While we’re a country that healthily celebrates a broad range of acoustic music – one only has to take a quick look at the number of country and folk acts out there at the moment – the genre of bluegrass is often overlooked.
It’s a shame, because the traditional format of bluegrass – and it’s place in the canon of traditional musical styles – is incredibly important, and Bluegrass Parkway, who play MPAC alongside bluegrass and mandolin legend Mike Compton on October 30, are hoping to bring bluegrass back into the musical mainstream.
“It's something that's been going on for a while - Bluegrass Parkway will be celebrating 30 years in January,” bandleader Paul Duff said.
“In about 1992 I think it was, we were playing at a festival in Toodyay. At that time, we sort of just played like everyone else, in the modern way. Everyone had a microphone, and everyone was doing the more contemporary folk country thing.
“[The festival organisers] said to us, 'Look, can you come up with an interesting workshop idea?' Back in those days, people didn't know as much about bluegrass music - the history, the legacy - as they do now, so we thought it would be a great opportunity to teach people about where it came from, why it looks and sounds like it does, and why it's so important to music now."
The resulting setup has established Bluegrass Parkway as a truly pioneering band, in a way, as they bring back the traditional elements of bluegrass style established in post-war America.
“We’re doing it the exact way they did it in 1945,” Duff said.
Bluegrass kind of exploded in America then, and it rose along the same lines of country and folk, but it had it’s own, separate identity.”
The band had to sacrifice many of the luxuries of a modern live setup in order to produce an authentic bluegrass experience.
One of those elements is probably the most iconic image of bluegrass: a single microphone, placed center-stage, around which all the musicians gather.
“It’s a really different experience to playing with a regular rock setup,” Duff said.
“It kind of forces you to work vocally with everyone else; to harmonize better.
“There’s also a really strong sense of togetherness when you’re that close, and I think the audience gets into that as well.”
Then there’s the mandolin – the focal point of bluegrass, the instrument Compton is a master in, and the instrument Duff builds himself.
“Mike actually uses the mandolins I build,” Duff said.
“All of bluegrass is built on mandolins, it wouldn’t be bluegrass without it. It’s a wonderful instrument, and there’s something very special about that connection.”
