Tony Trischka thrives at RockyGrass

 

Photo by Bonnie Chaim

Tony Trischka thrives at RockyGrass

By BRAD WEISMANN

It’s always a good time when Tony Trischka comes to town.

The 77-year-old master of the bluegrass banjo is one of the many of the genre’s elite who gather in Lyons, Colorado once a year in late July. They do so for a week of teaching music at Planet Bluegrass’ RockyGrass Academy, followed by three days of continuous bluegrass performances at the annual RockyGrass festival.

A young and enthusiastic attendee at the first Fincastle Bluegrass Festival, the model for the modern bluegrass music festival, in 1965, Trischka moved quickly from group to group as his skill and breadth of knowledge increased. Quickly expert at traditional bluegrass banjo techniques, Trischka was motivated to innovate, and he began to include all sorts of different musics – “jazz, avant-garde, psychedelic, klezmer and various non-Western musical elements” – into his playing. This approach came to be known as “newgrass” or progressive bluegrass, and now, decades later, encompasses the work of numerous prominent individuals and ensembles such as Tony Rice, Leftover Salmon, Hot Rize, and Alison Kraus.

He’s produced nearly two dozen solo albums, made music with Skyline and Psychograss, and has collaborated on a myriad of projects with others. He’s played on Broadway and in film.

But once a year, Trischka loves RockyGrass. “It’s the greatest,” he says. “I have always taught at the Academy here every year. And it’s just the best. This is my favorite year so far. I’m in here so many times I know everybody so it’s like you walk three feet, (you meet) 10 people. It’s a great hang, and the students are great. They had me by the river this time. And the setting, and to see all your friends. Play music. So I just . . . it’s fantastic. It’s just a great vibe here.”

Trischka, surprisingly, received a lot of pushback for his innovations from the traditional bluegrass community. “Yeah, I mean, I was out there in a lot of heavy-duty – I was playing a lot of festivals about that time. In 1973 I was with a group called Breakfast Special in New York City, and we were really weird. We would do Jewish music, Hawaiian music, and Sam Cooke gospel tunes, and some bluegrass. In the evening shows we would hve a saxophone and drums and so we’d do a standard bluegrass sort of thing in the afternoon and then for the motorcycle gangs and the hippies that was the crowd at least in part in the ‘70s because all the rock festivals had shut down. But yeah I would definitely get pushback. And I get it! It was weird stuff, I don’t blame them.”

Trischka persisted, releasing the seminal album Banjoland in 1976, continuing with recordings such as Robot Plane Flies over Arkansas in 1983 leading to the immortal Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular in 2007. He contributed music to the soundtrack of Driving Miss Daisy, he played the banjo in Broadway’s The Robber Bridegroom. He is now one of the gray eminences of the genre – but he still keeps busy.

photo by Bonnie Chaim

Currently, he is promoting his second album of famed banjo player Earl Scruggs’ transcriptions, titled Earl Jam 2. Trischka received a thumb drive containing jams Scruggs did with John Hartford in the 1980s and ‘90s. Trischka painstakingly reconstrued these musical passages, and is playing them for an appreciative audience, as evinced by the enthusiastic response to the initial Earl Jam in 2024.

A lot of the tunes on the Earl Jam albums are simple, traditional tunes, a marked contrast to his usual wide-ranging musical explorations? Was this deliberate, or was it dependent on the source material available?

“It’s both I guess you could say. There were a lot of tunes that were traditional, and there were tunes like ‘Chinese Breakdown’ that are really obscure. A lot of it had to do with what did Earl play on that jam. Like I did ‘Bill Cheatham’ because I never knew the right way to play that, and I’ve been playing it for 60 years, I had this real clunky way to play it, and everyone plays it the same way. Then I found out how Earl did it in these jams and I’m like, ‘That’s so cool.’ The main thing is that I want everyone else in the band world to hear what Earl did. I transcribed everything that I could, That particular tune ‘Bill Cheatham’ when people say, ‘So that’s how you play it!’ That’s the cool thing. So a lot of time they were his solos but not always and sometimes you give someone three or four choices of these tunes and they’re going to have cool solos. It varies, Every tune is a little bit different.”

As to future projects – “I’ve been putting music to Emily Dickinson poems. I recorded four tracks already. And this chamber piece -- I wanted to have a soprano in there singing a Emily Dickinson poem. So that’s the next main thing I’m going to do. And if the label wants Earl Jam 3 I guess I will do that. Ther are over two hundred tunes. So it would be an inexhaustible supply. And every one of those tunes – I’ve never actually counted, but I’ve estimated. You know, there can be three or four solos in each tune, and you could do a whole album with just three or four solos. It’s infinite.”

Trischka is known as a mentor to younger players, especially to that modern whiz of the banjo, Bela Fleck. He described his relationship with him thusly: “He had it, He already had it. He had taken lessons from two other banjo players before he came to me. And he played some Scruggs things and some fiddle tunes, but he wanted to learn some of my weird stuff. It attracted him for some unknown reason. And so he would show up for a lesson and and he would ask me to play some traditional tunes and just jam out for three minutes; he’d record it and then come back the next week playing every single note perfectly. So it was that sort of thing. So we’d worked together for two months, maybe, it was like let’s just hang out together and pick.”

