Generally, I tend to not get very excited about things such as heritage, history and tradition. I find them interesting but never would I consider investing much stock in them. In other words, I can “take em’ or leave em’.”
Recently though I found myself at a bluegrass concert at Cat’s Cradle and was particularly pleased that I was living and had been raised in North Carolina. I understand that bluegrass music can be found all over the country and maybe all over the world. However, after this recently attended bluegrass concert, I can say with certainty that bluegrass music does wonders for Southerners.
I enjoy bluegrass music. When done well, the perfect harmonization of a fiddle and banjo is a high for the mind and a soothing source for the soul. The twangy lyrics I can often do without, but I am willing to compromise for instrumental purposes.
Besides, if one pays close attention to the words of the song, one will find they are almost always creative and funny. I love the grassroots foundations that bluegrass bands are often built upon. There is a certain pride that they take in their work.
Their musical talent seems to be “in their blood.”
The two bands I saw play were “Big Fat Gap” and “The Steep Canyon Rangers.” Their titles alone generate more interest in my mind than in any other genre of music. “Big Fat Gap” is far superior to any names such as “P. Diddy” or “Puff Daddy” or whatever else Sean Combs is calling himself these days.
I found that my experience was aesthetically pleasing for not only musical reasons but for observational ones as well. I had been to one bluegrass concert before but I was only 15 years old at the time and it was while I was participating in a church service project.
Don’t get me wrong; I enjoyed the show, but after my latest bluegrass enlightenment encounter, I have come to realize that there is much more to a bluegrass concert than music. While the music is the primary foundation of the show, the light that brings color to everything else, it is only one of many entertaining aspects of a bluegrass concert.
Like most other concerts, alcohol appeared to play a substantial role in the show-going experience of almost everyone in attendance. The fact that the audience was mostly composed of what appeared to be other college students was probably a good reason for this. Everyone knows that kids do the darndest things, like square dance and drink beer.
From the young hippies twistin’ their partners ’round and ’round on the dance floor to the older couples sitting on the side just clapping their hands, this bluegrass concert was fun for everyone. The encountered yelping, hooting and hollering would have been absolutely ridiculous at any other public event but this was a “Big Fat Gap” concert. Such carrying on was not only entertaining but I insist that it was thoroughly necessary.
During one amazing fiddle solo, a grown man yelled at the top of his lungs, “Get on it!” I took that to be a cheer of satisfaction and encouragement and thought nothing of it; this was a bluegrass concert after all. Anywhere else I would have either been appalled, frightened or both. But this show’s audience would be best described in one word: loose.
As I looked at the people around me, some dancing double-fisted with Budweisers, others just soberly stomping around, I realized how lucky I was to be living in North Carolina where such traditions that might be frowned upon in stricter societies are warmly welcomed here.
To make a fool of oneself in the name of bluegrass is a right that ought to be exercised at least once by everyone at some point in his or her life. I highly recommend that such an occurrence take place while still living in the South. Here one will not be alone but rather surrounded by the friendly beer-raising, square-dancing, hooting-and-hollering bluegrass folk whose kind is hard to find anywhere but here.
E-mail Warren at [email protected].