Tag: flatpicking

Art, Bluegrass, Blues, Concert, Earl Scruggs, Folk, Jim Hurst, Music5 Comments

Jim Hurst Can Play a Guitar

Gary Furr
Jim Hurst picks. He came dangerously close to Herb Trotman's "10,000 note limit"
Jim Hurst picks. He came dangerously close to Herb Trotman’s “10,000 note limit”

Last night, I went to hear JIM HURST, IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) Guitarist of the Year.  That means he is a fast-pickin’ guy.  “Bluegrass,” like few other labels, can lock you in.  The people who love and adore it who are more on the “traditional” side (Has to be like Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs played it or it ain’t bluegrass) will leave you for growing, experimenting and deviating.  The rest of the music listening world (Country, whatever that is anymore, sheesh!), folk, indie, etc. is disinterested because they never get beyond stereotypes like “Deliverance” and the Beverly Hillbillies. Continue reading “Jim Hurst Can Play a Guitar”

Art, Banjo, Bluegrass, Country Music, Creativity, Culture, Death, Doc Watson, Folk, Modern Life, Music1 Comment

Doc, Doug and Earl…Bluegrass Goodbyes

Gary Furr

A few days ago, I wrote about the too-soon loss of Doug Dillard, an extraordinary banjo player who was a bridge figure between Bill Monroe and the “pure bluegrass” (which is itself an irony, since Monroe was actually an innovator himself.  He took a hodgepodge of what is ssometimes called “old time music,” consisting of fiddle tunes for dancing, old folk tunes, blues and other music that flowed from Appalachia and the south and forged a unique sound dominated by the mandolin and banjo and fiddle.  He was not beyond experimenting himself, even bringing an accordion in a time or … Continue reading Doc, Doug and Earl…Bluegrass Goodbyes

Christianity, Music, Pilgrimage2 Comments

I Am a Flatpickin’ Pilgrim

Gary Furr

Pilgrim’s Progress is one of my favorite spiritual writings to come from the Baptist and Puritan stream.  The longer title of the original The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come written by John Bunyan first appeared in 1678.   It was written by Bunyan while locked in jail for violating the Conventicle Act, in which the state forbid anyone but officially licensed Anglican priests from holding religious services. I have been to that jail where Bunyan was, been to his grave in London, and visited the town where he lived as an early Baptist.  It is … Continue reading I Am a Flatpickin’ Pilgrim