* Bluegrass sees lift in 3 albums -- Earle, Skaggs, McCoury
By JIM BESSMAN
Billboard
* 01/18/99
BPI Entertainment News Wire
story
(c) Copyright 1999 BPI Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
NEW YORK (BPI) -- With the possible exception of Alison Krauss, the
* "high lonesome" bluegrass genre has remained lonely indeed -- at least
in the mainstream music marketplace.
* But three high-profile bluegrass releases due this quarter are
raising
* hopes that the jazzy, old-time acoustic folk music, which is rooted in
the Kentucky hills of the '30s, is on the verge of major visibility.
The albums are Ricky Skaggs' "Ancient Tones," which Skaggs Family
Records (SFR) releases Jan. 26; the Del McCoury Band's "The Family,"
out
* Feb. 9 on Skaggs' new label, Ceili Music; and Steve Earle's "The
Mountain," due Feb. 23 on his E-Squared Records.
* Country rock renegade Earle -- a major McCoury fan -- used the
McCoury
Band as the backup on his new disc and will also tour with it,
beginning
with a Nashville showcase in March.
* "To me, bluegrass is stronger than ever since I started in the late
'50s," says McCoury, who played in the late pioneer Bill Monroe's Blue
Grass Boys in the early '60s and is seen by many as the genre's current
standard-bearer.
"I've seen it go to a certain level and drop back and depend on those
[core] fans for several years and then get new fans again, but it's
grown so much in the last five years, with the IBMA [International
* Bluegrass Music Assn.] and its award show established, radio play
getting better than it was, and so many young people coming into the
music as listeners and players," McCoury adds.
* Skaggs cut his teeth in bluegrass with the legendary Ralph Stanley's
Clinch Mountain Boys in the early '70s, before evolving his sound into
major country success in the '80s. He seconds McCoury's assessment of
* the state of bluegrass music.
"I'm seeing a real change in the wind, and what's blowing is a more
traditional, rootsy, gutsy sound," says Skaggs, whose 1997 album
* "Bluegrass Rules!," his first full-fledged bluegrass set in 12 years,
foreshadowed the current commotion. It also has just been nominated for
* a Grammy Award as best bluegrass album.
"Maybe it happens every 10 or 15 years, but when I first came to
Nashville in '80 and '81, there was a real desire for that old sound to
* come back into country music, and I think it's still there today,"
Skaggs adds. "People like Steve Wariner and Clint Black and Joe Diffie
have come up to me and said, `Man, I love what you're doing, and it's
exactly what you're supposed to be doing -- carrying on the tradition
and sound and kicking it up a notch and taking it to the next
millennium.' "
* Peter Kuykendall, editor of Bluegrass Unlimited and a former chairman
* of the IBMA board of directors, senses a bluegrass buzz from roots
radio
stations, combined with a "general disinterest in what's coming out of
the country market."
He also notes the amazing achievement of Stanley, whose "Clinch
Mountain Country" album, featuring such mainstream country guests as
Vince Gill and Patty Loveless, earned him Amazon.com's country artist
of
* the year honors and also is up for the best bluegrass album Grammy this
year.
"All those country acts being on Ralph's record shows where their
* hearts are," says Kuykendall. "Also Lyle Lovett had [bluegrass stars]
Mike Auldridge and Victor Krauss and Sam Bush out on the road with him
a
* lot last season, and Alison was on `The Prince Of Egypt' [country music
soundtrack] and the national TV show [promoting the movie], so a lot of
* the underground [bluegrass] stuff is starting to see the broader
world."
* Echoing Kuykendall is Doug Tuchman, for 27 years a key bluegrass
radio
DJ and concert promoter in the New York area. He says that the music is
more popular now than at any time in his recollection, and he also
points to the eagerness with which so many top country artists flocked
to the Stanley project.
"It reflects their willingness to show the public how much they
* genuinely like bluegrass and gives the music credibility," says
Tuchman.
"But I also think that few modern country acts are really selling and
that much of their new audience has little understanding of the music
and is therefore transitory, whereas the traditional end of the music
has maintained a solid core and built steadily upon it."
Stanley's "Clinch Mountain Country," on Rebel Records, has become the
* best-selling album in the small bluegrass label's 38-year history,
according to marketing and public relations director Greg McGraw.
* Bluegrass, he believes, "fills the need for a more `real' type of music
* than the perceived `cookie-cutter' country music that sounds the same."
* With Rebel's sales already rising, Skaggs' return to the bluegrass
fold "is a huge boon," McGraw says.
On his aptly titled "Ancient Tones," Skaggs sought to "give honor to
the forefathers like Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers and Flatt &
Scruggs, which I will always do because they deserve not to be
forgotten," he says, citing his cover of the Stanley Brothers classic
"How Mountain Girls Can Love," which he remembers hearing on the radio
as a kid.
"But then I recorded some new songs," he adds. "One in particular,
`Coal Mining Man,' was written by my banjo player, Jim Mills, after a
PBS documentary on East Kentucky coal mines."
McCoury, whose band includes sons Rob and Ronnie, has taken a similar
tack on "The Family," which was so named, he humbly notes, "when I was
* persuaded that we're kind of the `First Family of Bluegrass.' "
The disc, which Ronnie and Jerry Douglas produced, includes a pair of
older Del McCoury songs, but he notes that the newer material "could be
a little different sounding," and that songs like a cover of the Lovin'
* Spoonful '60s pop hit "Nashville Cats" "aren't standard bluegrass
songs."
Meanwhile, the McCoury family has been adopted by Earle, who is also
stretching the form.
* "It might upset some [bluegrass] purists -- and Steve Earle fans who
want to hear a rock record," he says. "I'm doing records like this to
keep what I do vital and influence the rock records I make -- and it
* won't be my last bluegrass record."
* Bluegrass, continues Earle, "is the original alternative country
music
-- period."
The album, Earle notes, is distributed by the Alternative
Distribution
Alliance, as a prior relationship with Warner Bros. has ended. "I'll
probably end up on a major for my next record," he says, "but we can do
as good of a job as any major on this one!"
* But marketing bluegrass product has never been the genre's strength,
notes Tuchman.
"I have profound respect for Ricky Skaggs' business sense," says
* Tuchman, who notes that sales of bluegrass artists besides Krauss are
small compared with those of mainstream country stars. "He knows that
it's as important to promote and tour as it is to come out with quality
products."
Skaggs recently launched Ceili Music to exploit increased interest in
* the bluegrass and acoustic roots genres beyond his SFR label.
* "He proved there was a much bigger audience with `Bluegrass Rules!,'
"
notes Stan Strickland, Skaggs' manager/partner and GM of SFR. "Now
we're
trying to expand it by pushing the traditional borders. In addition to
* the normal advertising venues for bluegrass, we're pushing more into
* country music outlets and also positioning Ricky in Rolling Stone,
Vanity Fair, and GQ. These magazines won't necessarily give us
editorial
support, but some of the younger writers are starting to figure out
that
their heroes -- artists like Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, Bruce Hornsby,
or George Clinton -- are familiar with him and admire him."
Skaggs is also set to appear on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" on
Feb. 2, and Paul anticipates TNN and CMT support.
Strickland is talking to the Borders Books & Music chain about
in-store appearances by the three artists and is especially looking to
bring McCoury and Earle into each other's respective market
strongholds.
"But we won't forget our indie stores, where everything started," he
adds.
