It'll Probably Sound Pretty Good On a Dobro

Joey Longwell - with Ernie Bradley and Grassy Ridge at a Lucketts performance

Leap-Day, 2012

This weekend we'll be celebrating Chopin's Birthday at the Embassy of Poland with a special recital and a feast prepared by the Embassy Chef. We've been attending this for a number of years now and look forward to it annually. The music is magnificent, the food is always marvelous, the Polish people are the most gracious on the planet and the tickets are cheap! Getting the tickets is the hard part, but we don't seem to have a problem. As always I amaze myself. I'm ravaged by a number of addictions of which I'm quite proud. I love Monsieur Chopin and Jimmy Martin, Puccini's not bad, either. I don't have to make any decisions on any of it. It's all of a certain value included in that great nebulous subject entitled "matter of tastes." What's pleasant to one person is disgusting to another. Politically, I've become a libertarian music lover if you really have to put a name on it. It wasn't always this way. At my age I've discarded a lot of what I used to listen to and appreciated, only to discover that there is so much more I need to learn about in all forms of music.

Let's get to the bluegrass. I've written before that it's something I used to listen to in my college days and then put away somewhere in my foggy days of yesteryear. A few years ago a chance meeting with Roger Green and the Annapolis Bluegrass Coalition got me back into it. It was a free, winter concert at our local community center here in town. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to even go to the show in the first place. I walked out of the show with that feeling of having revisited a lot of child-hood memories of my old man listening to this hillbilly stuff on the radio and me and my siblings hating it. Rock and Roll was just entering the pop radio scene and the older folks hated it. A culture war was about to explode and we didn't know it. I went off to the military and still have memories of Country and Western music being called "Shit-Kicking Music!" The 60's were my formation years. College told me I had to appreciate music 'on a higher level' than what I had been accustomed to. Snobbery exists on every level of the human experience.

Marriage, work, raising a family, getting older changes everything. Try to tell that to the average young person. The more time I spend in my garden the more I appreciate that I'm getting older right along with all else in the universe. I went back to that music I once laughed at. There are a lot of generalizations written and espoused by people who write about, and scholarly study this peculiar American music form called bluegrass. I try not to be swayed by the general comments. I think most of them are wrong. The one piece of truth is this: it's something that will always stay the same but will also be constantly evolving. That truth I can easily appreciate. Davy Jones (of Monkees fame) died yesterday and no one noted how many Monkees hits were re-released by some very well-known bluegrass groups. Just another example of bluegrass music's ability to appreciate another form of music, grab it and run with it. It's hard to imagine any of today's pretty-boy Country and Western stars singing "Last Train to Clarksville" and getting away with it. But bluegrass? Yeah. It'll probably sound pretty good if the banjo, mandolin, guitar, and fiddle can get the beat coordinated. A good dobro player would have a blast with it.

Straight-Up Bluegrass in Port Deposit

Mike Harknett, James Langer, Fred Long, Rex Smith, and Darin Wassum

26 February 2012 This is a follow-up of sorts to an article I promised back in January after seeing AcrosstheTrack Bluegrass up in Brunswick. One thing led to another and I never got around to it, but I had stayed in touch with guitar-player Darin Wassum. Actually what I wanted was another opportunity to see the group again, and I wanted to see the group on their own turf. It never seems the same. You see an act on stage and then you see an act in a bar or club and it's a different experience. For one thing the bar sets are longer so you get to experience a wide range of what a group is actually capable of. You also get to know if the band has a loyal following of locals. I've discovered that this is an important ingredient. I wasn't surprised on a Sunday afternoon at Jumbo Jimmy's Crab Shack up in Port Deposit, Maryland, when I had the opportunity to sit through a whole 4-hour set with these guys. That's a lot of music. It was preceeded by a "Jam" held there every Sunday by the locals, many of whom stuck around for the main show.

