String Theory Media

building from the roots up

An announcement:  I've hung my free lance above the fireplace and gone to work full time for Music City Roots as a producer and writer. My title, which I'm making up right now, is Senior Producer and Journalist, and all this took effect on January 1, even though I’m still sweeping up the worksite on a few year-end String Theory Media projects. Now that the new year is really rolling, so am I.

To say I’m excited about this would be a ridiculous understatement. When show creators Todd Mayo and John Walker looked me up a few years ago out of curiosity about live radio production in the golden age of WSM, it was like so many conversations that seem promising but don’t go anywhere.  Except this one did. I knew after our first meal together that these were exceptional guys with great ideas and a commitment to good entertainment in and of Nashville that rivaled those who founded Music Row. They kept me in the loop through a Plan A collapse and a Plan B revival, and they graciously asked me to be part of their crusade to present authentic music in a cool setting, with a reach to the world. They got the show launched on WSM in the auspicious month of October (that’s when WSM went on the air in 1925) and negotiated brilliantly through the crazy Gaylord divorce and the happy WRLT marriage. They found sponsors in a tough economy and now we’re partnered with a remarkable bunch of companies and brands that fit our values and our spirit like almost none other could (and yes, I’ll name and thank them: Nissan, Griffin Technology, The Nature Conservancy, Whole Foods, Ascend Federal Credit Union, Vietti Chili and Ole Smoky Moonshine. Love ya lots)

We’ve staged 101 shows, and I’m proud to say the only ones I’ve missed came during our trip to China to meet and adopt our daughter and one week when I was out working on a film. It’s been a life’s dream to be part of something this good and good-hearted, with people of this caliber. And to think  that we’re expanding and investing more in our vision of Americana music with new outlets and media is just kind of awesomely nuts. So I say to y’all now: please get the fever or get out of the way.

 I'll be pushing forward on three fronts in our campaign to turn every American into a fan of their own indigenous music...

Bluegrass Nation: an overdue update

Last Spring, I described here that the International Bluegrass Music Assn. was working on Bluegrass Nation, a new social platform for bluegrass music and media, and then last Fall, we sketched some details for attendees at World of Bluegrass. At that point, we had just identified a developer, but it took  more time to nail down the plan and the budget and truly get started. Now, I’m happy to say, it’s on. We’re meeting weekly to structure and refine the idea so that it can do the most good for the most people. We’ve had many conversations with interested parties about what they’d like to see, and we’ve gamed scenarios for what the page/news service/sharing tool will look and feel like. Our guy is Ryan DeRose, web guy out of the fascinating and dynamic Charlottesville, VA music community, recommended to us by banjoist and bluegrass uh, activist(?) Chris Pandolfi of the Infamous Stringdusters, who are sporting a new DeRose-designed, socially-enabled website.

The very latest is that we’ve launched a logo contest for the site through Creative Allies.

warren hellman, bluegrass and philanthropy

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park is one of the greatest events I’ve ever experienced. (Here’s what I wrote about my visit in 2006.) It’s remarkable for so many reasons, chiefly in that it was and remains free to the public, a gift to the city of San Francisco and the nation by financier and philanthropist Warren Hellman, who died Sunday at age 77.

All I ever heard about Hellman was that he was an unusual guy and a mensch to folk and bluegrass musicians. The artists and sidemen I know who’ve played HSB often say it’s their favorite festival of the year, because of the lineup, the setting and the respect Hellman paid the musicians at all levels. There was just something about Warren Hellman, beyond his being staggeringly rich, but I didn’t know what that was until I read this marvelous obituary and appreciation in The Bay Citizen. The takeaway:

"A rugged iconoclast whose views on life rarely failed to surprise, Hellman was a lifelong Republican who supported labor unions, an investment banker whose greatest joy was playing songs of the working class in a bluegrass band, and a billionaire who wanted to pay more taxes and preferred the company of crooners and horsemen who shared his love of music and cross-country 'ride and tie' racing."  

