Silly me! I thought St. Patrick’s Day was all about honoring the tremendous contributions of the Irish people to American culture by celebrating with them. You know … fun. Until Slate Magazine’s didactic little tantrum over Irish and, by extension, Irish-American myth-making, that is.
St. Patrick didn’t drive any snakes out of Ireland? Shocking! Surely they’ve renamed the Blarney Stone the “Earnest Freshman Debate Stone” by now.
If you believe that, I have some CDs to sell you from a guy who says that sloppy playing, sweaty hair, and churning rhythm add up to bluegrass innovation. He’s the one making a living exploiting the bluegrass connection to Scots-Irish culture while “educating” his followers with rehashed book learning that’s supposed to pass for cultural authenticity.
So, go ahead, have fun. Indulge in a bit o’ the blarney. And don’t let the hall monitors get you down.
Oh, and if you want to hear a bit of what the Ulster Scots brought to bluegrass, here's the father of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe, with a tune his Uncle Pen Vandiver taught him -- "The Dead March".
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