#bluegrass today

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Jason Carter & Michael Cleveland - “Bluegrass in the Backwoods”

They’re fiddlers. But Jason Carter and Michael Cleveland are also smart musicians and they know better than to hog all the “Bluegrass in the Backwoods.”

So while the principals spend plenty of time sawing away on their new Kenny Baker cover, they leave ample room for mandolin, banjo and guitar solos in the nearly five-minute instrumental.

The track follows “Give it Away” and “Outrun the Rain” from Carter and Cleveland’s forthcoming, as-yet-untitled, joint LP.

It’s an uptempo rendering - one that begs the listener into motion as the full band - including Carter’s fellow Travelin’ McCourys Alan Bartram on (bass) and Cody Kilby (guitar) plus Casey Campbell (mandolin) and Cory Walker (banjo) - plays under the banner of two fiddlers.

“(They) absolutely crushed it,” Cleveland tells Bluegrass Today.

“I couldn’t be happier with how our arrangement turned out - it’s such a blast, with everyone taking blistering solos.”

Perhaps that’s why the duo left the sound of studio laughter at the end of the track. It fits.

Grade card: Jason Carter & Michael Cleveland - “Bluegrass in the Backwoods” - A

12/12/24

[kingofthewilderwest]

Bill Monroe challenges Mcgucket to a dueling banjo session. Who wins?

XD Here goes an unnecessarily detailed answer, as one might expect from me.

Father of Bluegrass Bill Monroe (1911-1996) was a virtuosic mandolinist (also no slouch on guitar) who incorporated fiddling influences into his playing. Rather than an old-style shimmering tremelo, Bill Monroe attacked the strings in an impressive combination of rhythmic adroitness and dogged melody. His playing had rhythmic quirks bluegrass mandolinists tease on today, but I think it augments rather than detracts from his iconic sound.

Historically speaking, Monroe stepped the game up for virtuosity in American country music. Even when he was in his twenties, performing duos and trios with his brothers on the radio in a more old-time style, his technical alacrity caught attention. Monroe fashioned bluegrass with blues and even jazz influences, such as the idea of instrumentalists taking turns doing technical instrumental breaks, one after the other. Thus, not only did he have to be at a high standard, but he pushed everyone in his band to match it. This man regularly performed hundreds of songs at a whim with good ear and improv ability.

Now, Fidds, my beloved... how does he compare? We hear relatively little of Fiddleford McGucket's banjo picking in Gravity Falls. What information we could glean is contradictory due to animation and sound design inaccuracy. I apologize for upcoming jargon, but I'll explain. ;)

McGucket owns multiple banjos. All banjos he's owned lack planetary tuners, which tends to indicate a low-cost banjo beginners and non-serious players use. However, given as McGucket has dedicatedly played banjo since at least the 1970s, and is dedicated enough to own a collection, this suggests a more invested player. (Of course, you can play for years and be passionate and still suck, but there's a higher chance you're good, hah!) Looking at the meta context, the animators would have no idea they were connotating lower-end instruments, so let's go with writing intent: McGucket is the banjo guy playing with love and passion for decades.

McGucket is most often seen with open-backs, but also has had a Seeger (long-neck) banjo and a resonator. Open-back and Seeger banjos suggest McGucket plays in the old-time style, which is (often) based on repeated rhythms and chords. That we've never seen Fiddleford McGucket wear finger picks also matches old-time. Now, I love old-time, it's gorgeous. But. Old-time banjo doesn't... shred... so in a dueling session, this would be trumped by Monroe's more advanced approach.

On the other hand, McGucket has a resonator. Resonator banjos can and have been used for old-time styles, but in general: if you have a resonator, you're a three-finger style bluegrass picker. This is a very different technique than old-time and will start to put McGucket in the competition. It's also said in Journal 3 he loves listening to high-intensity bluegrass, and when we hear sound clips of McGucket playing, it's in the three-finger bluegrass style. They animate him wrong to be making those sounds, but those are the sounds they're evoking. So, given animation is always inaccurate depicting instruments and performance, bluegrass is the genre associated most directly with McGucket, the animators and maybe even composer might've had no knowledge of old-time and its sounds, and the soundtrack always evokes bluegrass-style banjo... the Gravity Falls team probably wanted to indicate McGucket played bluegrass-style banjo.

