Montana Rockies Bluegrass Association

Pickin’ strings from Iraq

A Berry graduate will be playing Bluegrass in Baghdad as part of the nationwide Marathon Jam. 01/31/09 By John Bailey, Rome News-Trbune, staff writer Respond to this story Email this story to a friend Local Berry graduate Lt. Col. Greg Rawlings and other “Baghdad Bad Boys” are playing in Iraq today, along with others across the U.S., to help raise money for the Fisher House. (Contributed photo) Banjos will be a pickin’ in Baghdad today as a group of troops joins in with other bluegrass musicians to lend a helping hand. Click to see the Bluegrass Is My Second Language Web site. “We will be playing as a part of the now nationwide Marathon Jam to raise money for our brothers and sisters in arms,” said Lt. Col. Greg Rawlings, who is stationed at the Victory Base Complex in Iraq. The proceeds of the jam will go to the Fisher House, an organization that provides a place to stay for families of patients receiving care at major military and VA centers. There are Fisher Houses scattered throughout the country. “This is a very tangible way to support service members. The beauty of the Marathon Jam raising money for the Fisher house is it is completely apolitical,” said Rawlings. The “Baghdad Bad Boys” bluegrass jam band at the base is an outlet for service members at the base. “We play for a couple of hours. During that time we go back to North Carolina or where ever we are from through the music and fellowship,” said Rawlings. While it’s always fun — you still gotta play good. “Punches aren’t generally pulled in this group,” he said. “If you hit a clunker, folks will let you know about it.” Rawlings, a Berry graduate, said his mother-in-law Frankie Nobles and brother-in-law Randy Nobles still live in Rome. When he got to Ft. Bragg, in Fayetteville N.C., in the summer of 2006, he started picking up the old style Southern rhythm — he’d heard the tunes before but never joined in. “I think that Mr. (Harry) Musselwhite, my voice teacher at Berry, would have scalped me if I’d broken loose with Blue Moon of Kentucky,” said Rawlings. With a significant time difference between the U.S. and Iraq, the band is going to play two sets, including the one in the evening — where they will actually be performing at the same time as the other players. “We will play for six hours in the morning, one in the morning and the second in the evening,” said Rawlings. http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/680/public/news946818.html

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Bluegrass kitty

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I found some jokes told by some Bluegrass Performers over the years.
Lester Flatt used to say of Josh Graves durring introductions, “You’ve heard of people that don’t know nothin’? Well he don’t even suspect nothin’.”
The Pinnacle Boys’ Bud Brewster used to respond to requests for songs they didn’t like or didn’t know by saying, “I’m sorry but we don’t have that one worked up. But here’s one with a lot of the same notes and we sure hope you’ll like it.”

Tom Rozum was full of lame jokes at the Lewis-Rozum shows. One example:
Why do chicken coops have two doors?
If they had four, they’d be chicken sedans…

How about this from the Country Gentlemen.
Boy, I really like this town, but I gotta tell you, last night, I didn’t get any sleep at all. There were all these girls banging on the door all night long!
It got so bad, I finally had to get up and let ‘em out!

And an oldie but a goodie….what do you call a beautiful woman on the arm of a banjo player?
a tattoo

Got any others ?

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I just ran into Cameron at Break Espresso this morning.  I’m stoked to hear that he’s formed a new band.  The band consists of Cameron (mando), Matt Cornette (banjo), Pete, Matt’s roommate from NJ (guitar) and Andy Dunnigan (dobro).    This should be a great new collaboration for the Missoula area bluegrass fans.  I can’t wait to see them myself.  Cameron said they would try and make it out for our next in the Winter Jam Series at Ruby’s on Valentine’s Day.

Andy is the 19 year old son of John Dunnigan, a great musician from Whitefish.  I’ve played with John over the years when our bluegrass skiing group “Thickly Settled” played at the Whitefish Resort, “the ski resort formerly known as Big Mountain”.  We saw Andy sit in with his Dad a couple of years ago and he already had some great dobro chops at age 17.  Andy is going to school at the U now and has been playing around with a few of the local younger bluegrass musicians.  He did some great dobro work on his Dad’s latest CD, “Jack’s Guitar”.  Another great musician born and raised in Montana!

I told Cameron about our Valentine’s Day jam at Ruby’s and he said they would definitely try to be out for that.  Cameron is a blast to play and sing with.  He said Pete’s a great singer too.  Not sure who’s playing bass.  Of course we all know the great banjo player Matt Cornette from Broken Valley Roadshow.

