I played today in a jam with some good bluegrass
players–banjo, guitars, several fiddles, a mandolin.
I was nervous because I was playing whistle,
these folks can be purists and whistle ain’t
traditional bluegrass. I had a Copeland silver D
that I bought from a board member a couple
of years ago.
Someone would start a tune, then we’d go round
and solo.
After about an hour they stopped and looked at me.
‘What is that thing?’ they asked. ‘Is it a flute?
It sounds wonderful!’
I tried not to show how glad I was.
In a large and loudish group, the copeland
silver d is unbeatable, IMO. And it sounds
like silver.
I live in the planet’s hotbed of bluegrass and Appalachian old-time country music, and I find that whistles and flutes fit these grooves perfectly. Folk music is all about changing and adapting to the world around it.
It’s time for those purists to stretch themselves. Congrats for waking a few folks up!
This again raises the interesting (to me) historical question of why winds (whistle, flute, fife) apparently never really took root in southern American / Appalachian dance music tradition in the first place. Or, for that matter, in the fiddle-dominated Scottish and Scots-Irish traditions that spawned it. I have my own ideas and conjectures. And I know about Otha Turner and the African-American fifing tradition. But since, as Jim and crookedtune note, whistles do seem to fit the tunes, at least to our ears, it makes one wonder.
It certainly does make one wonder, and I have thought a lot about it. Why it all devolved into a mostly military fife tradition, which itself largely died out as well, is hard to explain.
One theory I have is that, in the South, the ‘war between the states’ was so traumatic that those who survived it wanted no part of anything that reminded them of the war years, fife music included. Boy fifers who came home intact may have wanted to seal off those years from all memory, or maybe wanted to obscure from others the fact that they were ever part of the failed rebel effort.
Strange though. I mean, lots of strange instruments turned up in early country music recordings: cellos, ukes, dulcimers, etc… Why no woodwinds?
I have spent many years in Virginia where you will find more Civil War battlefields than any other state. In high school we studied Civil War History and had many field trips to significant Civil War historical sites.
I can assure you that there is no effort to forget The War. In fact, there is every effort to remember it; "save your Confderater money boys, “cause the South is gonna rise again”.
In 1689, my family emigrated from Scotland to the Commonwealth of Virginia. We kept pretty accurate records. There were many fiddle and mandolin players and later guitarists and banjo players. No mentions of flutes or whistles.
I don’t believe there were many mass produced whistles before the 19th century. I would suggest that they were not popular because they did not exist as we know them today.
My brother in law is rather a purist bluegrass player; mandolin and guitar. Over Thanksgiving, I visited and brought my Irish flute and some high and low whistles. He was blown away. Now he wants me in the band. It is a good fit. Cheers, Cyril.
I’ve got a small amount of bluegrass music that I listen to, but otherwise am no bluegrass expert. This music that I have has the occasional penny whistle. It’s not unheard of.
But it’s good news to hear how well your whistle worked out at a jam. I brought my flute to a jam but I’m not a very good musician and didn’t really know how to make it work. It seemed like the wrong thing to have when I listened to how they all did it, going around the circle soloing and riffing on the melody and playing background vamping stuff in between. Like I say, I totally suck musically, so I strummed my strumstick instead.
I mentioned this later to the host of the jam, that I didn’t feel like my flute worked out for that kind of music and he disagreed. He said I should come again. Of course, he’s a really super friendly guy so he probably just likes to have a lot of people there. But maybe I will try again.
I’m more sure of whistle in that venue than I am of flute.
Whistle has a rougher more metallic sound, at least
mine does.
I’m no bluegrass pro but I’ve played enough to
play with these folks on either instrument.
I’m listening like a hawk to the fiddlers,
trying to play later what they played.
Has anybody had more experience with bluegrass flute?
My session is filled with old time and bluegrass fiddlers, so most every time we get together it eventually devolves into bluegrass as the night progresses. I’ve tried to pick up a couple of tunes, but I can only really make a few of them work. Truth be told, I probably just don’t have the interest required to adapt myself to a bluegrass session. I’m having a difficult enough time with Irish music, thanks.
Bluegrass/old time is often a good deal more simple than
ITM, so I can often just play a tune upon hearing it; not
much chance of that with ITM!
But the tunes are often lovely, and the simplicity creates
a lot more room for improvisation than
one can do in ITM. I’ve never seen an Irish session
where we went around and everybody improvised
on Morrison’s Jig or whatever.
So if you like improvising and playing variations to
often delightful tunes (and backing vocals)
there it is.
