Orphan Instruments

Nov 25, 2022 | Uncategorized, Welcome Column

Unless their parents force them into it, most people choose to play a musical instrument because they like the sound of it and maybe they like how they fit in with other friends who play an instrument as well. They put in a ton of effort to bond with their instrument of choice and they persist in the effort while others are giving up.

How does someone choose an instrument to learn? It varies according to circumstance but some people end up choosing an instrument that is a curse and a gift at the same time. These are the orphan instruments.

Consider the accordion. It is not among the classic list of six approved Bluegrass instruments (banjo, bass, dobro, fiddle, guitar, mandolin). But while her fiddle playing husband Howdy went off to fight in World War Two, Sally Ann Forrester filled in credibly on accordion for Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys. Her husband was replaced on fiddle by Jim Shumate. So Sally Ann wasn’t really filling in for her husband. Jim Shumate did that. The accordion was an experiment in sound for the band and she remained with the band until 1945.

After Howdie’s stint in the Navy he returned briefly to Bill’s band of Bluegrass Boys but the accordion experiment was over and Sally Ann moved on too. She gave birth to a child the next year. She had more important things to do than play Bluegrass.

As a member of a band iteration that also included Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt, Wilene “Billy”, “Sally Ann” Forrester deserves the designation as the first woman in Bluegrass music. She was not just a stand in for her husband. She was a musician in her own right, having landed a spot playing guitar and singing for a Tulsa radio station at age 17.

I’ve jammed with accordion players in a Bluegrass context and, once you get over the novelty, the music can be really good. I was fortunate to be invited to for a couple of jams in Noe Valley where my friend Andrei introduced me to his neighbor at the time Ben Jacobs. It was then that I realized an accordion could actually carry a Bluegrass jam.

The accordion is a noble instrument and should be very welcome in Bluegrass. Ricky Skaggs recorded a classic live concert at the Charleston Music Hall and included Jeff Taylor from Batavia, NY on accordion (and penny whistle).

That brings me to what I think might be the most endangered species of instrument that sits well at a Bluegrass jam, the steel guitar. My friend Andrei mentioned above inherited a nice pedal steel but he has had some trouble finding anybody to teach him how to play it because there are so few people who still know how to play it. I once jammed with a pedal steel (played by Pat Ickes, Rob’s brother). It was wonderful. I’ve heard Larry Chung play at a few festivals. We need people to go out there, buy a used Sho-Bud on the cheap and learn this wonderful instrument before it disappears.

Perhaps there are other endangered instruments including those closer to the heart of the genre. We need more banjos and fiddles at most of the jams I go to. They are difficult to learn like many of the orphan instruments but I hope some brave souls will still make the effort because otherwise our music will die. For old time and Celtic music, in fifty years will anybody be able to play the nickelharpa? I sure hope so.

Bluegrass doesn’t really connect with a lot of instruments outside the classic sextet (some people would call it a quintet, excluding the Dobro). But if your new friend manages to navigate the sound challenge of a ukelele at a campsite jam (as I have witnessed) embrace it because of the music.

Maybe our music can embrace differences as our society does as well.

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