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Opinion: Can Today's Bluegrass Music Be Too Perfect?

Discussion in 'Music Ministry' started by KenH, Dec 22, 2008.

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  1. KenH

    KenH Well-Known Member

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    I haven't run into the problem that the author cites, but I find this to be an interesting opinion piece.


    Bob Cherry wrote: on Dec. 21, 2008:

    There is such a thing as music being too perfect. A lot of today's music is so perfect that it has lost the essence of it is supposed to be. I've mentioned this before and, as Emmylou Harris pointed out on her Live at the Ryman album, "we've lost the living room sound" or the soul of some of todays music. There is something about the early Flatt & Scruggs that definitely had that soul and emotion.

    - rest at www.cybergrass.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5732
     
    #1 KenH, Dec 22, 2008
  2. Bro. Curtis

    Bro. Curtis <img src =/curtis.gif>
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    You can't replace the energy of playing live, around a microphone. I agree, the albums all sound too pristine, like a Britney Spears record. Not all of them, mind you. But bluegrass has it's share of every problem every other music style has.
     
    #2 Bro. Curtis, Dec 22, 2008
  3. Jim1999

    Jim1999 <img src =/Jim1999.jpg>

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    I always thought Bluegrass music was without sound systems. I don't like microphones or sound systems in the pulpit and I sure don't care for them in music.

    One thing I noticed to-day is the preponderance of microphones attached to every singer and they are usually swallowing the microphone and this distorts their vocals. My opinion anyways.
    I do enjoy good old country style music and that includes the bluegrass I have experienced.

    Cheers,

    Jim
     
    #3 Jim1999, Dec 23, 2008
  4. Bro. Curtis

    Bro. Curtis <img src =/curtis.gif>
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    I agree. The best way to experience bluegrass music is to go to a festival, and hand around the parking lot picking sessions. Sometimes, you can get really lucky, and see maybe Tim O'Brien & Sam Bush playing some warm up tunes together. Or you may even see me picking with some other folks.
     
    #4 Bro. Curtis, Dec 23, 2008
  5. Jim1999

    Jim1999 <img src =/Jim1999.jpg>

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    It seems to me I recall seeing a review of a moving film and one chap is playing a banjo when a second chap comes along and joins him in playing the dueling banjos...That to my mind is true bluegrass and what music is all about.

    Cheers,

    Jim
     
    #5 Jim1999, Dec 23, 2008
  6. ray Marshall

    ray Marshall New Member

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    Listening to bluegrass for many years, I also like to listen to jam sessions while walking around at a bluegrass festival. I have heard lots of good music and it is essential to have a big dog house bass. The base is to me the most important instrument in bluegrass. Several years ago Doyle Lawson quit using several mikes and narrowed his music down to one mike or two. He is a great entertainer and does a lot of sacred music
     
    #6 ray Marshall, Dec 23, 2008
  7. KenH

    KenH Well-Known Member

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    You may be talking about a scene in "Deliverance". A young boy is playing a banjo(the actor didn't really play the banjo, there was someone else behind him who reached around and played but the camera angle was always such that you couldn't see him) and one of the main characters start responding on his guitar(I think the actor actually played the guitar). I have found it interesting that the song is "Dueling Banjos" but it's really a banjo and a guitar. :)
     
    #7 KenH, Dec 23, 2008
  8. corndogggy

    corndogggy Active Member
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    This really goes well beyond just bluegrass, it's all genre's of music. As soon as any band in any genre goes mainstream, something is lost. Take Green Day and Metallica for example... their early material was harsh, sloppy, and just overall raw sounding. Then they went mainstream and when the Black album came out for Metallica, or the latest Green Day album came out, it was too perfect... very scrubbed. Of course, this sells more records, because casual listeners like it better when they hear it for the first time, but hardcore fans know something was lost.
     
    #8 corndogggy, Jan 7, 2009
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