<click. rant mode engaged.> Good lord. It may be that Picky-Ricky's greatest talent is that of self-aggrandizement. That coupled with his well-known penchant for receiving and transmitting the gospel from god himself on stage may explain his self-anointing.
There's no doubt the man can play and sing but how can one take him seriously when he WAS the problem he decries back in the '80's? I mean he gets down on the whole "urban cowboy" thing but has he seen his own video--the one where Bill Monroe plays Uncle Pen to Ricky's corporate exec? Oy gevalt. What a putz. This schmuck carries like 8 guitars in his band and calls it "digging deep into the tradition." That's actually something that bears notice too, this death-grip on tradition that so many bluegrassers seem to employ as if it were a post-mortem stamp of approval from Bill himself. It seems to me that if bluegrass is a living, breathing art form then it needs to grow and evolve in different and often strange and unnerving ways. You don't have to like it but you have to respect it. Only art forms that are dead and buried repeat themselves endlessly. Going back to the vaults of tradition and then inflecting it with one's own personality and interpretation is a viable way of breathing new life into a genre art form. Going back to the vaults of tradition and saying "this way and only this way is right" is embalming and turns the vaults of tradition into Lenin's tomb, fit only for periodic review. <rant mode off> Dasspunk wrote: > I got a 404 error from Mike's link. Here's one that should work: > > http://tinyurl.com/dhuvja > > It's always been clear that Ricky wants to be the heir for Bluegrass. > Luckily, want of a thing don't make it so... It would also seem that > he suffers from self loathing... > > "I can’t get excited about (the music on country radio). It’s all > cookie cutter like they are trying to build one car for everyone." > > Brian > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