I'm not on a computer with speakers to listen to McGucket playing, but I distinctly remember A Tale of Two Stans. I can and have played that riff. I'll transcribe (more or less) it by memory rn.

McGucket is approximately playing the first few measures of Foggy Mountain Breakdown with the barcodes pulled off. He starts with the Foggy Mountain roll on a G chord, then descends to do a forward roll on an e minor chord. Without jargon, this means he's playing two very simple right hand patterns. These patterns are ones a baby banjo picker would learn in their first month playing.

And that's exactly what happened when you know how the soundtrack developed! Gravity Falls' composer learned some banjo for GF. He's doing what I would... learn baby-baby basics so you can record an instrument live. But this means that, because he learned juuuust enough to get the banjo sound in GF (S1 banjo sounds worse than S2 because of this learning curve, too), he can't depict McGucket as a skilled picker. He does an impressive job with the above measures given his inexperience (the tone is better than I'd expect), but the material itself is rudimentary.

Contrast this with Bill Monroe in one of his beloved instrumentals, Southern Flavor (he is the mandolinist who starts the song, first soloist):

Given what Gravity Falls put in the show, McGucket wouldn't stand a chance against Monroe. McGucket wouldn't get hired by Monroe. Obviously we have to do legwork to go beyond imperfect depictions - the limited knowledge and playing ability of animators and composer - so it's very fair to say McGucket is better than anything presented. But, even then, he's got zero shot competing against a professional who expanded virtuosity of a music style and forced musicians around him to get up to his level. Bluegrass had come into its own and many, many, many amateur players were playing breathtakingly by the 1960s and 1970s. But you ain't gonna beat the master who got 'em all there.

[heavenpierceher]

why do people equivocate hating rap and hating country like they're at all derived from the same motivations

[acelor-acetaylorswift]

I'm a simple woman.

All I ask is that, some day, before I die, I get to hear Taylor, Lana, and Julianne Hough sing "(I've got spurs that) Jingle, Jangle, Jingle" in a round together.

That's all.

[fortes-fortuna-iogurtum]

bluegrass music playing in my sound-cancelling earbuds in the noisy coffee shop my beloved <3

[thaliagrayce]

everyone should go listen to the album Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn and feel connected to the world

[heyitslapis]

ok i know i said i was gonna draw but i went to get some cereal and change out my ice bag and now i cant find my vape

[4guysonehead]

We love listening to music and thinking about each other, best part about headspace is being able to dance around with and sing to each other and daydream together

-lee, listening 2 dear arkansas daughter trust me and listen sure its half about your love for somebody dying but thats what happwns every time i fuck w dee too hard and then we gotta resurrect his love for me its a whole thing but leotello ftw baby love you donton luv uuuu deedeeeee mi cielooooooo mi amorrrrrrrrrr

[analyticallymindedaa]

ik i haven't really been here lately and will continue to not be here this weekend bc it's the weekend of the big local music festival and i am Vibing

[avatar-aaang]

once again, coworker has fantastic music taste lmao

[the-inkwell-variable]

Hi! I'm Kit, and my penname is Talia Wynters (she/they). I'm absolutely dying for people to interact with my stuff, and then I realized -- I don't have an introduction page! Let's fix that, shall we?

I write mainly horror, fantasy, and romance. I also write fluff, though I'm not very good at it - forgive me!

MY CURRENT WIPS ARE:

dauntless - - - horror novel, rated r

as a strange illness sweeps the nation, ashlee bennett finds herself quarantined in ground zero: bluegrass, kansas. can she escape the walls to untold dangers without? does she even want to?

priestess without honor - - - paranormal fantasy romance, rated pg-13

In the land of Tykra, werewolves cannot bear children. There are no female werewolves, and normal humans cannot survive the strain of carrying a pup. In desperation, the wolf clans turned to the Sisters of the Silver Thread, and a pact was made.

Astaria is a Sister reaching the end of the spell that allows her to carry pups. She hasn't been Chosen, and this will be her last Ceremony. If she isn't Chosen by the Alpha or his Beta today, she will be severed from magic forever and sent to be the Keeper of a small remote village.

Dom is the fresh Alpha of Thorny Claws, the largest pack in Tykra. He doesn't want to get married or to have pups, but the pack will evict him if he doesn't. Frustrated with his Fate, he arrives at the Sisters' castle to pick up his preselected mate, Aspen.

