Billy Strings

Photo: Scott Dudelson/Getty Images

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Billy Strings Talks 'Tinfoil & Turmoil,' Doc Watson, Bluegrass, Heavy Metal & More

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The young six-string master reveals his heavy metal roots, psychedelic musical influences and reverence for the rich history of the blues and bluegrass
Derek Halsey
GRAMMYs
Sep 30, 2018 - 12:48 pm

In the early days of bluegrass music, the guitar was mostly used for rhythm purposes, with the distinct exception of an occasional G-run riff made famous by Lester Flatt beginning in the 1940s. The guitar was not the instrument of choice then when it came time to play solos.

That began to change in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s when musicians such as George Shuffler, Doc Watson, Clarence White, Dan Crary, Tony Rice and others opened up the possibilities of the guitar as a lead instrument. Their work featured mid-song solo breaks that were performed with beauty and fire, taste and precision. Since then, each following bluegrass generation has had their guitar heroes who have furthered the cause of the guitar in the genre. One of the current masters of the instrument is Billy Strings.

We caught up with Strings right before the 2018 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards show held in Raleigh, NC, on Sept. 27. Strings was nominated for both the Emerging Artist of the Year nod as well as the coveted IBMA Guitarist of the Year Award. Strings feels very fortunate to have been nominated in the latter category with other great guitarists such as Kenny Smith, Josh Williams, Bryan Sutton and Molly Tuttle. Tuttle ended up winning the honor.

How did you hear about the IBMA nomination?

I pay attention to what's going on over there, and I was watching the Livestream when they announced it and I couldn't believe it, really.

Well, why not? You're rocking the six-string, man.

Aw, yeah, I don't know, man. Those other people that are on that list are [players] I look up to and respect highly. Bryan Sutton and Molly Tuttle and Kenny Smith - those are some great guitar players and I can't say too much about what I do or whatever it is. It's a great honor, it really is, just to even be mentioned in the same breath as those others.

I remember you played Sugar Grove, Doc Watson's other festival and that's all I heard about, how good you were.

That was a really special gig for me too, you know, cause I love Doc. I was raised on Doc's music. My dad, he taught me a bunch of that stuff when I was growing up, all of that, all of those songs… Because I grew up in Michigan, I never got a chance to go to North Carolina and meet Doc. And when I got a little older, I started traveling, and eventually I made it to that Sugar Grove festival, and I got to meet Doc's brother and his family. Everybody that was there was friends with him. It was a trip for me, because Doc, in my book, he's huge.

I know what you mean. And Doc's brother, David, looks just like him.

Yeah, he showed me Doc's bolo knife. He had Doc's pocketknife on him.

There are a few musicians that have gone to heavy metal or punk rock, and have ended up in bluegrass. How did your musical background help you, and what are some similarities between these styles?

When I started out playing music, I learned playing bluegrass when I was young and then eventually, when I was in middle school, I got an electric guitar and I wanted to start playing with people that were my age. I played with my dad and his friends, and I was just a little kid and they were adults. I never really made music with people that were like into the same stuff that I was into, like playing video games and s***.

So I started playing in metal bands. That's how I learned how to perform. I learned how to play music with my dad playing bluegrass and listening to Doc Watson. But I learned how, when I was on stage for the first few times, I was in a metal band and that kind of energy just stuck.

Well, I know Doc is a hero to you, but are you hip to the evolution of the guitar in bluegrass music? When Bill Monroe lead the first-ever bluegrass band in the 1940s, guitars weren't doing lead solos. Then, players like George Shuffler, Doc Watson and Clarence White began to break new guitar ground. Did those innovators have an influence on you as well?

Yeah, of course. Tony Rice and Norman Blake and all those cats. I listened to all that stuff. Clarence White, of course. An icon. And Tony Rice, too, man. I never got the chance to see him play either.

So how are you influenced by those guys and still create your own style?

I think that's what Bill Monroe would want, to take what he started and what he did with the banjo and the mandolin, fiddle and bass, and use bluegrass as the structure to help create your own sound. I think that's what he did with bluegrass. He learned the blues from Arnold Shultz, and then he mixed it with the fiddle tunes and stuff because he knew. It's like making fiddle tunes lonesome. That's how he made bluegrass. It's like the blues, and mixing the blues notes in there and making that stuff sound sad, and then having those fiddles just rip, just like on the old standard fiddle tunes. Beautiful stuff.

