learn from. So even if it’s “me” or “you” or “they” or “we,” the goal is for someone to walk away feeling like they got something out of that story, so that they may retell it in their own way.

Photo credit: Aryn Madigan

WATCH: Billy Strings Brings the Ryman Auditorium Into the Living Room

Posted on by Editor

Taking a break during a live stream rehearsal, Billy Strings is pulling up a pew in the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville to talk about what makes the Mother Church of Country Music so special.

“To be able to bring the Ryman into people’s living rooms, that’s pretty cool,” he says in the video below. “Maybe they’ll check it out and realize that whenever stuff opens up, they should come see a real show here.”

As anyone who’s already attended a Ryman show can attest, the acoustics are impressive, especially when it comes to bluegrass. As the IBMA Award-winning guitarist explains, “Something about this old wood, it just… works. It’s like an old church, you know? So many amazing songs ring out in here, and all the echoes of all the amazing artists from the past. It’s almost like you’re inside of an old guitar. It’s just been resonated so much that all the sounds really work well in here.”

Later this month, Billy Strings will compete for a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album, for his exceptional 2019 album, Home. Although the Michigan native’s rise to bluegrass stardom may seem like an overnight success, he’s actually been at it quite a while, as he explains in this video, presented by Nissan.

“When I was really young, from the time I was born until about 5, 6, or 7 years old, I mostly listened to bluegrass. And then when I got a little bit older, my dad started showing me Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and stuff like that. That led to even heavier music. I got to a certain point in middle school where I wanted to play music with people that were my age. Mostly the only bands that were really happening in the town I was in were metal bands. So I acquired a taste for the music and then joined a band,” he says. “I learned a lot about what I know about music from playing bluegrass, and I suppose I learned some musical stuff from the metal as well, but I know I took a lot of the stuff that I learned about performing from playing in the metal band.”

Even as he absorbed those other styles, bluegrass beckoned and he’s now one of the genre’s most promising artists and prominent ambassadors. He adds, “I think when I was in middle school, it’s not that I was embarrassed about playing bluegrass, but it was something that I did with my dad and his older friends, so I didn’t really feel like it was that hip. But then when I got over that phase I was in, I realized that it is super hip, and the musicians are really awesome. The guys who are playing the mandolin, fiddle, bass, and banjo in these bands, they really know how to play their instruments really well, and they spent a lot of time practicing. You know, this is where it’s at, really.”

Photo Credit: Emma Delevante

This Nashville Museum Shows the Vital Role of Black Music in American History

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Nashville’s “Music City” nickname has always been broader and more inclusive than the national impression, which largely has been built on two things: the city’s impressive country music legacy and its equal importance as a hub for the general music business, with major emphasis on recording and publishing. But what hasn’t been as well recognized and celebrated, at least by those outside particular communities in Nashville, is its contribution to numerous other idioms and its role in their evolution and development.

Hopefully that’s going to change with the new National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM), now open across the street from the historic Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. The Fifth and Broadway entrance to NMAAM and its proximity to one of the nation’s music shrines couldn’t be more appropriate, and it is notable that the museum isn’t located in one of the sites better known as a Black music hotbed such as Detroit, New York, Los Angeles or even Memphis. Nashville has always been a major player in the African American music world, from the days of the Fisk Jubilee Singers to radio station WLAC breaking R&B, soul and blues hits, and the Jefferson Street nightclub scene providing both valuable training for emerging artists and a vital showcase for established ones.

However, the museum isn’t focused mainly or wholly on Nashville, nor any single city or musical style. The 56,000-square-foot entity aims to spotlight the entirety of the music made in this nation by Blacks, to demonstrate its impact on the totality of American sounds, and to celebrate its history and multiple influences. As CEO/president Henry Hicks repeatedly told media members who attended tours in January, “We’re showing how music through the prism of the Black experience has played a vital role in the growth of this country and how it’s affected every fabric of the culture.”

The sleek, architecturally striking building has the same visual splendor and attractiveness as the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. Upon entrance, visitors to NMAAM will be immediately drawn to the central corridor that’s billed as the Rivers of Rhythm. It features touch panel interactive exhibits, something that’s a recurring sight throughout the halls housing exhibits and other items designed to showcase 50 genres and sub-genres of Black music.

The corridor leads into The Roots Theater, which is actually where the museum tour formally begins. There’s an introductory film presentation that provides the African background and heritage of the various exhibits. It also offers a cinematic shorthand of what visitors later see presented in more exacting, visually striking manner: the multiple sounds and styles of notable Black music creators and performers. The theater seats approximately 190, and in later weeks and months will serve as the location for various screenings, lectures, music performances, and concerts.

The different genre exhibitions feature everything from more interactive exhibits with timelines to cases containing such items as one of Louis Armstrong’s trumpets, one of B.B. King’s “Lucille” guitars, or costumes worn on key nights by performers like Billie Holiday, Nat “King” Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, or Aretha Franklin. The museum doesn’t neglect any area of Black music, going from the earliest spirituals to pre-jazz, traditional and modern jazz, blues, R&B/soul, funk, disco, and into contemporary hip-hop and EDM. There’s also a detailed storyboard for every idiom.