When asked what his favorite area of endeavor is today, he replies: “Besides live performance? I like to go into the studio. I have a friend in the Czech Republic wanted me to do an overdub on something he’s recording, a week ago or something like that. And so it was really fun creating this solo with this tune that he’d come up with. So, yeah, there’s new challenges that keep the brain engaged. As you get older, it’s a good thing to have that avenue.

"I’m not out there every weekend, and I don’t want to be out there every weekend. I play every two weeks, every three weeks. I play enough to keep me really happy. Sometimes I’ll do five dates in a row. So it varies but I’m not like OK, here’s our solid band.”

And in terms of advice for the up and coming banjo player, Trischka says, “Listen to Earl Scruggs a lot. I always like to suggest that people listen to the early bluegrassers, like the Stanley Brothers, check out Ralph Stanley, Jim and Jesse, Bill Monroe. ‘Cause that’s where it started. And there’s a lot of great bands today, but go to the roots.

“And listen to all the banjo players that you can. And work on your timing– timing is everything, as John Hartford once said, and I think everyone would agree with that. Work with a metronome, make sure your timing is really good. And have really good separation of notes which is something that J.D. Crowe said, which means every note you play should be really clear. ‘Cause a lot of times people do a banjo roll and the last note will be kind of quiet, then you’ll lose drive and you’ll lose the syncopation. Every note, really clear and strong.”

NRR Project: Brother Bones plays 'Sweet Georgia Brown' (1949)

 

NRR Project: “Sweet Georgia Brown”

Music by Maceo Pinkard and Ben Bernie; lyrics by Kenneth Casey

Performed by Brother Bones and His Shadows

Recorded 1949

2:52

Ira Brooker does all the heavy lifting on this song via his excellent essay, here, at the National Recording Registry.

Freeman Davis, working under the sobriquet Brother Bones, performed this essential number with a saxophonist and organist in an L.A. studio. This infectious tune, whistled insouciantly by Davis as he accompanied himself on the “bones” – two literal bones held in one hand and sounded in a compelling, clicking fashion.

“Sweet Georgia Brown” was written in 1925 – but it was never given a better rendition than this. Now known as the theme of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, it’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face and get you moving.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Destination Freedom.

NRR Project: 'South Pacific' (1949)

 

NRR Project: “South Pacific”

Composed by Richard Rodgers; lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Performed by the original Broadway cast

Recorded 1949

1 hr., 4 min.

Read Laurence Maslon’s excellent essay on the recording’s history here, at the National Recording Registry.

Once Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! became a hit in 1943, they continued their long run of successful shows with the offerings Carousel (1945) and Allegro (1947). They then snared the rights to James Michener’s collection of Tales of the South Pacific, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948. Working with director and co-writer Josh Logan, Hammerstein crafted two interlocking tales – both dealing with racial prejudice. Addressing a serious topic was a new direction for American musicals, which were usually escapist romps.

The musical is set in title location, during World War II. Ensign Nellie Forbush, a Navy nurse (played by Mary Martin), meets and falls in love with a French planter, Emile DeBeque (operatic bass Ezio Pinza). She wants to be with him, but she is leery of the fact that he has mixed-race children from a previous marriage to a native woman. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Joe Cable (William Tabbert) falls for Liat, a native girl. However, he realizes his family would never accept her as his wife. The prejudice that the Americans are steeped in prevent them from finding happiness.

Of course, all this happens in the context of  a musical – and the songs are some of the best R & H ever wrote – “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Bali Hai,” “I’m In Love with a Wonderful Guy,” “Younger Than Springtime,” “Happy Talk,” and on and on. The musical was a smash hit, ran for years, and inspired many successful pop covers.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’.

NRR Project: 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' (1949)

 

NRR Project: “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer”

Composed by Johnny Marks

Performed by Gene Autry

Recorded June 27, 1949

3:08

Orvon Grover Autry was born in Texas in 1907. Taking on the moniker of Gene, he grew up on the family ranch. After high school, he got work as a telegrapher, and he used to sing and play guitar to while away the time on the job (and got fired for it). He received encouragement from many people who heard him play, most notably Will Rogers. 

He started off singing on the radio in Oklahoma in 1928. In 1929, he landed a recording deal with Columbia Records. He finally scored a hit with “That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine,” which he co-wrote. Soon his popularity went through the roof, and he became known as “The Singing Cowboy.”

In 1935, he was cast as the star of The Phantom Empire, a 12-part movie serial that improbably mashed together music, Western drama, and science fiction. He soon was the leading man in low-budget Westerns in which he would sing, fight bad guys, and joke around with his sidekick, Smiley Burnette. He wound up making 96 films in the course of his career, and made an amazing 640 recordings. He was Public Cowboy #1, and inspired a host of imitators.

Autry had a melodious voice, and an easy-going, upbeat persona that appealed to just about everybody. On his horse Champion, he righted wrongs and crooned cowboy ballads. He eventually would branch off into radio and television as well. He is the only person to have five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for his work in film, radio, TV, recording, and live performance.

