Various Artists: Merlefest Live!: The 15th Anniversary Jam

“I would rather be remembered as a likable person than for any phase of my picking. Don’t misunderstand me; I really appreciate people’s love of what I do with the guitar. That’s an achievement as far as I’m concerned, and I’m proud of it. But I’d rather people remember me as a decent human being than as a flashy guitar player. That’s the way I feel about it.”
— Doc Watson

From the very first time primitive man traded a shiny rock to another man for an animal pelt, the instinctive impulse to capitalize on nearly anything that will turn a profit has clouded man’s better judgment. It takes but a quick glance at any industrialized society, not least of which is the good old USA, to see how this desire has tragically played out over time. Just look at what has happened to popular music since its induction into the billion-dollar industry club. The moment a good is seen to have return potential and is easily reproduced, it is sure to be sucked dry for its every last cent and inspiration, engendering necessarily poor, soulless versions of the matrix. Thank God, then, for events like Merlefest: a celebration of music so totally devoid of corporate meddling that you’d think for sure this was some other place in a time long since past (never mind that Burger King and Pepsi are among the sponsors — hey, a festival attracting upwards of 70,000 people each year requires some funding). Pure, unadulterated music is hard to come by these days; more so for those who depend upon mainstream radio for their supply of tunes.

Far enough removed from all of that, yet fully engaged in the present, stands Merlefest — where musicians come to display their craft, essentially unchanged in spirit from the mold that created it. Driven by a unanimous sense of love for the very medium of music itself (rather than self-promotion), widely-known artists such as Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs, Emmylou Harris, and Dolly Parton, as well as insider treasures like Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Tony Rice — and of course the legendary guitar player Doc Watson, to whose son Merle this festival is a tribute — descend upon the small Blue Ridge Mountain town of Wilkesboro, NC. Together with a crowd composed of folks from all walks of life, the result is what might well be the single most organic and communal music experience in this country.

While being at the festival itself is the recommended introduction, a good recording can do it enough justice to get at least a sense of just how unique this gathering really is. Merlefest Live!: The 15th Anniversary Jam, recorded on one of the 2002 festival’s four nights, does a fine job of conveying just that, with simple camera pans and close-ups, making the music the primary focus. A warm intro spoken by Doc Watson himself bullets each song, along with a list of the musicians featured.

An original Watson composition, the rocking “Freight Train Boogie”, opens the video. Accompanying Watson’s seemingly effortless guitar picking, and equally smooth, steady voice, are, most prominently, Sam Bush on mandolin and Jerry Douglas on resophonic guitar, or dobro. Bush is a man of varied talents and tastes whose influence is a strong presence throughout the festival (so much so that he has been dubbed “The Spirit of Merlefest” — a title he richly deserves). His love of rock and roll, specifically its jammier aspects, has a loud voice in his particular reworking of traditional tunes and styles, although his ability to duplicate the old sound with impressive skill is never in question. His perennial presence at Merlefest is a testament to his devotion to this music and the excitement he shows when playing it is nothing short of infectious. He plays mandolin the way Chuck Berry played the electric guitar: moving and sweating with every note and strum, and so visibly enveloped in the sound that it’s hard not to tap your feet or straight-out dance. Bush actually gets to flex his muscle on electric guitar for a rousing cover of the Fats Domino hit, “Shake, Rattle and Roll”. Bush’s wild-man of roots music persona contrasts nicely with the subtleties of Doc Watson’s more traditional approach, exemplifying the nature and intention of this glorious shin-dig.

Jerry Douglas, being one of, if not the best of dobro players in acoustic music today, is another important figure. His presence is vital to the classic country sound that permeates the music at Merlefest and, luckily, he gives us many opportunities to witness his dazzling gift — none more outstanding than on the self-penned “Patrick Meets the Brickbats”, as he mercilessly picks away with astonishing dexterity and turns out a truly eye-popping performance. On other tracks he recedes a bit into the background, supplying a more restrained version of what his talent is actually able to project. His role as Music Director is also invaluable and it’s clear this man’s talents extend far beyond his playing.

