coming soon: bluegrass nation

    Oh, bluegrass. Shaking head and sighing gently. The music that analyzes itself within an inch of its life. So beautiful. So fraught. So full of paradoxes. I really do love the music and its place in America’s story, in part because of its cultural complexities. And I sincerely adore so many of the people whom I’ve met from the bluegrass world who have made it their life and maybe even their living. Obviously I work a good deal with bluegrass artists and labels, so I’m a stakeholder as much as a journalist on this topic. But I’ve got the whole bluegrass conundrum on my mind more than usual, for a couple of reasons.

First, I spent two and a half very interesting days last week in a board meeting for the International Bluegrass Music Association, the trade association for bluegrass music. I’ve been a director of IBMA for three years, and I’m ostensibly in charge of issues concerning media and marketing. Which leads to the other reason I’m writing this, which is that while I’ve not been a very big help on the media front, I have spent a fair amount of time helping to develop an ambitious marketing idea with and on behalf of IBMA. It’s called Bluegrass Nation, and it is being readied to roll out this summer. It’s time to explain this thing and start a dialog over its shape and scope. It’s quite wide open, and my excitement about it is wrapped up intimately with my optimism about the future of bluegrass music.

Bluegrass Nation will be a social network for bluegrass fans and professionals, a super-community that hopes to stitch together a variety of on-line and off-line bluegrass-related groups and fans worldwide. A resource center, a conversation point, a news feed and a platform for sharing, Bluegrass Nation will blur the lines between bluegrass-specific web sites and Facebook groups, and it will be a place for bluegrass-related content creators of all kinds to become better known and more widely seen. Its details and design are being worked on now, but our working document and vision statement is available HERE.

This new on-line community represents a new direction for the IBMA at several levels. For one thing, it’s taking on a new role in developing a larger, deeper audience for bluegrass music, whereas before the association has focused on the development of bluegrass professionals almost exclusively. At a time when the music business is reconfiguring itself around affinity groups, communities and tribes, we are attempting to draw bluegrass fans closer to one another and closer to the IBMA. We hope to give them new kinds of content, context, entertainment, news and access to the music and its artists. We will be inviting everyone out there, in American and the world, to “join the Bluegrass Nation” and then to contribute to it however they like. Membership is free, and there will be premiums and incentives for becoming part of the BN community. Candidly, we will be asking BN members to opt in for e-mail blasts and marketing scenarios from our members, with hopes of building the world’s biggest database of bluegrass fans. Fans do not have to opt in to take advantage of Bluegrass Nation’s resources, but we will make it as attractive as we can so that IBMA’s members can reach, in a targeted way, old and new fans around the country.

I like to think of Bluegrass Nation as an on-line, year-round analog of IBMA’s signature event, the annual World Of Bluegrass. There is no substitute for that regular in-person gathering, but we hope Bluegrass Nation will feel a bit like a convention, a trade show, a talent showcase -- and an all-around inspiration. It will be a news platform for regional and local associations. It will feature an amalgamation of the best bluegrass music listservs and forums. It will host wiki-based concert calendars and special event bulletin boards. We have envisioned an instrument marketplace, a jobs board, a picking party directory, etc. We’d love to foster mentoring and tutoring sessions, online or offline. We’ll be able to amplify the reach of IBMA’s ongoing webinars. In general, we are trying to build a robust platform on which a wide variety of things, many yet to be invented, will be possible.

But I hope most of all that BluegrassNation.org will be a place that celebrates and supports and unites all of the roots and branches of bluegrass music. Because you see bluegrass, as wonderful as it is, is afflicted with a never-ending anxiety. The conundrum I mentioned before. Every discussion about the music’s present and future (including last week’s meeting) circles back to the same debate: What is bluegrass anyway? And how far out of its stylistic and sonic and historical boundaries should the IBMA reach as it seeks to make common cause with bluegrass-influenced artists and potential bluegrass audiences around the world? Or to put it in the terms we discussed: how big should IBMA’s tent be? With camping such a popular mode of accommodation at bluegrass festivals, one might think everyone would agree that bigger tents are better. And the IBMA board is rather unified in a big-tent posture. But we can also be a bit paralyzed by fears of backlash from hard-core traditionalists who will argue that inclusion of some things will defile the legacy of Bill Monroe etc. At a time when we, like all non-profits in the arts, are watching every last penny, even a smallish group walking away from IBMA and its convention over these esthetic disputes could be quite harmful.

At last week’s meeting, which included not only the regular business of the board but a two day retreat-style conversation with industry leaders and artists, there was much discussion about Mumford & Sons, the improbably popular British folk group, the Avett Brothers, a punk-grass band turned crowd-wowing acoustic rockers, and Yonder Mountain String Band, the wildly popular Colorado jam-grass band. The existential questions hovered: does the success of such bands - bands inspired by bluegrass that don’t exactly play bluegrass - reflect well on or help the state of bluegrass itself? Do they help grow the base of fandom for bluegrass? Well if you’ve ever heard me prattle on about the subject you’ll know that I’m a strong YES to both, and I reject entirely the notion that embracing bluegrass-related music and celebrating its ties to bluegrass harms in any way the core sound and core values of bluegrass music. Indeed it seems obvious to me that the mere fact that bluegrass can and has inspired so many off-shoots is testimony to the deep integrity and power of the original invention. I am happy to say that among the bluegrass leaders assembled to talk big-picture evolution of the IBMA, there was near consensus on behalf of “inclusion” and a big tent vision.

