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Dec. 12, 2009
Interview with Cascadia Yulegrass:
1. OK, tell me how the heck did this
band get together? As far as I know, there are at least 3
different states involved, and a lot of miles in between. What do
you guys do, e-mail rehearsal tapes to each other?
Scott Law and I have been playing together for about
3 years now. And I’ve known Billy, Keith and Sharon from the
festival circuit since forever. Ever since the Windham Hill Winter
Solstice thing petered out, I’ve been looking for a fun situation
for me and some musical friends, playing xmas music. The band
NewGrange was a blast, but everyone’s so busy now. This is a great
opportunity to play music with people I really like, and have a
good time.
2. How did
Hood River
get chosen as the starting point for this limited date tour?
This being the first installment of this particular
project, we though it would be nice to stay close to home. The
folks in Hood River
basically courageously stepped up, stuck their necks out and made
us an offer we didn’t refuse!
3. Can you give me any heads-up on what we can
expect musically?
We're looking at traditional bluegrass
instruments all played by people who can probably play any style
on-demand. What is the show going to focus on? Jamming? Re-working
of traditional songs? Originals?
The term “traditional
bluegrass” is an oxymoron to me. But we’re going to be
re-interpreting a lot of traditional Xmas and holiday music,
putting it through our collective filter, figuring out how we can
make it relevant and fun. And really (focus on) making a beautiful
sound with these wonderful string instruments, and our voices.
There will be a bit of jamming, there always is. But we’re
basically going for beauty and groove.
4. You've all been in bands touring
with huge names in the bluegrass world (David Grisman,Tony Rice,
Peter Rowan, Sam Bush). Tell me a couple of stories from the road
- what really goes on behind the scenes at a big festival?
Behind the scenes at festivals, for this kind of music,
is mostly ABOUT the music. That’s what I love so much about this
community. Nobody’s gonna get THAT famous doing this stuff, except
maybe Alison Krauss, and she’s basically a music geek still.
We talk about how aggravating it is to get
that G# in tune on the D string and stuff like that, where to get
bows re-haired, whose version of a traditional tune we like best,
tell lots of bad jokes on each other.
Most of the people in this community are
what I would describe a “fully individuated,” so there’s a lot of
idiosyncratic behavior to discuss. Sharon’s
totally gorgeous, so she always has some funny weird fan stories.
Fortunately, she’s also one of the kindest people I know, so the
stories are always gentle.
Scott does a lot of Rock and Jam Band
stuff, so with that you have weird gig stories, etc. and Billy &
Keith have great families, so it’s just about our lives. We’ll
have some extremely funny folks on stage, though, and you might
get some good stories at the show.
5. Is there/will there be any
recording for a Yulegrass CD?
I’m sure at some point
we will record this aggregation, but we need to play some shows
first and figure out the musical ecology.
6. With all of your different musical
influences, how on earth do you guys decide what to listen to in
the van?
Dueling iPods... It’s music, so everyone
knows how to share.
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