Well, I'm fascinated by Arnold Shultz, who was a black guitarist, and I think he might have played fiddle, too, that Monroe knew and played with as a kid, yet there were no recordings ever made of him. That is both frustrating and amazing to think about.

Oh man, I know. But I imagine that's where Bill learned the blues and at least picked up some of that phrasing. You think bluegrass, that's what I think of. It's like fiddle tunes and then a mixture of really heartbreaking sound.

You can hear that mixture on your new album, Turmoil & Tinfoil. How would you describe your music?

I think that's just it. It comes from everywhere. Like I said, I stand with bluegrass and I tend to listen to everything from Jimi Hendrix to psychedelic bands like the Grateful Dead and stuff like that. I'm just trying to go everywhere with it. I think it's more of a progressive bluegrass sound with a psychedelic feel.

Sounds good to me. What's up next for you?

I'm on the road 24-7, brother. I'm just touring and playing gigs and more and more people are coming out and I think that's it, man. I've got my lifestyle. I just live on the road and these people, all my friends at the festival, that's my family. I live out here on the road, man, but I accept that. I love it.

Photo Gallery: Inside World Of Bluegrass, IBMA Awards & Festival in Raleigh

Gillian Welch

Gillian Welch

Photo: Shannon Kelly

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Exclusive: Gillian Welch On Vinyl, Songwriting, 'O Brother...' & More

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The accomplished singer/songwriter reflects on her career, creative process and some of her most memorable songs backstage at World Of Bluegrass
Derek Halsey
GRAMMYs
Oct 12, 2018 - 5:10 pm

Picture this: it is late in the evening on Labor Day 2018, Sept. 3, and a wrap-around wooden deck topped with party-goers surrounds an A-frame home on the southern side of Beech Mountain, N.C. near the mountain resort town of Banner Elk. The outdoor tables are filled with grilled chicken and other brought foods, the libations are plenty and the spread-out tiki torches are providing just the right amount of flickering light.

Soon, a bonfire is lit, made up of old wooden deck chairs and seasoned logs, and the relaxed partygoers begin to migrate to the yard. Two musicians decide to strike up some fireside music and begin to contemplate on what to sing to fit the occasion. They choose a song they both know and love: Gillian Welch’s 2003 modern classic “Look At Miss Ohio,” written by Welch and her long-time musical partner David Rawlings.

Welch's songs, including "Look At Miss Ohio," are played and sung around the world, whether it be amongst tall bonfire embers, or in the shadows of small, tended cooking fires or in coffeehouses and clubs found throughout the land. With its memorable lyrics and unhurried-yet-funky chorus, the song is stark and real and special.

The two house-party musicians are Fireside Collective guitarist Joe Cicero and western North Carolina vocalist Hope Harvey. As they roll through their impromptu version of “Look At Miss Ohio” Cicero throws some dissonant chords and a Major 6th into the bridge, giving their inspired rendition an otherworldly groove, and it works. Then, as their blended voices fade, the sound of thousands of late summer katydids eases the disappearance of the final notes as they atomize into the mountain air.

Fast-forward 25 days later and Welch is sitting in a dressing room in Raleigh, N.C., the Tar Heel State capital. The sights and sounds are of a different nature here: traffic, car horns, pavement, police whistles, parking garage echoes, and electric scooters clogging the sidewalks. It is the height of the 2018 International Bluegrass Music Association World Of Bluegrass convention and musicians, concert bookers, publicists, and radio DJs are here to do the business of bluegrass in tall buildings. Towards the end of the week, the industry talk gives way to the music as the Wide Open Bluegrass Street Fest gets underway.

On Friday evening, Sept. 28, Welch is about to perform at the 5,000-seat Red Hat Amphitheater located in downtown Raleigh, wearing one of her trademark vintage dresses. Welch is a special guest with the headlining First Ladies of Bluegrass band, an all-star group of women musicians who have all made history by being the first to win an IBMA Award for playing their respective instruments.

