Vern Williams
06.13.2006- CST
I'm very sorry to report the passing of one of the great masters of bluegrass music, and one of my personal heroes, Vern Williams, after a long illness. Gibson F-5 mandolin virtuoso, a singer of astonishing cutting power and raw emotion, star of the California bluegrass scene throughout the 1960s,'70s, and '80s, and an influence on an entire generation of bands and players, albeit largely unheralded beyond the confines of the Golden State. His handful of recordings, whether as a member of Vern & Ray in the 1960s for Starday, or leading the Vern Williams Band in the 1970s, don't even begin to scratch the surface of his importance to bluegrass.
The Vern Williams Band, circa 1976
You can find recordings by the Vern Williams Band on Rounder Records, as well as a newly released live set on Arhoolie. The California Bluegrass Association has a nice overview of his career online here:
http://www.cbaontheweb.org/VernRayC.htmOur most sincere condolances go out to his son Del (leader of his own fine band, True Blue:
http://www.truebluegrass.com/home1.htm) and the rest of his family.
Well, we finally closed the Barter Theatre's production of "Man of Constant Sorrow: The Story of the Stanley Brothers" on Saturday, May 27th, after a very successful run, including a wild appearance at Ralph Stanley's Hills of Home festival up in the beautiful Clinch Mountains. Miss Brandi came to visit during the last week of shows, and accompanied us to the fest, where she performed with us in a separate set of music after the play:
Left to right: Ed Snodderly, Gill Braswell, Nick Piper, Buddy, Brandi,
Brandon Story
By the way, this was Brandi's first time playing mandolin on stage, and I'm happy to say she really "drove the bus!"
Brandi and I went back two days later to perform again, this time with
Carter Stanley's daughter Jeanie:
It rained off and on all day, and we got totally soaked down to our drawers not once, but twice, but we had a great time regardless. We shared product table space with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, who turned in their usual brilliant set of their own. We also rubbed shoulders with Dr. Ralph Stanley himself, who was most gracious, Jim Lauderdale, the great James King, and a few former members of the Clinch Mountain Boys, including lead picker Junior Blankenship. What a day!
While we were at the product table, Ralph's current lead guitarist James Alan Shelton, motioned me over and whispered in my ear, "hey, look in the banjo case behind you...it's The Holy Grail!"
Yes, it was Ralph's old prewar gold-plated Gibson Granada archtop banjo, with the wreath inlay on the fretboard! WOW. I'm wondering if I can somehow talk Gibson into reissuing an archtop banjo as part of their New Century line sometime...wouldn't that be cool? More on archtop banjos in a future blog...
Speaking of James Shelton, aside from being one of the finest fellows it has ever been my pleasure to become acquainted with, he has one of the smoothest and most fluid right hands in the business, and has mastered the style of crosspicking, which I promised to talk about in more depth in this here blog.
Crosspicking is an exciting flatpicking technique that should be an essential part of every bluegrass guitar picker's arsenal. It utilizes repeating patterns in three-string groups, which captures the bounce of a fiddle double shuffle and the drive of three-finger banjo, Scruggs-style rolls all in one swell foop. In fact, a lot of people think of it as playing banjo rolls on the guitar.
The father of crosspicking is George Shuffler, who reportedly got the idea when he played with Jim & Jesse in the early 1950s (Jesse McReynolds was doing a similar style of picking on mandolin). Later when Shuffler rejoined the Stanley Brothers band as lead guitarist, he used his cross-picking style extensively, as did Bill Napier, another member of the Stanley Brothers' band.
George Shuffler and James Alan Shelton
Most guitarists will use crosspicking as way to accentuate specific passages in a song rather than as a technique applied to an entire song. It is a technique that can add variety to a song when used judiciously, but can become monotonous and repetitive if over-used.
James has an instructional book and video called "Clinch Mountain Guitar," published by Flatpicking Guitar Magazine (available on James' Website:
http://www.jamesalanshelton.com), which was a HUGE help for me in preparing for the role of George Shuffler in MOCS, not to mention James' incredible kindness and patience with all of my follow-up questions. I suggest you get a copy of both!
James has graciously allowed me to crib some tablature from his book for you to work on. Here are four basic crosspicking practice patterns; these are all in 4/4 time, in the key of C. Practice each of the patterns shown below repetitively until your right hand can play through them smoothly and fluidly. Start slow and gradually build up speed as your right hand develops. Each pattern starts with a downstroke of the pick, followed by another downstroke, and then an upstroke, then the pattern repeats.
Note: A major key to successful ensemble playing is having rock-solid timing, and the best way to learn that is by using a metronome when you're practicing.
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Once you get these down, try to apply the technique to a solo of your own.
An interesting thing to note is where your melody notes occur: in a simple single-note melody arrangement the notes will of course fall where the vocalist would sing them. But in a crosspicking arrangement the melody notes don't always fall in the same place, there's some syncopation happening as a result, which is a really neat way to spice up a solo.
It's challenging to play, particularly at higher speeds, but definitely a valuable technique to learn. I'll include more crosspicking tabs in the future, including the turnaround to "Rank Stranger."
In other news, The Dixie Bee Liners were back in the Top 10 of the Roots Music Report Bluegrass list for the 7th time last week! We recently got our first play list from WTCR-AM 1420, Clear Channel Radio's first Americana Bluegrass station, and they are spinning the holy heck out of our CD...thanks to Bobby Leach! We'd also like to send props to our friends Gracie Muldoon on WWB, as well as Joey Black and Ned Luberecki from Sirius Satellite Radio for the spins as well. We appreciate you all, more than you Know!
And finally, if you want to see the interview the boys and I did on WCYB-TV 5 in Bristol to promote MOCS, you can click on this link:
http://www.pacinfo.com/~ashbean/MOCCNews.rm
It's not edited, so you will have to forward your RealPlayer to about 14:15, and then again to 17:05 after the commercial break, but it's definitely worth checking out. Watch for a clip of MOCS cast member Ed Snodderly's cameo in "O Brother, Where Art Thou."
Speaking of, I leave you with a candid, backstage picture of Ed with his Gibson Advanced Jumbo:
Ain't it gorgeous? And it's a killer guitar too...I WANT ONE!!!!
Aside from being a fine singer/songwriter himself (
http://www.edsnodderly.com/), Ed also runs the Downhome Pickin' Parlor in Johnson City, Tennessee (http://www.downhome.com/), one of the finest live music venues anywhere, and where the Dixie Bee Liners will be appearing on July 27th...YES, we're going on tour! I'll have more details for you, along with a list of dates very shortly. Thanks Ed!
Keep cool, and y'all come back now, y'hear?
bw