The greatest examples of Black music influencing other idioms that are sometimes mistakenly assumed not to have any links with African Americans can be seen in the Crossroads section. It includes an essay that traces how country founding fathers like Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams were influenced by the blues, and how the acoustic guitar playing of people like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and the gospel-tinged shouting of Odetta in turn influenced white folkies like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.

One of Chuck Berry’s biggest hits, “Maybellene,” was a reworked version of Bob Wills’ “Ida Red” with new lyrics, while certainly Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and other white rock ‘n’ roll and rockabilly types were performing a hybrid of country, blues, and R&B. In both cases, as well as early string band music played by white and Black performers, these artists were hearing and creating a fresh sound based on their love of multiple genres, which the Crossroads section reflects in text and exhibits.

Along the way, depending on your musical preferences, you’re able to become an active part of the experience. There’s a disco dance room that inserts a neon silhouette onto the wall. You can construct your own blues song, improvise within a personal jazz composition, become part of a gospel choir, or craft your own freestyle raps. Any or all of this activity is recorded on a personal RFID wristband and automatically uploaded so that it can be shared online with friends, assuming you really want those efforts heard by others.

But most importantly, the mission, one frequently cited by tour guides and reinforced through the various exhibits, displays, and films, is Black music’s cross-generational links and the way it’s been both a voice of protest and a force for unity across diverse backgrounds. The role music played both in rallying Blacks into the World War II effort and helping inspire and fortify the Civil Rights Movement are just two parts of that underlying joint theme.

Whether it’s “One Nation Under a Groove” or “A Love Supreme,” regardless of spiritual or secular content, Black music has been at the core and forefront of American culture. No single building better exemplifies and reveals that than the National Museum of African American Music. No matter what kind of music you love, or even if you’re tone deaf, this museum will have something of value for you to see, hear and enjoy, as well as valuable lessons to learn and history to remember.

Photo Credit: NMAAM/353 Media Group

At the Ryman, Four of Bluegrass’ Finest Sing “Down in the River to Pray”

Posted on by Editor

In our celebration of the movie that returned bluegrass to the spotlight of pop culture, we’re throwing it back to the 31st Annual IBMA Awards from October 2020. During the ceremony, four of the five women nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year banded their angelic voices together to pay tribute to the 2000 landmark film O Brother, Where Art Thou? In the video below, Amanda Smith, Rhonda Vincent, Brooke Aldridge, and Dale Ann Bradley stand stoically on the stage of the famed Ryman Auditorium to deliver a brilliant rendition of “Down in the River to Pray.”

This a capella performance is a reminder of not only the music featured in the film, but also the unique characteristic that bluegrass and old-time music can have, feeling simultaneously nostalgic and modern. The women’s gentle voices are wonders to behold in their own rights, but sparks fly when they harmonize, emanating a warmth and life into the historic venue where bluegrass was born. Watch these four eminent women of modern bluegrass interpret an all-time classic recording from our BGS Artist of the Month, O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Editor’s Note: The 2020 IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards will air on Circle TV on Monday, January 18 at 8pm ET / 7pm CT. The ceremony will be broadcast on Circle and Gray TV stations and can also be seen on DISH Studio Channel 102, Sling TV, and other TV affiliates. Circle TV is also available on 275 million smartphones and tablets via the Roku Channel and XUMO apps in addition to a companion livestream on Circle All Access Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Photo credit: Shelley Swanger. Pictured L-R: Amanda Smith, Rhonda Vincent, Brooke Aldridge, Dale Ann Bradley

IBMA Awards 2020: See the Full List of Winners

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

The winners of the 31st annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards were announced Thursday night via video awards show, hosted by Sierra Hull, Tim O’Brien, Joe Newberry, and Rhonda Vincent.

The “biggest night in bluegrass” was well-adapted to its virtual setting and boasted three Hall of Fame inductions, guitar and banjo tributes to Doc Watson and J.D. Crowe, a continent-spanning collaboration by Rob Ickes & Trey Hensley and Taj Mahal, and celebrations of the 20th anniversary of O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the 75th anniversary of the birth of bluegrass. Marking the occasion, Del, Ronnie, and Rob McCoury opened the evening from an empty Ryman Auditorium, regarded as the birthplace of bluegrass and a former home for the show.

Special performances were shot live at home, in studios, and at various small venues — as well as the Station Inn and the Ryman. Billy Strings paid tribute to Hall of Famer and Male Vocalist of the Year nominee, Larry Sparks, with a cover of “John Deere Tractor” — with double pickguards, to boot. In the Doc Watson tribute, each of the five Guitar Player of the Year nominees (Trey Hensley, Billy Strings, Bryan Sutton, Molly Tuttle, and Jake Workman) took their turn virtually swapping solos on “Black Mountain Rag,” with T Michael Coleman, Watson’s longtime friend and bandmate, holding them all together through the webcams and headphones. Many other unique collaborations, tributes, and performances were peppered throughout the award announcements. The most stunning performances, though — like Vocal Group of the Year and Entertainer of the Year winner Sister Sadie’s “900 Miles” — were from the mother-church setting of the Ryman, where in a pandemic twist, the bands each performed not facing an audience, but with the auditorium’s empty pews as a background.