Welch’s temporary band mates on this night include Missy Raines (Bass Award), Alison Brown (Banjo Award), Sierra Hull (Mandolin Award), Becky Buller (Fiddle Award) and Molly Tuttle (Guitar Award). Also onboard for the highly anticipated set is GRAMMY Award winner Rhiannon Giddens.

When Welch hears about her song “Look At Miss Ohio” being sung in such a cool setting, she is proud and happy. But her eyes really light up when talking about her and Rawlings’ efforts to release that cut and the rest of their music on vinyl albums.

While the resurgence of vinyl in recent years has been well documented, Welch and Rawlings never left the old school appeal of that technology.

“‘Look At Miss Ohio’ is one of our most popular songs,” says Welch, smiling. “And, we could talk a long time about how profoundly meaningful it is to have our records released on vinyl. Because, my thing is, I listen to records while at home, and it was listening to vinyl records that changed my life in the first place. That is how I decided to do this (career). Sometimes I wonder if it would have happened while listening to CDs. Listening to vinyl is a profoundly different experience.”

The lack of auditory depth on CDs that you do get to hear when listening to vinyl albums is important for other reasons, according to Welch.

“A bunch of the more detailed sonic information has been lopped off of CDs,” says Welch. “And, it is just that little bit of nuance that is particularly meaningful to musicians. Because, what CDs eradicate is the part that you really need as a musician to figure out how our heroes are doing what they are doing. You can hear the musicians addressing the microphone on vinyl. You can hear the touch on the strings. Sadly, that stuff just didn’t make it onto the CDs. So, we are very excited that people are going to get to hear our music that way, especially because it was all recorded in analog in the first place. Our recordings have always been analog, as in completely analog. But, it has been a lot of work because we are doing it all ourselves. We have a custom lathe, so we’re fully committed to doing it the best way you can do it.”

So far, the evaluations of the vinyl releases have been positive for Welch and Rawlings.

“We just got a review on this audiophile website called Analog Planet by Michael Fremer and he reviews the music and the sound quality with a one-to-ten rating, and with the Soul Journey album he gave us an 11,” says Welch. “That makes me really happy because we worked hard on it. We are working our way through our whole catalog by going backwards.”

Vinyl albums can be like family members to those that love them.

“Vinyl albums are really nice things to have in your home,” says Welch. “They are very comforting. They are like books. They are like friends, really. You see those faces on the covers, and they are life-size. You see that face looking back at you."

The recordings that inspired Welch to seek out Appalachian roots melodies as a young woman were made by the Stanley Brothers, who walked the line between bluegrass and old-time mountain music.

“Those Stanley Brothers records really changed my life,” says Welch. “It was one of those live tapes recorded by Peter Kuykendall [musician and co-creator of Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine] called ‘Legendary Stanley Brothers Volume 1 and 2.’ There is a black and white photo of Ralph and Carter Stanley on it, and one record has a red banner and the other record has a yellow banner. [As for other influences,] Norman Blake also blew my mind. The Stanley Brothers blew my mind because of their sound and their harmonies and the old-time stories. I knew those folk songs from growing up, but to hear them with this crazy mountain harmony; I loved it. But then, Norman Blake was the one that made me think, ‘You mean you can write new songs that can sound old?’”

And, Welch has done just that with many of her classic cuts. If you listen to “Six White Horses” off of The Harrow and the Harvest album, you will swear that it was written 150 years ago, but not so.

“David and I wrote ‘Six White Horses,’” says Welch. “It was meant to sound that way. We were trying to write songs that had that ‘good stuff’ in them. I want that ‘good ole stuff,’ and then I want to also express what is going on in my life. Not to get morbid, but that song is not a museum piece or a recreation thing. My Mom was dying when we wrote that song. That is all I was thinking about. These things are real. This is the stuff that happens. This is what happens to people. Your parents die. Your lover cheats on you. Your baby is sick. You’re broke. All of this stuff happens. This is not back in time. It all depends on how you feel like voicing it. For me, voicing that stuff, as in the way of ‘Six White Horses,’ that is how I like to talk about these things. I like to boil it all of the way down to the image of it all. That works for me, but it may not work for everybody else. Some people like the real modern conversational and confessional approach. But I like to use folk poetry. It helps me.”

