1) Introductions by Bill Monroe & President Carter> Watson’s Blues/Bill Monroe & Doc Watson – Whitehouse – 8/7/80
2) You Won’t Be Satisfied that Way/Bill Monroe & Doc Watson – Ashegrove/LA, CA – 5/17/63
3) This World is Not My Home/Bill & Charlie Monroe – New River Ranch/Rising Sun, MD - 5/8/55 (2nd show)
4) The Banks of the Ohio/Bill Monroe & Doc Watson – Ashegrove/LA, CA – 5/17/63
5) The One I Love is Gone/Bill Monroe w Hazel & Alice – Tex Logan’s House/Madison, NJ – 6/20/66
6) The Dusty Miller/Bill Monroe & Tut Taylor – TT Reel #38/DJ Convention/Nashville, TN – 1965
7) Feast Here Tonight/Bill Monroe & Doc Watson – Sunset Park/West Grove, PA – 8/23/64
8) Get Up John/Bill Monroe & Peter Rowan – Carleton Haney Bluegrass Festival/Fincastle, VA– 9/3/65
9) Darlin’ Cory/Bill & Charlie Monroe – New River Ranch/Rising Sun, MD - 5/8/55
10) Bill’s intro>What Does the Deep Sea Say?/Bill Monroe & Doc Watson – Sunset Park/West Grove, PA – 8/23/64
11) Little Cabin Home on the Hill/Bill Monroe & the Seldom Scene – Smithsonian Institute/Washington, DC – 2/6/82
12) Paddy on the Turnpike/Bill Monroe & Doc Watson – Whitehouse – 8/7/80
13) Stoney Point/Bill Monroe & Tut Taylor – TT Reel #38/DJ Convention/Nashville, TN – 1965
14) Watermelon Hangin’ on the Vine/Bill & Charlie Monroe – 78 vinyl transfer
15) Blackberry Blossom/Bill Monroe & Peter Rowan – Carleton Haney Bluegrass Festival/Fincastle, VA – 9/3/65
16) Midnight on the Stormy Deep/Bill Monroe & Doc Watson – Bean Blossom - 6/21/69
17) Turkey in the Straw/Bill & Charlie Monroe – Town Hall Party/Compton, CA – 12/24/55
18) I Know You Rider/Bill Monroe & the Seldom Scene – Smithsonian Institute/Washington, DC – 2/6/82
Almost every young bluegrass guitarist I've played with since I moved back to Pennsylvania from North Carolina seems to place a great deal of importance on the 'lead' while completely ignoring what a guitarist like Doc Watson does while he's not playing lead, the 'rhythm'. They listen to the exact way someone like Doc performs say Salt Creek, learns every nuance of the way he first plays the melody and then his extrapolation of the melody into his second, more improvisational lead and when it's time for the next guy to take his lead he might launch into a tightly staccatoed rhythm stance that clubs what the mandolin is supposed to be doing to death, forcefully smacking the downbeat which reduces the power of the backbeat. What Doc does behind Bill Monroe while Bill takes his turn, you hear cross rhythms and bass runs tying together swaths of strummed color,
creating an alternate rhythm that counters the mandolin's space, kind of creating a whole band's rhythms between the two. If the guitar hits nothing but the downbeat, the whole thing can 'wobble' with no back beat to counter the extreme downbeat. The guitar is in a unique position within the arrangement to actually make the rhythm swing one way or the other, if they are really listening and in control of themselves.
I've tried to figure out why this happens so much up here, I've run into it plenty since I moved back home and the only thing I can come up with is a) many bluegrass players come upon bluegrass music out of the bar scene anymore which is competitive and loud and b) it seems to me the big difference between southern players and yanks is in the south bluegrass/mountain music is a way of life, a family activity done in a way that everybody finds their place within the landscape of the arrangement, and if something is missing someone picks up that instrument and fills it in. In the north we are in a land of heroes and scholars with completely different reasons for picking up an instrument in the first place. Now none of this is absolute, there are all kinds of different folks everywhere playing things for a variety of reasons. The south has it's musical heroes and scholars as well (check out the books of Wayne Erbsen), but mostly southern musicians gather respect over time on a different level that usually includes how well they manage their own band, how they make best use of their players and capitalize on their strengths with less of a competitive edge, or the sheer originality of the music they produce. Yes, some bands I've seen, in the north, compete with each other on a personal level within the band. Not all, not all, just a trend I've noticed. I think that's because they make heroes out of the individual for his personal accomplishments, never noticing the care, thoughtfulness and control of ego it takes a band leader to run a happy and creatively productive roost.
