MONDAY,FEB.11.2002
FEATURE
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7A
Bluegrass fans of all ages flocked to the Holiday Inn Holidome, 200 McDonald Drive, this weekend to hear bluegrass and old-time country music by local and national acts. Top left: Mark Chambers, Kansas City, Mo. resident, and Mike Black, Lawrence resident have both neglected their guitar playing in recent years for the high, thin
sound of the mandolin, a staple instrument of bluegrass music. Top right: Lawrence resident BJ Solow sometimes still uses his snare brushes when he wants a softer sound on his hundred-year old washboard, which he favors for its novelty and portability. Bottom left: Ike Sheldon brings enthusiastic vocals to the Kansas City-area
AARON SHOWALTER/KANSAN
band The Wilders, which plays a variety of old-time country music. Bottom center: Lawrence resident Steve Mason plays mandolin for the eclectic Alferd Packer Memorial String Band. Bottom right: Adrian Erlinger, St. Louis senior, picks a steel guitar in a jam circle late Saturday night after regular performances finished.
Bluegrass enthusiasts have a jamboree at festival
By Mandalee Meisner Special to the Kansan
Adrian Erlinger makes a deep, guttural noise — an unorthodox sound to be heard floating over the steady rhythm of a bluegrass jam. He sounds like a human didgeridoo, barely forming syllables with the steady stream of air that turns his face red.
The others gathered with him at Room 342 in the Holiday Inn Holidome, 200 McDonald Drive, encourage his impromptu performance with enthusiastic claps and hollers. Some strum mandolins, guitars or banjos, and others just sit on the beds to watch the spectacle.
"It's throat singing," Erlinger,
Chesterfield, Mo., senior, says. "It's common to a small region in Central Asia called Tuva."
Erlinger is one of a handful of young bluegrass followers that gathered — along with professional musicians and older fans — Friday and Saturday for the Free State Music Festival at the Holidome.
The two-day event — which brought in local old-time and bluegrass acts such as Euphoria String Band and the Midday Ramblers, along with national touring groups like Jim & Jesse McReynolds and Lost Highway — transformed the hotel into a weekend-long jam session.
"This is a really banal place to have a bluegrass festival," says
Matt Gertken, Hutchinson freshman and University Daily Kansan cartoonist. "But it went over surprisingly well."
Musicians and fans gather in hallways and side rooms of the indoor festival, playing and singing long after the last scheduled performance ends. Some, such as Nate Roy, a Stockton sophomore, rent hotel rooms so the jamming can continue into the night. There, the traditional music of an older generation mixes with youthful experimentation and innovation.
"I get a kick out of all of these young people with their energy." Lauralyn Bodle says, referring to a few confident audience members who began imitatively dancing in
the middle of a performance. "I think they were trying to clog."
Bodle teaches Italian at the University of Kansas and plays fiddle and bass for the buckskin clad, "1870's chic," Alferd Packer Memorial String Band.
Bodle says that she's noticed more interest in traditional Americana music among high-school and college-age crowds.
"When I was in college, people turned up their noses at it," she says. "The students that I see on campus now don't sneer at it—they're interested."
Bob McWilliams, festival announcer and KU alumnus, says much of the surge in bluegrass popularity could be tracked back to the release of Oh Brother,
Where Art Thou — a film made by Joel and Ethan Coen set in the depression-era South. Bluegrass, old-time and other American roots music dominate the best-selling soundtrack.
"There's a whole generation of people that are now in their 40s or 50s who got into bluegrass by listening to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken,'" McWilliams says. "Now, with Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, we're seeing that same phenomenon."
Phil Wade, who enjoyed moderate success in the '90s with his alternative band, Pedalijets, says he started playing bluegrass after he got "burnt out" on rock. Wade, who lends banjo to The Wilders, a
Kansas City area-based bluegrass band, identifies how and why traditional music was serving to bridge the musical gap between generations.
"I think older folks remember the music; they grew up on the music," Wade says. "While at the same time, younger people are attracted to how honest and driving it is.
"It's not a big leap between hardcore punk to old-time. There's different instrumentation and the vocals are better, but it still makes you want to raise your fist in the air."
Contact Meisner at
mmeisner@kansan.com. This story ves edited by Sarah Warren.
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