By everyone's standards AcrosstheTrack Bluegrass is not an established band but they've already racked up a reputation over in Maryland. The band members are Darin Wassum, James Langer, Fred Long, and Rex Smith. On Sunday afternoon Mike Harknett (fiddle) joined them and he added a necessary momentum to the playing. I enjoyed talking to Mike in between sets since he's a walking history book of who's playing with who over in Maryland. It's also reported that Fred Long (banjo) is also a local legend. The band plays straight old-time bluegrass. No funny-stuff, no fusion, nobody is pushing a song they wrote. They were best when they were ALL singing, and working on their harmonies. The only detriment was a little distracting crowd noise, but you have to accept that in a local pub and restaurant. But when they were on top of a song or playing hell-fire, the crowd noise ceased. Darin's got the best voice and can hold his own in front of a noisy crowd. This might be a minor point but I have to include it: does anyone want to get up and dance to this stuff? Jumbo Jimmy's seemed like the place to do some two-stepping on a late Sunday afternoon. You must be doing something right if you're moving the crowd. On this point the bass-guy never gets enough mention for doing the yeoman's amount of work. Fred Long's wild banjo-picking also proved to be a valuable asset.

AcrosstheTrack Bluegrass will be playing at the Darlington/Dublin VFW Post on March 3rd and it should prove to be worth the drive.

Establishing a Standard of Excellence

Gold Heart at Brunswick 29 January 2012

It's been an evolutionary story. I love to hear about someone's dream and then actually see it come to fruition. That's what's happened up in Brunswick, Maryland with the formation of Brunswick Roundhouse Concert Productions. The history began on 26 July, 2009 when Darren Beachley and Company up in Brunswick decided to stage a fundraiser for the Brunswick Junior Baseball League. The response was so good Darren decided to try it again the next summer on 10 July, 2010. Another success. This time the proceeds would be divided up among the various Brunswick High School student activities and booster groups. I suspected the successful concerts would evolve to the next level and that was legal incorporation into the current "BRCP" organization. The plan was to stage events that would assist all the booster groups at the High School. Brunswick High School is a unique institution suffering through the current economic crisis along with every school, arts or entertainment group, museum, or any entity that depends upon public support during these hard times. Student activities are limited unless the booster groups and parents step up to the plate and help the kids. Thus Brunswick Roundhouse Concert Productions was born to ease the burden and the concerts have been growing in popularity due to Darren's effort to bring quality entertainment to the Brunswick High School Stage. Others should be mentioned too, as very much a big part of the success story: There is the whole Beachley family, The Roy Hossler Family, other families from the booster groups, and a host of local businesses and a popular Frederick radio station who continue to pony up time and monetary donations to keep the momentum going. Here's a list of what's been accomplished so far:
26 July 2009: Darren Beachley and Friends, plus Kenny Ray Horton.

10 July 2010: Bill Yates and the Country Gentlemen Tribute Band, plus Darren Beachley and the Legends of the Potomac.

21 November 2010: The Legends of the Potomac, plus the Dry Branch Fire Squad.

30 January 2011: Lost and Found, plus Kenny Ray Horton and Washington Junction.

20 March 2011: Little Roy and Lizzie Show.

12 June 2011: Beachley and Scott Band, plus Darin and Brooke Aldridge.

20 November 2011: Dry Branch Fire Squad, plus AcrosstheTrack Bluegrass Band.

29 January 2012: Darren Beachley and Friends, plus Gold Heart.

Coming Soon:

29 April 2012: Dailey and Vincent (seats for this concert are going fast)

10 June 2012: David Davis and the Warrior River Boys, plus the Bluegrass Mountaineers.

This season BRCP offered a special price for season tickets which essentially gives you the price of one free concert. Donations to BRCP are also tax-deductible. For further information contact http://www.brunswickbluegrass.org/ It's an excellent website.

Great music. Very entertaining. A program to suit every bluegrass fan's taste in acoustical music. But more important, community involvement on a local level bringing a lot of people together to work toward community goals. I can't think of a better way to spend my money. "It just keeps getting better" sounds like a worn-out sentiment in 2012, but there's no better description for the effort the people of Brunswick have put forth. They're all to be congratulated.