I was getting my truck serviced yesterday and a bluegrass friend of mine was standing in the check-in line while I was paying my bill. It’s kind of funny that occasionally when I see friends out-of-context, I sometimes don’t recognize them and have to ask…is it you? In this case, the out-of-context can be translated into out-of-jam because the only other time I see this friend is usually at the Father’s Day Festival. After we finished our business at the mechanic’s, we spent a spell catching up and talking about things, life work, etc but since we both have jams that we founded and run the conversation of course turned to “how’s your jam going?” Now think about what I just described…we’re moving into a conversation that happens millions of times a day across all walks of life and you can imagine some of the others like “how’s the crop going this year” or “how’s the new baby” or “how’s work”. You get my drift. Our conversation about jams was moving into the “ownership” phase where we compare notes, maybe brag a little, and then move on to problem solving or sympathizing. So it turns out that my friend has relinquished control of his jam and is letting it cook in its own…kind of like a big fire, once you get it burning the fire will keep on going until it runs out of fuel. That’s an interesting experiment to run, and for his jam, which attracts a lot of really good pickers, that might work. I don’t think it is the way most other jams work though. I have a monthly first-Sunday jam in the east bay at a small microbrewery called Cleophus Quealy, and the owner and his family are long-time CBA members. It is a low key jam that I want to be a place where rookie jammers are comfortable as well as really good pickers. What I have found is that I don’t quite have critical mass, meaning unlike my friend’s jam folks aren’t just going to show up. So once a month I send out an email blast, post on Facebook, Twitter, and the CBA message board, and hope folks will show. Usually they do and it is a pretty eclectic group with rooks and good pickers, and I am sometimes surprised at how well the jam goes and how much folks enjoy it. It’s a small amount of work and I have to ask folks to occasionally step in to run the jam if I’m out of town, It’s kind of fun and has its rewards. So what I’d like to ask ya’ll to do is go support a local jam, one that you don’t normally hit, and give the organizer the pleasure of seeing a new face. Believe me those jam organizers notice and appreciate the support….it is part of their reward for keeping the jam going.
