The Bluegrass Intentions in Concert
At Sweetwater, Mill Valley, California.

By Jean Brandon

BLUEGRASS INTENTIONS WAS formed around a group of friends who were also talented musicians in their own right who loved to get together and play Bluegrass - namely Eric and Suzy Thompson (mandolin/fiddle/vocals), Bill Evans (banjo/harmony vocals), Alan Senauke (guitar/lead vocals) and Larry Cohea (bass). A glimpse at their bios tells all (see NWBN May 2000 for Bill Evans' background):

Alan Senauke (formerly with High Country) is a highly respected guitarist, singer, and music writer who has worked with many great players in the bluegrass and folk music field, including Rose Maddox, Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin, Marty Cutler, and Pete Wernick. Alan has been an instructor at Puget Sound Guitar Workshop and Augusta Bluegrass Week. A Zen Buddhist priest, Alan plays in a multitude of bands including the Aux Cajunals (with Eric & Suzy Thompson), Blue Flame Stringband (with Eric & Suzy plus Kate Brislin), and The Earls (a contra dance band with Ray Bierl, Marty Cutler and Mary Gibbons). Alan grew up around New York City during the great folk scare of the sixties. He played bluegrass and traditional music and sometimes some rock and roll, atfirst for fun, and later small money also and that hasn't changed much! In the mid-seventies he was editor of Sing Out! Magazine and at the same time performing and recording with Howie Tarnower as the Fiction Brothers. He was also a charter member of the Blue Flame Stringband. Alan has toured and recorded widely in the United States, Europe, and Japan with Blue Flame Stringband, High Country, California Cajun Orchestra, the Fiction Brothers, and numerous other traditionally-rooted musicians and bands.

LarryCohea, Suzy Tompson, Bill Evans,
Eric Thompson and Allan Senauke

Eric Thompson (California Cajun Orchestra) plays mandolin with the Bluegrass Intentions, but he's best known for his guitar flatpicking. Eric took up the guitar as a teenager in Palo Alto, California in the early 1960's, at a time when very few folk guitarists were playing more than basic rhythm guitar. He quickly became nationally known as an exceptional lead flatpicker, winning the World Championship Cup at Union Grove, North Carolina before flying to Nashville, Tennessee to record Beatle Country with the CharlesRiver Valley Boys. Eric has been a teacher at a multitude of prestigeous venues. In 1997-78, three instructional videotapes were released by Mel Bay. His classic late 70's debut album, Bluegrass Guitar, was recently reissued with additional tracks (duets with David Grisman), as Thompson's Reel; it features Eric's picking backed by a hot bluegrass band which includes David Grisman, Tony Rice, Jody Stecher, Paul Shelasky, Sandy Rothman, and Todd Phillips. He's even played with 'The Dead'...

Suzy Thompson (California Cajun Orchestra) is best known for her Louisiana Cajun fiddling, which was featured prominently on both California Cajun Orchestra CDs (the second of which won an Indie Award for best Cajun-Zydeco album of the year). She studied in Louisiana with the legendary Cajun fiddler Dewey Balfa, under an NEA Folk Arts Apprenticeship. She appears on Darol Anger's recent album Diary of a Fiddler, and has recorded with Laurie Lewis, Kate Brislin & Jody Stecher, the Savoy Doucet Cajun Band, and many other artists. In 1994, she represented the US on a Master Folk Fiddlers Tour of England and Scotland. Suzy has been an instructor at many important events and is a music reviewer for the Old Time Herald.

Tight work round the double mic...

Larry Cohea plays normally plays banjo and appears frequently at Bay area venues, usuallyas banjo picker in San Francisco bluegras band Dark Hollow

My husband Derek and I first heard about the 'Intentions' from Larry Carlin, who was enthusiastically describing the personnel and their multi talents. Larry had booked them to Sweetwater as part of his monthly Bluegrass Gold Series featuring the best of Bay Area Bluegrass. Well, they were just as he described, with knobs on!!

This small, prestigious music venue in Mill Valley, Marin County, California was treated to some blistering Bluegrass! Right from their first number, a traditional Bluegrass tune performed round two mikes on one stand with the harmonies ringing out, they showed their feeling and affinity for this music - and it continued, with some great material.

This band had songs I'd never heard before, such as the true story of the murder of Ellen Smith in 1825, which had been buried for political reasons. It is very rarely sung but was sung superbly here by Suzy Thompson!

Scattered amongst some old standards and some great humorous ballads, there was the Flatt and Scruggs number That Old Book Of Mine which was never recorded by them, done to great effect with a real high old-fashioned Bluegrass sound.

Other offerings included The Girl On The Green Briar Shore by The Carter Family and a Flatt & Scruggs song Get In Line Brother If You Want To Go Home - a great driving gospel number with wonderful harmonies!! Fiddle and banjo had the taters on a new tune from Bill Evans, giving it a hard-driving, old-fashioned sound.

Suzy's mean, powerful, bluegrass fiddle and Bill Evans' driving banjo help to give this band their great old fashioned Bluegrass sound, of which I for one can't get enough and which is guaranteed to bring me out in goose bumps!!

After the Rose Maddox song A Beautiful Bouquet, which really suited really suited Suzy's powerful and penetrating bluegrass voice, they finished the first set with a waltz reminiscent of The Cuckoo.

The second half kicked off with a hard-driving version of Lead Belly's On a Monday Almost Done followed by some great trio singing on Hank Williams's You'll Never Be Alone Like Me and Bring Back My Blue-Eyed Boy To Me. A couple of Jimmy Martin songs, You Don't Know My Mind Today and Stormy Waters, lead up to the final number, the title track of Bill Evans' CD Native and Fine with Ain't Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I'm Goneas an encore.

Bluegrass Intentions is a band that should go places - and deservedly, considering the musical pedigrees of its' members.

Jean Brandon, Chester

1st Dec 2000