But Fate has other plans, and Aspen does not take kindly to being the second choice...

chosen without honor - - - mafia romance, rated pg-13

Lilly needs a job. Any job. She doesn't look back when a sketchy restaurant offers her a position as a waitress, even as it becomes increasingly clear that she's now working for the mafia. What she doesn't expect is to catch the eye of Lino, the don's son. What she expects even less is to find herself swept up in a torrid affair with him in the very restaurant that employs her. When she discovers his biggest secret, she is heartbroken. Will she turn her back on the man she loves most, or will she fight to reclaim what she has decided is hers and no other's?

the corpse and the killer - - - batman/train to busan fanfiction, rated r

𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘦𝘷���𝘤𝘶𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘨𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦'𝘴 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘭 - 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘢 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘩𝘢𝘮 𝘬𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺, 𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘵𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘤 𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 ��𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥. 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘦𝘸. 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥. 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘥. 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘺. 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦.

MY CURRENT OC's!

kia marie flaye - - - rambunctious, stubborn, and a damn good mechanic, kia grew up on the streets of gotham city after being orphaned by two-face. she works for both penguin and black mask, bouncing between their odd jobs and strange demands. she doesn't care about batman, just like he doesn't care about her and her people in the slums.

ashlee bennett - - - after a failed college career and an even shorter marriage, ashlee was too exhausted to care that she needed to move back to bluegrass, kansas. she lives with her sister, ana, and ana's four children, and works at the clinic, where the doctor just so happens to be her boyfriend. but things are about to go absolutely sideways as a new disease sweeps through town, taking normal with it...

kira leonore - - - the last leonin of ycaea (and damn good at hiding it thanks to granny's little charm), kira is an ice mage that grew up in the wild untamed ruins of the former, forest-overgrown country of ycaea. she spends her life tending to the few villagers that remain scattered through the forests and running from the inquisitors that hunt witches like her.

tiatha y'l'nyx - - - tiatha was sold as a child to the inquisition of the topaz star, in exchange for the order to stay out of the drow lands. gregorious, the head of the order, experimented on her, twisting her body to its limits and torturing her until her mind snapped. now she serves as his right hand, overseeing the inquisitors' duties and searching for more mages to subjugate.

xaente marlowe - - - an inquisitor of the topaz star, she is quite happy with her lot in life. she gets to hunt the scum of the earth - mages who do not submit to the order's rule - and use her own intrinsic magical powers as she pleases. what more could a girl want?

neia silverthorne - - - a lord of the rings AU elf! a thousand years ago, she and 99 other children, including her older brother, were taken in a massive raid by dol guldur. she and six others were the only survivors - and as time crept steadily on, the others died as well. a hundred years ago, she was kidnapped - err, reclaimed by the elves and has been relearning how elven society works against her will. she's very cranky about this.

amara - - - i created her for legends of avantris's once upon a witchlight but i can't bring myself to interject her in their shenanigans even for my own amusement, so here you go! she is half-tiefling, half-drow - she looks like a drow, save for a long tail and curved gray horns. as a teenager, she accidentally killed a matron's daughter and was forced to flee to the surface, where she was taken in by a certain carnival as both a secretary and a smaller act. she is quite skilled with shadows and illusions. she cannot lie with her words to save her life, but she absolutely can cook the books and spread falsehoods through writing and illusion images.

astaria - - - astaria is a witch with seemingly no magic. she fully expected to be sent away to be a keeper of a random village on the outskirts of tykra, but it seems fate had other plans. now she is keeper to a werewolf/shifter pack and the shy wife of the alpha himself. she struggles with self esteem issues thanks to her lack of magic and is terrible at hiding it.

ask me any questions! send me ask games! please scoob i'm dying

[jeyneofpoole]

No fr I’m a bi Appalachian woman and if mf want me out of here they’re gonna have to kick me out. Why do I have any less right to try and make my home the place I want it to be than shitheads who have never step foot below the mason dixon? Obv today was a big loss for us but I do not believe that this is the end. I’m thinking about you today and I know bluegrass women are facing a nightmare but it’s not going to be the end of us 💕

thank you 🫶

[mick1976]

It’s Saturday…again

3 weeks post knee surgery and I’m beginning to question my life choices. Things are getting better but it’s a slow painful process.

