The Murphy Method Blog

I promised that you’d get a follow-up report on the show we played recently with some friends, and here it is. To begin with, Murphy and I walked into the performing venue (the local Moose club) to find that thanks to Charlie and Charlotte, the sound system was already set up and working—a real plus for any job. There were 10 mikes on the stage, all ready for vocals and instruments. They and their band (the Sweetwater String Band—Charlie, Charlotte, Larry, Troy, and me) were to play the first and last sets of the day—at 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. —a pretty long day. So we got on the stage and started the show.

Now, at 10:00 on a Sunday morning you don’t generally expect that the crowd will have shown up yet. We began the set with an audience of 18 people. That didn’t matter, though, because we had a good time playing our set of gospel material. And everybody in the band was aware of the music—WATCHING and LISTENING to what was happening, and responding to each other, which made the music not only better but also more enjoyable. I played mostly mandolin, but picked up the fiddle to play harmony with Larry on a couple of slower numbers.

Then several local bands played their sets, and their sound suffered from a current fad: Instead of using individual vocal mikes, each band wanted to sing around one big condenser microphone. However, in this particular room, that big mike could not be turned up very much without feeding back, so the singing was hard to hear. This went on with one band after another, proving that the bands weren’t WATCHING and LISTENING to the other bands on stage and seeing that the mike setup wasn’t working, but instead kept asking to use that one mike which couldn’t pick up their voices very well.

Also, as I watched the bands, I could see that most of them weren’t listening to each other on stage. They all had a well-practiced set of music to play, but in most cases each band member just played and sang his own part without listening to their whole band and responding to the other band members. This took some of the life out of the show.

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I recently agreed to play a charity fundraiser with some friends, Charlie and Charlotte and their Sweetwater String Band. I’ve have played quite mandolin on a few gigs with Charlie and Charlotte over the years, but for this show, since one or two of their regular pickers weren’t available, they needed to include a couple of folks I hadn’t performed with before, Troy on banjo and Larry on fiddle.

Now, when you have a public performance coming up, what do you do to get ready? Along with your own individual practice, to make sure you’re warmed up on your own instrument, the whole band needs to get together and rehearse to make sure they can play their best together. So we all got together last Sunday to practice at Charlotte’s house, and started running over the material for the two sets which Charlotte planned to play at the show.

These five musicians had never performed together before, but we all knew what to do: WATCH and LISTEN. To know when to play lead or sing harmony, LISTEN to the bandleader’s instructions and preferences, and remember them. To know when to play backup or be quiet, WATCH and LISTEN to what all the other people are doing, and don’t step on them. To know when to split a lead break, WATCH and LISTEN. Be ready for the subtle, sometimes almost-instant “handoff” from the other lead player, so that you can take over the second half of the break without hesitation.

This also brings up some “Don’t’s” which you can figure out well enough: when playing, DON’T pay attention just to yourself as the rest of the band listens to each other and tries to sound their best together. DON’T throw in all your favorite licks at every opportunity, but play (1) what belongs best in the song and (2) what sounds best in that particular group. DON’T make the show all about you, but concentrate on making the bandleader(s) sound as good as you can– they’re the people who hired you. Back them up. That’s what you’re there for.

This isn’t hard, but you do need to have the right attitude. I’m glad to say that everybody knew what to do in the rehearsal, and we sounded fine. I’m looking forward to the show.

Don’t worry, you’ll get a report.

Murphy and I just played a gig—a music job—with our Cousin David. Now, gigs with David always involve some degree of unpredictability, or, if you like, Adventure. The folks involved were Murphy and myself, our friend Scott, and good old Cousin David.

In this case, the Adventure didn’t take long to start. It was raining, and it was time to go. We were all loaded up to drive to the gig in Cousin David’s minivan when I asked him (loudly, because his hearing’s pretty spacey), “All ready to go?” and he said, “That just reminded me. I left my hearing aid in the house!” So he went back through the rain and got his hearing aid and put it in. Then, sitting next to him in the front of the car, I asked him “Got your hearing aid?” — but I said it very softly, so he couldn’t hear me. Cousin David looked at me. I said, “Got that hearing aid in your ear?” even softer. David smiled at me. (He’s really good at covering up.)

Cousin David is not spacey. So we drove two hours away (in the rain) and had gotten in the general vicinity of the gig, and David said, “I meant to find out directions or print out a map of where to go, but I just never got around to it.” So after driving in circles (and triangles, and rectangles) for a while, he called the place for directions. Then we got there. But he is not spacey. It was an Adventure.

It turned out that in order to set up David’s sound system for the gig, we had to carry all the equipment into a big building, move it down an elevator, and set it up in a big lobby nearby. It was a long way. So we all got to work, and just did it. We hustled setting up all the microphones and cords and speakers and cables and all that stuff, and had the sound system ready a whole 11 minutes before it was time to start. Not bad; I almost had time to get my mandolin in tune! More adventure.

