British Bluegrass Comes of Age
|
THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF GOSSIP and whispers lately about Real British Bluegrass - you know, the genuine UK variety - following the publication of Mike Preston’s very pro-British Editorial in the March 1996 edition of the British Bluegrass News (BBN). Mind you, it didn’t start there; Mike was only ‘bringing out’ what many people have known for years but been afraid to speak of openly. He explains the origins of American Bluegrass and indicates that it’s time to give serious consideration to the words of the songs we’re singing - “We should sing them with pride and... sing them in our own way”. Mike suggests the current American versions are completely alien to us Brits and says it’s time we dropped the pseudo-American accents and the 'Take me back to Old Virginny where I was born' - type of line. This is because he (for one) isn’t and clearly can’t go back to where he’s not from. It seems there’s a lot of truth in this and indeed, it has given many the strength and conviction they needed to ‘come out’ (as they say in the USA). After 1 years research investigating some recent ‘underground’ bluegrass events what follows is an interim report on what we discovered.
Mike Harding, Cowboy, of Rochdale, claims that it all started with blues singers Blind Lemon Clegg and Sleepy John Arkwright, from Accrington and Oswaldtwistle respectively, but they only showed the way that many have since followed. Helsby is well-known for it’s ‘crossover’ group Johnny Plank and the Planktones, which has been singing songs such as God’s from Widnes and The Greenalls Bitter Gospel for quite a while, but this progressive stuff isn’t quite up to the real, traditional thing and can’t compare with the very creditable attempt at trad British Bluegrass by Sheffield band The Steel City Pickers. At ‘Edale 1996’ they sang their own version of Ages And Ages Ago, which had a verse about English Fish and Chips! But in our judgement pride of place for what must be the definitive British Bluegrass Instrumental goes to Bury group T' Clog & Whippet Bluegrass Band, which played its own original composition Black Pudding Breakdown. Black puddings, which are strongly associated with Bury, Lancashire, and reputedly originated there, are usually eaten with English mustard. But this piece is hot enough in its own right! Wigan band T’Lads From T’Pit managed to re-work a few old standards such as Dream of a Miners Child, but had difficulty getting ‘Father’ (pronounced ‘Fae-ther’ in Lancashire dialect) to rhyme in the place of ‘Daddy’. In fact, one of the problems with Lancashire Bluegrass is the rhyme; for example not a lot rhymes with ‘owt’ except things like ‘nowt’, ‘thowt’ and ‘cowt’. Of course, a historic miner is ‘Th’owd man’ in Lanky so that caused problems too. Up-and-coming Lancashire group Th’ Ecky Thump Steel-Clog Stompers has devised a wonderful version of the trad song Ee Bah Gum It Were A Reet Good Do! I think it loses something by being sung in strict time - the original depends for its charm on slowing a bit then speeding up again for the ‘Ee bah gum’ bit. The Scots have their fair share of UK TradGrass. I was taken blindfolded to hear a Glaswegian band, whose name I couldn’t make out, singing a number whose words I couldn’t understand, so it must have been good. But I’m not sure that I entirely approve of the inflated baggy thing one of them was wrestling with. Where the Americans would sing about hills and mountains, Welsh bluegrass band Glaswellt Glas y Ddraig Goch sings about the valleys. Their performance was very creditable and Bronwyn ap Owen finger-picks a blistering break up the strings in their up-beat version of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, but nonetheless I still think I’d lose the harp. And ‘Hen Benillion’ singing doesn’t really lend itself to songs where the singing and the music both start together and use the same tune. I mention all this because Wales is somewhat Bluegrass-disadvantaged compared to many parts of the UK and these could be contributory reasons. We didn’t get sufficient time to research Ireland, so perhaps you could write in and enlighten us with some of your own discoveries!
Fred Llewelyn McTavish, Footnotes: BBN is the official magazine of the British Bluegrass Music association.
Glossary of terms
used: Note 1: I am informed that 'Cerdd Tir Glas' is the official Welsh form of saying 'Bluegrass music', according to the Welsh Academy Dictionary, but it's not as much fun. Note 2: You will have difficulty checking the correctness of 'Wlad', 'Nhadau' ,'Ddraig', 'Goch' and 'Benillion' in a Welsh-English dictionary. Instead look for Gwlad (land), Tadau (fathers), Draig (dragon), Coch (red) and Penillion. It would take too much space to go into how Welsh language changes (mutates) the beginnings of words depending on the preceding word...
|
Mike Preston