It seems to me, and this may be based
on the kinds of events we choose to attend, that the audiences at
many bluegrass festivals are growing older, much older, while the
events fail to attract new younger, more affluent audiences,
particularly those with children. Many events are being canceled,
and some have responded by reducing the quality of their lineup,
pulling their horns in still further. We can count on traditional
bluegrass continuing to be played, even after those who attended
Fincastle, the first bluegrass festival, are gone. Bill Monroe, The
Stanley Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs and the rest will be remembered
and will continue to be played. Their work, and that of the folk
singers, collectors, and old-time players who preceded them as well
as the folkies and rockers who came along afterward will still thrill
and influence younger players and their best work will continue being
played as part of the bluegrass repertoire. Nevertheless, time is
taking its toll. The Beatles debuted in New York fifty years ago and
changed the music game forever, just the way minstral shows, rag
time, big bands and jazz had in generations before. Many musicians
I talk to give credit to the founders of bluegrass, but when I ask
them what they listen to, they talk about today's people on the edge,
many of whom I've never heard of. How can these modern innovators
fail to influence the music played by bluegrass derived acoustic
string bands today?
After this essay first appeared as my
column on the California Bluegrass Association's Welcome Page, Don
Denison made a comment I find particularly relevant to this
discussion. In this paragraph I quote liberally from him. “All of
us, if we are lucky, will become curmudgeons qrowling about the
Non-Bluegrass music being represented as Bluegrass. Much of this
music is excellent, well played and sung, but is it Bluegrass? Some
of the younger (now themselves old) can remember the social milieu
that gave birth to bands like The Bluegrass Boys, The Stanleys, Don
and Red, but plowing with a mule or churning your own butter or
witnessing Baptism in the nearby creek or river and millions of oyher
things that were part of the experience of early Bluegrass performers
are available only as stories told by our elders save for very few
exceptions. There are "museum" farms, model T and Model A
Fords around, but the culture that Bluegrass Music came out of is
only in memory now. Who now has the memories that can create a song
like Tennessee 1949, The Model Church, The Love of the Mountains?
Songs expressing the feelings contained in these and many other songs
have no basis in experience any more. The way of life that produced
these and other like songs rooted in experience of the 30's, 40's,
50's and a limited few events in the 60's is gone and cannot be
retrieved. So where does the material, and most especially the
experience, of these times and their events [including] the feelings
derived from these experiences come from? Obviously it must come from
current life and in a small part from nostalgic thoughts focused on
the past. Does this life experience produce Bluegrass Music? Well the
answer for me is sometimes and rarely. Be that as it may be, the
younger writers and performers are going to be using their lives and
their own milieu to produce their music, sometimes it is Bluegrass
and sometimes it is not, the point [is that] life experience is
different now. There are few sharecropper sons and daughters out
there making music. I don't know if we want to try to duplicate the
experiences that Bill, Lester and Earl, the Stanleys, and Don and Red
lived through, those were for the most part pretty tough times. So
how do we keep it Bluegrass? I don't know, do YOU?”
What will we have to do to continue
growing this music while keeping the audience, both young and old
engaged in what's happening in music today. I believe the first step
promoters, radio stations, and fans must take is to give up on
purity. Already the lines between traditional bluegrass and classic
country have been blurred almost to non-existence. The influences of
all forms of rock, soul, punk, hip-hop, jazz, and more are already
raising their heads in bluegrass, smoothed over, toned down, and made
more acceptable, but they're there. An event that advertises a
mixture of music will attract a broader demographic. In order to
attract this kind of audience, promoters must raise prices. The days
of a four day fifty dollar festival are long gone. Good bands need to
be paid and they deserve to be paid, too. Furthermore, it's not
unusual for these bands to featur Jimmy Martin and the Osborne
Brothers as well as Tom Petty and the Allman Brothers in their
repertoire. Many bands, including the likes of Yonder Mountain String
Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Railroad Earth, The Infamous
Stringdusters, the Avett Brothers, the Punch Brothers and more
freely acknowledge bluegrass as the central sound from which their
music is derived. They think of themselves as bluegrass derived, if
not directly as bluegrass bands. They play to large, engaged
audiences througout the country and around the world. By booking the
more contemporary and more varied bands that increased price and
attendance can generate, promoters can increase the assurance of
continued successful events.
Four things that can increase the
attendance by a younger and more diverse demographic in events are
youth programs, supervised activities of children, extensive jamming,
band contests, and provisions made for dancing. Each of these
elements encourages young families to attend, get their children
involved, and become more involved themselves. As many festivals have
reduced the percentage of local and regional bands that are booked to
their festivals to encourage people to buy tickets to see more “name”
bands, the opportunities for young bands have decreased. One
incentive of band contests can be an appearance at the festival for
the winner or a guaranteed booking in next year's event and/or a cash
prize. This provision costs little and can attract five to ten bands
and all their friends and families to a festival. HoustonFest, one of
our favorite small festivals, held in Galax, VA in May, is filled
with young bands playing the music they love. It's all acoustic, but
beyond that the range of influences is almost endless, yet all of
them trace their roots back to old time and the founders of bluegrass
music. It's a wonderful and interesting event attracting a wide range
of young musicians.
Another audience builder is a
structured play area or tent supervised by volunteers makes it
possible for younger families to attend and enjoy bluegrass festivals
while knowing that, for at least part of the time,their kids are
enjoying themselves while they a free. Still another provision that
would be attractive to a younger demographic would be a dance
friendly area near the stage but not blocking view of those who want
to sit and listen. Many younger people want to express their
appreciation of music in movement, so make sure the opportunity is
there. Older fans want to have an unobstructed view of the stage and
to enjoy their bluegrass while seated. Tapping their toes and swaying
a little in their seats is about the most movement many of them wish
to manage. It really isn't too difficult to make provision for both
urges to move and participate to be met.
I believe the three or four day outdoor
bluegrass music festival still has a great future, despite the
attractiveness of other delivery formats and the difficulty of
uncertain weather. But in order to retain the current audience, as
long as its members can continue to attend, and add a younger, more
vigorous new fan base consisting of a more diverse population, it's
necessary to rethink the constitution and structure of events and the
nature bands performing at them. Doing so can only support and
encourage the continued influence of and love for traditional
bluegrass music, satisfy larger, more diverse audiences while
keeping promoters in business and thriving.
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