Bluegrass Perfection

Following is one of the most perfect bluegrass performances you will ever hear.

I’m not talking about technical perfection, although it’s here in abundance. I’m talking about musicianship, which is how the musicians communicate with each other, the way these musicians use fills and breaks to mirror the angry dialog of the lyrics — and it is a dialog.

I’m also talking about musicality, which is the sum of the choices the musicians make about interpretation. This could have been the good-time delivery of a tragic story — an interpretive technique that’s often used in bluegrass, and has its own fascination. The musicians could have chosen to rely on technique, amp up the speed — also a common bluegrass technique, although lacking in depth, maturity, and warmth.

Instead, they turned up the heat. Just listen to Red Allen’s stinging guitar runs; to Porter Church’s muscular, determined banjo picking; to the utter emotional nakedness in the fiddling of the brilliant and doomed Scotty Stoneman. This is how bluegrass music should sound.

This is Red Allen with “Keep On Going”.