I told myself I’d never apologize for being slow or irregular with this newsletter, because it’s a hobby not a job, but it has been too long since I sent an update from String Theory HQ. The weeks just roll by like a broken down dam, to paraphrase John Prine. I can’t believe it’s mid May. I’ve enjoyed this bountiful spring, from the weather to some stellar shows to interesting guests and topics at WMOT. It seems like approaching 57, time isn’t something I spend as much as something that has its way with me.
I do hope you saw the one big essay I e-blasted your way in late April, The Sadness of Singing Robots, about the downsides and dangers of the sudden rush toward generative AI music. That piece took up a lot of time and went through more iterations than I can count, but I think I staked out a responsible ethical framework for listeners and artists to think about this weird new tech. I’ve tried without much success to get Music Row creators to talk about AI, because the writers I actually know are too devoted to the art to care about it. I now like to say real musicians need AI like a fish needs a bicycle, with apologies to Gloria Steinem.
In the music biz at large, I think there’s too much “wow, cool” and not enough “whoa there.” Young folks and pop leaning creators don’t seem to worry much about “tapping the creative potential” of AI, when what that really means to me is plagiarizing the work used in the learning models and laundering it through a vague embrace of “change.” And look, there will be compelling uses for AI in all of the arts, but there is TIME, folks. We don’t need you to “produce” a “hit” with AI right NOW, but if you read Reddit forums, it’s full steam ahead. Just because one can, doesn’t mean one should, as with human cloning, or wearing plaid pants. More to come on this huge topic. It’s the most dramatic thing going on in the business.
I’m gearing up for a summer of music and travel - the WMOT Roots on the Rivers festival June 3, the final tour of Dead & Co. in Chicago on my birthday weekend, the 20th anniversary of the ROMP bluegrass/newgrass fest in Owensboro, KY between June 21-24, a fine looking bluegrass festival at The Caverns put on by my friend Todd Mayo July 1-2. Then I take a retreat and stay with friends after July 4 on the Olympic peninsula in Washington. So maybe this is the last newsletter until December! Who knows? Here are my favorite features from the last few months.
Ten Years Of Big Ears
I had an incredible experience at the 10th edition of Big Ears in Knoxville. Its strong lineup of folk and roots artists made it an easy way to sneak some more jazz and experimental music into my coverage for WMOT. And again I sincerely appreciate my team’s trust to cover artists and scenes that are adjacent to our Americana format. I wrote an extended essay and made an hour of The String built around shorter interviews with bass player Christian McBride (a thrill), banjo man Béla Fleck, country revivalist Sierra Ferrell, inventive folk singer Jake Xerxes Fussell, and Nashville ambient jazz guitarist Rich Ruth. I was especially glad to discover and meet Ruth - he goes by Michael - and talk about how different audiences respond to abstract music. He’s doing great work and getting more gigs with his exciting band. Highly recommend his 2022 album I Survived, It’s Over, and his new 2023 release let you hear his band live at the Third Man studio here in town. Hip stuff!
Fare Thee Well Gordon Lightfoot
I was moved by the passing of Gordon Lightfoot recently, because he was a voice that took me back to my formative early years listening to FM radio when “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” was such a standout track and I daresay the first folk ballad I ever heard. I realized that my deeper understanding of the Canadian star had come through bluegrass, because so many artists have covered Lightfoot songs over the decades, such as “Early Morning Rain” and “Go My Way.” Leading the way there was Tony Rice, who revered GL as a writer and artist and who recorded 17 songs over his career. So I prepared this appreciation told through Tony Rice covers, with a Spotify playlist.
Welcome Back, Nickel Creek
I was all geared up to see Nickel Creek return to the Ryman Auditorium in late April, where they had three nights set for their big reunion tour, but alas Chris Thile got a virus and had to go on voice rest for a month. Really sad, because I know full well the nuclear strength passion with which he and the Watkins siblings love to perform. At the same time, I was blown away by their new album Celebrants, their first record since 2014, which became a chance for me to go deep on the impact of the band. They are scheduled to return to their stacked 2023 tour on May 29 in Birmingham.
Billy Strings Delivers Bluegrass At Arena Scale
If Nickel Creek were bluegrass music’s pop-leaning arena band of the early 2000s, Billy Strings is the genre’s breakout jam-leaning stars of today. I got to write about Billy’s multi-night stand at Bridgestone Arena. My nut graph:
“A giant pro hockey rink was the last place I ever expected to be arriving for a bluegrass show, but Billy Strings is signing on new users like Chat GPT, and he’s got to put us all somewhere. Ten years ago, Strings formed his first professional duo in Traverse City, MI with the older mandolinist Don Julin. Five years ago, Strings had his own four-piece band, a new indie debut album, an IBMA Momentum Award as a promising newcomer, and the attention of Rolling Stone. Now here he was playing two sold-out nights at Nashville’s biggest indoor venue, with a bonus Sunday night show at the Ryman Auditorium as an old-school exclamation point. Things have moved fast, because Billy Strings, now 30 years old, has an incendiary way with roots music that vaulted him to the top of the jamgrass scene and then on into the mainstream. It’s been a thrill to watch him thrive and rise, more so because he plays the fire out of authentic acoustic music and hasn’t made any compromises in order to attract the throngs.”
Larissa Maestro Is Everything, Everywhere
I’d never been to a concert in the famous Athena Room, the interior of Nashville’s Parthenon in Centennial Park before this spring (photo below). But I made a point to attend a night at the Parthenon’s ECHO chamber music series featuring a program entirely composed by cellist Larissa Maestro, whom I’d just profiled for The String. I also saw her about the same time radiating kind energy from the house band of the Love Rising concert, which was Music City’s howl of anger at Gov. Bill Lee’s abusive new laws targeting transgender health care and, for some reason, drag shows. That’s another rant, but it was a real joy getting to know Larissa because of her impact on the Americana scene:
Since arriving in Nashville in 2007, she’s built a rich and varied life as a studio and stage musician, with a long list of live and recorded credits that includes Margo Price, Brandi Carlile, Kyshona Armstrong, the Lone Bellow, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and Eric Church. She’s been part of high profile recording sessions for John Legend, Mickey Guyton, Wanda Jackson, and Ms. Lauryn Hill. And in recent years she’s had a particularly strong bond working with Allison Russell, last year’s three-time Grammy nominee - who calls Maestro “one of the most extraordinary musicians it has ever been my privilege to know - and one of the best people.” Russell engaged Maestro to arrange the strings for her next album, which is due later this year. Because of her extensive work in roots and folk music, Maestro won Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2022 Americana Honors and Awards, the first cellist and, as a Philippine-American, the first woman of color to do so.
Closing Notes
My most recent piece for WMOT reviews seven fantastic new jazzgrass instrumental albums by some of today’s best young musicians, so I hope you’ll check that out too. I’m ditching the usual Tweets section of this newsletter, because Twitter has become so toxic and broken during the absurd, performative stewardship of Elon Musk. I used to be more of a fan of the guy when he seemed to be about innovating rather than bloviating and proving his credentials to the new right wing. I guess that’s who he always was. It makes watching SpaceX launches a lot less enjoyable, though I can’t help myself. I’ve grown closer to Facebook since rejoining for real in the winter, and it’s okay. People don’t really converse there like I think they used to. It’s not so great for dashing off quickie observations a la Twitter. But I’m definitely seeing more news from friends and I’m impressed that so many are still so active on that now rather aged platform. I guess we’re a little aged too. Til next time.