When The Bluegrass Journeymen visited India early last year, they happened to hook up with singer/songwriter Jaimin Rajani, and went into the studio to record one of his songs, Can’t Get Away.
The Journeymen exist primarily to share bluegrass music with audiences outside the United States. They do perform at home as well, and played the International Stage in September at World of Bluegrass in Raleigh, but their mission is to teach and demonstrate the music overseas. The band consists of Patrick Fitzsimons on mandolin, Billy Cardine on reso-guitar, Alex Koukov on banjo, Bridger Dunnagan on fiddle, Jack Cloonan on guitar, and Skyler Marsh on bass.
Bluegrass was never Jaimin’s musical format, though he had known Fitzsimons for some time from his travels in India. But when the whole band visited his town of Shantiniketan, he took the opportunity to record a song he had written with them.
Rajani says that it was a new experience for him.
“I’ve never worked within the bluegrass sensibility or style, but owing to my friendship with the band, I got a hang of the instrumentation. From early conversations with Patrick (the mandolinist and band leader), I learned that the mandolin often takes on a percussive role, setting the rhythm and pulse. This explains the absence of typical percussion as a timekeeper in bluegrass music.
So, while I knew a couple of these details, it wasn’t extensive. What helped me compose a song that could be performed with The Bluegrass Journeymen is my affinity for American folk music, strong melodies, and acoustic instrumentation—all elements found in bluegrass.”
He tells us that he met the band by pure chance.
“The band tours India every year to raise awareness about bluegrass music. I first met Patrick in 2018 after one of their shows at a coffeeshop in the neck of my woods. We bonded over our love for Indian food.
When I recorded my debut album in 2022, I invited Patrick and Billy to play on a few tracks, which gave Patrick insight into the type of music I create. Then last year, while they were in Shantiniketan, a small town near Calcutta, Patrick invited me to visit them with a new, unrecorded song.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to search hard, as I had written Can’t Get Away a year earlier, hoping one day to play it with the Journeymen. It felt like a divine coincidence.”
Cardine arranged the song, and they recorded it together in a makeshift studio, live without multitracking, but with some post-production enhancements, ended up with a strong track. Their cross-genre experiment came out quite well, and as Jaimin typically sings in English, it should be of interest to bluegrass fans worldwide.
Have a listen…
Can’t Get Away is available now from popular download and streaming services online.