The new band doesn’t have a name yet, but they will definitely be something to watch for.

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Laura Barber, Jay’s daughter and the Ramblin’ Rose’s first bass player, sent me this funny one.

Bluegrass Seafood Platter - Squid

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Here’s a post from Sept 20, 2008 on MRBA member, Jack Mauer’s, blog for his business Wapiti Waters:

A Bluegrass Band, Pinegrass – One of Jack’s other hats

View 2007 Bitterroot Bluegrass Festival Album
Today Jack is performing at a wedding in Belgrade, MT with his band, Pinegrass. It is a welcome break in the fly fishing guiding season when he can play music in this kind of venue. Here is a slide show from a wedding in Missoula, MT in September of last year.


View Wedding in Missoula Album

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http://www.ibma.org/events.programs/schools/index.asp

The Foundation for Bluegrass Music believes strongly in passing bluegrass music along to the next generation of fans and musicians.

One of our goals is to help educators (elementary – university level, including home schooling parents) to become more “bluegrass aware.” Bluegrass music, a relatively new style of music (the classic sound jelled in the mid-‘40s with Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys), is one of the very few musical genres to originate in the United States—so it has a roots music cultural value for American students in particular. Like jazz and blues, it’s also a valid style of music for teaching improvisational skills.

Perhaps more so than most other genres, bluegrass music connects students to a larger, multi-generational community of musicians and fans who love the music. Learning to play a bluegrass instrument is usually a life skill—something that folks continue to do for a number of years after they leave high school music programs.

• A 67-minute educational DVD,
  Discover Bluegrass: Exploring American Roots Music, complete with downloadable lesson plans for each of six units, targeting students age 8-13 (available at $3.00, for educational purposes)
• Teacher Workshops held in conjunction with major bluegrass festivals across the country, to give educators the tools to utilize bluegrass music in the classroom.
• Matching $200 Mini-Grants to help fund live, educational presentations of bluegrass music for students
• A variety of local programs implemented by our members, including: bluegrass camps and workshops at festivals, after school bluegrass clubs, two-week artist in residency programs where a bluegrass band works with orchestra students who already play stringed instruments, special bluegrass-related lesson plans and units planned during the school day, and live educational presentations from touring bands at school assemblies.
• An online Bluegrass in the Schools Implementation Manual
• An international Bluegrass Lesson Plan Competition with award-winning lesson plans posted on this website
• Regional Bluegrass in the Schools Workshops for Artists interested in developing in-school bluegrass presentations.

 

For more info on the Bluegrass in the Schools program, contact Nancy Cardwell at  (615) 256-3222 , 888-GET-IBMA or nancyc@ibma.org. For info on the Foundation for Bluegrass Music go to www.bluegrassfoundation.org or contact Dan Hays at danh@ibma.org

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Here’s some vintage video of the Carter Family performing their biggest hit ever “Wildwood Flower” on the Grand Ole Opry.  There’s a great close up of Maybelle doing her famous solo at 1:07.  My brother, Charley, tells me that she called her technique of pickin’ the melody with her thumb pick and struming with the other picks the “Carter scratch”.   I was surprised to see that Maybelle did this in the key of D.  I had always thought she did it in C.  She does switch to the alto part when it goes up to the higher part.

I’ve really enjoyed seeing Ariel perform this song at Wheat Montana at the Kid’s Open Mic.  It’s amazing to see the next generation coming along to keep the tradition going.

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Alaska Bluegrass Cruise 2009

Happy New Year from the Alaska Bluegrass Cruise. The 2009 cruise will be a very special event this year.  It’s the 30th Anniversary of Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver.  This year  you will be entertained by one of the finest groups in bluegrass while enjoying the majesty of Alaska.  This year we will also have a talent show with 1st,2nd and 3rd place prize money for our participants. 

Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver

Solos, duo’s, trio’s and groups can participate. The contest will be held before Doyle’s performances, so even if you don’t place in the top 3 you can always tell your friends you opened for Doyle Lawson. This will be great fun and all you have to do to be eligible for the contest is to sign up for our cruise.  2009 is Your year to join us for this awesome cruise experience! We still have a few spots left…don’t miss the boat! Contact us with any questions you may have and we will be more than glad to assist you.

Greg & Carla
cottagemusic.net
www.alaskabluegrasscruise.com
    1-888-509-8163

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Here’s a really good tutorial for you bluegrassers on how to convert over to digital TV. 

Thanks to Lori Silcher for sending me this.  It helped me to get my good belly laugh in for the day.

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