By Jean Brandon

I was fortunate to get a centre, front row seat at the Nashville Bluegrass Band’s Vocal Workshop at the Barbican Bluegrass Hand-Picked Day. Although I have a couple of their CD’s which I like a lot I’ve never seen them perform before so I was prepared to be impressed - and I was!

They started the session by saying that they expected us, the audience, to do the work and that they didn’t intend to do just another performance, so setting the scene for one of the best interactive workshops I’ve been to. Their natural friendliness, relaxed style and obvious love of the music and knowledge of their craft of harmony singing made for an easy atmosphere which facilitated lots of questions from the floor, resulting in a varied and interesting hour.

Alan O’Bryant sings into the banjo!
Photo by D.Brandon copyright © NWBN

A discussion arose about Alan O’Bryant’s habit of lifting his banjo and singing into it! Alan explained “I started by lifting it to get the weight off my diaphragm when I needed a deep breath during a song, but I noticed that it resonated and provided a reference point to keep me on track during the song - now it has become automatic!”

Another questioner asked “Who have you been influenced by in your gospel singing?” They said that one of their favourite groups was the black a capella gospel quartet The Fairfield Four, whose style of singing had been a major influence. They explained collectively that to arrange the harmony in a song they begin with the lead part, fit the other voices around it then choose the key by trying it out in different keys. The key they eventually decide upon is not necessarily the best one for the lead singer but the one giving the best sound and feel to the overall arrangement.

People were very interested in how they achieved the correct balance of instruments and vocals on stage because, as someone pointed out, “your balance here in this unamplified workshop is superb.” Pat Enright said that whenever possible they took their own sound man with them to ensure a sound balance as good as it could be, within the limitations of the acoustics of the venue.

Commenting on their recent extensive experiments working around a single mic., Pat Enright (guitar / lead vocal) said they had decided that it wasn’t for them, except for small venues with good acoustics. Another problem had been the choreography involved in moving in and out to the mic. smoothly without obstructing and bumping into each other... the ‘old-timers’ did it because they had to - they only had one mic!

Stuart Duncan, Roland White, Gene Libea and Alan O'Bryant
Photo by D.Brandon copyright © NWBN

The hour passed all too quickly! It hadn’t been all work though - they’d sung some great songs to illustrate the points raised. Apart from Tear My Still House Down (from their last CD Unleashed) the Workshop songs were different from the ones they performed and sang in their evening concert spot. Alan O’Bryant was handicapped by laryngitis but seemed to be coping well and Pat Enright (guitar / lead vocals) was in great voice! Gene Libea (bass / bass vocals), Roland White (mandolin) and Stuart Duncan (fiddle) completed the line-up, all adding their contributions to a first class workshop which provided a lot of material for us to take away and, hopefully, put in practice. They were all wonderful but Stuart’s soulful fiddle playing sent shivers up my spine!

In their evening concert performance they were even more impressive, appearing equally at home with the formal setting of the concert stage. All the techniques and points that had been covered in the workshop were applied to great effect - we were treated to some cracking bluegrass by a band who obviously love it’s music. They made sure we did too!

Jean Brandon, Chester, UK

Updated 23rd Jan 1999