Hellman’s life was just amazing. You should read the details. But what blows my mind, is that in these times of 1%ism and cultural strife, it takes an “eccentric” billionaire from San Francisco to highlight a puzzling and unfortunate thing: American wealth (about which I’m basically ambivalent) isn’t trickling down to American roots music and the whole Americana scene. This estrangement doesn’t speak well of Hellman’s class, because I think there’s a case to be made that whither goeth a nation’s music, there goeth the nation. And while some view Americana as just another musical format/genre/category, the more appropriate way to see it is good cells in our cultural bloodstream. Bluegrass and folk music was a great 20th century profusion of humanity and freedom that could keep us sane and connected in the chaotic 21st, if we can stay connected with it. American roots music’s fine art pinnacle is jazz, which has issues and struggles of its own, and American roots music has many branches. But let’s call what Hellman cherished and supported bluegrass, hardly strictly speaking, and let’s agree that bluegrass is NOT flush with resources from our country’s patrons of arts and culture.

new work: chet atkins on npr

Every now and then I get to do a story on a true icon and a true hero. As a guitar player, there's nobody more important to the evolution of the instrument as I know it than Chet Atkins. He brought together hillbilly directness and urbane sophistication more completely and more influentially than any other picker, and he enjoyed a long fruitful career as an executive, which helped him spread his musical ideas farther than most great musicians ever get to.

So please check out my feature on the legacy of Chet Atkins and the wonderful exhibition that's half way through its run at the Country Music Hall of Fame. 

One side of the Chet story which we only had time to allude to was his appreciation for jazz and his frequent gathering together of players who straddled the line between hillbilly music and jazz. The Hee Haw clip below is a great example:

 

chuck mead needs you: a kickstarter

A most worthy Kickstarter pitch went live last week, and we don’t say that merely because we’re involved. The story line sells itself: Chuck Mead, founder of BR549 and renowned Nashville honky tonk catalyst, makes a classic country album with his band and members of Music Row’s famed A-Team in a renovated and revived Quonset Hut, Music Row's first recording studio. The album is done and coming in February. The campaign is to cover costs of production, promotion and the 25-minute documentary we’re making to go along with the album. Our pitch video isn't really how the film's going to feel, but we had fun with it:

Built by Owen and Harold Bradley in 1957, the Quonset Hut was the first music business of any kind on what would become Music Row. There’s no overstating its importance in Nashville or American music. It’s where Owen Bradley produced Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee, working out the fundamentals of the Nashville Sound. For decades, it was full, all day every day, with the greatest of the great: Red Foley, Bill Monroe, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, Roger Miller and on and on. The place was literally surrounded by the growing headquarters of Columbia Records Nashville but remained an active studio until 1982. Decommissioned the day after the tracking session for John Anderson's hit "Swingin," the arch-roofed room became the art department for Sony/Columbia. Now it’s part of Belmont University, and thanks to the support of the prolifically philanthropic Mike Curb, the Quonset Hut has been refurbished into a spacious half-pipe of sonic bliss.

ryan cavanaugh and the time of the banjo

The sweeping documentary Give Me The Banjo premieres this week (Fri. Nov. 4) on PBS. And the filmmakers must be wishing they could keep adding scenes right up to airtime, because the banjo just keeps making news. America’s quintessential instrument is on an amazing tear right now.

At least three massively popular bands – I’m thinking of the Avett Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show and Mumford & Sons –prominently feature banjo. And scores of up-and-coming Americana bands (i.e. The New Familiars, The Westbound Rangers, Holy Ghost Tent Revival, The Defibulators, Elephant Revival, Spirit Family Reunion, Frontier Ruckus and The Vespers just to name a few) make banjo an important part of their sound. The banjer, as Earl Scruggs calls it, is as fashionable in the indie scene nowadays as beards.

Meanwhile, the amazing Steve Martin, besides narrating Give Me The Banjo, is showcasing his own banjo playing on the talk show circuit, while playing with and presenting one of the best young bluegrass bands – The Steep Canyon Rangers – to America. Besides that, he’s supporting the banjo arts directly with generous annual grants, which so far have gone to Punch Brother Noam Pikelny and Lonesome River Band vet Sammy Shelor. (If you haven’t seen Noam’s spoof EPK for his new album, do so now.) In related news, Bela Fleck, arguably the best known banjo player after Earl Scruggs himself, recently premiered his concerto for banjo and orchestra, a three-movement mega-work he expects to perform with symphonies around the country in 2012. And with a little luck, the Earl Scruggs Center – a museum and regional showplace for banjo-related music in Shelby, NC that we have been privileged to work with - will raise its last few dollars and open in the coming year.