Although Welch has been nominated for a GRAMMY Award multiple times, she won her one and only GRAMMY for her work on the 2000 O Brother, Where Art Thou? movie soundtrack, which went on to sell nearly eight million copies and help create a new generation of lovers of bluegrass and old-time music. There is still an “O Brother Generation” coming to age now that took up playing musical instruments because of the impact of that movie and its songs.

Dec 7, 2017 – 12:01 pm

For The Record: 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'

“I know that album inspired a lot of people, and I love it,” says Welch. “That was basically my record collection come to life. [Producer] T Bone Burnett said to me, ‘Who is doing this music?’ The answer was Ralph Stanley, John Hartford and Norman Blake as well as The Whites and Alison Krauss. The one thing about it that was funny was that at the time, it wasn’t meant to be the greatest people in bluegrass brought onboard. I feel like it turned into such a big thing that I think there were some hard feelings for people that were left out. But, nobody knew what was about to happen. We were just making the music for this movie. It wasn’t any big deal then. But then, it happened pretty quickly. The movie was a hit, and the movie did that great thing where ‘Man Of Constant Sorrow’ was also portrayed as a hit song in the movie and that is a powerful thing. That album was a really great overview and sampling of that music.” 

A few years ago, Welch admitted to a bit of writer’s block when it came to creating new songs. But, that has since changed and fresh music is on the way.

“We have been writing a bunch of new songs,” says Welch. “The Harrow And The Harvest has been out for a while now and we have written two albums since then, but they were under David’s name. Sometimes, I feel like people think I have been twiddling my thumbs, but I have not been twiddling my thumbs. We are just about ready to start recording and we have a little pile of songs. We write songs in all different ways by this point. Sometimes they take two days to write, and sometimes two years. ‘Look At Miss Ohio’ was written really quick, and ‘Everything is Free’ was written quick. ‘Tennessee,’ however, took a long time and the song ‘Elvis Presley Blues’ did as well.”

As a testament to her talents, Welch's quick songs certainly feel fully rich while her slow songs are definitely worth the wait. Her calming command of her craft balances the chaotic energy surrounding the World Of Bluegrass festivities, and the mountain music community she helped build show her due appreciation as she takes the stage in Raleigh.

Sister Sadie's Beth Lawrence And Gena Britt Discuss Their New Album & More

Sister Sadie

Sister Sadie

Photo: Shannon Kelly

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Sister Sadie's Beth Lawrence And Gena Britt Discuss Their New Album & More

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Two members of the bluegrass powerhouse outfit reveal how the group was formed, how their second album came together and more from backstage at the IMBA festival in Raleigh, N.C.
Derek Halsey
GRAMMYs
Sep 30, 2018 - 11:56 am

Bluegrass music has featured many talented female artists who have made their mark in the genre over the past seven decades of its existence, even though they have been greatly outnumbered by their male counterparts. In modern times, women musicians are still making history and breaking new ground with female artists winning the International Bluegrass Music Association Mandolin Player of the Year, Fiddle Player of the Year and the Guitar Player of the Year awards for the first time ever in the last two years alone.

Sister Sadie is a group of very talented female artists who have played in many different bands throughout their careers. Now, they have decided to join together to create a powerful new musical force. The group is made up of five-time IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year Dale Ann Bradley, Tina Adair on mandolin and vocals, fiddler extraordinaire Deanie Richardson, Gena Britt on banjo and Beth Lawrence on bass.

We caught up with Lawrence and Britt of Sister Sadie during a late-night rehearsal this week at the IBMA World of Bluegrass convention held in Raleigh, N.C.

How many bands have you been with over the years, and can you remember some of their names?

Lawrence: Oh I don't know. Been with, or played with? It's hard to know. I mean it's been quite a few. I've played with a family band starting out. I've played with a couple bands from the area up in Wisconsin and moved here to Johnson City where I played with the East Tennessee State University's Bluegrass Pride Band. I played with the Stevens Sisters. I played with Gena Britt, with Gena Britt and Friends. I played with Mark Newton band, Alicia Nugent, Jerry Stanley Band, Sister Sadie. But I also played in a bunch of different configurations.

