String Theories
Olympic Lessons For Music; Musicality Updates; Jerry Garcia's Bluegrass Life; Molly Tuttle Gets Engaged; Kristina Train Goes Country
Media, Music, And The Olympics
Every two years, the Olympics offer a fortnight of feel-good escapism, national pride, and mind-warping athletic skill. Even though I don’t follow the games day to day, I miss them when they’re over, as they will be this weekend. I’m a particular fan of winter editions, because I’m crazy for (watching) alpine skiing, and this year’s venues in the Dolomites were just uncanny, especially with the addition of chase drones capturing the skiers like chase planes. And then there were stellar performances - and great attitudes - from Alysa Liu, Mikaela Shiffrin, the women’s hockey team, and more. All have been especially bright spots late in the games.
Little surprise, the Olympics remind me of a musical angle. It starts with my thesis that the giant blind spots in American mainstream culture for high-attention composed and improvised music are largely a result of mainstream media’s indifference to them. In the middle 20th century, when concert music, jazz, and even avant-garde music were covered with intention and knowledge by major city newspapers, national magazines and public television, those forms of music produced widely known stars and icons, from Issac Stern to Beverly Sills to Chick Corea. As that coverage faded and gave way to relentless fluffing of pop in all its forms, our national musical diet contracted. Sure, it’s correlation without proof of causation. But we are what we talk about right?
The justification in Big Media for ignoring so many of today’s great American musicians is that nobody’s heard of them and the audience will tune out. The music is too complex and people don’t get it. But if this line of thinking has any merit, then why does NBC broadcast Olympic cross country skiing and biathlon? Why ski jumping or skeleton? These are niche sports! They have no populist constituency. And my lord, what about curling!? Every time I’ve glanced at the muted TV for the past two weeks, somebody’s been curling.
Of course, it was a few Olympic cycles ago that curling caught on and the audience got kind of addicted to it. It’s slow and nerdy and complicated. It shouldn’t have rated, according to TV producer logic. But we learned the answer to this conundrum in second grade. SHOW the event. And TELL people the rules, the strategy and the lore. Meanwhile, include it in your promo videos and Today show support broadcasts, and lo and behold you’ve led people to something new and charming and real. See where I’m going with this?
The Olympics of music (at least in the mind of the Recording Academy) is the Grammy Awards, and even this annual prime time showcase has marginalized instrumental, composed, and improvised music. This year’s show had none, even in the all-genre Premiere Ceremony during the afternoon. My suspicion that the Grammy’s recently got new producers proved true. The legendary, 40-year vet Ken Ehrlich stepped down as executive producer after 2020. The new operation, a British company called Fullwell73 seems to have an all-pop agenda. Stars. Hits. Big budget production numbers. I noted in my Grammy review for WMOT that Americana and roots music were all but absent. This same team brought us Joni Mitchell/Brandi Carlile and Luke Combs/Tracy Chapman a couple of years ago, so I don’t know what happened. Those were the takeaway moments from that show. Nobody I know has been talking about anything this year except the tribute medleys to dead artists.
Think of jazz and chamber music as the curling of music. Could y’all at the networks maybe include and celebrate them once every two years?
One Magic Week Of Nashville Shows
Speaking of variety, I’ve just enjoyed an especially rich and remarkable week of live music here in Nashville. Last Monday I caught guitarist Jack Silverman playing with his revolving group in the parlor of Urban Cowboy, which is as intimate and connected a space as I can imagine. It’s like being at a home rehearsal, except it’s very high level stuff. This time Jack was joined by violinist John Mailander, drummer Derrek Phillips and bass player Ethan Jodziewicz. Trippy, textural, beat-heavy, deeply improvised and responsive - everything I listen for. Made by artists I know personally and cherish. At close range.
A couple days later I saw master songwriter and guitarist Darrell Scott play our WMOT Wired In event in his new duo with resophonic guitar legend Rob Ickes. This was of course more conventionally song focused, but with a rare level of musical ambition and imagination. This is one of the hot roots acts to see in 2026. And my week ended at Bridgestone Arena catching our bluegrass phenom Billy Strings at night one of his fourth Nashville mega-residency. From a parlor with a dozen people to a crowd of 10,000. Music for all occasions.
‘Musicality’ On The Road, Pod, And Stage
The campaign for Musicality For Modern Humans continues, though with more patience and long-term thinking than last fall. I’ll be a guest for the live taping of Marcus K. Dowling’s Culture At Large podcast TOMORROW - on Monday night (Feb. 23) at the venue Anzie Blue on Belcourt Ave. It’s free and I encourage y’all to come out.
In January, I was a guest on Banner & Company, hosted by Nashville veteran broadcaster Demetria Kalodimos, and I loved how the conversation flowed. DK is such a pro and I began to get my bearings for how to talk about the book’s key themes in an efficient way.
I’ll have more to say about this soon, but I’m booked on March 24 for a talk at Vanderbilt Library. I’ll be speaking about the transformative power of centering sound in our national conversation about music. Please put it on your calendar if you’re in the area. Before that, I’ll be in Asheville on Sunday, March 15, where I’ll be in conversation with my fiddling friend Casey Driessen at his standing gig at a nice little cocktail and conversation bar called Little Jumbo.
Thanks so much to those of you who’ve purchased and read the book. I’ve heard some very nice feedback and I appreciate it. This is the point where I could use more ratings and comments at Amazon to keep its recommendation engine fueled up. If you can leave a trenchant comment of any kind, I’ll be grateful. And if you know of book clubs that might want to engage in a different kind of conversation about music, please refer me. They’re hard to find.
New Work
As usual, click the illustration or headline to zip to the full article.
The good folks at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum agreed to lift the paywall on my Bluegrass Unlimited cover story about Jerry Garcia's lifelong passion for bluegrass and deep acoustic roots music. The exhibit celebrating those key chapters of his life - from his Bay Area old-time band with Robert Hunter, to the legendary Old And In The Way band, to his late-life picking and recording with David "Dawg" Grisman - is open for just about one more month. Don't miss it!
Could I interest you in a t-shirt with an important message? I have a limited supply of AI Music Ain’t Music shirts in S, M, L, and XL - for $20 by Venmo.