Hey Mike, Thanks for those thoughts and insights into the minds of two of the greatest!
________________________________ From: mistertaterbug <[email protected]> To: Taterbugmando <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, March 15, 2010 6:50:50 PM Subject: Re: Monroe Camp 2010 Don, I think Monroe basically just played his hits and took requests. He seemed to play new tunes as they came around, but he pretty much played the same show for years, of course varying the songs the guitar man could sing. Say a guy like Del McCoury would probably have a different impact on the band's set list than Ralph Lewis or Roland White or Bill Box or Tom Ewing. Hartford played to the crowd at hand. He'd done it so much that he could play about 4-5 songs and figure out 'what they were biting", as he put it. Then he played songs/tunes to suit. He said he'd play one for them, then maybe another one for them, then one for him, then maybe one for him and them, and then another one for them, another for him, etc. When I first went into his band, John was known pretty much for doing his old repertoire, but he was really pushing the Haley fiddle tunes. By the time he had to leave the road, he'd pretty much become known for playing fiddle tunes with a few pot smoking songs thrown in for the "lifestyle reinforcement" crowd, songs about the river and of course, what John called his money songs. I don't know that vaudeville played any role in the set list, though I do know that there was some amount of discussion now and then about how there had been an established, systematic, and proven method for putting on a successful show ever since the minstrel days. John said that Acuff used bits of it, as did Uncle Dave Macon. I'm not sure how consciously Monroe might have applied it, though I know he did use knowledge of how to throw his voice that was developed back in the early days. A successful show without pyrotechnics? Psshhtt... TBug On Mar 7, 9:06 pm, Don <[email protected]> wrote: > How about something about how Monroe (& Hartford) constructed their > set lists? For example, where in the set list does the chicken song > go? How were their set lists influenced by vaudeville? Actually you > could just answer that one on here as it probably might not take up a > whole class session. > > -- > My CD of original tunes played on mandolin, mandola, and > mandocellohttp://www.HillbillyChamberMusic.com -- 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. -- 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.