Did you do the East Tennessee State University bluegrass program, like Becky Buller and a bunch of others have?

Lawrence: Me and Becky were roommates, yeah.

That's incredible! So what'd the program do for you?

Lawrence: I think it was a great setting to pick with a lot of the pickers that played in the area. There's just a great community of picking there, and we all stay connected now. I think it's brought a lot of students together that normally wouldn't be together, or pickers who normally wouldn't be together because they were from different areas of the country. And we all got to meet and play together and start relationships that we've continued and we're still friends today and playing in different bands and have that connection now.

What was it like coming south like that from Wisconsin?

Lawrence: Well, my dad was born in Tennessee, so my grandparents were from the south. And so every year we came down for vacation and we would go to festivals and things like that. So, we always wanted to move to Tennessee when I was growing up.

Tell me about Sister Sadie - pretty amazing lineup.

Lawrence: We really enjoy it. There's different dynamics, different personalities, different playing styles but a lot of energy, and we get together and it just kind of fits. And we laugh the whole time.

Your second Sister Sadie album just came out. How'd that come together for you guys?

Lawrence: It came together pretty well. We recorded it at Scott Vestal's studio, and he was great to record with. He had great tones, and we just kind of went in and, when we put the songs together, we put them together pretty much right before we tracked them, and they just kind of fell into place. It's a little different than the first [album], and it's a little different than anything we've done, and I think it always kind of progresses that way. But it just keeps it interesting I think.

Thank you, Beth. Gena, how many bands have you played in over the years?

Britt: Oh, gosh that's a good question. A lot. I've freelanced a lot, I'll put it like that. But I've played with Lou Reid & Carolina, New Vintage, Dale Ann Bradley Band, Alecia Nugent... gosh. Sister Sadie of course, Alan Bibey & Grasstowne.

Oh, yeah. Were you in that Petticoat Junction band?

Britt: I was in Petticoat Junction. That was in the early '90s for just a few years.

How'd you make your way to Sister Sadie? How was it formed?

Britt: Just a bunch of friends that knew each other from over the years through seeing each other on the circuit and everything. And, we thought it'd be fun to get together at the Station Inn one year at Christmas time, so we booked a show around that. We thought it would be a little fun thing, so the five of us got together. I'll never forget it. At five o'clock that evening, when we hit the first note, we all looked at each other like, "Oh yeah, this is pretty special."

From that point, we had no plans of ever doing that again. That was just a one-off show. And then some people started putting live videos from the show, and we started getting some phone calls, and would we be interested in doing it again, so it kinda has snowballed from that.

Everybody in the band is top-notch, it's gotta be pretty amazing, really.

Britt: It's really amazing, and like you said, everybody in their own right has had a great career already, and it's an honor to get to play with all these people. We have such a great musical chemistry on stage and off.

How'd the second Sister Sadie album come together from your perspective?

Britt: The Sister Sadie II album, we just decided that we didn't want to let everything go to the wayside and not be creative with what we had been given. We had been given this gift of being able to be together and create music together, so we wanted to make sure we shared it with each other and with our fans, too. We were getting some requests from our fans to do another record and we're tickled how it came out. Scott Vestal was the engineer on our new record and he did a fabulous job, and we had a lot of fun working with him.

Who are your banjo heroes?

Britt: Scott Vestal, Terry Baucom, Sammy Shelor, and J.D. Crowe - and Lynn Morris for the fact of her professionalism and how she carries herself. In the music business and as a performer, Lynn was one of the few women that I took notice of when I was learning how to play, because she can play and sing at the same time. You don't see a lot of banjo players that can actually sing lead and play at the same time and I thought, "I wanna be like her."

Photo Gallery: Inside World Of Bluegrass, IBMA Awards & Festival in Raleigh
 

First Ladies Of Bluegrass

The First Ladies Of Bluegrass

Photo: Shannon Kelly

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First Ladies Of Bluegrass Make History At IBMA Wide Open Street Fest

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Get the inside scoop on the all-star band at the center of Friday night's festivities in Raleigh
Derek Halsey
GRAMMYs
Sep 29, 2018 - 7:03 pm

There is a strange moment that happens at the end of the annual International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass convention in Raleigh, N.C. A surreal transition takes place on Friday afternoon. After a week of business being done, seminars and workshops taking place, and bands doing late night showcases for talent buyers, record label reps and DJs from all over the world, the mood changes abruptly.

