Hehe, I don’t know about the rest of the world, but here in the Grand Duchy of Sasnakra, it’s all about jamming, and the “rules” are seldom if ever adhered to (e.g. six fiddles in a Bluegrass jam are perfectly OK).
By the way, anyone heard Los Straitjackets’ surfed-up take on “My Heart Will Go On”? Brilliant! 
I deny that I have made any claim to be open minded.
That’s OK, I come to Iowa often and am overdue for my next trip. Just waiting for the weather to get a little friendlier.
If its orthodox bluegrass music, there are no women players allowed either. Some change can be good.
uh oh
Tommy—The Rogues sound good. But I think I would go hear them no matter what they were playing. It’s the kilts.
I have to agree with The Weekenders. I have been living in Appalachian hill country my entire life. Around here , you bring what you can play , chime in where it fits , wait for the next one … if it don’t , and just get together and have fun making good music !! Elitist snobs (like your session mates) would be the ones more likely get the boot !!
Have a Great Day and Fun Whistling !!
Well, first off, I have several Bill Monroe recordings that include electric guitar, electric organ, and/or accordian. Since the Big Mon invented Bluegrass, then those surely can be considered part of Bluegrass instrumentation (even though he didn’t keep them around–and I can see why he dropped them).
Flatt and Scruggs dropped mandolin for Dobro, and the Stanley Brothers dropped it for lead guitar, which was pretty new to Bluegrass at the time. Then traveling bands, like Jim and Jesse, started using the electric bass (and went through a period where they used steel guitar, drums, and even piano). Earl Taylor used a harmonica on “Fox Chase”. I even have a Doug Dillard LP somewhere that includes harmonica and cello.
Although they put them on as the last set, and lots of folks walked away from them, I’ve seen a band with drums on stage at a Camp Springs, NC festival. (Put on by Carlton Haney, the guy who did the first Bluegrass festivals ever, on a day that included the likes of Jimmy Martin, the Osborne Brothers, and Charlie Monroe.) This was in the mid-70s.
Last Friday night, I went to a Bluegrass festival in Argyle, TX, and saw Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver use electric piano on one of their gospel numbers, and it went over very well with the audience.
During one of the Saturday jam sessions, a young lady pulled out a Dixon high D whistle, and we played at a few tunes, with me on guitar and her sister on fiddle. Several of the jammers were interested, the only real problem being that there wasn’t much overlap in material, although “Amazing Grace” worked out pretty well. (Have you ever tried yelling out the changes to “Swalllowtail Jig” for a bass player?) There was a mandolin player there who had a harmonica on a neck rack, too. No one even hinted that they should be driven out of the jam. I’ve also seen an accordian player well accepted at a jam at one of the festivals at Grass Valley, CA. Of course, she could really whip through a bunch of the standard fiddle tunes in a way that I never heard on the Lawrence Welk Show.
Now, having said all that, I’ll admit that when I go to hear Bluegrass, I want to hear fairly traditional stuff. I hated seeing Hot Rize go into their Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers (Western swing) personas. I wasn’t too keen on Peter Rowan doing a whole set of his Free Mexican Air Force material in a concert with the Nashville Bluegrass Band, either. And, I’ll admit that I never really liked any of the stuff Earl Scruggs did with his sons after he and Lester broke up. Even too many non-Bluegrass gospel numbers (ala Nashville Bluegrass Band) in a row will wear on me.
I do think that it’s more a question of expectations and mind-set than of whether it’s possible to make good music with “non-traditional” combinations of instruments. And, as Weeks said, sometimes it depends on who you are. The Chieftains’ “Down the Old Plank Road” mixes Bluegrass, Old-Timey, and American Folk with their own instrumentation–and just to screw up the categories even further, there’s some piano. Still most of it works pretty well–as long as you aren’t expecting “real” Bluegrass.
