In the early ’80s, I began to make a musical transition from rock ‘n’ roll guitarist to bluegrass guitarist. This came about as the result of three main influences going on at this time.
First, I had been taking banjo lessons with Roger Sprung. Roger was selling me records that not only featured his banjo playing, but great guitar work as well. Second, along with my heightened interest in acoustic flat picking guitar, I found a couple radio stations that played incredible bluegrass music. They introduced me to the likes of Tony Rice and other amazing acoustic guitar virtuosos! Finally, I purchased a “lesson on tape” from bluegrass guitar great, Russ Barenberg. The first thing I learned from this tape was how to flat pick “Beaumont Rag” on the guitar. This piece was the elixir that permanently sowed the seeds of bluegrass fever into my consciousness.
Then came the actual “Year of Orwell,” (1984)
Armed with “Beaumont Rag” and a few other bluegrass tunes, I set my sights on some flat picking competitions, one being fairly local, and another farther away in the “Land of Dorothy” (Winfield, Kansas to be exact). My first contest was at the Berkshire Mountains Bluegrass Festival in Duanesburg, NY. This festival was looking for a permanent home at the time, as Duanesburg is actually nowhere near the Berkshire Mountains. What had been the Berkshire festival, eventually evolved into the world-renowned Greyfox Bluegrass Festival many years hence…top notch music, but the music contests were long since retired by then.
In any event, the rules of that 1984 Berkshire Festival contest were quite Draconian in my opinion. You had to prepare a dozen tunes. Then you pick one, and out of the other 11, the judges pick one. I (of course!) picked ‘Beaumont Rag” and the judge panel (headed up by Hot Rize banjo player, Pete Wernick) chose “Black Mountain Rag,” a Doc Watson signature tune.
Needless to say, my flat picking debut was no resounding success, but given how green I was at the art, I was happy to have done it and survived it! Out of the 12 tunes that I had to put together for this contest, was born my arrangement of “The Erie Canal.” I didn’t have a lot of traditional bluegrass guitar tunes in my repertoire yet, so I scraped around for old folk songs like Oh Susanna, or anything else that was very familiar to me. The Erie Canal weighed deeply in my memory, having enjoyed singing the song in elementary school music class.
On to Winfield . .
Later on that year (still 1984), we hit the road for Winfield, Kansas to participate in The National Flat Picking Championship. It just so happened that The National Banjo Championship also took place at the same festival. Well, why not? I owned both a guitar and a banjo, so I figured I’d hedge my bets and enter both competitions! Oddly enough, you only had to prepare TWO tunes for these contests, so I could concentrate on exactly what I needed to do to take on this double-whammy challenge.
For the guitar contest, I chose to play (of course!) “Beaumont Rag” for my first tune, and “Jerusalem Ridge” by Bill Monroe next. “The Erie Canal” once again didn’t make the cut. I just felt it was too “New Yorkish” to be embraced by this hard-core bluegrass crowd. At the end of “Jeusalem Ridge,” I definitely recall that the audience pretty much went crazy! (in a good way). So, though I didn’t take home any big prize, I knew that I was as close as I could be to being a legitimate flat picking guitarist, and that was good enough for me!
Come time for the banjo contest, I was on deck to play “Old Joe Clark,” followed by “Bitter Gap” by Bela Fleck. Once again, no prize for Jeff, but the audience reaction was epic, at least from my perspective. After all, I was used to playing in country dives where the audience is mostly talking over you and the manager is sitting at the bar wondering why he even bothers to pay you actual money, when the jukebox would suffice just fine. I was thrilled beyond belief to get such an outpouring of unbridled audience love! I also became a legitimate banjo player on that day!
Through both of these contests and all the grueling rehearsal and travel was my accompanist (on rhythm guitar), my buddy and time-keeper extraordinaire, Pete Conklin. It is these unsung heroes of the music world that bring out the best in a soloist.
An Unfortunate Side Effect
I had honed my flat picking and banjo skills pretty well preparing for those contests. A recording of the guitar pieces was made during that year of 1984, just so I could listen back and “constructively (or destructively) criticize how it was going. In the process of all this honing of my skills however, I developed carpal tunnel and a ganglion cyst (ouchie!). It was pretty bad and I was out of commission from playing any instrument (except harmonica) for about a year! I learned my lesson the hard way that one must be careful how much you “woodshed” (i.e. practice like hell)… it can be hazardous to your musical and mental health!
My Version of a Classic Song
Anyway, this entire rant has been leading up to the playing of “The Erie Canal,” one of my prepared guitar tunes that never made it to the “contest stage.” I should mention that I lifted (stole…?) the intro here from Nick Francese. It is part of the intro he played in the opening to Orion’s (a.k.a. “Stockade’s”) arrangement of, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” (More on that in another blog, someday.)
I hope you enjoy this arrangement of “The Erie Canal” that I made for two guitars together with some historic photos. This tune (among others) to some extent, changed the way I play the guitar…This canal changed the world, but for me…I just love looking at the mules!
