Tag Archives: guitar

The Presence of Greatness

1 Mar

I met Bryan when he was about 6.  We threw snowballs at each other and slid down a hill in about twenty inches of snow.  The electricity went out and Karma and I wound up sleeping in his den.  I remember banging on the piano in that den while he and his sister listened. 

I remember when he first started playing fiddle, and it became clear very quickly that this was no passing fancy.  I remember meeting once a week with a bunch of pickers at Rock Springs Baptist Church, and that group included his mom and dad, his sister, and some other friends.  As a 7 or 8 year old, he was definitely no slouch.  They went on to form a rather well known band in bluegrass circles, the McDowell Family Band.

Shortly after my heart surgery in 2007, my cousin graduated from her homeschool.  Bryan and his sister, Emma, the girl with the voice of an angel, provided some special music.  Once again, it was obvious that he is no slouch.

Bryan and Emma have won so many fiddle contests that it, really, isn’t funny.  Winfield, MerleFest, Galax, Georgia, you name it.  Stringed instruments simply kneel in submission when either of them enters the room.  There’s some really good examples of their music on that site if you’d like to hear the genius to which I refer.  Some really good photography, too, courtesy of Karma Shuford Photography.  I know the photographer pretty well.

New Year’s Eve 2010 (2009???) found Bryan and I in the same building for the first time in several years.  He actually allowed me to play the Bob Thompson guitar that he had recently won at one of the biggest bluegrass flatpicking contests in the world, the 2009 National Flatpicking Championship.  Turns out he also won the contest for the fiddle and the mandolin, the first triple winner ever, and all that before he turns 19.

Bryan’s a very quiet, humble, and calm young man who is perfectly happy to sit and play guitar for hours on end.  His life has been centered around music.  He’s already a teacher with several years of experience, and he’s played with the likes of Bryan Sutton, Caleb Smith, and virtually any famous bluegrass picker you could care to name. 

I drove past his house this morning on the way to work. 

To me, he’s the kid “next door”.  (It’s not really next door, but it’s close…)

Sometimes, we’re in the presence of greatness and really don’t even know it. 

Just yesterday, for instance, thousands of people gathered in buildings dedicated to the worship of the Almighty God, to the King of Kings, the Creator Himself, and God Himself was in the middle of it with them.  The Holy Spirit of God, with the same power that He showed at Pentecost in a very visible way, was THERE.  With us.  At Crossroads.  At any church where Christians gathered in the name of Christ. 

Yet, many of us mistakenly thought of it as just another Sunday morning to drag ourselves to a place and pass a couple of hours. 

As well, that same Holy Spirit is with every believer in Christ every moment, every minute, every hour, every day. 

We’re in the presence of Greatness, and yet we respond as though He is just the kid next door. 

God, please help me to live more in awe of who You truly are.

Congratulations, Bryan, and congratulations to Karma for clicking the shutter for the pic that made a magazine cover.

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I Hate Bluegrass. I Love Bluegrass.

22 Jan

I must be the most eclectic, sporadic, warped blogger known to blogdom.  

I've written before about my "cycles" in life, and I find them to still be true, but much shorter in duration than they once were.  It seems like they last about three days now instead of the three months they previously endured.  

That's good.  It means I can keep them internal and spend less money on them at any one given time, because I can usually wait three days to buy just about ANYTHING.  (I'm not an impulse buyer.  Well, I guess it depends on the length of the impulse.)

My music binges usually don't cost too much.  A set of strings for about 15 bux at Strains of Music and a few Fender Medium picks, and I'm good.  There have, admittedly, been times when it was much more involved.  (Reference the Crate amp that I really wish I had kept, reference the Marshall amp that I really wish I had kept, reference the pedals, reference the keyboard, etc.)  

The good thing about acoustic guitar is that there isn't a lot of "gear" to go along with the habit.  

The bad thing is that the guitars themselves are incredibly expensive.  

Regardless, I digress.  This is supposed about bluegrass.  Somebody must be a bit ADD…

I don't really like bluegrass music.  It sometimes grates on my nerves.  It's often played by folks who really should use those fancy pieces of wood for kindling rather than torture the ears of unsuspecting listeners, and the founding father of bluegrass apparently learned to sing with a clothespin on his nose.  I despise most bluegrass vocal work of days gone by.  The Lovell Sisters, however, are welcome to sing any time, any place, for as long as they like.  Those are good vocals.  

However, I love bluegrass music.  It's a part of me that I can't erase, and I really don't want to.  I am beginning, for a lot of reasons, to finally whip my addiction to Metallica and all of that hyper-noisy stuff, and finding myself genuinely drawn to folk / acoustic / bluegrass / country music.  (As well, much of modern "praise and worship" stuff has ceased impacting me as it once did.  I think I'm just getting really, really old.)

All that said, I'm listening to Starfield as I type this…

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Tommy Emmanuel

7 Jan

My circle of life has turned back toward guitar, it appears.  

I know, I'm dorky and weird, but that's just me.

I have discovered Tommy Emmanuel.

