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One of our main members and chief bass player (Stephen Loss) has recently returned from a business trip to the USA and managed to squeeze in time to see a bluegrass festival. Here’s what he had to say;

Earlier this year I organised a trip to Europe and the US. I was thinking of going to Nashville but when I realised the Joe Val Bluegrass Festival was on that weekend in Boston, I was quick to jump at the opportunity. Marshall Wilborn( currently with Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper and Longview) was giving a bass master class. I didn’t know too much about Joe Val but the festival line-up looked great.

As I discovered, Joe Val was born and raised in Boston and took an interest in bluegrass music, prompted by listening to Bill Monroe on radio and records at an early age. It didn’t matter that Joe was a short, skinny Italian from a blue-collar suburb and that his voice was tinted by a yankee inflection- Joe’s smooth, high tenor made him true to the bluegrass tradition. Like many bluegrass players he spent years working a day job and playing before becoming a full time musician. In the early 1980’s Joe was diagnosed with lymphona and eventually died in 1985.
The International Bluegrass Music Association posthumously presented Joe Val with an “IBMA Award of Merit” for his dedication and lifetime contributions to bluegrass music. Several fundraising events were held before his death and later a “Joe Val Day” memorial event was organised, which became an annual event and evolved into the “Joe Val Bluegrass Festival”. In 2006 the festival won the coveted “Event of the Year” award from the IBMA.
While I didn’t get a lot of new information from the bass master class on the Friday, it was great to meet Marshall Wilborn( who is a true gentleman) and many other bass players who befriended me for the weekend. I got to play a large range of basses including Marshall’s 1954 American Standard, which was a killer!
I also went to a couple of guitar workshops. One by Clay Hess was very good- I didn’t like his playing style much( too many notes……not enough melody) but he was very articulate about his approach to the instrument and the mechanics of how he played. Too often I’ve been to workshops where the presenter is an extremely talented musician but not the best communicator. What also impressed me about Clay was that during one performance on the main stage , he busted a string – a verse and a chorus later he had a new one on and tuned up without leaving the stage and went straight into a blistering solo!
On Friday night and Saturday I heard a lot of great bluegrass music and witnessed professional performances of the highest standard. For me the stand-outs were Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper,Doyle Lawson, Sierra Hull, Special Concensus and a Canadian group called The Spinny Brothers. The Josh Williams band were also good but Josh’s sunglasses, gold chains and attitude were a little too “Country” for my liking. Danny Paisley had a fill-in mandolin player as his fiddle player had jammed his finger in a door and was not able to play, so the band appeared a little unsettled. Unlike their performance at Harrietville a few years ago.
Thanks to a reference from Paul Duff, I introduced myself to one of the festival organisers who promptly took me backstage and introduced me to half a dozen performers. At least three of them owned one of Paul’s mandolins.
I also met up with a couple of guys from the Bluegrass Bass Place- an internet forum that I’ve been frequenting for a couple of years. Over the weekend I was invited to participate in a few jams. I felt a bit awkward about being an Aussie playing this style of traditional American music but people were really friendly and fascinated about the bluegrass scene in Australia. Making music with people from the other side of the world whom I’d only just met was a real joy.
On the Sunday morning I got to bed after 1am and got up at 5.30am to get my onward flight. It was a shame JD Crowe had to pull out of Saturday night due to a death in the family and I missed the Sunday acts including, 111rd Tyme Out and the Gibson Brothers. But I had my fill and got my money’s worth. All in all, it was a wonderful experience and heaps of fun.

Sierra Hull with Clay Hess

. This entry was posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 11:04 am and is filed under WA Bluegrass. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.