Noppet Hill Festival: Preserving and extending bluegrass tradition
by Seth Rogovoy

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., July 16, 1998) -- The question for any living musical tradition is how to grow and develop without losing its essence. This goes for ethnic-based musics such as Celtic or Klezmer, or modern styles including jazz and blues.

It's no different for bluegrass, itself a modern style just barely half-a-century old. In that time, however, the fusion of old-time string- band music and hard-swinging country pioneered by Bill Monroe has felt such immense pressure to change -- commercial and artistic, from within and from without -- that it's a wonder the genre hasn't self-imploded.

But not only does it survive, bluegrass continues to thrive, albeit on a sub-cultural level. It's kept alive in large part on a grassroots level by amateur and semi-pro pickers and strummers, and professionally in festivals like last weekend's Winterhawk and this coming weekend's Noppet Hill Bluegrass Festival in Lanesboro, Mass. (See below for details).

"Bluegrass is a folk music -- it's accessible to a lot of people on a lot of different levels," said Alan O'Bryant, a co-founder of the Nashville Bluegrass Band, one of the most popular bluegrass bands in the world, and a headliner at Noppet Hill for the third year in a row.

"Anybody who can play two chords on a guitar can play bluegrass -- you can't say that of jazz players or players of other styles or idioms," said O'Bryant, speaking in a phone interview from his home in Nashville. "But it's the way you play those two chords that really makes the difference."

Groups like the Nashville Bluegrass Band and the Del McCoury Band -- also coming to Noppet Hill this weekend -- have been refining those differences for decades, keeping one foot in bluegrass tradition while the other takes measured steps into unexplored territory.

The most recent albums by these two groups illustrate this careful but concerted effort to slowly grow the tradition. Risking the wrath of bluegrass purists, the Del McCoury Band included songs by rocker Tom Petty and bluesman Robert Cray in its mix of originals and country standards on "The Cold Hard Facts" (Rounder), and the Nashville Bluegrass Band's "American Beauty" (Sugar Hill) includes a version of a Bob Dylan composition alongside songs by bluegrass pioneers such as Ralph Stanley, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.

"Del is a hardcore traditionalist, and I consider our band a traditional band, too, but I think it's a question of direction and what you're trying to do," said O'Bryant. "Both of these bands are trying to be original and both of us are trying to take bluegrass forward. We're trying to explore new areas and incorporate aspects of the music that surrounds us."

McCoury, in a phone interview from his home in Nashville, put it more simply. "The reason I recorded [the Cray and Petty songs] is for the songs," he said. "I just like the songs. I had no idea where they were coming from. I had never heard them before. I figured it don't matter where the song comes from. If I like it and think I can do it, I'll record it."

In a way, suggests McCoury, recording rock-based songs in bluegrass style makes musicological sense. "The licks that Chuck Berry played on the guitar were exactly what Monroe had already played on the mandolin," he said. "Monroe was playing that stuff in the late-Thirties and Forties. Rockabilly mandolin, he was playing it."

No one except Bill Monroe himself has the standing to claim that McCoury or the Nashville Bluegrass Band is in violation of bluegrass tradition, so solidly entrenched are they as leading proponents of straight-ahead bluegrass, and Monroe is no longer around to complain.

Besides, says O'Bryant, Monroe himself was a dynamic innovator, constantly reinventing himself and his music.

"It's one of the things that drew me to his music and drew me to him as a creator," he said. "He didn't stay still in his exploration of the tunes and the sounds and the tones and the melodies or even thematically -- what his music was about."

Bluegrass, said O'Bryant, "has to grow and evolve and change. And as it goes along naturally it's going to fall on somebody to push that envelope. I felt that we've pushed the envelope and perhaps even gone outside of the envelope from time to time.

"But then there's always that song, there's always that piece of material or that sound you come back to, and when you hit it it's just so indicative of what the music is all about that you can say, yeah, that is classically bluegrass, even if it's a new thing. Monroe did that."

What you need to know:

The Noppet Hill Bluegrass Festival at Steele's Family Farm on Bailey Road in Lanesboro begins Friday, July 24, and runs through Sunday, July 26. Bailey Road is accessed from Brodie Mt. Road, which runs between Route 7 in Lanesboro and Route 43 in Hancock.

