I’ve served on the CBA Board of Directors for a few years now and I do it because I love the members, first and foremost, and I love music. Bluegrass music has a special place in my heart because strangely enough I’ve learned more about music and music theory from bluegrass than anywhere else; it is so accessible and really is a common language that we all get to talk in jams and pickup sessions. For me this is a fascinating experience, drop into a jam, figure the key, and then within only a few bars, jump into a break. That is so cool! The only thing cooler is playing regularly with folks so that when someone takes an unexpected musical left turn, you kind of have this telepathic communication and can anticipate where the music will go. Those experiences often result in folks cracking up with laughter after the song ends.
Here’s an etymological side bar. In Ireland, and evidently parts of Scotland, one often hears a “good time” referred to as “good craic”. So should I be writing about craic-ing up with laughter? I wonder since the roots of our bluegrass and old time music can be traced back to the music from the Appalachians, which came from Scots/English/Irish immigrants, maybe we should be saying “good craic” when we talk about enjoying a good jam.
But I have to confess my musical dark side is that my playlists might have as much blues, classical, and jazz as bluegrass, and when I go out to listen to music…it’s not always of the ‘grass variety. There you have it, my confession, my secret. This continual straying outside the bluegrass lines I think actually has some interesting consequences for me when it comes to working on the CBA Board of Directors; for example, the “big tent, little tent” argument that periodically makes the rounds, especially when we start revealing our festival lineups. I just love hearing music where artists are blurring the lines between genres especially if their picking makes me wonder if they are superhuman musicians.
But, and this is a big but, as much as I love seeing the out-of-bounds evolution of the 5-piece string lineup, our festival, and to a large degree, our CBA brand is firmly rooted in the trad bluegrass side of the spectrum. And I think that is where it belongs. Don’t get me wrong, I look forward every year to seeing who the TAG committee proposes as both the trad and old time bands but I especially look forward to seeing who we are trying to get as our edgy bands…the ones that can rip a good bluegrass set and then rip on something else not quite in the bull’s eye. In the end, seeing the lineups revealed is kind of like Christmas and watching presents being unwrapped, sometimes you get what you wanted but didn’t expect, and sometimes you get what you didn’t even know you wanted.
So, get out and vote for your next board of directors…they are great folks every last one of them and I am honored to serve on the board with all. You can mail your ballots in and if you attend the Fall Campout October 15 through 21, 2018 at the Lodi Grape Festival and Harvest Fairgrounds, you can vote there. Don’t forget to send your Vern’s Stage submissions to your area VP for consideration by the Vern’s selection committee.
I hope to run into you playing in a jam and having some good craic.
