Mr. Bluegrass Manners is back at last. I was actually starting to worry about him. It turns out after the success of his book about bluegrass social distancing, he has started a successful podcast about diffusing bluegrass conflicts called Your Corn is Too Hot! – Bringing the Temperature Down One Demijohn at a Time.
We’re grateful that he’s taken some time to answer our backlog of reader questions:
Dear Mr. Bluegrass Manners,
I’m a bass player who occasionally backs people up in an open mic situation, and there’s one guy who insists on playing his originals with us. He’ll always rattle off the entire chord progression to me beforehand and my eyes glaze over before he’s even gotten to the chorus. In the 15-second speed rehearsal, I’d really just like him to tell me where the curveballs and pitfalls in the song are, like, “the chorus starts on a 5” or “The verse hangs on 1 forever,” you know, the kind of thing I wouldn’t be likely to guess. Can you recommend some etiquette standards for sit-in musicians?
— Milton Edgerton in Wisconsin
Dear Milton,
It’s a great question, and you’re not the first to be in this position in an open mic or jam situation. Your frustration reminds of me of the pre-GPS days when some relatives of mine would give all the directions at once, complete with, “when you get to the old Wilson barn, keep going straight.” Give me the major high points with any unexpected turns, and then instruct as we go if you’re riding with me. If you’re not, write the directions down. This really ought to be the rule for open mic participants. If you’re being backed up by musicians who are good at following material they don’t know, give them a few warnings about the song, otherwise either arrive with a chart, or instead of your nine-chord original with the modulation, opt to sing Salty Dog Blues (giving fair warning about the second chord being a 6 major).
— MBM
Dear Mr. Bluegrass Manners,
I’m the leader of a band that works over 180 shows per year. Lately I’ve started to feel like my agent no longer understands or cares about geography. We worked one night in Sydney, Nova Scotia, followed by a show in Melbourne, Florida, then back up to Portland, Maine. Good booking agents are hard to find, and I don’t want to seem ungrateful, so is there a tactful way of addressing this problem? Perhaps purchasing a large map of North America for the agency’s office wall? I’m exhausted.
— Harriman Rockwood in Tennessee
Dear Harriman,
I’m sorry, I was too distracted to notice what came after the first sentence because I was so impressed that you’re still doing that many shows in this day and age. Are you hiring? I play mandolin, sing some harmony parts, and I can drive a bus.
— MBM
Dear Mr. Bluegrass Manners,
If you’re playing Sitting On Top of the World at an open jam at a bluegrass festival, and one guitar player always plays an E minor when God obviously didn’t write it that way, should we just stop at the end of the chorus and stare at him/her or keep playing it the way God wrote it, with the hope they catch on and expel him/her immediately after the last chorus if they don’t?
— Louisa Ashland in Kentucky
Dear Louisa,
We had a similar question a while back relating to a 6 minor chord being added to Big Spike Hammer. It’s interesting that you brought God’s songwriting into this, since God is known to have done very little songwriting Himself. He may have considered it beneath Him which is why he delegated it to David and others. However, you are correct that most religious historians and theologians agree that He did in fact write the original Sitting on Top of the World (probably on the day He created the blues). As a side note, He also wrote Turn Turn Turn, but that was a co-write with Pete Seeger. As for the dreaded 6 minor chord, it’s true that there’s no record of it being used in that song in the early centuries. It’s at least likely that God would be unhappy with the unauthorized change, since there were certainly times when music displeased Him (Amos 5:23). Still, rather than make things unnecessarily awkward in an informal jam session, I’d just let it go and hope the guitar player in question doesn’t try to add a 6 minor chord to Pig in a Pen.
— MBM
Thank you for your questions.