So far, the gig had consisted of rain, being lost, moving sound equipment, and stringing together various wires. But now came the good part. Murphy kicked things off with “Lonesome Road Blues” and Scott followed that with “Moonlight on My Cabin,” and we were off. Murphy, Scott, and I alternated in playing and singing various bluegrass favorites for the folks. It was an older audience, so we played plenty of songs and tunes they’d recognize. They liked us. I saw people singing along with Murphy’s “I Saw the Light” and my “Mountain Dew” and Scott’s “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Cousin David played bass and contributed a harmony vocal here and there. We played three sets of good music, and it was fun.

Then, it was back to messing with the sound system: coiling up the cords, packing the equipment up, and moving it back upstairs and out of the building and into David’s car. We drove back to his house just in time for Scott to get in his truck and leave to play another show that night with his own band.

So, it was all an Adventure. There was lots of rain. There was some getting lost. There was plenty of hauling sound equipment around. But you know what? We all had a good time, and the people liked us. And Cousin David’s not a bit spacey.

I’ve written a couple of articles recently about how it is when things go wrong on a gig. This time, I get to write about a time when things went RIGHT!

Murphy and I live on  a wooded mountainside in rural Frederick County, Virginia. But we’re not in the middle of nowhere, because North Mountain Volunteer Fire Department is less than a mile from our house. That’s reassuring. The fire department exists largely on donations from the community, though. Murphy and I, being musicians, can rarely toss much cash into their “Boot Drive” each year, so we donate by playing music for their annual yard party. We get to play music and have fun and see a lot of people, and make our contribution to the fire department at the same time.

When the fire department called this year, asking for a couple of hours of music at their yard party, I agreed to play. But I hadn’t taken the precaution of making sure that Murphy would be in town on that date! It turned out, a few weeks ahead of time, that she had to be out of town. Still, we were scheduled to provide the music. I’d hate to call the fire department back and cancel. I could do the performance solo, but it wouldn’t be much fun. Not only would it be good to have two people on stage instead of one, but I needed help moving the sound equipment and setting it up! What could I do?

Well, I started calling up a few pickers we know and like, and to my relief our Cousin David could play that day. Cousin David is best known for his mandolin picking, but he can also play guitar, bass, or banjo (or fiddle, or drums, or cello) with equal facility. So I was set—whether we found any more pickers or not, we could play a lot of music and have a good time.

On the day of the gig, David called. He said, “My friend John would like to come along to the gig and hang out.” But, I remembered, John is a bass player! I said, “Ask him to bring a bass!” David said, “Would you like him to play?” I said, “Two hundred per cent!” So John came along and brought his bass, and we had a band.

We arrived at the fire hall an hour before we needed to start, and began unloading our sound equipment from the van. We had the customary deluxe bluegrass-music stage (a flatbed truck), so we were in familiar surroundings. We went to work running cords around and hooking all the microphones, amplifiers, and speakers together. Now, both Cousin David and John are quite experienced musicians, and I didn’t have to tell them what to do—like Murphy and myself, they’ve both set up sound for decades. We had our sound system set up, turned on, adjusted, and ready to go in 11 minutes! —a record. We had over 45 minutes left for tuning up, relaxing, and getting ready to play.

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At Thursday night’s awards show one of our favorite banjo players took home the award for Banjo Player of the year: Kristin Scott Benson. Kristin plays with the Larry Stephenson Band and is the second woman to take home the title, the first being Alison Brown in 1991. The other nominees in the category—Earl Scruggs, J. D. Crowe, Jimmy Mills, Ron Stewart— were unbelievably stiff competition.

Kristin was modest enough to think that it was a fluke that she was nominated at all, so when she won, she was very surprised. She gave a great speech, giving lots of credit and thanks to her parents, who were in attendance that night because her husband, Wayne Benson, was taking care of their son Hogan.

Dale Ann Bradley took home Female Vocalist of the Year for the second time in a row.

Kristin and Dale Ann were the only women to take home awards this year, although Gillian Welch and David Rawlings’s song “By The Mark” won Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year.

The before and after parties were great fun. This is FiddleStar/Murphy Method Camp co-host Megan Lynch and myself:

And here is Lynn Morris and Bass Player of the Year nominee Marshall Wilborn, who presented the awards for Vocal Group and Album of the Year:

The dress I’m wearing was made by my grandmother for my mom’s Junior-Senior prom. It was a pretty big hit, I have to say. Last but not least, here is me with my brother and fellow TMM instructor Chris Henry:

As the week goes on here at IBMA, things get busier and busier, and I have less and less time to post blogs! But Here are some pictures from Day three…

Neil Rosenberg, author of the first comprehensive history of bluegrass music, Bluegrass Music: A History, playing the Casey Henry signature model.

Red Henry, Casey Henry, Neil Rosenberg

The October issue of Banjo Newsletter arrived in my mailbox on Wednesday, so I brought it to the tradeshow so people could look through it. Cover boy Chris Pandolfi of the Infamous Stringdusters stopped by the table, wearing the same hat as he’s wearing on the cover so I got him to pose:

In the showcases at night I caught two of my favorite bass players. First Missy Raines with her band The New Hip.