 However, if we invited Mumford & Sons to play a song on the Ryman Auditorium stage during the IBMA Awards, there WOULD be a riot worthy of Stravinsky. That’s why we really need to think about creative, non-threatening ways to build bridges and stretch that tent and generally put our money where our metaphors are. Would it not be a good idea to have the Avett Brothers (a band drawing THOUSANDS of young fans) sit for a keynote interview at World of Bluegrass? How about a case study on the career arc of Yonder Mountain with some kind of Skype session with their fans in Colorado. What tactics could work for more traditional bands, and what could we do to feed Yonder’s fans with more background on the roots of bluegrass?

I think the best thing we can do is build Bluegrass Nation and let it be a giant forum for all views and sounds. And maybe we’ll build a goofy alarm button onto a lower corner of the site “PRESS IF BLUEGRASS RULES ARE VIOLATED!”. I’m kidding, but I think BN will be a steam valve for bluegrass music’s internal heat and pressure that currently gets directed at IBMA. The fans and bands themselves will decide who and what is part of Bluegrass Nation. I want to see a thousand flowers bloom. I expect to see news on BN about the Secret Sisters and Apache Relay, about the Carolina Chocolate Drops and the Emmitt-Nershi Band, about Holy Ghost Tent Revival and the New Familiars. Even more, I expect to see love for and dispatches from Dailey & Vincent, IIIrd Tyme Out, Ricky Skaggs, Del McCoury and all the other tone-setting top-tier artists whom everyone knows represent bluegrass with a capital B. We are also talking behind the scenes about making sure that Bluegrass Nation regularly celebrates true-blue legacy artists, from the Stanley Brothers to John Hartford (oh wait, he was a heretic before he was in the Hall of Fame).

Bluegrass truly is remarkable and unique in American life. As a musical vocabulary, it’s so strong and integral that it can’t HELP but inspire variations and evolve along with the nation that birthed it. Its track record is equally strong in passing on its core values and its historic legacy. I see no shortage of solid traditional bluegrass bans out there. If anything, there are so many that we should not be scratching our heads over how hard it is for any one of them to make a full-time living. The newgrass/jamgrass/chambergrass/dancegrass/indiefolkgrass revolution will go on with or without the IBMA. I think it would be very much better for bluegrass music if it was with. Here’s hoping Bluegrass Nation can be the bandwagon.

 

Comments

[GrannyPam]

I am looking forward to continued participation, and great new opportunities for all.

[Nolan Lawrence]

I'm lovin' this! I nearly busted a gut when i read the part about the alarm button. Can't wait to see what's in store for our Bluegrass Nation :)

[Larry Klein]

Nice work Craig, looking forward to getting on board and helping to expand the audience and boundaries for our music!

[Lisa Jacobi]

Great write up. Anticipate the unveiling. Thank you Craig for your dedication.

[Bill Warren]

Let'er rip! I am really looking forward to this!

[Henri Deschamps]

Beautiful! That is very exciting news, and it's going to help a great deal to take bluegrass where it belongs, to the pinnacle of American Music & Culture.

[Ken Hamilton]

Sounds like a fantastic idea.

[Darwin Davidson]

Great job Craig. Any and all things that are done to grow the bluegrass music fan base, and interest in all all aspects of bluegrass, has to be good.

[Scott Patrick]

nice. excellent explanation of what IBMA has the potential of being without stepping on toes. There is room for everybody so come on in!

[Booksy]

Pow! Yonder's bluegrass.

[DREW]

So who showed this guy the State of Bluegrass website 18 months ago??

Kidding, kinda.

[Tyler Grant]

Craig, very well written! I am a purist as far as BLUEGRASS is concerned, meaning even the modern-tradionalist bluegrass sound that IBMA fosters does not sound like BLUEGRASS to me. However, all of the bands that are breaking away from tradition are doing what they are supposed to do with the music, according to it's founder, Bill Monroe. There are very few current bands that play TRADITIONAL BLUEGRASS, The Del McCoury Band being the best example, in my opinion. As long as the fans are being educated as to what TRADITIONAL BLUEGRASS is, let them enjoy whatever kind of music they like! Look at Rock and Roll music. Does Led Zeppelin or the Foo Fighters sound like Buddy Holly or Elvis Presley? Vaguely, but it's all Rock and Roll, right? Bluegrass music will grow and evolve. We need traditional groups like DMB. Ralph Stanley is still out there with his traditional mountain-music band, but he never called it "Bluegrass." Is he violating the rules by playing his own style? I think not...
Same for Doc Watson. He is not a BLUEGRASS player, but he has his own style of music that is influenced by Monroe and other Bluegrass folks, and I don't think he can be accused of misleading the youth.

[Julissa]

What an awemsoe way to explain this—now I know everything!

[Cami]

This aitcrle keeps it real, no doubt.

[Hawk]

Yo, that's what's up truhtfluly.

[Doc Fiddle]

Every musical genre goes through a constant ordeal of redefinition. Just look at jazz and the endless debates over what's "classical" jazz. And of course the interminable argument over what's "country." Bluegrass just hasn't found a nomenclature yet to capture the many variations on its themes that have cropped up due to the broadening and growth of its audiences.