Why A Bluegrass Concert On ECMA Weekend? 

By Neil Rosenberg

In February 2002, when the East Coast Music Association held their annual Awards Show in Saint John New Brunswick a bluegrass showcase was included for the first time. Attracting a large audience, it was that year’s most successful ECMA showcase. Last year, when the ECMA awards event took place in Halifax, a similar event was held. Once again it drew the biggest audience of all the showcases. These events were held in significantly different venues than most of the other ECMA showcases—they were not at bars in the evening but in church halls during the daytime. They were no-alcohol, all-ages events.

The success of these showcases reflects the extent to which bluegrass has become a popular local music in the Maritimes. The first bluegrass festival in Canada was held in Nova Scotia in 1972, and that event continues today as the Annual Nova Scotia Bluegrass & Oldtime Music Festival under the sponsorship of the Downeast Bluegrass & Oldtime Music Society. During the summer months there is at least one, and sometimes more than one, bluegrass festival every weekend somewhere in the Maritimes.There are many good bands. That was shown dramatically when a Nova Scotia band, the Spinney Brothers, showcased at the International Bluegrass Music Association’s annual World of Bluegrass in 1996 and received a standing ovation. The bluegrass movement’s growth in the Maritimes is reflected in several new businesses. Near Moncton, Bluegrass Outlet, banjoist Russell Sawler’s mail-order record shop, has opened several years ago (www.bluegrassoutlet.com). Last summer the first issue of Maritime Bluegrass Magazine appeared (www.mbmag.ca).

Crooked Stovepipe has been honored to be invited to perform at the Nova Scotia festival on five different occasions.At the last, in the summer of 2002, I met with Jerry Murphy, the DJ who, as President of the Downeast Bluegrass & Oldtime Music Society, had been a prime mover in launching the first ECMA bluegrass showcase. He told me that their work on the 2003 Halifax event was coming along well and that he hoped it would be possible to carry on with a bluegrass showcase in Newfoundland in 2004. I agreed this would be a good thing, and told him I’d see what we could do. In December 2002, as their planning for a showcase was well along, he sent me copies of their budget so we could get some idea of the planning process. He also sent along the names of the Newfoundland members of the ECMA Board to contact about planning for a bluegrass showcase in St. John’s in 2004.

In February 2003 I called one of the Newfoundland ECMA Board members, Robert Buck, and told him that in light of the success of the bluegrass event in Nova Scotia, there was interest in carrying it on here in Newfoundland.  He spoke of having to be careful about the budget and said some showcases that were viable in the Maritimes might not be viable in Newfoundland. I replied that there was more interest in bluegrass here than ever before and that we’d like to use the ECMA event to help promote local bluegrass. He recommended sending a letter of interest to the board.

Early last March, after consulting with Ted Rowe, Dave Lush, and Caroline and John Clarke, I sent a Mr. Buck a letter as he’d suggested, to be forwarded to the board.  In it I mentioned the success of the bluegrass showcases at ECMA events in the Maritimes, talked about the recent popularity of bluegrass in Newfoundland and mentioned the activities and recordings of Crooked Stovepipe, Kentucky Tundra, and the Masterless Men. Requesting that the Board consider a bluegrass showcase in St. John’s, I closed by saying: “It’s our hope that a showcase event like this could also attract one or two of the many very good bands from the Maritimes and that the event would help us generate the synergy to move toward developing a bluegrass festival here in Newfoundland that would promote and develop this music.”

Pointing out that June’s Annual General Meeting in St. John’s would provide an opportunity for us to express our concerns in person, Buck told me he would table this letter at the ECMA’s March board meeting. On the weekend of the June AGM, we organized a bluegrass show at the Basement, featuring Kentucky Tundra and Crooked Stovepipe. We wanted to demonstrate the local interest in bluegrass to the ECMA board members.

Frank Davis and I attended that Annual General Meeting. There was no formal way for us to air our interests, but we did receive expressions of support for our project from ECMA board members, particularly Wendy Bergfeldt of Cape Breton, who introduced us to Fabian Janes, the man in charge of local planning for the 2004 showcases.  He spoke of mixing bluegrass in with other acoustic roots acts in a downtown bar.  We told him that we felt strongly that an all-ages non-alcoholic setting was required. After some discussion we came away with the impression that there was an understanding of our position that a separate bluegrass showcase was worthwhile and feasible.

Over the next four months we endeavored to follow up on this impression by creating an informal committee (Frank Davis, John Clarke, Ted Rowe, and I) that could assist the showcase organizers when the time came. Useful input came Wendy Bergfeldt, who cautioned us however that ultimately the local planning committee, not the ECMA board, made the decisions about showcases.  Much of our work focused on seeking a suitable (non-alcoholic, all-ages) venue that would still be accessible to those looking for music in downtown St. John’s. We also made sure that Crooked Stovepipe and Kentucky Tundra applied for showcases, and lobbied the Maritimes bluegrass band community, asking them to support us by applying for showcases as well.

Meanwhile in August bluegrass in Newfoundland got a strong boost when the Annual Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival included a bluegrass workshop and bluegrass stage performances by four acts: Raymond McLain & Mike Stevens, Crooked Stovepipe, Kentucky Tundra, and Bart & the Bread Picks. The workshop, on Sunday morning, was well attended, and during the discussion period at the end, Frank raised the idea of starting a Newfoundland bluegrass association, mentioning that he’d found we are the only province in Canada that doesn’t have one. He collected a list of names and addresses.   Using this as a basis, we held a public bluegrass jam session on October 26th.      The turnout was impressive—over fifty people. We collected more names and in early November decided to start this website, which went up on November 12.

In spite of our attempts to network about the bluegrass showcase with the ECMA’s local organizing committee workers, we didn’t learn about the details of showcase planning until shortly before the official announcement of the showcases on November 25th. Then we learned that the bluegrass, country, jazz and classical stages would not be held because there were not sufficient entries to justify them. (We had understood that 5 was the go-ahead figure for showcases and we only know of three applicants; we don’t know if there were other applicants from the Maritimes besides Birchmountain Bluegrass Band.) On the 25th we discovered that not only would there not be a separate bluegrass showcase, but also that only one band, Birchmountain Bluegrass, was slated to appear at an official ECMA showcase—an event at a local pub devoted to roots music.  Neither of the two Newfoundland bands that applied was invited to showcase.

When we heard this news we decided to plan our own event for the ECMA weekend. Larry Boutilier expressed a strong interest in supporting local bluegrass and agreed to have Birchmountain perform at it.  With this generous offer, we began planning our bluegrass showcase concert for the evening of Friday February 13th at the Kirk featuring, in addition to Birchmountain, Crooked Stovepipe, Kentucky Tundra, and Bart and the Bread Picks. Information on the event and the bands is posted elsewhere on the website.

So—why a bluegrass concert on ECMA weekend? For one thing, this is a time when many music industry people are in town for the event. We’d like them to find out what we already know: that bluegrass music is “happening” here in a way that it never has before. Our first jam session in the fall attracted over 50 people; our second, a few weekends ago in the dead of winter, attracted over 70. I know from my involvement with the Nova Scotia festival in its early years that the Maritimes bluegrass scene didn’t happen overnight. This is a music that seldom receives support and attention the from mainstream music industry—its growth since the mid-sixties has been promoted by enthusiasts and part-time pickers like those who’ve come to our jam sessions. The other night when I spoke to Larry Boutilier he told me that in his experience nothing promotes the growth of a local bluegrass scene like being able to see good bands performing. We think this concert is the logical next step in moving to create a local bluegrass association.