Once the IBMA Awards show on Thursday night is over and the free-form jams that last until dawn have died out, the streets of Raleigh are blocked off, stages are set up and the vendors get ready for the Wide Open Street Fest.

Beginning at noon on Friday, tens of thousands of festival goers show up to enjoy eight stages of live music with some of the best musicians in the world playing for who really counts: the general public.

A big part of the Wide Open Bluegrass Street Festival is the performances at the beautiful 5,500-seat Red Hat Amphitheater located in the heart of Raleigh. This year, on Sept. 28, the headliners are the First Ladies of Bluegrass, an amazing group of women who have bursted through the ceiling of the bluegrass genre to rightfully claim their place in history.

The First Ladies of Bluegrass include Missy Raines, the first and only female musician to win the IBMA Bass Player of the Year award, Alison Brown, the first woman to win the IBMA Banjo Player of the Year award, Sierra Hull, the first and only woman to ever win the IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year award, Becky Buller, the first and only woman to ever win the IBMA Fiddler of the Year prize, and Molly Tuttle, the first and only female to ever take home the IBMA Guitar Player of the Year honor.

Raines and Brown’s breakthroughs happened in the 1990s, but Hull, Buller and Tuttle’s awards came about within the last two years. The times are still changing.

The impetus for this lineup came from the recording of Raines’ new album, Royal Traveler, a year ago. Produced by Brown for Brown’s label, Compass Records, an idea was hatched to bring in Hull, Tuttle and Buller for the recording of the song “Swept Away.” From there, the all-star collaboration that would grace the stage at Wide Open Street Fest was set in motion

To add to the excitement of the show, two special guest musicians were added to the First Ladies of Bluegrass bill: Rhiannon Giddens and Gillian Welch. Both Giddens and Welch are GRAMMY-winning artists, and Giddens gave the IBMA World of Bluegrass Keynote Address a couple of years ago.

Before the First Ladies of Bluegrass band takes the stage, however, lightning strikes for this special lineup of female talent when on the evening of Sept. 27, exactly 24 hours before their headlining show, Raines, Brown, Tuttle, Hull, and Buller won the IBMA Recorded Event of the Year Award for “Swept Away." Additionally, Hull earned another IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year title and Tuttle won her second IBMA Guitar Player of the Year award in a row. Backstage at the Fest, we talked to Raines, Buller and Giddens about this historic grouping.

When Raines was growing up near the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia and going to bluegrass festivals as a kid, she was inspired by watching the Katie Laur Band perform. Laur was one of the first females to lead a bluegrass band of men that were not related to her in any way.

“I think about Katie Laur a lot because, even though I wasn’t imagining leading a band when I was a teenager, she stood out to me because she was in stark contrast to a lot of the women I saw playing music at the time,” said Raines. “It was Katie’s group and she was leading it and fronting a band of men, and that was something you didn’t see much then. And, there was a style about her while onstage that I really liked. She would talk to people like they were in her living room, and I was very influenced by her presence and what she was doing onstage as much as her music.”

Giddens grew up listening to all kinds of music as a kid in North Carolina. While her own style is more on the old-time, African-American blues and old-school country side with modern sensibilities and a little funk thrown into the mix, bluegrass music was in her ears for as long as she can remember.

“Bluegrass is probably the genre that I have had the longest relationship with because my uncle was a bluegrass musician and evidently my grandfather was one as well, though I never met him,” said Giddens. “It was a part of my upbringing and a part of who I am. I don’t play it, but I sure appreciate it and have my favorite sound in it. I am drawn to the older stuff. Newer bluegrass is very virtuosic and the modern pickers are amazing and they can do all kinds of things. But, I like my bluegrass a bit more gritty. One of my favorite mandolin players is Mike Compton, who plays a style that is real. He just digs in there and does it. I’m not really into the clean, fast picking, even though it is amazing to see.”

Giddens is also well-aware of the history being made with Raines’ group.

