A crowd started gathering outside the doors to Banquet Halls E and H on Tuesday, waiting for doors to open about an hour before Billy Strings was scheduled to give the International Bluegrass Music Association World of Bluegrass keynote address at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
After Junior Sisk and the Junior Sisk Band warmed up the crowd, Strings joined the band on stage for a Stanley Brothers song, “Think of What You’ve Done,” before his keynote address.
“Junior Sisk hit me up and asked me if I wanted to sing a song. He’s not afraid to have a long hair up there with him,” Strings said to the conference crowd. “I’m going to try to mix up the camo and the tie-dye a little bit, you know what I mean?”
Strings, used to hiding behind his guitar, addressed the exclusion that can riddle the genre. He told stories of being a budding musician and going to bluegrass jams only to be blocked from participating.
Billy Strings encourages bluegrass to be more inclusive
“Over the last decade, and more, I’ve played a lot of shows and I’ve met a lot of folks, and I’m so grateful to be a part of this community and to be welcome to speak here today, but it hasn’t always been this way,” Strings said. “I remember early in my career being boxed out of many jams. I’d show up to a bluegrass festival so eager to pick with some good musicians, only to be met with a bit of resistance. I’m not sure if it’s because I smelled like weed or cussed or had tattoos. I didn’t feel like it was a skill thing because I felt like I could hang, but it just seemed like there was certain folks that just didn’t like me.”
Strings said that even though everyone loved the same music, it felt like there was an invisible divide. That kind of exclusion is bad for the entire genre, he said, and that bluegrass is beautiful because of the diversity of influences that contributed to creating bluegrass as it is known today.
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“We have to continue to welcome new voices whose unique perspectives and experience will enrich our collective artistic expression. We got to allow these fresh ideas to mingle with tradition,” Strings said. “This is a true American art form that deserves so much more from the general population than a simplistic portrayal of country living.
“It deserves more than a stereotypical image of a banjo player in overalls with a piece of wheat hanging out of his mouth,” he continued. “It is a richly nuanced and sophisticated genre that demands incredible skill and artistry from its musicians and has a strong commitment to musical excellence and deep cultural roots.”
The people milling about the convention center reflected the diversity Strings described. People from all walks of life — donning anything from Liberty overalls to tie-dye shirts, to highfalutin metallic cowboy boots or crisp white Adidas sneakers — traverse the carpeted floors. On their backs were strapped banjos, guitars, fiddles and mandolins, a select few rolling upright basses to their next session.
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Patsy Kline (no, not that one), from Hershey, Pennsylvania, attended the conference for the first time because it is time to look at the future of bluegrass to ensure members and bands are supported, so bluegrass associations are still able to put on viable shows, she said.
“We need to be able to continue having viable shows that allow those band members to tour, and give them the stipend they need to continue their tour,” Kline said in an interview. “The ideas that are being spawned by IBMA panels around here are already making exciting differences.”
Kline, the treasurer of Seven Mountains Bluegrass Association in Central Pennsylvania, was on the hunt for the instrument check booth — coat check, but for bluegrassers so emotionally attached to their instruments they can’t bear to leave them alone in a hotel room. She was carrying her mandolin with her, though she planned on attending mostly instructional sessions.
Kline said she didn’t really plan on pulling her mandolin out but had it with her in case she came across some people jamming. In the halls of the Chattanooga Convention Center, happening upon an impromptu bluegrass jam is not a far-fetched idea this week.
(READ MORE: How to enjoy Chattanooga’s bluegrass festivals this season)
“There’s one room that I’m planning on going by and having my instrument ready,” Kline said. “I’ll be ready to put the instrument in the case in case it’s too high quality for me. There’s a certain amount of respect that all players have to have for the better name, better capable players, but then you have to be able to ride that bicycle.”
And Chattanooga is crawling with high-caliber bluegrassers for the convention — the likes of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Alison Brown, Jim Lauderdale and the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, Sierra Hull and the Wood Brothers are among the headliners of the festival set to end the week.
Contact religion reporter Kailee Shores at kshores@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659.
Note: This story was updated Sept. 17 to correct the byline.