IT'S A GRASS, GRASS, GRASS
It's been years since
O Brother Where Art Thou
slammed bluegrass into the forefront of our nation's consciousness, since George Clooney's doe-eyed charm as he lip-synched "Man of Constant Sorrow," sending us all to Borders in droves to pick up the soundtrack of roots music and old standards, mandolins and fiddles and crooning mountain harmonies.
The fad has passed, the demographics have settled back into their norms, and bluegrass' popularity has quietly slipped back into the arms of diehards, older folks and...Santa Feans.
The City Different is different in many ways, of course, and one of them is our fair burg's embrace of bluegrass, a
genre that enjoys pockets of popularity, but, except perhaps for its momentary spotlight via
O Brother
, never makes it onto a large-scale radar. Fitting, then, that Santa Fe's dusty country fairgrounds will house this year's Southwest Pickers Festival (Friday-Sunday, Aug. 25-27), and that the fest has endured-thrived, even-for 32 years.
The festival, technically called the Santa Fe Traditional and Bluegrass Music Festival, is a weekend's worth of non-stop music. We're talking bands beginning early in the morning and playing all the way through 'til late, followed by jam sessions, both informal and formal, until the wee hours. Bands include local, semi-local and national groups, each with a different take on an old music: traditional bluegrass, country, flatpicking, and "newgrass," to name but a few.
Those of you who are already sold, I don't need to tell you how stimulating and inspiring this festival is. To those of you, who like myself, lean more toward other types of music-
any
other types of music-hear this, from a fellow bluegrass skeptic: This festival rocks.
Seriously. It's an amazing thing. It's hot and dusty and filled with people, literally aged 2 to 92, with a chipper enthusiasm in the air and virtuosity floating with casual ease in the wind. What's most amazing is that, in this age of myspace and iPods and jarringly cynical young people, the tents are filled with youth, most of whom play multiple instruments, jamming with people twice their age, harmonizing with their parents.
The kids' oeuvre-and everyone else's at the festival-varies between old-timey music and more modern variation of it, which many people call "newgrass" (I keep waiting for the heavy metal version, nügrass, but I've yet to hear it.) Remember Mary & Mars? They were newgrassers, mixing definite aspects of traditional bluegrass, including their instruments (mandolin, guitar, standup bass) and some of their song
choices (which were standards) with more modern sensibilities, including faster pluckin', more contemporary vocals, and some originals, that borrowed from the old but that contained more rock or country elements.
Emblematic of newgrass at this year's festival:
Sweet Sunny South, who are based in the traditions of the Carter Family and the Stanley Brothers, but who also draw from contemporary groups like the Freighthoppers and the Reeltime Travelers.
Sweet Sunny South, which consists of Bill Powers, Cory Obert, Rob Miller and Shelley Gray, maintain the usual guitar/mandolin/banjo/standup/harmony paradigm, but they rock it a little more, one step in the new world, one step in the old. In a semi-cutesy move, the quartet dresses in the old-school Appalachian gear seen in
O Brother
, but this is a serious crew of musicians.
Check out
for a full lineup and schedule (one of the beauties of the festival is its giant, arm-length list of events and performers, too long to list here). And, whether you like indie rock, hip-hop, classical, whatever, go check it out for a day. Trust me.
SINGLE AND LOVING IT
A couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of receiving in my mailbox a real-live, actual vinyl 7-inch single. It was an old copy of a promo from the Vicious Beatniks, a cool little punk-pop band formed by David Portolano in Long Island in 1990. Portolano has played a weird brand of acoustic roots punk (really) as the Lone Monk for about a decade, and recently just moved to Santa Fe. After trying to put together a new incarnation of the Lone Monk, Portolano's now got it together and he'll be playing at Alegria (5 pm Friday, Aug. 25. Free. 2797 Agua Fria St., 471-2324). Fans of Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Patti Smith should go.
EVEN MUSICIANS GET COLDS
Finally, musicians, take heed: If you need advice about or help getting health insurance, check out
to find information on the Health Insurance Navigation Tool (HINT). HINT has insurance consultants on hand to help you with the tricky nature of obtaining insurance when you're a self-employed musician, so take advantage. You can even get a half-hour phone consultation for free from experts.