Here’s a whistle version of “Dubuque” I recorded with Mark O’Connor on fiddle and Jane Gillman on dulcimer, around 1986. I can’t say I really knew what I was doing back then (or now!). We were just experimenting with the sound and style, and I’d play it differently now. But it’s an interesting relic.
That’s lovely, MT. A great example of how well the whistle and flute can blend with old-time Appalachian music.
My son is learning mandolin, and we do a lot of duet practice: Soldier’s Joy, Cripple Creek, Sally Goodin…all that kind of stuff. Whistle and flute both sound great in that format.
As far as trying to fit them into a full-bore Bluegrass Band (with capital B’s), I’m not sure that they can be more than “frosting”. The bluegrass band format is pretty well fixed at guitar, banjo, mandolin and acoustic bass. Other instruments are added, but are never really considered part of the backbone.
Yeah, you know, there’s lovely syncopation, and
a whole lot of variations.
I’m not sure there’s a hard difference tween
old time and blue grass, but, being American
music, both are a lot more widespread in
the midwestern USA than Irish music.
So there may well be a number of
jams going on in various places.
A lot more of this than ITM.
Also fifes work in this–I’m playing along with
MTGuru’s link on a tipple A flute.
More links like that one would be welcome.
Of course they’re elsewhere in the internet.
Basically American fiddle tunes.
OK, I don’t think people are reacting forcefully enough…YOU GOT TO RECORD WITH MARK O’CONNOR!!!
Holy smokes, the man is a fiddle god! (And a super nice guy, too…I got to have dinner with him once, with the company I worked for.) He was doing a master class for a fiddle camp, and this kid played a tune through, and Mark said, “OK, here are some ideas for variation you might try…” (being from a Texas fiddle background, where variation is king) and launched into the tune, full of interesting new twists and turns. About halfway through the B-part he stopped and said “Well, I’ve never heard this tune before, but you get the idea.”
I got to watch/listen to him win his first National Fiddle Championship in Weiser, Idaho, lo those many years ago. He was, what… 14, I think. Pretty darned impressive for a skinny kid, let me tell ya. He and his talent grew up quite nicely.
Hey, and I was going to make a joke about Dubuque, having to do with cars … and it reminded me, late that same night, after the fiddling championships and the jams and the revelry, my friend drove my old Ford van over a cliff, where it flipped a couple of times and then wedged between the only two really big rocks at the edge of the Snake River. We climbed out to find that the van was totaled, but the only injury was the driver’s couple of cracked ribs, a fallen bridge on a fiddle, and a broken string I think on one of the guitars. A few bruises, of course, and some stressed nerves. As we climbed to the road to seek help, the sun rose, and it was beautiful. Within a very few hours I was the new owner of … a mauve Buick station wagon that just happened to be for sale in the little town nearby, and that fellow’s Martin D-18, payment for wrecking my van.
Please allow me to HIGHLY recommend the work of Tim O’Brien. Tim won the 2006 Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Recording for his project called “Fiddler’s Green.” It’s a BRILLIANT mix of Old Time Americana, world class bluegrass and great Celtic narrative ballads. Banjos, whistles, fiddles, you name it.
Tim’s grandfather was from County Cavan and Tim was born in West Virginia. He created a recording called “The Crossing” that is an incredible train wreck between bluegrass and WORLD CLASS Celtic music. For example, one track has Tim with Earl Scruggs (!) and Frankie Gavin. On “Ireland’s Green Shore” all of the folks from Altan join in with Del McCoury. (Talk about the “best of both worlds!”)
His next project “Two Journeys” has Tim singing a duet with Karan Casey on “House Carpenter(Demon Lover.)” He just completed taping an installment of the TransAtlantic Sessions. He has often appeared at Celtic music festivals such as Celtic Connections in Glasgow and Celtic Colours in Nova Scotia with luminaries like Niall Vallely, John Williams, John Doyle, John McCusker, Michale McGoldrick, Arty McGlynn and Liz Carroll. And he was on the “Old Plank Road” project with the Chieftains.
As founder of “Hot Rize,” Tim is one of the best bluegrass players on the planet, but he makes the link between old time Appachalian and Celtic music seem so transparent. If you want to grasp the linkage between the two musics, his work is a great place to start.
Just check out this lineup from the Baltimore Fiddle Fair:
L-r Caoimhín Vallely, Tim, Niall Vallely, Liz Carroll,Paul Meehan, John Doyle and Brian Morrissey.
