What’s up in jams when some “hot shot” (or not so hot) picker decides to play the chorus when his break comes around? I’m not talking about being cued by the song leader but rather just deciding they wanted to play something different. I don’t know about you but in a lot of jams I’m in, that trick throws the whole song off. First off it assumes every one is listening and paying attention which in most of my jams ain’t happening or secondly even more to the point if they were listening that couldn’t hear the difference any way. This behavior drives my sensitive bass player ears crazy with 6 or 8 different players playing different chords. Not to worry though it will all sync up eventually… hopefully.
Read the rule books folks, you know the bluegrass rules. By the way Bluegrass Rules is the name of a quintessential bluegrass album by Ricky Skaggs that I reference later in this piece.
There are a couple of songs that I have been singing in jams for years or are they tunes I have been playing for years. Is there a difference between tunes and songs? But I digress, I don’t know and it doesn’t matter. Anyway these are classic Stanley Brothers tunes(?) “Think of What You’ve Done” and “How Mountain Girls Can Love”. I chose to do these tunes because I very much liked the Stanley Brothers versions and as I learned them, I tried to stay true to their arrangements that in my way of thinking is breaks on verses only.
I believe that is important for a couple of key reasons (there are always two.) First, as I just said that is how the Stanley Brothers arranged them…and secondly, them’s the rules. Breaks are on verses, ask Dr. Banjo, Pete Wernick the banjo master from Hot Rize who teaches that in his jamming workshops. Further evidence is in Jack Tuttle’s Bluegrass Fiddle Book, that has a break for How Mountain Girls Can Love for only the verse.
Not solely trusting these traditional bluegrass rule makers, I decided to do my own research. I spent, literally, tens of minutes searching all corners of the web for clues as to what the correct rules were for playing breaks on these two Carter Stanley songs. Weaving my way through the dark web, I ended up on this very nebulous site called YouTube.
After figuring out the code to access this YouTube, I began playing different versions of these two songs. I watched multiple versions of the Stanleys playing both of these classics and never was there any breaks on the chorus. I’m guessing someone might have gotten fired from their band for playing a chorus(it’s against the rules). I also listened to other professional versions of these tunes including Ricky Skaggs, Sam Bush and others. This video evidence reinforces the rules. The Ricky Skaggs version of “Think of What You’ve Done” is a cut from the previously mentioned album Bluegrass Rules. What can I say? I rest my case. Playing the chorus on breaks is against the rules and I call out rule violations as I see them in jams.
A couple of more points (there is always two I tell you) and I’ll be out of your hair for another month. The first is, to me, a more egregious rule violation than playing the chorus and it is writing or should I say kluging new verses to these classic tunes like the two Stanley songs I’ve been talking about. Each of these songs has two verses and if you hear anyone singing a 3rd of 4th verse of either you should immediately call foul… or call me and I’ll stop it.
The second point is regarding the tune Columbus Stockade Blues and the breaks in this old song covered by Bill Monroe (he probably took credit for writing it too). I looked it up in my Bluegrass Rules unabridged v.7 and you better play the chorus every time or the police will call you out every time.
