'Blewgrass Music' - The Way Forward?
 By Derek Brandon
WHILE IN SAN FRANCISCO in November 1999 we played several small gigs together with the rest of 'the gang' as The Almost Bluegrass Band. But they weren't all bluegrass gigs - and at this point the purists among you should find something else to read! I have been accused many times of being 'narrow-minded and not moving with the times' (see Letters this time), so perhaps this will convince the doubters otherwise. At one general-music gig we decided to branch out and have Greg Laakso, outstanding horns player with the Chazz Cats swing band, join in on... er... clarinet (I did warn you!). The reception was terrific - unbelievable, even! Greg played the fiddle part so well that even reputedly stick-in-the-mud-traditionalist me mused, "Perhaps there should be a clarinet in a Bluegrass band?" The pun term 'Blewgrass' was coined on the spot in honour of the wind instrument! And why stop there? The late, great, Bill Monroe himself was not averse to wind-type instruments in his early bands, including such things as mouth organ and accordion. The possibilities are endless. So we set about developing further Monroe's early ideas to create the modern BlewGrass Band and simultaneously to eradicate that bane of traditional bluegrass, the banjo. We simply replaced all the 'traditional' string instruments by their wind counterparts, as follows: The Dobro becomes a slide trumpet or the more easily available slide trombone. For the fiddle we have a clarinet (tried and tested!), with an oboe playing the guitar parts. We found a Piccolo to be an admirable substitute for the mandolin.
The Almost Bluegrass Band plus Greg Laakso
on clarinet... The choice of trumpet to replace the banjo was soundly based. The trumpet is a very loud instrument that can dominate all sessions whilst at the same time playing protracted, harmonically-unrelated arpeggio sequences. And, most importantly, the trumpet can overpower the singer with ease. That reminds me - I should mention that a saxophone may be used in place of the oboe (=guitar), but beware: because saxophones are louder than oboes it is more difficult for the trumpet (=banjo) player to ruin their solos. The obvious replacement for an upright string bass is the big wind bass euphonium-type thing. Unfortunately, the wind bass, while perfectly providing the solid, rhythmic foundation for the music, does not allow for the 'slapped bass' sound of the more usual string type. To overcome this we introduced the snare drum. That means another instrumentalist is needed; but it has the great advantage of providing 'instant public popularity appeal' and follows in the path shown to be successful by many recent Bluegrass CD releases (for example, see the review of Alison Krauss' Forget About It CD). The band has proved very popular, due in no small part to removing the banjo and introducing a drum. But there are other hidden benefits: the instruments (particularly trumpet=banjo) do not require constant re-tuning. They have no strings to break, suffer less in wet weather and jam sessions can be easily located at crowded festivals by the visual prominence of the large, elevated, bass 'bell' or horn. Also, it is possible that wind instrument blowers, who are usually band- or orchestra-trained, might be better team players, emotionally more stable and less prima-donna-ish than some of the string pickers around. The major disadvantage we found was trying to sing and play at the same time - it really is difficult with wind instruments. To get round this problem we joined with an a-cappela trio. And you'd be amazed how much better all those lead-singer 'banjoists' play when they don't have to worry about the lines of the next verse while playing a break! I have told you this story so that you might look forward to seeing our Blewgrass Band at Chris and Gill Harrison's new A1 festival. The A1 organisers say "Innovative new bands and performers of other related music & dance will also be considered. Cajun, Rockabilly, Western Swing, Traditional and all eclectic mixes are not ruled out." And that lets us in! BlewGrass music rules - OK? Derek Brandon, Chester (yes, I am crazy... who isn't?) Note: This article was intended for the May/June issue but then it would have been too late for the A1 Festival, so it was brought forward to April 1st. Ed.
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