What does Adele's big Grammy night mean for bluegrass?

[robbif]

Here's some hopeful news from Bluegrass Today!

[Jim MacDaniel]

When I saw Adele live last year, I really enjoyed her treatment of the Steeldrivers song referenced in the article, but it was definitely not a bluegrass performance. Being new to Americana, I suspect she is using the term "Bluegrass" as more of an umbrella term, rather than than specifically calling out traditional Bluegrass, but I am looking forward to any sort of Americana-inspired recording she might be planning now or in the future.

[Paul Kotapish]

I think folks outside the scene use the term "bluegrass" in reference to any kind of acoustic country music with instruments other than guitars in the mix. If it has a fiddle and/or banjo and/or mandolin and/or Dobro, it sounds like bluegrass to the average listener, whether it would meet the IBMA criteria or not.

Still a good thing, even if it's not 100% accurate.

[Mike Bunting]

It doesn't mean anything for bluegrass. It is a great singer doing a great song and for me that is enough.

[JEStanek]

I really liked the performance but I wouldn't have associated that sound with Bluegrass. I also appreciated the melodica in there!

Jamie

[Jean Fugal]

Ain't no part of nuthin'!!! Thats my opinion.

[Laird]

Adele who?

The last time the Grammy's were relevant to my life, I was in junior high school and Tricky Dick was in the White House.

[Mandobar]

Adele who?

The last time the Grammy's were relevant to my life, I was in junior high school and Tricky Dick was in the White House.

you know, i thought that way until i heard her sing. she writes her own material. She has an amazing voice. One thing I've learned over the years is that when someone has real talent you enjoy listening to them whether they are playing mandolins and banjos or steel drums. i listen to Jimmy Page and Pavarotti with the same awe.

[Jean Fugal]

Adele's vocal prowess and Bluegrass are two distinctly different quantity's even with the banjo on "Hadn't Been For Love"

[citeog]

I agree with Mary. Adele is a talented and unpretentious singer/songwriter with a phenomenal set of pipes. I actually watched a bit of the Grammys last night but gave up long before Adele got to sing, sadly. By the way, the last time I watched the Grammys, the Starland Vocal Band won "best new artist". That was enough for me.

Paul

[greg_tsam]

I never watch TV and definitely don't foloow pop and award shows but I did watch that clip and enjoyed it. There is a possibility of spill over interest but probably not enough to have an impact. I recently had a conversation with a lady that said she loved bluegrass music and was recently introduced to it by a current pop "guy" band singing pop songs with guitars and banjo. I told her that wasn't bluegrass and she looked stunned. Oh well. It might lead to her further reaching out to what bluegrass really is but many people stop at what's on the charts and radio.

[journeybear]

I can see why Adele was attracted to that song - its bluesy feel, its lyrical theme, these are right in her wheel house. I would like to share the writers enthusiasm for what he sees in her affection for American roots music, but it is hopelessly misguided.

Adele says, "I was exposed to a lot of country, rockabilly, and bluegrass because I was touring for such a long time. The melodies and to-the-point lyrics I have found in a lot of American styles of music is definitely something I’m going to be pursuing heavily from now on. I want to spend some time in Austin in Texas, and in Nashville, Tennessee, and learn about it."

The writer then makes a couple of leaps when he says [my italics]:

"There has been a good bit of chatter in the music world since the news broke that Adele would be recording a bluegrass-influenced album. To have the number one artist in the WORLD cut a bluegrass project could be a real turning point for our music. I am getting giddy just thinking about it!"

He is indeed rather giddy. She said she would be pursuing the kind of writing she found in "a lot of American styles of music," not that she was going to record a "bluegrass-influenced album," let alone a bluegrass project. She mentions country and rockabilly in addition to bluegrass as styles that she had been listening to, so I daresay these will influence her next project as well, not just bluegrass. To take the next leap to compare her next recording to "Modern Sounds" is a real flight of fancy. Brother Ray covered well-known country songs in his soulful style; Adele is considering writing songs incorporating the aforementioned styles into them. The Steeldrivers' song is already done, so that wouldn't be on her next recording. Sure, what if she were to do something like that? Could be great, but that's quite a what-if. I cant help thinking, "What if the writer listened to what was said rather than what he wanted to hear?"

