Here's some food for thought, of the extremely nitpicky kind...
It seems to be generally frowned upon when non-bluegrass musicians take
bluegrass type tunes (for example, Old 97's covering "My Blue-Eyed Darlin"
- they pretty much destroy the song) and turn them into something else,
but I never quite caught anything on how it's perceived when a bluegrass
artist might take something from outside of the bluegrass canon and
reshape it in such a way, that it's a completely different song (obviously
this is common), sometimes losing some of the essential ingredients that
made it such a great tune in the first place... I'm having a hard time
articulating my point here, so let me just get to it...
First off, the new JD Crowe record is splendid... it's everything I
expected and more. The rendition of "Back to the Barrooms" completely
kills me, and "White Freightliner" is a dandy as well, on most counts.
Yes, numerous bands have taken this song and completely butchered it, and
I'll give JDC&NS their due by saying that's it's probably one of the
better versions I've heard. However, the guitar pattern Townes played on
this tune is very particular. I don't know how to describe it best, it's
just a constant downbeat in the bass notes that only seems to come back up
in just a few instances (? Hopefully people know what I'm talking about).
And generally, as much as this song has been covered, I don't think too
many folks have ever quite "got it" (only one comes to mind) as it's
something that seems to take incredible discipline to play. So I guess
that I wish JD would found some way to work this into the song.
Obviously, I think it would take an unworldly guitarist to play bluegrass
rhythm *and* somehow incorporate the pattern Townes played... but I think
Townes was without a bass player on his best renditions of the song, and
JD has that luxury here. So I guess what I'm saying is that it falls on
JD's bass player and he failed to deliver the goods ... surely it couldn't
be *that* hard to get that beat going on the upright <g>.
In close, it's my understanding that bluegrass musicians are very
particular about how "their" songs are played. I probably wouldn't get so
whiny over many other songs besides this one, but being someone who
has been chastised for not playing it right <g>, I think I'm only being
fair...
So if anyone feels like clueing me in here, feel free to do so...
back to my studies...
Chad