It is difficult to gauge now just how popular Autry was. Everyone played his songs, saw his movies, listened to him on the radio, read his comic books, played with toys licensed by his brand. He became a role model for the nation’s youth, and penned a 10-part Cowboy Code that outlined the attributes of an upstanding human being. Kids worshipped him.

“Rudolph” was conceived in 1939 by Robert L. May for the Montgomery Ward department-store franchise, as a marketing tool. Ten years later, his brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, wrote this song. (Marks, who was Jewish, made a specialty of writing Christmas songs.)

Autry didn’t want to record this, but his wife insisted. It was a huge hit, an instant Christmas classic. The story of Rudolph, corny as it may seem, seeped into the public’s consciousness and became one of those songs everybody knows.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: ‘South Pacific’.

NRR Project: Hank Williams sings 'Lovesick Blues' (Dec. 22, 1948)

 

NRR Project: “Lovesick Blues”

Music by Cliff Friend; lyrics by Irving Mills

Performed by Hank Williams with his Drifting Cowboys

Recorded Dec. 22, 1948

Released Feb. 11, 1949

2:45

Read Susan Masino’s excellent explanatory essay here at the National Recording Registry!

Who can account for the hellacious splendiferousness of Hank Williams? His songs were imprinted on my soul by my mother, who played him constantly. We went and saw the 1964 biopic “Your Cheatin’ Heart” with George Hamilton as Williams. He was revered in our home like a saint. 

A born songwriter. A beautiful voice. And a huge pain in the neck.

.Born in 1923 in Alabama, Williams learned the guitar as a kid. He began performing country music in bars, schoolhouses, theaters, and at tiny radio stations. He finally got a record contract in 1944. He joined the Louisiana Hayride radio program. Then he performed this song.

It was not a country song. It was not his own song. “Lovesick Blues” was a Tin Pan Alley song, written by Cliff Friend and Irving Mills in 1922. Emmett Miller recorded it in 1925 and 1928. Country singer Rex Griffin put his spin on it in 1939. Williams, who had heard Miller and Griffin’s renditions, decided to imitate Griffin’s approach. He played it on the Hayride show. The crowd went wild.

They recorded it. It went to Number One and stayed there for 16 weeks. Williams made it to the Grand Ole Opry on June 11, 1949; he was instantly a superstar.

He deserved it. He had a magical ability to telegraph whatever he was singing at the heart of the listener. He wrote and sang “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and “I Saw the Light,” “Honky Tonkin’” and “Jambalaya,” “Hey, Good Lookin’” and “Cold Cold Heart.” He even did gospel – his narrative performances as Luke the Drifter are worth seeking out, as are his radio transcriptions.

And he had a tremendous problem with a alcohol and drugs. He was in chronic pain from a case of spina bifida. He became a stumbling wreck; he grew notoriously unreliable and out of it. He married and had a child, but he did not stop destroying himself as fast as he possibly could. He died in the back seat of a car on the way to a gig on New Year's Day, 1953. He was 29.

Touched with genius and madness, Hank Williams’ life is a cautionary tale. His art is eternal, deeply influential, and at its best poignantly heart-breaking. He was heartbreak personified.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’.

NRR Project: 'The Little Engine That Could" (1949)

 

NRR Project: “The Little Engine That Could”

Narrated by Paul Wing

Recorded 1949

13:44

This children’s classic receives its definitive oral rendition here. The story, narrated by Paul Wing, is written about by Roy E.Plotnick here.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Hank Williams plays Lovesick Blues.

NRR Project: 'Kiss Me, Kate' (1949)

 

NRR Project: “Kiss Me, Kate”

Words and music by Cole Porter

Original Broadway cast album

Released Feb. 15, 1949

54:44

Cole Porter (1891-1964) was one of America’s songwriting geniuses. Along with Irving Berlin and Frank Loesser, he wrote both his music and his lyrics – a standalone talent.

Coming from a wealthy background, Porter attended elite schools, traveled widely, and lived well. His precocious talents meant that he was a prolific writer of songs, although he did not gain recognition until age 36. However, once he caught on he became highly celebrated. His work appeared in a number of successful musicials, with many of his hit songs becoming American standards. These include “Night and Day,” “Begin the Beguine,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “Let’s Do It,” “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” and “You’re the Top.”

Porter came from an older songwriting tradition – one in which the songs did not relate intrinsically to the narrative material around them. Songs were plugged into librettos willy-nilly. This all changed with the success of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! in 1943. Now songs were integrated into a musical’s plot, used to advance the action or to illustrate character.

Porter met this challenge with Kiss Me, Kate, a backstage musical about a warring couple of performers who are starring in a musical version of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. (Producer Arnold Saint-Subber was inspired for the musical’s concept by observing the fractious relationship of famous actors/couple Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne in their 1935 production of Shrew.) Porter wrote some of his best work for the show – “So in Love,” “Too Darn Hot,” “From This Moment On,” and “Brush Up Your Shakespeare.”

The cast album came on on 78 r.p.m. records and, for the first time, on a brand-new technology -- a 33 1/3 r.p.m. “long-playing” record.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Little Engine That Could.