Single day tickets are $10 on Friday and $20 on Saturday and Sunday. A three-day ticket, which includes on-site camping and free firewood, is $45. Children 12 and under are admitted free.

Gates open on Thursday, July 23, at noon. Performances begin Friday at 5 and Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. Field picking is expected around the clock. Blankets and lawn chairs are recommended. Food is available on site. The festival also features craft vendors. There is a large spectator tent to shelter festivalgoers from rain and sun.

For more information, call 413-499-2805, or visit www.berkshire.net/~noppet on the Internet.

The Bands:

Del McCoury Band: One of the premiere groups in bluegrass, the Del McCoury Band consistently rakes in top awards such as the International Bluegrass Music Awards' male vocalist and entertainer of the year. In 1996, each of the five band members was nominated individually for an IBMA award on his instrument, a first in IBMA history. A former Bill Monroe sideman, Del McCoury is joined in the group by his sons Ronnie on mandolin and Rob on banjo. Fiddler Jason Carter and bassist Mike Bub round out the group. (Sat.-Sun.)

Nashville Bluegrass Band: Every Nashville Bluegrass Band CD released since 1988 has been nominated for a Grammy award, and several of them have gotten the nod for best bluegrass album. Probably the most popular bluegrass band in the world, the quintet boasts impeccable harmonies and virtuoso musicianship, and in the person of Roland White, a co-founder of the Kentucky Colonels, impeccable bluegrass lineage. (Sat.-Sun.)

David Davis and the Warrior River Boys: Speaking of bluegrass lineage, David Davis's uncle, Cleo Davis, was an original member of Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys. Based in Alabama, mandolinist/vocalist Davis carries on the tradition with the Warrior River Boys, an ensemble that combines Southern charm and humor. (Fri.-Sat.)

Gibson Brothers: One of the Northeast's top bluegrass groups, the Gibson Brothers hail from New York's Champlain Valley. Featuring "authentic sibling duet harmony," the quartet -- led by 20-somethings Eric and Leigh Gibson -- performs original compositions as well as bluegrass classics. The group's latest CD, "Another Night of Waiting" (Hay Holler), was produced by Nashville Bluegrass leader Alan O'Bryant. (Sunday)

Bear Bridge: The Berkshires' own representative at Noppet Hill, Bear Bridge boasts the timeless, literate songwriting of mandolinist Robert Fraker of Lanesboro and the haunting, soulful tenor of banjoist Dave Shaw. Rounding out the quartet is Fraker's wife, bassist/vocalist Lillian Fraker, and guitarist Dave "Tex" Orlomoski. (Sat.-Sun.)

Burnt Hills Bluegrass: Since 1992, upstate New York's Burnt Hills Bluegrass has been performing its blend of traditional and modern bluegrass throughout the region at concerts and festivals. (Sat.-Sun.)

The festival will also feature the Bondville Boys (Fri.-Sat), Adam Dewey and Crazy Creek (Saturday), and Mike Boulay and Friends (Friday). Emcees are Cuzin' Isaac and Dave Helman.

Noppet Hill's biggest fan:

Before ending his phone interview with me, Alan O'Bryant of the Nashville Bluegrass Band had the following to say about the annual Noppet Hill Bluegrass Festival in Lanesboro, at which his band has performed for three summers running:

"I LOVE THAT EVENT! I really like those guys who put that on. I like the spirit and the attitude that prevails at that event, because I think at the center of what's going on up there are some people who really love bluegrass music for the same things that drew me to it. And they want to be able to present it in a way that a family can enjoy it or that anybody can enjoy it. And I just really appreciate what those guys are trying to do and I really hope they're successful at it because I'd like to be coming back there ten years from now. I'd just really like to see somebody doing what that guy's trying to do. I'd really like to see him be successful at it, because he deserves to be successful. He's a really great guy."

The "guy" O'Bryant was referring to is Robbie Steele of Lanesboro, who promotes the Noppet Hill festival annually on the grounds of his picturesque family farm.

[This article originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on July 23, 1998. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1998. All rights reserved.]