[Harp-L] Harp with bluegrass

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     "Flatt & Scruggs with Doc Watson Strictly Instrumental" and it has been reissued by County Records as a CD after being out of print for too many years (I wore out my Lp in the 1970's when I was learning the fiddle and banjo and tried to copy every note on it). As has been discussed previously, F&S recorded a lot with the harmonica in the 1960's, both with Earl Taylor and Charlie McCoy. As a caveat however, in those later years they drifted away from the classic Bluegrass sound (which they helped create) and recorded quite a bit of "Folk" (Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger) and "Country" (Johnny Cash and Bobbie Gentry) largely as an attempt to capture a wider audience (most of the '50's stars were doing much the same thing). In these later recordings they often had the HUGE studio sound and the acoustic instruments are often used more as "color" than substance, so someone attempting to learn from them isn't going to find as many licks they can transfer to other situations (as opposed to the traditional Bluegrass treatment where each instrument gets at least one entire lead break) AND most hardcore Bluegrassers tend to sneer at these later albums (I'm a rare exception and even I have problems listening to Lester Flatt sing "Hey Mr. Tambourine Man"). Among the general listening public, "Bluegrass" as a genre of music tends to be a catch-all name that can include everything from a solo gourd banjo player,to tradgrass. to Newgrass, to up-tempo Buck Owens (with pedal steel and electric guitar), to Mumford & Sons so the bad news is there is no simple formula as to how play along with your son. The good news is that Bluegrass-even hardcore, "trad" Bluegrass such as you might run into at a festival-is a blend of Old-Time fiddle music, Blues, Jazz, Western Swing, Country, British ballads, in varying proportions depending on the players, along with whatever personal contribution the players make. so YOU (Bob) might end up being THE definitive Bluegrass harp player. Chubby Wise, who fiddled with Bill Monroe's first Bluegrass band that used what has become the standard configuration, described himself as starting out as a Western Swing fiddler and going to work with Bill Monroe, and just not being able fit in, quitting, and coming back some months later with a new approach-one that has influenced every Bluegrass fiddler that followed, whether they know it or not. To me, this problem solving aspect has always been the great attraction of being a side person. You get to express yourself, but you have to find a way to do it that complements both the material and what the rest of the band is doing.
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