Bluegrass
Bluesman: A Memoir edited
by Fred Bartenstein with an introduction by Neil Rosenberg,
(University of Illinois Press, 2012, 133 pages, $21.95) is a slim
volume filled with Uncle Josh's wit, wisdom, and life experience.
Bartenstein's work as an editor is reminiscent of Studds Terkel as he
lets Josh Graves speak for himself by carefully stitching together
three major interviews done over the years into a thought provoking
and coherant whole. He allows Graves to maintain a clear,
distinctive, and authentic voice while not sounding too “hillbilly”
or regional. The result is a must read volume about the musician, the
man, the innovator, and the vast influence of Josh Graves in
bluegrass music and beyond. He was said to have the same kind of
influence on the Dobro that Earl Scruggs had on the banjo.
Josh Graves was
born Burkett Graves in Tellico Plains, TN in September 1927. He grew
up in the proud mountain poverty and simplicity that nurtured so many
of the bluegrass pioneers, falling in love with music as a child and
quitting high school after one year to leave home and hit the road as
a professional musician. He was influenced by local musicians as
well as the country music he heard on a battery powered radio in his
home. Another important influence in his music was a black farmer who
lived on the property adjoining his family's who played blues on a
slide Hawaian guitar. Later he was also influenced by other blues
musicians like Lightnin' Hopkins. His professional peers and musical
heirs all speak about the bluesy quality to his Dobro play.
Josh Graves
joined Flatt & Scruggs seven years after they left Bill Monroe in
1948 to form their own band primarily as a bass player but soon became featured on the Dobro. His move to Dobro was based largely on their
desire to establish a distinctive sound from that of Bill Monroe &
the Bluegrass Boys. Throughout the book, Graves emphasizes the
importance of creating one's own sound, or not copying the greats. He
talks about the fallow quality that grows from slavishly copying a
person's playing or his renditions. He credits Earl Scruggs with
teaching him to use rolls as a component of his Dobro style as well
as teaching him much about performance and professional discipline
and the business end of music. Nevertheless, he consistently
emphasizes the importance for a musician of creating an idiosyncratic
style of his own. He generously acknowledges the musicians who took
time to give him pointers and to help him develop. According to the
many Dobro masters who contributed to a chapter of reminiscences
about Uncle Josh, he was equally generous with his support and help
for younger musicians, frequently handing them one of his fabled
instruments to play and then listening helpfully and supportively to
their work.
Graves married
his wife Evylyn when she was fifteen and he was already a touring
musician at age seventeen. They had four children, each of whom
became musicans, and Josh was a dedicated husband and father despite
spending huge amounts of time on the road as a traveling musicians
with bands or as a solo artists. He also worked a great deal as a
session musician.
Graves was a
true innovator on his instrument. He says, though, that “...you
can't go back to the original thing” but that it's crucial for
musicians to know and study the foundations upon which their music is
based. He also decries the prevalence of jealousy in bluegrass
saying, “One (group) don't want to see the other get ahead.” He
emphasizes the need to change with the times, though seems, also, to
say that the contemporary music he was hearing toward the end of his
life lacked the heart found when he was doing his early touring.
Perhaps the lesson to learn is that only the very best of any era
will survive to entertain and influence new musicians and bands
coming along. Josh Graves always gave his time and energy to helping
that to happen.
Fred Bartenstein
Fred
Bartenstein is President & CEO of Bartenstein & Associates,
an organizational development firm headquartered in Yellow Springs,
Ohio. He is a 1974 cum
laude graduate
of Harvard College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Growing
up in bluegrass, Fred Bartenstein had the privilege of knowing and
working with virtually all of the music's first generation. The
editor of Muleskinner
News
from 1969-1974, he has also been a broadcaster, musician, festival MC
and talent director, composer, record producer, compiler of the first
bluegrass market research, founder of a regional association, and a
lifelong fan. He has written many of the oral histories of musicians
to be found in the International Bluegrass Music Museum. Modestly
billing himself as editor of Bluegrass
Bluesman,
he has stepped into the background in a project where his work is
what turns this from an incoherant collection of memories into an
interesting and valuable bluegrass portrain and history.
While
Bluegrass
Bluesman
by Josh Graves is a slender volume, it is filled with useful
thoughts about the origins and deveolopment of bluegrass music.
Beyond that, Graves' reflections on life, family, honesty,
friendship, the road, drinking drugs, and the road life are both
forward looking and representative of his background and the times.
The personalities of Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Bill Monroe others
are sharply delineated. Graves takes no prisoners while still being
generous and thoughtful. A concluding chapter contains testimony by
most of the Dobro greats of the last couple of bluegrass generations.
Their appreciations of Josh Graves for his influence on them and the
help he gave them as they came up brought tears to my eyes. This book
belongs in the library of every person interested in bluegrass music
as a fan or performer, amateur or professional.
Bluegrass Bluesman
by Josh Graves was magnificently edited by Fred Bartenstein. It is
published by the University of Illinois Press (2012, 133 pages,
$21.95) in trade paperback and is available from the usual sources in
print and electronic versions. I bought the book.