And then Marshall Wilborn with the 2008 Fiddle Player of the Year, and Instrumental Group of the Year, Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper:

After an extremely slow afternoon tending our booth at the IBMA tradeshow, I popped down the street to the Hilton hotel to interview the band G2, on whom I’m writing a magazine article. I’m old fashioned and still use a cassette recorder to tape interviews. To my embarassment I had brought the recorder, a mic, and extra batteries…but no tapes! Luckily Erik, the mandolin player, had an iPod with a little recorder to capture our conversation. Wshew!

After that I headed down to lower Broad to Roberts Western Wear to catch the Bloggrass boys show. The single, if you can call it that, from the new CD is a hilarious song called “Democrat Ain’t a Dirty Word No More.” They had some great guests, including the amazing singer Jonell Mosser. And I had the unique experience of purchasing their CD from Suzy Bogguss, who sings on it.

L-R: Josh McMurry, (hidden Mike Witcher), Travis Stinson, Paul Kramer, Chris Jones, Jon Weisberger, Aaron Till.

My next stops were at after-hours showcases where I caught a wide variety of bands including:

Red Wine, from Italy.

Goldheart, a wonderful trio of sisters from Virginia. I first heard them two years ago and since then they have developed their musicianship by leaps and bounds. The 16-year-old sister, Jocelyn, writes some wonderful songs and picks the fire out of the guitar. 18-year-old Analise holds her own on the mandolin, while 13-year-old Shelby tears it up on the fiddle. Their trio is stunning.

I caught my brother Chris playing with former Two-Stringer and Winfield Guitar Champion Tyler Grant.

The above band tours Japan every year. Shin Akimoto, Andy Ball, Sammy Shelor, Maro Katawba (I apologize if I’ve misspelled names there…). When I stuck my head in the door they were picking a triple-mandolin version of “Golden Slippers.”

And once again to end up the night, G2. There were very few people in that 1:30 am showcase, so we clapped twice as loud to make up for it. L-R: Tobias Strömberg, Christoffer Olsson, Jimmy Sunnebrandt, Erik Igelström, Jens Koch.

Monday night I caught a couple of after-hours showcases when the official showcases were over. I dropped in on Gloria Bell and Tennessee Sunshine and enjoyed hearing Gloria pick the fire out of the mandolin:

Gloria started playing when she was young and even quit high school so that she could play music for a living. That’s gutsy.

My next stop was watching G2, the wonderful Swedish bluegrass band. Here are some randomly arranged shots of them:

Since I’m not regularly a late night person I pooped out relatively early (1:30) and headed to the house. I like to say that I’m just saving up my energy for later in the week!

Here are some shots from the IBMA convention, day 1.

My day started by setting up the Murphy Mehtod booth at the trade show. Here is my brother Chris and grandmother Renee, holding the fort:

And here is the blog, at the booth:

My night started by watching the wonderful keynote address, given by Roger Brown, president of Berklee College of Music in Boston. (More on that in a later post.) Directly thereafter one of my favorite bands, the Dixie Bee-Liners showcased:

L-R: Sam Morrow, Buddy Woodward, Rachel Johnson, Brandi Hart, Jeremy Darrow, Jonathan Manness.

More later…

Folks, here’s a 1980 video of a Red and Murphy band performance that was posted on YouTube recently:

This is our Red and Murphy band with Nancy Pate, one of Murphy’s sisters, singing her song “Mountain Laurel Man”. The whole scene brings up a lot of nostalgia. The band included Murphy (banjo), myself (mandolin), Murphy’s sisters Nancy (guitar) and Laurie (bass), and excellent musician Tuck Tucker (dobro). We were performing outdoors to a packed crowd at Bullwinkle’s in Tallahassee, Florida, on a Sunday afternoon in August, and the local university station, WFSU-TV, was taping our show. Nice opportunity, right? Right. Except for the details:

We were playing three sets not only outdoors, but facing the sun, in the late afternoon. In August. In Florida. The temperature was about 103 degrees, and in that direct sunlight, the heat was hard to describe. Tuck burned his hand on his metal dobro resonator. I changed into a clean shirt at each set break, and was still soaked to the skin by the second number when we started playing again.

Sometimes you wonder about the final product, too. WFSU made a 30-minute bluegrass show from all that tape, and sometimes I couldn’t tell how they’d selected and edited the material. For example, at one point in the second set, Murphy played Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Trouble was, she broke a string partway through, so Tuck and I had to finish out the tune trading breaks on mandolin and dobro while Murphy was at the back of the stage changing the string. So we were lacking part of the band—the most important part, on Foggy Mountain Breakdown—and Murphy was visible on screen changing the banjo string—but out of the 40 or more numbers we played that day, FMB was one of the 8 or 9 numbers which WFSU included in the televised show!

Seeing the clip also reminds me also that this was one of the first jobs Tuck played with us. His first two or three gigs with us were in REALLY hot situations—he may have wondered just what he was getting into—but Tuck was a trooper, and he just played on through the heat. Stayed with us for the next six years, too. Can’t ask for more than that.

By 1980 we’d developed a habit when we went out to play, of being ready for any weather from 20 degrees to 100 degrees, and wet weather as well. In Florida, as in other places, it went with the territory.