The writer's notion that Adele could do for bluegrass what Ray Charles did for country is rather optimistic, if not wishful thinking. A lot has changed in the last fifty years in how people listen to music and how they are introduced to new music. It used to be radio DJs would play what they were given and told to play, but now and then might take a chance on something not on the playlist, and if they got a lot of phoned-in requests might play it more. These days the emphasis has shifted to listener demand, and listeners have a lot more to choose from. But if someone has his earbuds plugged into an iPod filled with programmed music, the chances he will hear something new out of blue are reduced. In this climate it is harder for something to come from nowhere and make a big splash, the odd youtube sensation notwithstanding. Even if Adele were to make a bluegrass album (a tantalizing prospect, to be sure), the chances it would have a similar influence as "Modern Sounds" are unlikely. People will tend to tune in something more to their liking because they have more choices than were available back then. Yes, wouldn't it be nice? Sure, so would a lot of things. Doesn't mean they're going to happen.

[Paul Edwards]

definitely not bluegrass.. but Adele IS incredible... very soulful. She definitely has it.

[JEStanek]

She's a great soul singer. Like how Joss Stone and The Punch Brothers covering Jack White's Fell In Love With a Girl or Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground or Sinead O'Connor covering Nothing Compares 2 U by Prince. A good song is a good song and sometimes translates into other forms.

I think if someone were a real Adele fan and was told her new record was going to be a bluegrass record and then they went out and bought some early Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass, they would likely be very dissapointed. Bill sang higher than she does!

Jamie

[JCook]

It doesn't mean anything for bluegrass. It is a great singer doing a great song and for me that is enough.

Bingo.

Jack

[yankees1]

I liked the song/music that Taylor Swift and Civil Wars played !

[Nick Triesch]

Adele who? Wow, that is just sad. Good thing you have all those Merle Haggard records.

[almeriastrings]

Bluegrass is now a "project" is it? By people with no knowledge of it, no understanding of it, no connection with it, and no ability to play or perform it.

OK.

[Mandobar]

I think Adele has her head on straight. Her voice is not as strong as Amy Winehouse at this point (although it seems to have improved after her surgery) but she is younger. There is a reason that opera singers wait until they are a certain age to really come into their own.

I saw heard sing a Bossa Nova version of a Cure song on Live from the Artist's Den. All I could think was "cool". Girl loves music, writes music, sings music.

[WaveRay]

Adele who? Wow, that is just sad. Good thing you have all those Merle Haggard records.

There's a lot of folks here who do not know ANYBODY that has "pop" near their name. Nothing "sad" about it.

[Mike Bunting]

What I liked about Adele is that she doesn't over sing and seemed to avoid the vocal histrionics that most pop singers do, at least in the performance that I saw.

Nick, why is it sad that some people don't follow pop music?

[Laird]

There's a lot of folks here who do not know ANYBODY that has "pop" near their name. Nothing "sad" about it.

Right. The mistaken assumption on Nick's part seems to be that folks who don't listen to pop music are still listening to what they bought thirty years ago. Now, Merle was never one of my vices, though I do go back and listen to some Dead or Phish for old times sake. But I'm constantly getting in to new music--these days my rotation includes Railroad Earth, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Elephant Revival, Emmett-Nershi Band, and the Motet--all bands currently at their peak. They just don't happen to be "pop."

To someone without TV or an interest in commercial radio, there's little chance of exposure to pop music. When I do chance across it, it sounds (to me) as saccharine and over-produced as it has since the mid-70s. Just doesn't appeal to me. And it's not just age. The students at the college where I teach (granted, a crunchy hippie school) have no interest in pop. Dub, yeah, and electronica (along with healthy doses of the Dead, the Allmans, and Bob Marley), but not pop. It has to do, I think, with the desire to resist commodified culture--to find, instead, something that has an authenticity antithetical to a society increasingly defined by the attempt to homogenize the consumption of music (and other "goods").

Is it sad that I don't listen to pop music? Ha!

[Gardog]

I agree with Laird, modern pop culture is like a plague. Adele is a very unique exception. My wife has her album 21, I was disappointed by the lack of a full back-up band to drive home the dynamics on alot of the tunes. She has a great voice and alot of creativity though...rare at the grammys!

[Mike Bunting]

Another one in agreement with Laird here.

[Charlieshafer]

Yeah, the bluegrass connection is non-existant, but it doesn't really matter. And, Im pretty sure that my parents thought pop culture during my childhood was pretty much like the plague, too. Moby Grape? Iron Butterfly? One of the traps that's dangerous to fall in to is just writing off a whole period of culture. Three of the pop hit makers during my childhood were the Loving Spoonful, Herman's Hermits and the Monkees. As much as I preferred to listen to the Stones, the songwriting that propelled those three was pretty darn good. Melody, hooks, clean arranging, it's all there.

One of the reasons I like Adele was that, as mentioned, she doesn't over-sing, and also the arrangements aren't too full of volume and the empty noise of too many instruments. Guys like Buck Owens and Merle Haggard are/were fantastic because their arranging was so minimalist: let the song do the talking. Adele's on the right track, for sure.