Amid all this hot banjo action, I enjoyed lunch recently with banjo magician Ryan Cavanaugh and his bandmate, bass player Kevin Knapp. We bonded over Thai aromas and our shared love of modern jazz and bluegrass.

we shot (a little) of that: noam pikelny goes bluegrass diva

See tragedy unfold below as Noam Pikelny, banjo badass, makes a bad career decision. We were pleased to shoot the scenes with Bela Fleck and Earl Scruggs. Awesome to see how this came together. And by the way, the new Noam Pikelney album Beat The Devil And Carry A Rail is simply amazing. 

Bluegrass Diva with Steve Martin, Ed Helms and Noam Pikelny from Steve Martin

 

a conversation with yonder mountain string band

I was thrilled to see somebody taped and posted this interview from World of Bluegrass. Yonder Mountain's Ben Kaufmann and Dave Johnston were interesting, funny and inspiring. Please enjoy.

I've thought a lot about why YMSB has been controversial in the bluegrass community and part of me gets it. Because when an act comes along that you think violates core tenants of tradition but is seen as part of that tradition by newcomers, AND you don't like the music from a taste point of view, you want to wave your arms and cry 'wait a minute! That's NOT what you think it is!'

That's what I've thought for years about Rascal Flatts viz. country music. I hate that band. I think they're awful with awful taste in music and clothes. AND they are in the COUNTRY format. It pains me to think a 14 year old girl's first impression of country music is RF rather than Alan Jackson or Patsy Cline. And yet I should probably relax. The world will go on. Folks inclined to hear country music will hear it and get into it. For the record, I am NOT calling YMSB the Rascal Flatts of bluegrass, so let nobody make a mistake. Sons of Sylvia are the Rascal Flatts of bluegrass.

In all objectivity, Yonder shows are not my complete cup of tea. I always feel needy of more individual virtuosity and instrumental interplay (for me the great strength of their buddies the Infamous STringdusters), where Yonder are masters of group dynamics and good-time management. They're brilliant at creating a happy space and a dancing groove that pulls everyone together, and I admire the hell out of that. Nearly every mid-pack bluegrass band I've ever seen could use a crash course in Yonder's skills at cultivating the vibe. I am very glad Yonder has carved out such a vital and vibrant niche in the bluegrass, and this interview was, for me, a gift of an opportunity to explore how Yonder's tactics and methods could be picked up by other bands, with the aim of making the whole bluegrass world, from trad to rad, bigger and better-loved. 

 

more del: the songs of bill monroe in studio

As I expound below, the Del McCoury Band collaborates with all kinds of folks, including an awesome recent album with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. But in this 100th birth year anniversary of Bill Monroe, Del’s bedrock bluegrass chops have been front and center. His brand new album is Old Memories: The Songs of Bill Monroe. Nobody will be surprised by the intensity and authenticity of these performances of songs at the core of the bluegrass canon. But you might be surprised to learn that Del and band allowed cameras into the recording sessions - our cameras! Steve Fishell’s Music Producers Institute called on String Theory Media and video-guy extraordinaire Paul Whitfield to capture nearly a full day of recording at Sound Emporium. Steve edited the footage down to an hour-plus edu-doc that covers all aspects of the recording process and visits with Del about his time with Monroe. Also, in keeping with Fishell's history as a musician and Grammy-winning producer, the audio is flawless. It’s a pay-per-view thing, but it’s a steal at $4.99 for two streams. Here’s the trailer. The full length video lives HERE.

 

the tao of del

On Thursday night at the International Bluegrass Music Assn. Awards at the Ryman Auditorium, on the very stage where the music was introduced to the world, Del McCoury was inducted into IBMA's Hall of Fame. This was an inevitable induction, but it was gratifying to see a legend inducted while still very much at the top of his game and not, for example, dead. Del’s sons Ronnie and Rob offered a warm career overview, and when Del came up on stage, he invited along his extended family, including a grandson Del. And looking like a patriarch at the center of a Christmas card photo, Del made the loveliest, funniest, sunniest acceptance speech one could imagine.

My heart was full and my eyes moist, but none of it topped what happened a couple hours later when, following an awards after-party at the Hard Rock Café, I walked back up the hill toward the Renaissance Hotel. I cut through the Ryman parking lot and there, at about 12:45 am, was Del and his wife Jean, his managers and a couple other family members saying good-night around their cars. It was a great opportunity to stop and say congratulations.