Rain Day Thoughts
*=solo %=trio #=4-piece
June 7, Music on Main w/Tom Pevear, Courtland, KS *
June 20, Set Break Session 2:30 pm, Telluride Bluegrass Fest, Telluride, CO %
June 21, Heritage Plaza Gazebo, Mountain Village, CO %
June 26, House Concerts Unlimited, Tulsa, OK %
June 27, Kaw River Roots Fest, Lawrence, KS %
June 28, Flatwater Music Fest, Hastings, NE %
June 29, John Barleycorn’s w/Front Porch, Wichita, KS %
August 7, Pickin’ in the Park, Paonia, CO *
August 22, Rowe Sanctuary, Gibbon, NE %
August 23, 4th & Main Listening Room, Wray, CO %
August 24, Aspen Sun Deck 12-3 pm, Aspen, CO %
Riverside Stage, 8 pm, Idaho Springs, CO %
August 25, Aurora Rhythms Concert Series, Aurora, CO %
August 26, The Radio Room, Grand Junction, CO %
August 27, HHW House Concert, Salt Lake City, UT %
August 29, Billsville West, Walla Walla, WA %
August 30, Juniper Jam, Enterprise, OR %
September 6, Moonrise Bike Ride, Ottawa, KS #
September 17-20 Walnut Valley Festival, Winfield, KS %
A rain day (wuh?) is a rare treat in the south central Kansas of recent years, so I’m trying to enjoy every drop of this odd liquid falling from the sky today, and many days over the past couple of weeks.
John Depew Trio finished up our first festival gig of the summer on Sunday, and I have a lot going on in my head after the fact. First off, the folks who run this particular festival are just some of the kindest most solid people you could ask to meet, Susan and Bob McLemore with their two ridiculously talented sons Blake and Brandon (of the band Driven) along with an army of dedicated volunteers, really organize an impeccable festival in Colby, KS. It’s called Pickin’ on the Plains, and has been going strong for 29 years.
Pickin’ on the Plains is a pretty traditional bluegrass festival, and I’ll be honest, I was in a weird headspace kinda the whole time, because I know enough to be aware that what I’m doing with John Depew Trio isn’t really even close to traditional bluegrass music, and I was really worried that the audience at this festival wouldn’t appreciate it. I mean, I got up on stage on Saturday morning and read part of a Frog & Toad story while Peter and Jordan free improv-ed the soundtrack behind me. That’s definitely not snugly in the canon of trad grass. We’re doing a lot of mixed meter and unusual harmonic structure and lyrical content that’s kinda spacey and/or philosophical at times, and even though it all draws in some way or other from my truly deep love of the bluegrass and string-band traditional sound, it’s fundamentally untraditional.
When you put me on a stage inhabited by people like Brandon McLemore, Jimmy Campbell, Shelby Eicher, Whit Smith, Kristin Scott Benson, Zeb Snyder, and all the other insane instrumentalists in those bands, I think it’s pretty apparent that instrumental virtuosity isn’t really going to be the selling point of my life’s work. Not to say I don’t occasionally play something pretty good, but generally speaking, I’m lightyears behind all those top-tier people in terms of instrumental mastery. And that’s a hard reality to live in, in the bluegrass festival environment. I’m thankful to have Peter and Jordan who both elevate the instrumental average of the band to something fairly acceptable, I think, even to a discerning bluegrass audience.
But another reality that’s apparent is that there’s a substantial difference in lyrical content, as well as compositional style, between the majority of canon bluegrass and whatever it is that I’m doing. If you zoom out and think about message, which is something that matters, at least as much and arguably more than instrumental prowess, I guess that reframes the question to some extent. And that’s not to say that the message of an Appalachian Road Show set is inferior in any way, but it is certainly different. It’s a message for a different world-view than I am trying to speak to.
That said, I’m in many ways a child of the tradition, and I feel deeply insecure about being not only the weakest player of the band, but also the weakest player of probably the entire lineup, not to mention speaking from a world-view that likely isn’t shared by a large segment of the audience. Even if I don’t think it should matter as much as it does, it’s still hard to get up on stage at a bluegrass festival knowing all this in my gut.
And in all fairness to the audience, I got a lot of really nice feedback throughout the weekend, and a lot of people went home with the music in their hands, so maybe this is all in my head. I don’t know, does everybody deal with this kind of harsh self-criticism?
So, as I’m back home reflecting on how the weekend went, I’m looking that straight in the eyes. I still feel like this is the right thing for me to be doing. And I feel very certain that as long as that answer continues to seem true, I’m going to follow it and see where it leads. We are all responsible for living the best life we can manage; I keep coming back to this quote from Danny Barnes: ‘see the truth is, it is a full-time job making sure your OWN lifestyle expression matches your own ethics. That's going to take up roughly all of your time from now until you are dead.’
So, there ya go. A big ol’ pile of worms for your Tuesday morning breakfast.
now, this…
a head full of worms
a heart of dry grass, woven by birds
into a nest
three perfect eggs, blue as the August sky
a skunk creeps through the dark
with skunk’s stomach, mumbling
dry grass can do nothing to prevent
whatever may come
but for now
cradles fiercely