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The MMO had its first 2008 performance on March 1 at the Winter Bluegrass Weekend sponsored by MBOTMA (Minnesota Bluegrass & Old Time Music Association).
I'll send an invitation to all of you to view my entire album from this festival soon.
Below are some comments I heard, some from my in-laws and husband, some from fellow bluegrassers with whom I jam, some from strangers:
"Only one guy smiled; everyone was so serious; I thought playing music was s'posed to be fun."
"There was not one bluegrass song played by the MMO. Isn't this a BLUEGRASS festival?"
"The selection of music was poor; you guys should play more familiar songs that people know."
(I explained that the available mandolin orchestra music was limited.)
"I liked all the songs; not one was bad to me."
"You were much better than last time I heard you, at Como Park last summer."
And my own comment: "Hey, we should play Christmas music at nursing homes in December!"
Blog out!
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6 comments:
I didn't hear many good comments either. My mom was listening to people's comments in the audience and the consensus seems to be--the type of music we play doesn't fit in at a bluegrass festival.
Thanks, Anne and Ronda, for posting the comments. I'm interested in people's opinions, and most people are too polite to give their negative comments to me directly. Does anyone else have anything to add?
I was in a bluegrass mandolin camp during the weekend, and our instructor attended our performance. He had never heard a mandolin orchestra before and really liked it. I think he is interested in a very wide range of music, so he may have been more tolerant of selections which strayed from typical bluegrass than audience members who were expecting 100% bluegrass.
If we are part of the event in the future, would it be possible to do a mandolin orchestra arrangement of something which would be considered bluegrass? If we did one of these, it might help to reduce any criticism.
I agree with Jean. I think we should have at least one bluegrass song at the festival, preferably two (maybe around 20%?). I'm surprised that MBOTMA doesn't "enforce" this. Maybe they're too polite, too. I don't consider "Waltz for Bill Monroe" a bluegrass tune. Our MMO website under FAQ does not list bluegrass as one of the genres, but I thought it used to list it, among others, in the past.
I've played with the MMO at these MBOTMA events for 11 or 12 years, and despite our 'non-bluegrass" standing, they keep having us back. Keep in mind that part of MBOTMA stands for "old time" music, and in some ways we fit that description. I appreciate MBOTMA's open-mindedness.
We are not a bluegrass band and I would prefer we don't force ourselves into a genre that isn't a good fit. If we play a BG tune someone will complain that we don't have any banjos or some such nonsense. You'll never please everyone. Also, I thought the Waltz for Bill Monroe is a great nod to the Father of Bluegrass.
I say we stick to what sounds best with the orchestra, although I would be in favor of playing a few more familiar tunes to keep the crowd involved.
Given that we play opposite the headliners, seems to me that the hard core bluegrassers have an option. And we've played often enough at that festival that most would know that we're not going to play a lot of bluegrass.
Reminds me of a festival held in St. Paul a year or two ago. It had a Hendrix retrospective AND several bluegrass bands (Green Card and Nickel Creek). AND they were intermixed.
Now that was a strange concert, odd mix of people!
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