Page Twelve
MUSIC REVIVAL:
Bluegrass brings
in straights, freas

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Saturday, July 22, 1972

F U

By RICHARD FINEBERG
Dispatch News Service
WASHINGTON, D. C.-Bible-
belt America is coming face to
face with the counter-culture at
bluegrass music festivals
around the country. Unlike the
often stormy political scene, the
confrontation on the bluegrass
front is remarkably free from
tension.
"The intermingling has been
all positive," says Pete Kuyken-
dall, general manager of "Blue-
grass Unlimited," a magazine
dedicated to promoting this in-
creasingly popular off-shoot of
American folk music.
Traditionally limited to its
Appalachian spawning grounds.
bluegrass festivals are popping
up across the country. Last
week-end there were bluegrass
festivals at campgrounds near
Renfro Valley, Kentucky and
Disney, Oklahoma. The week-
end of July 8-9 there were
gatherings_ at Berryville, Vir-
ginia, Waynesville, Ohio and
McKinney, Texas.
And at each of these gather-
ings the chances are good that
a family in a shiny camper with
a flag decal and a bumper
sticker reading "America-Love
It or Leave It" will park next to
a beat-up van bearing peace
and ecology emblems and a
bumper sticker that warns,
"America - Change It Or Lose
It."
The ersatz neighbors will
have plenty of chance to get
acquainted over the week-end;
bluegrass festivals are informal
affairs. Spectators come and
go freely, often gathering in the
fields for impromptu pick-up
sessions with their own instru-
ments. At the bandstand, the
music runs from noon to mid-
night. Small children sit on
the stage, slurping popsicles and
bobbing their heads in rhythm
as they look up at the musicians
while their parents in lawn
chairs tap their feet and drink
beer.
The music that is drawing
"straights" and "freaks" to-
gether is characterized by high,

mountain harmonies interlaced
with sparkling instrumental
solos. The rhythm is hard-driv-
ing, the delivery rapid. Blue-
grass bands customarily in-
clude banjo, guitar, mandolin
and bass - and a fiddle when
possible. Amplified instruments
are usually scorned.
The surge in bluegrass popu-
larity is surprising, even to
long-time bluegrass mans. Ten
years ago, Kuykendall recalls,
bluegrass seemed to be noth-
ing more than part of a dying
American folk tradition. The
folk-music boom in the cities
had peaked and there was little
room for bluegrass in the am-
plified, twangy country music
field.
But the piercing sound folk-
lorist Alan Lomax labelled "folk
music with overdrive" struck a
chord somewhere, and the blue-
grass star has skyrocketed for
several dozen bluegrass bands
now in demand for the crowded
--and growing - festival cir-
cuit. In a recent issue "Blue-
grass Unlimited" proudly listed
195 bluegrass festivals sched-
uled around the country be-
tween June and November.
(This figure includes bluegrass-
oriented folk festivals and fid-
dlers conventions.)
when the stately Monroe auto-
Meanwhile, at festivals across
the country bluegrass is achiev-
ing a small-scale miracle whose
secret any politician would be
delighted to learn: the high
lonesome sound is uniting shag-
gy, urban youth, many of
whom are recent converts from
country rock, with down-home
traditional listeners who have
been there all along.
FOOSBALL
TABLE TENNIS
BOWLING
-UNION-

The Rainbow Corporation in association with the University
Activities Center and Project Community Present
The
ann arbor
BLUES & JAZZ
festioval
1972'

EMU THEATRE
SUMMER PRODUCTION
PRESENTS
the powerful drama
TIE IIEIIESS
JULY 27, 28, 29 AT 8:00 P.M.
IN THE AIR CONDITIONED
Quirk Auditorium
Reserved Seats at $2.00
Box Office Hours 12:45-4:30
Also 7:00-8:00 Performonce Nights
FOR RESERVATION DIAL 487-1221

i

Forest ireS burn
more than trees.
A Advertising seed for the public good

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OTIS SPANN MEMORIAL FIELD
(next to Huron High School) ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
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TICKET OUTLETS-Mchigan Union, Salvation Records (330 Maynard &
1103 S. University), Ned's Books (Ypsilanti), and by mail from Ann
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Limited time offer. Ticket sales will be limited to Washtenaw County Area until
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MAIL TO: Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival
P.O. -Box 381
Ann Arbor, Mich. 48107
U U
Number of Series Tickets at $15 per ticket Total enclosed__
NAME
ADDRESS -'
ss
CITY~ __ ,~_ STATE. Z1P
Send certified check or money order
NO CASH PLEASE.
* Urr s r rr r r w r r r r rr ~ r r r r r rr r r r r r r