Casey Henry
Over on the Bluegrass Blog I wrote a piece about Monday night’s Rounder Records 40th Anniversary concert. It was definitely not as cool as the Steve Martin show, but included some acts of bluegrass interest: Bela Fleck, Alison Krauss + Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas.
Here’s the link if you want to read all about it.
In the course of rearranging my office today I moved some boxes containing my high school notebooks. I started looking through some of them and happened to see, on the back of a page from my 11th grade (1994) Algebra II notes, five and a half measures of banjo tablature. I had written out the first part of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” I must have been really bored!
Also ran across these notes in my daily schedule:
“Stuart – what’s a moon harp” A question for Stuart Duncan. I was listening to his solo album, Stuart Duncan, at the time and he is listed in the notes as playing one.
“Bela – Who’s That Knockin’ lick” A question for Bela Fleck about his break on that song, which he recorded with the Dreadful Snakes (I had their one and only album on LP). I don’t remember whether I ever figured out that lick or not.
“Trischka – Groundspeed lick” with the further notation “got it!” Tony recorded Groundspeed on the album he did with Bela called Solo Banjo Works. It’s one of my favorite banjo albums ever and I still use that lick!
And, on a totally unrelated note, I’m selling my fifteen-passenger van, if you know anyone who could use one. It’s listed on Craigslist here. Check it out!
Last night’s Grammy awards show was full of music that I had never heard before and people I had never heard of. The music that falls under the “country” category these days never ceases to amaze me. There were a few awards that I cared about. Among these was Best Bluegrass Album, which went to Ricky Skaggs for Honoring The Fathers of Bluegrass. I tuned in, so to speak, to the live pre-telecast, which they were streaming through their website. I had to download and install the plug-in, and the instant the feed starting playing, the bluegrass album nominees were on the screen and I got to see Skaggs accept his award. He gave a really nice speech about how he really wanted to honor the founders of bluegrass, how his band really studied the old records so they could get a sound that could be like what Bill Monroe’s 1946 Bluegrass Boys would sound like if you put them in a studio today. He said that Earl Scruggs was there that night (he was nominated as well) and if you saw him you should shake his hand, because he deserves to honored. Ricky seemed genuinely moved.
The other big winner of the night was Raising Sand, from Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. The album, or tracks from it won: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, and Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album (I think I’ve got them all there…). They gave a really nice speech after winning Album of the Year. Robert thanked each person who played on the album, down to Mike Seeger and Riley Baugus. Over on the Bluegass Blog I read rumors of a second album from the duo. All these awards will surely only make that more likely. I look forward to it!
Oh, other people I like who won: Bela Fleck and the Flecktones for Best Pop Instrumental album for Jingle All the Way. And Pete Seeger won Best Traditional Folk Album for At 89.
[Can't get the picture-inserting function to work this morning so I'll sign this...]
Casey