Where the Concrete Meets the Grass

Danny Paisley and Southern Grass included the talents of Aaron Martin on Bass.

12 November 2011: Leonardtown, Maryland

That crazy Herb Martin - always leading me down back roads. I'm heading south on Maryland Rt. 5 on my way to Leonardtown on a beautiful Autumn day on a whim. If you live around here, you're probably like me, and realize that any trip around the Beltway, especially on the Maryland side may include a packed bag, a pocket full of money and a fully charged cell phone in case your stuck for a couple of days. I'm tired of it. It's really time to move away from here where people lead decent lives and make it home in time for dinner. Well, by God I made it to the exit for Rt. 5 and now I'm traveling through the concrete jungle toward Waldorf. Past Waldorf you enter real country - suburbia ends around here - the bedroom communities, strip malls, the mile after mile of townhouse complexes. I even saw a few farms. Signs with the name Surratt on them reminded me that I was in some seriously historic territory. Thirty miles beyond Waldorf I reached my destination and beautiful Maryland countryside it was. Flat farmland, a few little towns with only one or two stoplights, and here and there Amish stores that advertised hand-made goods and fresh Amish food products. Crab stands were appearing too, which reminded me that I wasn't that far away from the water. It was a good day to get away from suburbia and enjoy some down-home music.

The event was a benefit fundraiser for Richard Tippett at the Back Road Inn a few miles east of Leonardtown. After a serious illness and thousands of dollars in medical bills, the Tippett family was trying to raise money. Daughter-in-law Linda Tippett was the driving force and seemed to be the main point of contact for the event. Linda also plays bass and sings with Joey Tippett and the California Ramblers. Notable was the line-up of entertainment for the afternoon - the Tippetts had included Junior Sisk and Ramblers' Choice, Danny Paisley and Southern Grass, Aspen Run, The Jack Tippett Band, Joey Tippett and the California Ramblers, and Highway 249.

As in so many families I've met on similar roads around here, bluegrass seems to be in the DNA. Younger grand daughters Megan and Heather joined in for vocal solos early on. Megan was especially proficient on a rendition of "Blue Moon of Kentucky." As promised, the music started about a minute after 12 noon and continued non-stop long after I finally left at 6:30.

Jack Tippett served as a warm-up to Joey Tippett and the Ramblers, who served as warm-up to Junior Sisk, and when Danny Paisley came on it was Katy-bar-the-door wildness of high-energy music for six solid hours. The crowd grew too as the day wore on and it got chillier. The Back Road Inn is a crazy patchwork of temporary add-on structures and tents that are open-air, but with a nice stage and dance area. Food was provided along with plenty of baked goods for sale. Word spread that the event was now going to go three more hours beyond the allotted time. I would have liked to stay, but it was getting too cold. Any warmth was provided by the propane heaters and the body heat of all the dancers who energized the scene when Aspen Run came on.

It's just too bad I got spoiled throughout the afternoon. Let me explain. My point of entertainment observation is usually from the vantage of an auditorium or a concert venue. There's a big difference in being stuck in a chair for one or two hours as opposed to a free-for-all space like the Back Road Inn. It was more like a barn with a stage stuck in the middle. The outdoor bar was noisy and wafts of cigar smoke drifted among the mixture of musicians and local patrons. It all made for the musicians to work a lot harder to entertain this free-flow bunch of people. Herb Martin once told me that his band Aspen Run actually sounds better and has more fun in this kind of setting. Herb proved his point at this show and the one I witnessed a week ago in Stewartstown, Pennsylvania. If you want to hoot and holler and get up and dance there's nothing to stop you. Steve Unkart and Herb Martin, III of Aspen Run worked their high-energy magic to get the patrons up on their feet and moving. Beyond the grass, in the middle of the world of concrete we would have politely applauded and got up to stretch at break-time. And it's a blessing to see younger people doing all the dancing and getting into this music which is so ancient by the standards of the younger generation! There's hope that grass will live long beyond the life of my grand daughter.

Consider that I paid a whopping $10 to enjoy all this and would never have known about it if I hadn't heard about it from Herb Martin. Yeah, we've got a lot of great music in our area. It gets better when you find the line between the concrete and the grass.

(Thanks to the Herb Martin Family and Aspen Run Band for the hot tip on this unique event!)

Aspen Run - Way Back in Time

Kody Norris appeared with Aspen Run in Stewartstown, Pa.

Stewartstown, Pa. 5 November 2011:

Never tell a Singing Cowboy he has to take off his hat. You might have a firestorm on your hands. This is what happened tonight when the Westminster, Maryland band Aspen Run tore apart the American Legion in Stewartstown. Maybe it was the pent-up rage at such an affront. Maybe it worked to make the song "Free-born Man" come across as a good anthem for the evening. For some strange reason, the Legion up there has rule that anyone entering the building has to un-cover (that's what we used to call any kind of a hat in the Fleet Marine Force - a 'Cover'). I'm not a Legion member but I am a card-carrying VFW member. I never heard of such a crazy rule. I guess they don't understand that you never tell a Marlboro Man to take his damned hat off. He'll take it off when he feels it's the respectable time to do so. Sans hats, but still wearing their trade mark white boots (only Aspen Run has the guts to wear them in public) the band joined up with Kody Norris of Tennessee to perform for an amazing four hours.

I have to admit I'd never heard Kody perform or knew very little about him, except for what I had read on the available sources. I knew he had an impressive resume and was making a name for his young self in some not-too-shabby bluegrass circles. But mostly I came out to Stewartstown at the invitation of Herb Martin to experience some unique talent. Oh what a night as the old song-line goes. Aspen Run and Kody Norris first started a riot, then wore down all the customers with a grueling four-hour pummeling of excellent, tight, music and finally set fire to the roof to finish the job. As far as I know they went pretty much through their whole repertoire, but according to Herb, "Oh no. They have a lot more songs in their package!" They had to come back for two extended encores. The audience wouldn't let them out of the building.

What makes the band such a good package is the fact that they're an anachronism. The music stands still in a freeze-frame on the music landscape. Before there was country music there was this. Raw, gut-wrenching beer-drinking music with songs about lost love and she-done-me-wrong. It was the style of music that parents warned us about (but secretly listened to after the kids were in bed). It gave rise to the Salvation Army and birthed many a Sunday sermon. It'll never become a subject of study at the Juilliard. WCKY in Cincinnati and WWVA are long-gone but there is still a public that wants to hear The Real Thing, the real deal that was at the heart of all that became the watered down, overly produced 3-chord fluff that is today's country music. There aren't that many bands out there today who even want to practice this style of music. Maybe because it's too difficult to stay away from unnecessary embellishment. Maybe because this music requires teamwork and ultimate purpose and a lot of deeply held conviction that each musician is staying on the right path. By anyone's performance standards Aspen Run is a young band and relatively new to the bluegrass scene here in the Piedmont and Bay area. The rough edges only add to their authenticity. Kody Norris pushed them this evening, pushed them hard to tighten up and the boys reacted with big smiles and a lot of very funny on-stage banter. Poor old Steve Unkart (guitar, vocals) took the brunt of it and responded by sounding better than I've ever heard him on such numbers as "Wild Bill Jones" and his suitcase full of Jimmy Martin favorites. The house (the American Legion Post in Stewartstown) wasn't the greatest venue for lighting and sound but the assembled audience of Aspen Run fans and family members and the curious from the surrounding area got a rare treat - a four-hour free event that had all the trappings of a private party - and one that included the likes of Kody Norris? How do you beat that?