Band Review: Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
I was lucky to catch a hot Bluegrass band from Wise, Virginia at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival last Sunday, July 8th. The Midnight Ramblers.
The band was authentic to the roots of Bluegrass: Ralph Stanley, The Carter Family, Foggy Mountain Boys, the Seldom Scene, Doc Watson, Merle Travis, Vassar Clements, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Emmy Lou Harris.
The amazing thing about the Midnight Ramblers that they were so young...all under 18 years old! I can hardly believe that kids--well they ARE kids compared to me---could be that GOOD! I love to support "living" music, and I'm glad to say that this wonderful music of traditional America is still alive and thriving in the persons of these talented young musicians!
I would hate Bluegrass music to go the way the Blues music did with African-Americans. Most popular Blues being played these days is done by suburban white kids...like Johnny Lang for instance. It’s sad that white kid from North Dakota is the most famous contemporary Blues musician and not some young African American. Would the music survive if 50 years from now, the only Bluegrass music was being done by like, a Chinese guy, or a Korean? OR maybe a group of Czechoslovakians? It’s not real roots music anymore. That is what seemed to happen to Blues music. If I want to listen to the Blues, I'm not going to buy some pretty white blonde boy's CD. No thanks, I'll pull out my old phonograph album of Blind Lemon Jefferson, my albums of Robert Johnson, Leadbelly and Ma Rainey. For Chicago Blues, I've got my Lightning Hopkins and my Albert Collins. The Blues Brothers? Ha! That's a joke played on us by a couple of drunken clowns. Not real Blues at all. I can tell the difference. At some point, African Americans came to view themselves as urbane and cosmopolitan, and moved on to more sophisticated Jazz, and lately Rap. While you can draw a line from the blues to jazz, the line begins to blur with modern rap. It's just not the same as keeping the roots music alive. It is true that the "Blues will never die", but those old African Americans that experienced the pain of racism and poverty that begat the blues are long dead. And their grandsons and granddaughters didn't carry on the tradition.That's why I'm glad that the Midnight Ramblers are around. It means at least THAT roots music is still alive.
NOTE: My photographs of the Midnight Ramblers at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife are located here. You might want to check them out.