But I have noticed a bigger emphasis on lessons from the big pros in the north and a competitiveness that can only come from band contests and a pervasive attitude that traditions are for breaking. Keep in mind that few were hankering to be a bluegrass guitar god before Tony Rice came along, giving the sport some personal rock star appeal. I personally love listening to Tonys' playing, not so much the myriad of folks who strive to sound just like him. Doc Watson was amongst the first to play fiddle tunes on the guitar, of the first to use the guitar as that kind of lead device, certainly the most widely known and so it's obvious why Bill played so often with Doc thoughout his career; he was once again traveling into unknown waters for his mandolin and music, this time carving out a performance stance of aggression, speed & accuracy within the context of bluegrass music in a totally new way. You'll notice the only guitar leads here today were by Doc, and there are none taken in the previous 5 installments of our Monroe series. Guitar was simply not a major part of leads taken in bluegrass, it was mostly an accompanying instrument save for these sporadic duo sets and the cross-pick style purported by Clinch Mountain guitarists Bill Napier and George Shuffler in the 50's.
Scales, speed and accuracy are immensely important to master but leave little room for emphasis on attributes of rhythm such as 'swing' and 'feel' and so makes that sole line of education fall immensely short. I've seen quite a few guys who can do nothing more than play fiddle tunes note for note and while that may be a incredibly great way to de-stress after work, for those of us who have to work as a 'band' in conjunction with others, it also falls short. These same guys have not once asked for or received one bit of information about accompanying someone else, which is telling. It is a language, a give and take between people.
Just because you decide to break with tradition doesn't mean all rules are to be broken, either. Some assemblage of the rules is necessary to give bluegrass it's face, tho its essence dots a lot of great original roots music going on today, I'm mostly speaking to the conversation that goes on about tradition vs. that break with tradition, and what it means for bluegrass. A good many folks who took to the Grateful Dead's landmark live 1980 acoustic album Reckoning found their way to Bill Monroe's music though some of the playlist, and remained with him long after the country music world discarded bluegrass as irrelevant. Steve Earle and Johnny Cash had some similar complaints about the country music industry for similar reasons but alas, those deadheads knew a great world to visit when they saw one and so the bluegrass world became a very real home to many Deadheads, myself among them. I just got into the music because it made me feel something and was a world unto itself, which is also why I could skip from Dead to Monroe without any theoretical misgivings, I wasn't looking for anything played perfectly, I was looking for something with a little soul and both are drenched in it.
If you listen closely to anything on the show today you'll hear nothing performed perfectly, there are missed notes and flubbed vocals and probably the most amazing thing about all that is you don't notice those things, you don't listen for them because in the end, they don't matter. It is the feel of the performance that lingers, unless you are purely a musical mathematician. Perfection should never be a goal in bluegrass, I find it to have a homogenizing effect on the musical landscape and a distraction from the better angels of music. Ideally a combination of the 2 sensibilities would be best, the north theorizing what is correct and the south going into the field with nothing but talent and gut, both making total sense but also contrasting, as much of the north/south rancor will dictate. I think it's great to know scales, necessary even...I think it's great to reduce vocal arrangements to strict 3rds and 5ths, it is probably the best way to strengthen your ears to hear such things. Pick-holding positions, where to take breaths, never having sung notes cross over each other, etc., all noble ideas but really only the beginning of the musical performance experience. Taking all that knowledge and muscle memory and using it through an open heart is the next step. Listening to everything going on around you and lifting it up is a righteous goal, for no ones' part is carved in granite and a band is organic whether you'd like to think so or not. It is a combination of things that makes a greater whole, not a group of individuals. Everyone's presence influences the other whether you are conscious of it or not, and the more conscious you can become of your own playing, that of the other musicians around you but also that of what is being consumed by the audience you can finally see the thing as a whole, and the fact that you can blow away the next guy is really an insult to the process. Some people like the showy parts of bluegrass, the perfection, Ricky Scaggs springs to mind. Like I've said before, music is good, period, and I applaud people for finding something personal to behold with whatever style you connect with. For ME, I like the feel of the whole thing, the vibe; it can transport me to another place and time, open a door to another world in much the same way Reggae or the Dead's music does, music with a completely formed world accompanying.
So Listen! Listen to the music, listen to your muse, listen to your stereo and your friends, even (sometimes) your head, practice scales and go to jams or just support your local players, I guarantee they are struggling with something. Listen to the melody, listen to the lyrics, try to understand the things you don't agree with and include them in you psyche, just listen before you tear into something and then listen with your heart. We are unfortunately currently living in a time of more of the same, there are no Bill Monroes blazing any kind of path, we are just trying to find new ways with the old stuff, and much of that has been done as well. So be it. And so it boils down to the personal and what you get out of it as an individual, sharing ideas and influencing the conversation. I've said before that playing bluegrass can be like knowing a language that is spoken in many dialects, and I guess today I'm talking more about sentence structure than pronunciation of the word 'all' or 'you'. It is a simple joy, a pleasant place to go where you don't feel all alone, and I hope listening to the father of bluegrass music speaking the language in different dialects has been illuminating or at the least entertaining. Next time we'll have a mix show which will include some Monroe brothers as well as some other great mandolin work, so come on back, and tell your friends!