“The image of bluegrass music is still, to a certain extent, a bunch of guys in suits playing onstage,” said Giddens. “Image doesn’t always reflect reality. That is why things like this First Ladies of Bluegrass show are important so people know that women are playing these instruments and have been influential going back to the beginning. It is like, ‘We are here, and we kick butt and have been kicking butt for a long time, so we’re letting you in on a little secret.”

Buller grew up in Minnesota before making her way south to the wonderful Bluegrass, Old-time and Country Music Program at East Tennessee State University. Now, even as a performer who has won some big awards, she gets emotional thinking about standing beside and playing music with such impressive women.

“I still think of myself as a bluegrass picker from Minnesota who grew up playing with my family,” said Buller. “I never dared to dream that I would get to do this at the level that I am getting to do it now. I look over and I think, ‘Whew! It’s Alison Brown. Wow. And, I’m playing with her.’ Each and every one of these ladies is a hero of mine. All of these women are so nice and it is just a joy to get to spend time with them, and then to get to create music with them as well."

With all of this history and excitement mounting around the First Ladies of Bluegrass' special IBMA Wide Open Street Fest appearance, the anticipation is palpable – especially for Buller.

"I imagine that at this show a part of me is going to be flipping out," added Buller. "But, the other part of me is saying, ‘Yeah, man! Let’s pick!’”

Photo Gallery: Inside World Of Bluegrass, IBMA Awards & Festival in Raleigh
 

Po' Ramblin' Boys IBMA

Po' Ramblin' Boys

Photo: Shannon Kelly

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Po' Ramblin' Boys' C.J. Lewandowski Talks Digging Into Bluegrass' Rich History

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The Missouri-native looks back at whirlwind year and reveals how he and his band are connected with the roots of bluegrass in order to push the genre forward
Derek Halsey
GRAMMYs
Sep 29, 2018 - 3:10 pm

Bluegrass musician C.J. Lewandowski grew up in Missouri yet found himself working at the Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery in East Tennessee as a young man. While there, Lewandowski was asked to form a bluegrass band to perform for the distillery’s visitors, and that was the impetus for the creation of the Po' Ramblin’ Boys.

Featuring Lewandowski on mandolin and vocals, banjo player Jereme Brown, guitarist Josh Rinkel and bassist Jasper Lorentzen, the Po' Ramblin’ Boys’ hard-driving approach to bluegrass music soon caught the ear of music lovers around the U.S. and overseas as well. The group feeds off of the energy of the sounds of the first generation bluegrass musicians who were recorded 70 years ago, and they cling to that exciting core of the genre by design.

Once the powers-that-be in the bluegrass community saw and heard what the Po' Ramblin’ Boys were doing, due to key showcases by the group at the International Bluegrass Music Association World of Bluegrass convention, more good things began to happen.

Now, the Po Ramblin’ Boys are signed to the renowned Rounder Records label and are represented by Rainmaker Management company, who has also guided the careers of IBMA Hall of Famer Del McCoury and his band, Sierra Hull, the first-ever female IBMA Mandolin Player of the Year Award winner, the legendary band Hot Rize and more.

We sat down with Lewandowski a few minutes before the Po Ramblin’ Boys perform a late-night showcase at the Lincoln Theater in Raleigh, N.C., during the this week’s IBMA World of Bluegrass convention.

How'd you get from Missouri to Sevierville [in East Tennessee}?

I moved to Kentucky first then I moved over to Sevierville. The reason I moved to Sevierville was there was a program there in Gatlinburg, Tennessee called the Tunes and Tales. It was a summer concert series. Not even a concert series, but they'd hire performers to walk up and down the streets of Gatlinburg and perform for the tourists. That's how I got down there but I moved out there for, I don't know what year I moved, 2008 I believe, from Missouri.

Was there a lot of music going on in Missouri?

Yeah, there was all kinds. That's where I learned how to play, with all my friends in Missouri, the guys 50 years older than me. There was a guy named Jim Orchard who taught me how to play and I also traveled with a bunch of first generation bluegrass people from Missouri. About 2008, so I'd have been 21, I decided that I wanted to move to Kentucky and I got closer to some of the guys that are actually in the band now lived... And we've all been friends for a long time, but I guess I moved down there to be a little bit closer to them and just try and get more in the middle of the music instead of being in the Midwest part where there wasn't as much. I wanted to get closer to the scene so every time I've moved a little bit closer and closer and closer to the scene.