As IBMA Executive Director Paul Schiminger put it in his speech from the Ryman stage, in a virtual conference year and a pandemic, returning to the birthplace of the genre was “an unexpected gift through it all.” 75 years of bluegrass were poignantly brought together beneath the rafters of the hallowed, though empty, Ryman Auditorium.

Here are the winners of the 2020 IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards, in the order they were announced:

New Artist of the Year

Mile Twelve

Instrumental Group of the Year

Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper

Gospel Recording of the Year

“Gonna Rise and Shine”
Artist: Alan Bibey & Grasstowne
Label: Mountain Fever Records
Producer: Mark Hodges

Banjo Player of the Year

Scott Vestal

Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year

Justin Moses

Fiddle Player of the Year

Deanie Richardson

Bass Player of the Year

Missy Raines

Mandolin Player of the Year

Alan Bibey

Guitar Player of the Year 

Jake Workman

Collaborative Recording of the Year

“The Barber’s Fiddle”
Artists: Becky Buller with Shawn Camp, Jason Carter, Laurie Lewis, Kati Penn, Sam Bush, Michael Cleveland, Johnny Warren, Stuart Duncan, Deanie Richardson, Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Jason Barie, Fred Carpenter, Tyler Andal, Nate Lee, Dan Boner, Brian Christianson, and Laura Orshaw
Label: Dark Shadow Recording
Producer: Stephen Mougin

Instrumental Recording of the Year

“Tall Fiddler”
Artist: Michael Cleveland with Tommy Emmanuel
Label: Compass Records
Producers: Jeff White, Michael Cleveland, and Sean Sullivan

Vocal Group of the Year

Sister Sadie

Song of the Year

“Chicago Barn Dance”
Artist: Special Consensus with Michael Cleveland & Becky Buller
Writers: Becky Buller, Missy Raines, Alison Brown
Label: Compass Records
Producer: Alison Brown

Album of the Year

Live in Prague, Czech Republic
Artist: Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
Label: Billy Blue Records
Producers: Doyle Lawson and Rosta Capek

Female Vocalist of the Year

Brooke Aldridge

Male Vocalist of the Year

Danny Paisley

Entertainer of the Year

Sister Sadie

 

Also honored during the broadcast were three inductees into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame: owner of the Station Inn, J.T. Gray, The Johnson Mountain Boys, and New Grass Revival.

The Industry Awards were held on Wednesday, September 30. Hosted this year wittily and absurdly in video format by Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn, the Industry Awards recognize outstanding professional work within the many arms and branches of the bluegrass industry at large. 

The Industry Awards recipients:

Broadcaster of the Year

Michael Kear

Event of the Year

Augusta Heritage Center Bluegrass Week, Elkins, WV

Graphic Designer of the Year

Michael Armistead

Liner Notes of the Year

Katy Daley, Live at the Cellar Door – The Seldom Scene

Writer of the Year

Derek Halsey

Sound Engineer of the Year

Stephen Mougin 

Songwriter of the Year

Milan Miller

The recipients of the Distinguished Achievement Awards, honoring lifelong contributions by forerunners and ambassadors for bluegrass music, were honored with presentations on Wednesday as well: 

Norman & Judy Adams, Adams Bluegrass Festivals

Darrel & Phyllis Adkins, Musicians Against Childhood Cancer

Darol Anger, fiddler/educator

Wayne Rice,  San Diego’s KSON “Bluegrass Special” host

and Jack Tottle, band leader and educator at East Tennessee State University.

The Momentum Awards, handed out via video ceremony on Tuesday, September 29, focus on artists and industry professionals who are in the early stages of their bluegrass careers and the mentors who have helped them reach their young success.

The Momentum Awards recipients:

Industry Involvement

Kris Truelsen

Mentor

Annie Savage

Instrumentalist (2 recipients in this category)

Thomas Cassell

Tabitha Agnew

Vocalist

Melody Williamson 

Band

The Slocan Ramblers

 

BGS 5+5: Will Hoge

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Will Hoge
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Latest Album: Tiny Little Movies (June 26, 2020)

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

My dad. He was a musician before I was born and that carried over into an incredible album collection. Every great album from 1964-1978 was at my disposal.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Shit, at this point, I’ll repeat a worst memory just to be back on stage. Also any time I get to play at the Ryman.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

My dad and my uncle snuck me into a bar to see Bo Diddley when I was about 13. My mind was totally blown. Hard to focus on much else after that.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

“Jesus Came to Tennessee.” It had about 15 more verses. Editing that one was a journey.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

Ice cream and Brandi Carlile

Photo credit: Katie Krauss