You love Bluegrass music so you find your lawn chair and take a seat. Your chair is strategically positioned, near the center and close to the stage. Maybe it’s not as good a spot as you thought. The sun was in a different place when you snarfed that spot yesterday and you might not be so comfortable once the summer sun starts to blaze. Well, you’ve got your hat and sunscreen and you’ve been looking forward to this concert for weeks. You’ll be OK.
You got there early because one of your favorite bands is coming on soon. A local band you’ve never heard before warms up the audience and you get caught up in their enthusiasm and energy. You wish they had a CD to buy but they don’t. Oh well.
Then your band from Nashville comes on. They’re wearing fancy suits and they just grab you and the rest of the audience in a flash and you forget all about those local musicians you liked whose CD wasn’t quite out yet. You can bet that local band has all the love for the music that this polished headliner band has. But they don’t sound nearly as good on stage. Why?
One obvious reason is that they’re not as proficient musically. The local band’s members would be the first to admit that. They’ve all got day jobs and they can’t spend their whole day honing their craft like the full time musicians, much as they’d like to. But rest assured, they would be more than willing to do just as much as it takes to be on that bigger stage.
Aside from the musicianship of professionals versus would-be professionals, what sets the performances of these two bands apart? Here are my top ten reasons:
1) The Sound:
One of the best sound men in the business is Paul Knight, a familiar face to almost any CBA festival goer. Local bands and national bands alike praise his efforts at festivals. But you’ll notice that Paul works a lot harder when he’s setting up a marquee band versus an average band. I’m sure that has a lot more to do with the band than it does with Paul. He’s a perfectionist. He wants to make every band sound as good as possible. I’ve never heard a Paul Knight gig where you could’t hear the guitar solo. He gets it right.
Paul has to make more adjustments for the big name bands because those bands know more about what they want out of the sound system and they know Paul can give it to them. And if the sound isn’t right, they know how to recognize that and communicate it to the sound booth during the performance.
2) The Beginning:
A good stage band realizes that every performance is an opportunity to grab new listeners and turn those listeners into fans. The best strategy is to hit ‘em hard right from the get go. Don’t let ‘em come up for air until they’ve been impressed! Some bands even have their own special theme song to get things started, but if they don’t they’ll play two or three snappy numbers in rapid succession at the start of their set. When they finish the first number, they surge right into the next one without waiting for applause or anything else.
3) The Attire
One of my favorite local bands is the Central Valley Boys. And one of the reasons I like them so much is because they really know how to present themselves on stage from a sartorial perspective. They pop onto the stage like they own it in very elaborate pressed suits. One time you’ll see them in canary yellow and the next time it’s cardinal red. They even joke on stage about being in the business just so they can afford to buy their next new suits of clothing. They’re good musicians but the attention to detail about costume helps set them apart from other good musicians.
It’s truly shocking how many bands just don’t seem to care much about what they’re wearing on stage. You don’t have to all have fancy matching outfits but you shouldn’t look like the Trivago pitch man either. Any audience wants to see that the performing band respects their attendance by dressing tastefully.
4) The Chit Chat
Audiences at a music festival come to hear music. Inevitably, there is some down time between numbers for retuning, instrument changes, etc. Filling that space with some amusing banter is great and, if the chit chat is good, it helps endear the band to the new audience. Otherwise talk should be kept to an absolute minimum. Listeners want to know the names of the tunes and maybe some significant background, but generally speaking, it should be the music that speaks to the audience.
5) The Breaks
Good bands know how to pass breaks seamlessly. Every band member should know exactly when they are supposed to come in for their solo and be right on time. They have to adjust their position on stage and their playing as needed for other soloists. Audiences notice when the polish of a performance makes it clear that a band has worked hard on every last detail of their stage act.
6) The Split Breaks
Bluegrass at its best is high energy music. The more stuff going on the better. Long breaks in a backstage or campsite jam might be the rule because the situation encourages it. But for a stage performance, good bands favor the split breaks. It’s absolutely mandatory for the slow tunes. An audience likes it every time a little nod from one soloist to another produces a new spin on the music which is already hopefully spinning as wildly as Bluegrass can.
7) The Smile and Nod
If an audience likes something that is played, they have a tendency to applaud, even if it’s not at the end of a tune. A brief smile and nod of acknowledgement by the soloist for an applauded effort is always popular.
8) The Connection
Not every band can make the audience feel like they are a part of the performance. Some bands can do it simply by playing music so expressively that the audience feels it is a part of their soul. Other bands have a natural ability to entertain by involving the audience in other ways. Some know lots of tunes and take requests. Some get the audience singing along. A good band recognizes what their forte is along those lines and works hard to connect with their audience every night.
9) The Attitude
A good band knows that the reason they are there is to entertain. The performance is not about them so much as it is about giving the people what they want. They are inviting the listener into their living room.
10) The Adjustment
Inevitably, unexpected glitches come up in a performance, no matter how well rehearsed. A good stage band has to to adjust, relax and make their guests feel at home as much as possible.
So there you have it. If you go to enough Bluegrass events, you realize that there are a lot of really good bands out there. Although some average bands could sound better if they implemented the tricks of the trade, what really matters in the long run is the quality of the music itself. Some bands try to cover up a lack of talent by simply cranking up the volume to a more energetic level. Fortunately, I think that crude strategy is more common with Rock music than it is with Bluegrass.
The music isn’t just about what’s happening on stage. Recording sessions have their own very different tricks of the trade. And some of the most enjoyable music you’ll hear at a Bluegrass festival will always be those after hours jams that go on night and day.
