Re: Bluegrass: The new Americana!
Just interesting to me that "bluegrass" would be a label that promoters use to draw people to their events -- even when they're applying it to groups that aren't traditional 'grass at all. Wasn't too long ago that I thought calling a festival "bluegrass" would keep more people away! Some of my friends would complain that bluegrass bands played too fast, sang through their noses, and did a bunch of corny songs about the ol' homestead and religion -- omitting the popular topics of drugs, drinkin', and cheatin'. (Not that there aren't plenty of bluegrass songs on these topics...)
There have always been bands that sorta "hung around the fringes" of bluegrass, including "trad" grass bands that went the plugged-in, country-isn route (Jim & Jesse, Osborne Brothers for a while); "newgrass" bands like Newgrass Revival, New Deal String Band, etc.; "acoustic jazz" outfits that played non-bluegrass material on bluegrass instruments; and even old-timey bands that would be added to bluegrass festivals because they had banjos and fiddles, even if they played them differently.
If a festival is marketed as "bluegrass," it better have some bands acceptable to a bluegrass audience. One major appeal of bluegrass festivals is that so many in the audience are musicians themselves, really into the music, and capable of staging informal jams among the RV's, far into the night. If they quit coming, because none of the stage acts appeal to them, the whole ambience disappears.
There are pop bands like Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers that clearly embody some bluegrass influences in their music, and someone who's listened to bluegrass for decades can hear them. Wouldn't book them at a bluegrass festival -- assuming that the festival could afford them -- but I don't begrudge them invoking bluegrass music as one of their inspirations.
And -- there are a lot of fans whose tastes are a bit more eclectic, and who appreciate good music in many genres. Promoters shouldn't try to hornswoggle audiences by listing "bluegrass" that they don't book; on the other hand, the inclusion of some "fringe" bands at a festival billed as "bluegrass," doesn't necessarily drive me away.
Allen Hopkins
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