Wow.

Posted via email from bernardshuford’s posterous

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Cool Things

21 Nov

There are really all kinds of cool things going on in my life, if I would just sit down and think it through.  I’m a very lucky and extremely blessed man.  I owe God a big apology for all my complaining. 

That’s not to say that I’ll never complain again, but it won’t be any more “right” then than it is now.

Karma Shuford Photography.

T and K.

Bethel football and basketball.

Crossroads Baptist Church.

Precision Products.

Mom and Dad.

Good friends.

My guitar.

Any piano.

The Blackberry.  The iPod.  The ThinkPad that runs Ubuntu.  Two digital cameras.  (K told me tonight “I wish I was YOU, so I could have all your STUFF!”  She was amazed at the quantity of camera lenses, flashes, and bags, but it still was a shocking alert about how much “stuff” I do have.  Quite a thought to ponder.)

A bunch of Bibles.  The Bible on the Web.

Somehow I always find a way to want more. 

I want to find contentment in Christ and be really, really, really CONTENT with what I have.  Or even less. 

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Bluegrass and Worship

13 Jul

As a huge fan of Christian worship music, I sometimes watch videos of worship artists and envy the atmosphere and spirit of worship that just seems to pour out of them.  Kari Jobe, Kim Walker, Paul Baloche, Michael W. Smith, Steve Fee, Chris Tomlin.  On and on we could go, but that’s enough to make the point, I think.  Whether or not we are fans of the particular artist, I believe it is obvious that there is something “different” that happens when an artist of this caliber takes the stage and an audience is led toward a corporate encounter with the Holy Spirit. 

I’m not sure if this is an anomaly, but I’m also a pretty solid fan of “new” bluegrass.  To many, I realize that those two words can’t go together, but I want to establish that I am not a fan of Scruggs, Monroe, or any of the other pickers of the past who holler out nasally intoned renditions of songs about flowers in bloom.  The songs are fine, but the vocals often ruin my entire day.  I’m a huge fan of the Lovell Sisters, Allison Krauss, Chris Thile, Bryan Sutton, Tony Rice, The Isaacs, and others of that ilk.  I’m not really too interested in ‘grass that was recorded before 1980 or so, even though the tunes are timeless and enduring and I still like to hear them if done by modern ‘grass artists. 

Bluegrass music is a very pointed contrast to Christian worship music, in a very sad way. 

Christian worship music is focused on God.  The God that we worship is invisible.  In effect, the entire “production” is done with the intent of singing TO a person who is, to the uninitiated, not even there.  The voice of the singer(s) must be good, the skill of the musicians must be good, and the overall effect must be good, but there is little or no focus on individual skill.  There are instrumental breaks, but they are done with the intent of emphasizing the song lyrics or adding to the atmosphere, rather than to draw attention to the skills of the artist. 

Bluegrass, on the other hand, is hugely focused on the performer.  The lyrics of the songs are often completely irrelevant.  It’s all about playing the instrument exceedingly well.  It’s not always a contest, but bluegrass music is famous for “fiddle contests” or “flatpicking contests”.  People drive hundreds of miles to compete against other “pickers”.  There’s a lot of need, just based on the history of the genre, for excellence as a solo performer.  If a fiddler or a banjo picker performs a break, it’s almost insulting if the audience doesn’t applaud his or her ability at the end of that break. 

“Worship music” as we often think of it, is using skills that musicians are gifted with to lead a larger group of people into an experience of worship.  Bluegrass music is normally thought of as entertainment for a larger group by highly skilled individuals.  Is the counterpoint as obvious to you as it is to me? 

In a church setting, bluegrass gospel often stirs Christians to participate, but the nature of the performance doesn’t allow for it.  Thus, many Christians express their worshipful thoughts in a way that is fairly noticeable.  True worship music pulls the audience into a situation of worshipping together, and leaves little room for individual expression, even though it encourages worshipful thinking and participation. 

Bluegrass musicians are capable of worship.  Bluegrass music can and should be used to worship God, for He is the giver of the talent and ability that is required to create bluegrass music.  The nature of bluegrass does not excuse a picker from properly using his music to worship God. 

So how is an artist in a genre that focuses on the artist supposed to deflect “worship” from himself to the Creator?  How can a “person centric” genre of music be used in the church to lead believers into the worship of Christ? 

Virtually all worship music today is what I refer to as “rock based”.  That’s not my way of calling it “bad” – it’s my way of defining the type of music it’s based on. 

Can bluegrass be used to lead Christians into worship and non-believers into belief?  Or will it always be doomed to being performance and performer based?  Even if someone succeeds in using a couple of songs in a set to worship, will they be able to avoid the inevitable requests to “show off”? 

Is there value in bluegrass?  Or is it hopelessly human centered?  Can we push the genre of “worship music” to include more than guitars, drums, and a bass?  Can lovers of bluegrass ever experience the worship that occurs when we stop worrying about the music and focus on Jesus Christ? 

Questions.  Thoughts.  Discussion?  Anyone?

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