Weekend Song – Edgar Meyer
July 19, 2008
You know how I like to mix things up a little here. Five trombones here, a little South African jazz there. Well, how about some bluegrass double bass?
Hang on, hang on. Just try it. Just try it, and if you like it you can listen to as much Radiohead as you want. You like Radiohead, don’t you? Mmmmm, Radiohead.
Just try some. Try it.
Come on. There’ll be no RADIOhead.
You never know if you don’t give it a chance. Just a little bit of bluegrass double bass.
I don’t mind telling you this fired me up to tears this week in an ungodly stupor of emotion at the beautiful flaws of the human condition.
I was just out walking the dog, but otherwise alone, when I first heard this song this week, and there it was. I was actually proud that I was hearing it. Just honoured to be around, and it’s my privilege to share it.
The genius of this is how the three instruments – just three – banjo, guitar and double bass – Béla Fleck, Mike Marshall and Edgar Meyer – give each other so much time. It’s patient and brutal, triumphant and sad, yours and mine, a defiant affirmation.
To me, that’s what bluegrass it, because while it has such a definite style, and the more familiar it seems, the more noticeable the difference. It’s a case of plus c’est la meme chose, plus ca change.
You can hate the mornings, but you know you still love the sunrise.
So here’s a little bluegrass double bass for you.
Roll on, good buddy. And don’t you roll so slow.
Listen: Big Country
—
Related pages
Weekend Song archive
7 comments
SOunds like ‘Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond’.
I like that.
Thanks Clair, glad you enjoyed it.
Ed, I hear it. Don’t get me started on my theories of similarities between Celtic and traditional American folk music.
cliff – where do you first hear these songs? You have very wide ranging tastes, and I wonder how you get exposed to all this various music?
Hey Len – all over the place. This last one was on KAJX in Aspen, Colorado on a show called the Bluegrass With Mustard Show, presented by a DJ who calls himself Pastor Mustard. I have been listening to that for a couple of months on a regular basis, but it could just have come from anywhere. Maybe I should be more discerning, but I have sluts for ears.
I recommend the Bluegrass with Mustard show, which you can find here:
http://www.kajx.org/podcasts.php
I have my dad to thank for the various kinds of music I like. He used to make sure that we got to listen to a lot of things, so one day it would be Chuck Mangione, and the next it would be Miles Davis or Rodrigo’s Concerto de Aranjuez or Chicago or Helen Reddy. He’d make sure we got to listen to a lot of different stuff in the car and around the house and I’ve kept that with me. The internet makes that easy now, but I got a head-start from him, especially with jazz and classical stuff.
A lot of the songs I’ve known for years, some just pop up literally at a week’s notice, like the one this week. Thanks for asking!
Incidentally, I found out a couple of weeks ago, that Brian Dwyer played trumpet on the weekend song from January
http://www.thisisthis.org/2008/01/26/weekend-song-the-mighty-mighty-bosstones/
I am an avid reader of sleeve notes, and I recognised the name, googled him and recognised his picture (and confirmation he’s from Malvern), even though he was 10 when I saw him last, but a good trumpet player even then. Brian was in my class in at school, and was on the same baseball team as me, along with Chad Beck and Marshall Hoffritz (good soccer player, now assistant principal at Great Valley). You may remember Brian – he was taught by Mister Miller and that’s just another coincidence that plagues my life and reinforces the very wierd feeling that everything I have ever done has a connection with this site.
Other than it being a common sounding name, I can’t say I recall the person.
Chad Beck sounds familiar.
Pretty cool, though, to go from the KD Markley school band to playing with the Mighty Might Bosstones, huh?
Leave a comment. Play nice. I will turn this blog around.