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by Seth Rogovoy
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., July 25, 1996 -- Bluegrass has always gotten a bum rap as music by and for hillbillies. But the fact is your typical bluegrass fan and musician is as likely to be an upper-middle-class research associate with an advanced degree who grew up in a small New England college town where her father was president of the college as anything.
"The real connoisseurs of the music tend to be rather sophisticated," said Deirdre Oakley, a Williamstown native and member of the Medicine Hat String Band, which will be performing on Friday night at the Noppet Hill Bluegrass Festival in Lanesboro. The festival, featuring 11 bands including the Nashville Bluegrass Band, is at Steele's Family Dairy Farm on Bailey Road, where it begins on Friday afternoon around 4:30 and continues through Sunday about 6. For more information call (413) 499- 2805.
All the members of the Albany-based Medicine Hat have careers outside the band. In addition to her job at Policy Research, mandolinist Oakley -- a graduate of Mt. Greylock Regional High and the daughter of former Williams president Francis C. and Claire-Anne Oakley --is an adjunct lecturer in Urban Geography at SUNY-Albany. Her husband, Bernie Gerling, the group's guitarist, works for the New York State Dept. of Environment and Conservation. Banjoist/fiddler Neal Rueger is completing his Ph.D. in physics and bassist Bill Cormier owns a photography lab.
Speaking by phone from her Albany office, Oakley said that none of the band members started listening to bluegrass until they were in their 30s. "I grew up playing classical music," she said. "I did piano for fifteen years and sang in the Madrigal Singers in high school. I didn't grow up listening to bluegrass at all."
The first time she heard bluegrass was when a colleague at Fortune Magazine in New York City, where she was working at the time, had a tape playing. "I remember saying, `Who's that? What kind of music is that? That's really cool,'" she said.
"What really attracted me to it was the harmonies. They're just so good and the chords that some of these bands produce are just amazing. And my voice is very suited to it."
And her prominent Williams College family? How do they feel about their Bowdoin College-educated daughter (she chose Bowdoin, she said, because "It looked just like Williams but it wasn't Williams") playing bluegrass?
"They love it," said Oakley. "They think it's fun. They'd be very concerned if all of a sudden I called them and said we decided to give up everything and do this for a living.
"The main reason why we do it is because we just love the music. As long as everybody's in that sort of mind-set then it's a lot of fun."
"First Glance" (Big Pine), the new CD by Debbie Weyl, the big-voiced, Pioneer Valley country singer/songwriter/bandleader, is an eclectic grab- bag of rootsy, classic country. Recorded in Nashville, the album features mostly original tunes by Weyl (pronounced "wile") and her husband, Kevin Weyl, ranging from the Tex-Mex stylings of "I Was Needing You," the Cajun-inflected "Simple Song, Simple Love" and the country doo-wop of "No Regrets." Weyl even struts her considerable yodeling assets on Patsy Montana's country-and-western chestnut, "Texas Plains." The slide-driven "Drive My Own Car," an upbeat country blues featuring some honky-tonk piano, will remind some of Bonnie Raitt, but Weyl's no clone. Since the mid-'70s she's been playing with bands including Raintree, the Valley Partners, Blue Plate Special, Berkshire Country and Way Out West. Her five-piece band includes Sam Gibson on pedal steel, Phil Grover on guitar, Chris Berry on bass and Jeff Hinrichs on drums. At the Iron Horse in Northampton on Saturday, July 27, at 7 -- the official CD release party -- they will be joined by special guest Bob Green on fiddle and mandolin. Closer to home, they will be appearing at the ITAM Lodge in Pittsfield this Sunday, July 28, at 7. To order "First Glance" by mail, write to: Big Pine Records, 20 Schoolhouse Rd., Amherst, MA 01002.
The second annual Vans Warped Tour -- the Lollapalooza for the skateboarding set -- comes to the Northampton Airport on Tuesday, July 30. The seven-hour festival will feature two stages and bands including Fishbone, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Pennywise, Face to Face, Rocket From the Crypt, Civ and Down By Law. Fishbone's latest album, "Chim Chim's Badass Revenge" (Rowdy/Arista), is a riotous affair by the NRBQ of contemporary hardcore- ska, a concept album focused on dissing the band's former record label. In addition to the music, the extravaganza will feature demonstrations by professional skateboarders, in-line skaters and BMX bikers. For ticket info call (413) 586-8686.
[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on July 25, 1996. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.]
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