Cold enough to build a fire in the fireplace this morning. Building a fire means flipping two switches and watching a perfect fire come alive. My unicorn watch said it was 48 outside so that means fireplace time.

No soccer today but there is afternoon baseball so I’ll have something to watch from my recovery recliner.

I have Bluegrass music on the speaker box. I think my Bluegrass Era is about to end. Nice while it lasted.

I hope you have a great Saturday!

[keeksandgigz]

more eddie thoughts (they’re fluffy with a bit of angst); minors dni anyway pls <3

ok so i see sometimes eddie being written as super romantic like number one boyfriend of the year.

and yeah he’s a good boyfriend, but this kid has never had like a true reference of what actual love looks like bc yk his mom died and al is a piece of shit.

anyways so he doesn’t really know how to express his feelings when it comes to love because of how he grew up and how he was treated even at school. kid didn’t have a good support system outside of yk hellfire and even then it’s a different type of love.

so when he starts dating you he’s kind of stumbling in the dark for most of the beginning of it. and you understand because he’s never actually dated anyone (because he thought he was incapable of being loved)but you’re taking your time with him and helping him figure out what a real and loving relationship is supposed to look like.

and it’s been a few weeks and you still haven’t said the big l bomb yet, but you’re sure you love him and he’s sure he loves you but he doesn’t know how to say it.

so one day you’re back at his trailer, just spending time together, yk getting high listening to music (not much else to do in the 80s) and he’s asking you to put a record on while he’s rolling a joint for you two to share. and your eyes fall on the first record in his pile, which is “sabbath bloody sabbath.” you don’t know better so you put it on while he lights the joint for you.

by the time you get to that third track, “fluff” which is just guitars and piano and nothing else, you’re both blissfully high. he’s nuzzled into your neck, enjoying the state you’re in, lulled by soft skin and sweet perfume.

he feels protected, guarded. soft hums escape both your mouths, while the forgotten joint rests on an ashtray on his bedside table. a soft lullaby in the background, one eddie had forgotten about, because it was often not his speed.

but the song plays and he’s sure you’re about to fall asleep. it’s like a lullaby, and he’s sure he’s never felt more at peace before. you glowing in the dim light of the small window in his room, a soft smile pressed on your lips.

you cradle his head in the blissful haze of your high, and he’s sure he’s never felt like that before. like you’re a warm blanket over his heart, like the warm glow of a candle in a dark and cold room. you really are a warm glow.

so he nudges you, and you open your eyes from your daze. neither one of you had spoken for the past 20 minutes, ever since the weed hit. eddie breaks the silent vow.

“you know how i’m not good with, y’know, words?” he mumbles, soft and a bit insecure against your skin.

you nod your head, a humming sound following it.

“and i really enjoy spending my time with you, like, i’m always saying that we could be spending the rest of our lives here just doing this over and over and over” he rambles, the high getting to him.

you smile, he’s really not good with words.

“and it’s funny you picked this album today, out of all the albums i have. because my dad would play it often, and i remember when i was like four- and i don’t even know how i remember this because i probably do have some memory loss because i probably fell and hit my head too many times as a kid- and it feels funny that i remember this, like some kind of irony” he continues.

you just lay there, playing with his hair as he rests on your chest, nodding along to his stoned ramble

“but i remember my parents dancing to this, like one night my dad played this album instead of my mom’s bluegrass ones, and she protested ‘cause she didn’t want this kinda music so late. something about me not being able to sleep” he toys with the hem of his shirt, he’s nervous. your heart shrinks.

“but this song comes on, and my dad grabs my mom’s hand and they just start dancing in the middle of the kitchen, while i’m just doing god knows what. but that’s one of my few memories of them actually liking each other.” he sighs, you’re still wondering what his point is.

“and i don’t wanna be like my dad, but this song is just, god, it’s really what it feels like to be with you, like this” he says, gesturing at his room, at you, at the roach on the ashtray.

you gasp because that’s the most he’s ever been able to express, and he’s all flushed, because the mask is off, and now you know he loves you. and a smile creeps up your lips, because this boy everyone thinks is the devil incarnate is actually the most genuine and lovable man in this town. and you love him.

and, apparently, he loves you too.

[insomniac-arrest]

I was today years old when I learned that lawn grass (Kentucky bluegrass) flowers and blooms when its allowed to grow