You've had such a successful year, signing with Rounder and Rainmaker Management. What made that happen? Was there a showcase or a concert or something?

Yeah, at IBMA 2017, that's what pretty much made everything happen and made me a believer, for sure, of the power of IBMA. We were an official showcase act, for one, so we had quite a few showcases within the Raleigh Convention Center. I believe we also had one at Kings, one of the bars that sponsors showcases. We were also nominated for a Momentum Band of the Year Award that year and we played the last slot of the Momentum Awards show. That was kind of a tough one because we actually didn't win the Momentum Award, yet immediately following the announcement of the Momentum Band of the Year winner, our slot happened. So, we actually didn't win, yet we still had to play. We closed out the night. But, at that Momentum Awards show where we did that half hour segment; that was the showcase that turned a lot of lights on.

There was 500 people in that room and it was a very concentrated 500 people of some bigger names in the music industry, and [we] had a booth down there, of course, and everybody immediately, as soon as the awards show ended, went down to the exhibit hall and immediately people were, "Where have you been? What are you doing?" We had three record deal offers. Multiple agents came to us just immediately during the whole week of IBMA so if people don't believe that IBMA or World Of Bluegrass will do you good, then I can dang sure tell 'em wrong.

You guys play a hard-driving style, but how would you describe it? Is it first generation or you do your own thing - or both?

If you play bluegrass, you're gonna do something first generation sometime in there. I guess we're closer to the roots than most people are by the way we dress, probably the way we talk, the way we sing and the way we play our instruments. We're traditionally based, but we also have a new fresh outlook on it, too. We're not gonna do all your standard bluegrass jam session songs. There's a lot of songs. Millions of songs. We kind of go back farther. We dip into some people that you might not have heard before or some songs that got overlooked because, let's face it, there's 12 songs on an old album. "Little Maggie" would have been on a Stanley Brother's album, but there was 11 other cuts on that album that were also probably good. We go in and we dig through and we look for the obscure people. We're cuttin' a song here soon by the Pine Hill Ramblers and that was a bluegrass band out of Alaska in the 1960s. So that's pretty cool stuff. It's great music and they were people that were just overlooked and that's okay because there was a lot of regional music being recorded back then. So, we have a lot of regional influences, we have a lot of obscure influences, and we have our new songs, too.

So that's pretty cool stuff. It's great music and just people, they were overlooked and that's okay because there was a lot of regional music being recorded back then so we have a lot of regional influence, we have a lot of obscure influence, and we have our new songs too.

How'd you find the Pine Hill Ramblers?

Well, I found a song called "Ice Covered Birches." I found it on a Cliff Waldron album, that's a Rebel album from about 1969 or '70, I guess. When Ken Irwin and I were trying to think of material, I was actually sending this song to him and he was actually sending that song to me, and it happened in the same day.

Ken Irwin, one of the founders of Rounder Records?

Yeah. So Ken sends it to me on the same day that I send it to him at almost the same time. I said "Man, I love Cliff Waldron's version" and he said "Now check out the Pine Hill Ramblers, they're the ones that wrote it." So we went back even further and actually, the songwriter's still alive, he lives in Alaska, and there's two verses to that song, and as of last week Mr. Carl Hoffman, he decided that we needed a third verse so we're getting a third verse written 50 some odd years later, that has never been written before until now so it's pretty cool.

Last question, are you happy with how things are workin' out for you?

Somebody asked me today what our dreams and goals are for this next year and I said, "All of our dreams have already been met," so to even put a cap on it by saying we want this and this to happen, I think we're just going to look forward to anything that happens, and it's going uphill so good for us, and we couldn't be happier with the outcome of Rounder and Crossover Touring and Rainmaker Management and all that stuff. It's amazing how things have unfolded for us in less than a year. We're super blessed and super lucky, and we're gonna keep just going on and playing what we play and hopefully everybody enjoys it.

Photo Gallery: Inside World Of Bluegrass, IBMA Awards & Festival in Raleigh