Our local paper, The Tennessean, did a full photo-article page Monday on my son's middle school bluegrass band, the Rudderville Ramblers. The photographer-article writer also assembled a photo slide show backed by their rendition of Orange Blossom Special.
Click the link and press play in the lower left corner. (Sorry, link provided didn't have embedding code.)
Page Middle School's Rudderville Ramblers
TMC
Showing posts with label bluegrass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bluegrass. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Rudderville Ramblers
My son has taken guitar lessons for about the last 3 years. He made it clear pretty quickly that he preferred electric guitar vs. an acoustic one. So each week, he straps on his Squire ax and spends another 30 minutes with his instructor learning how to thrash more classic rock riffs. He also digs Guitar Hero of all flavors and has been doing a pretty good job transferring what he hears in the video game to working out the chords on the real thing.
About a year or so ago, he got an opportunity to try another form of music - bluegrass. His social studies teacher from that year invited him to play in a newly formed bluegrass band comprised of kids from 6th through 9th grades. He and several other kids jumped aboard the offer, and they've now been together about 16 months or so. They didn't lose anyone as all of them moved to the next grade level, and a few new pickers even climbed aboard.
I admit I was surprised at how much he has enjoyed it. And I've been even more surprised at how versatile he's become. His teacher has had him play dulcimer, acoustic guitar, bass, and now Dobro. Like a utility infielder, he'll pretty well pick up any assignment she gives him and start pickin' and a'grinnin.
While I have no evidence to support it, I'm willing to bet the number of kids with a bluegrass song on their Facebook or MySpace profile may be...oh let's say a dozen or fewer. But these kids have really done an exceptional job learning the songs and playing regularly.
Here is his debut performance as the bassist on Pretty Little Miss.
And here he is playing the opening lead on Ol' Joe Clark before the rest of them climb aboard.
TMC
About a year or so ago, he got an opportunity to try another form of music - bluegrass. His social studies teacher from that year invited him to play in a newly formed bluegrass band comprised of kids from 6th through 9th grades. He and several other kids jumped aboard the offer, and they've now been together about 16 months or so. They didn't lose anyone as all of them moved to the next grade level, and a few new pickers even climbed aboard.
I admit I was surprised at how much he has enjoyed it. And I've been even more surprised at how versatile he's become. His teacher has had him play dulcimer, acoustic guitar, bass, and now Dobro. Like a utility infielder, he'll pretty well pick up any assignment she gives him and start pickin' and a'grinnin.
While I have no evidence to support it, I'm willing to bet the number of kids with a bluegrass song on their Facebook or MySpace profile may be...oh let's say a dozen or fewer. But these kids have really done an exceptional job learning the songs and playing regularly.
Here is his debut performance as the bassist on Pretty Little Miss.
And here he is playing the opening lead on Ol' Joe Clark before the rest of them climb aboard.
TMC
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