I've got introduced to bluegrass by Ken Shafranko, my client at work, and a dobro player in the Stained Grass Window band.
So, what's bluegrass music? Here's the answer if you haven't read the excellent Wikipedia article. It's a genre of music based on blazing fast foot-tapping acoustic music that has its traditions in old Scottish and Irish music. The lyrics resemble country music and are based on simple, yet sometimes profound, aspects of life like love, the country-side, death etc and also cross over into gospel. They seldom talk about "rock" stuff like sex, drugs yada yada. The members have the band should have mastered their instrument, and should contribute to vocal harmonies. If you appreciate instrumental music, you're sure to appreciate this genre.
The Cherryholmes are a family band. The father, mother and three of their kids are the members of the band. They go around the country, and sometimes overseas to perform, and have a tight performance schedule, sometimes clocking 300 days a year. In their spare time, apart from doing stuff like giving their dogs a tummy rub, they record albums. Their albums have been nominated to the grammies, and it's "wierd" (the way Jere, the father of the band puts it), why they haven't won one.
They were here in Williamsport last Saturday, playing at the Community Arts Center, which, according to me, is a jewel of this town. I don't have a list of tracks they performed, but all I can say, is that right from the first song, they were fast, furious and freaking awesome!
Playing fast is probably in the very roots of bluegrass music. But you can't really impress someone with your fast music, unless your notes are crisp, and doesn't sound like a series of random sounds. The members of this band are serious masters of their instrument. Their speed, accuracy, timing and co-ordination seem to be at their best in their instrumental tracks. That doesn't mean they can't do the slow stuff. Their ballads pack such emotion that I could hear sobs in the silent theatre when the band was singing "This is my son" from their latest album.
The upright bass, the banjo, the guitar and the violin. Each instrument has its own place, and the sound of each instrument strikes a sweet chord in your heart. The vocals are buttery smooth and melodious. I was greatly impressed by Molly Kate's fiddlling, and her sweet voice (I wanted to hear more of her), and BJ's fireworks with his violin.
What's really surprising is how a family could develop such a cohesive force in a band, get the members pick up instruments to fill a place in the band, and hold on to the team work in spite of the long hours driving around the country. I also wonder how the young members of the team could stick together with the family band through their difficult teenage years, when each individual goes through tumulutous times growing up and understanding themeselves. There would surely have been moments when the young children wanted to get away from all of this strenuous and unforgiving schedule, and i am eager to understand how they managed to stick together to come up with such stellar performance.
And I almost forgot to mention that this is probably the only bluegrass band that features a tap dance. They spontaneously came forward in the middle of a song and cheerfully danced, maintaining the rhythm of the song, and went back in time to continue the song. It's not just here, each move of the band is choreographed well. When the members of the band converge near a mike, you're not just enthralled at their smooth harmonies, you're entertained by constant movement on the stage, like a well choreographed dance.
To sum it all up, this is the best bluegrass concert I have been to, and ranks among the all-time best concerts I have ever been to (I still can't dislodge the Shakti concert from the top). The performance lasted for two hours, but I was transformed into a new world where time was not a dimension to worry about. I sat there staring at the members of the band while they unleashed torrent after torrent of the most melodious notes. They were stellar.
I've just grabbed an opportunity to be at a concert of the Del McCoury Band at State College, PA. I just have to wait till tomorrow to figure out what this band has in store for me. I am expecting another scintillating performance, and I am eager to be there.
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