My name is John Rossbach, and I’m the coordinator for Augusta’s Bluegrass Week. I made my living playing bluegrass and old time music for the past 30 years. Last year I got off the road and moved back to my home state to work more closely with programming for the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins, West Virginia. Augusta presents 11 different theme weeks centered on musical traditions that make up the roots of our culture.
I’ll be writing about things dear to me and the types of musicians and singers who have inspired our traditions. Just like the pioneers of bluegrass, I listen to various styles. I’m not interested in what Miles Davis referred to as “museum music.” I’m after the living and breathing life forms that come out of these traditions. I’ll discuss the importance of bluegrass as a vocal art form and of the intricacies of its 3 part vocal harmony arrangements.
I love listening to earlier generations of fiddlers in the Cape Breton, Southern Old Time and Texas styles. Those Kenny Baker LPs from the 70’s still slay me as much as those earlier Howdy Forrester recordings. To my ear, Roscoe Holcomb as a banjo player shares musical values with Earl Scruggs that separate the wheat from the chaff. However, I’ve probably spent as much time listening to Mark Knopfler in his post Dire Straits years as I did to Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs, Reno & Smiley, Jim & Jesse, the Lilly Brothers, Norman Blake, Doc Watson, the Louvin Brothers and the Carter Family in my formative years.
I’ll be highlighting some of the accomplishments of our revered Augusta instructors and guest artists. For a sense of what Augusta is all about, check out the web site at:
www.augustaheritage.com.
Musically Yours,
John Rossbach
Great to see this blog, John and everyone. I serve as assistant coordinator and staff musician for Bluegrass Week. I have to say that, hands down, it’s one of my very best weeks of the entire year. Where else do you get to learn from great players and singers for nearly a full week in a setting that couldn’t be better? Where else can you jam until the cows come home on a beautiful campus in the West Virginia hills?
I strongly encourage anyone sitting on the fence to head for Augusta Heritage Center for a week of learning with the best performers and teachers in the business — and all the other stuff that comes with being there.
Augusta Heritage Bluegrass Week is sort of like sticking your finger in the bluegrass socket! You’ll go home refreshed, re-energized, satisfied and ready to tackle anything that comes your way. Friends will wonder what happened to you! No kidding!
Hope to see you there.
August 1-6 in Elkins, WV on the lovely campus of Davis and Elkins College.
I know I can’t wait.
Mary Burdette
Great to see this blog! I am Wendi Bourne, Coordinator of Swing Week at Augusta, which runs concurrently with Bluegrass Week. Us “Swingsters” LOVE being at Augusta with the friendly, talented folks – both staff and students – who attend Bluegrass week. What a wonderful feeling it is to roam around the Davis & Elkins campus in the evening, hearing groups of musicians playing a variety of acoustic music under the stars. It changed my life, and it will change yours, too. See you there!