The great Earl Scruggs is, along with Watson, a grizzled veteran and is to this day unsurpassed as a banjo player. He joins Watson for a snappy rendition of his own instrumental composition “Careless Love” and leads up “Paul and Silas”, sung by his son Gary Scruggs. Earl Scruggs is one of the original cross-over kings, from bluegrass to rock that is — his many albums include covers of songs by Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, among other more contemporary rock and rollers. His 2001 album Earl Scruggs and Friends features musicians and singers varying from Sting and Elton John to Johnny Cash and John Fogerty. While these influences are evidenced whenever Scruggs plays, here he focuses mostly on displaying his trademark 5-string banjo stylings with traditional tunes.

The directions taken during this Anniversary Jam stretch from the deepest, darkest hills to the shiniest rockers and ballads and everything in between. An example is the strong jazz element central to several tracks. Watson is a great fan of jazz music and lets it show: from his graceful, acoustic rendition of the George and Ira Gershwin jazz standard “Summertime”, to when he shouts “I love it!” as Bill Pontarelli’s clarinet strikes up in a fantastic bluegrass/jazz/Dixieland rendition of “Sweet Georgia Brown” — replete with fiddle, mandolin and banjo. The improvisational style inherent to modern jazz was applied extensively to rock music, but none so significantly as by the Grateful Dead (having gotten their start as a bluegrass outfit called Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions) in the form of long ambling jams. Much of the music at Merlefest reflects a similar penchant that allows for some solo spotlighted showboating on the part of the virtuosos — Doc Watson, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, and Earl Scruggs at the helm.

These folks are most definitely not stuck in a rut of bluegrass and country. While the music naturally draws a great deal from tradition, there is a wealth of styles, due in no small part to the varied backgrounds and ages of the performers, that proves these masters of the medium can really play just about anything you ask ’em to — and with a deftness so dazzling, you’d swear it was never done any better (forgive my tendency towards hyperbole but I was in fact present at this event and the impression it left on me remains strong). Just as rock and roll has taken extensively from roots music, so, it seems, does the roots music of today borrow from rock and roll. “Doc’s Medley” begins with Elvis Presley’s “Anyway You Want Me”, which turns into “Blue Suede Shoes”, then the Little Richard hit “Tutti Frutti”, and ends with a sly roll into Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”. The transitions are so flawless the medley plays almost like a single song. The unearthing by these musicians of each and every glimmer of the foundation these early rock and roll songs were built upon is a wondrous thing to witness. It is perhaps this miracle of influences colliding beautifully with one another that make the festival accessible to people of all generations. The newcomers bring their modern intentions and update the music, keeping it fresh and alive yet respectfully true to the spirit of the grandpappy and grandmama that spawned it all.

What a joy to see young adults, and even teenagers, taking part in what most in their age group would instinctively shirk. A leader on this front is Chris Thile, a 20 year-old mandolin virtuoso who released his first bluegrass album at the age of 12. He more recently joined up with siblings Sara and Sean Watkins to form Nickel Creek: a roots-based pop bluegrass trio whose huge success, popularity, and Grammy nominations helped bring this genre, once alien and uncool, to the teen set. It is truly one of the highlights of the video to see this kid attack the mandolin with such finesse, as evidenced brightly on “Blue Moon of Kentucky”, an all-star jam featuring Sara Watkins and Alison Krauss on fiddles, Sam Bush on mandolin, Earl Scruggs on banjo, Jerry Douglas on dobro and avuncular maestro Doc Watson on guitar and vocal. Thile also tries out his pipes on “Bury Me Beneath the Willow”; his breathy delivery, characterized by its distinctly teenage tone and attitude — much like the singing style popularized by numerous boy bands in recent years — makes it clearer yet how he and his band mates managed to derail the attention of teens around the country and introduce them to “old” music. A bow to pop culture is often a necessary evil in the noble attempt to make something pertinent to the pre-programmed younger generation. Alison Krauss is the grown-up version and forerunner to Nickel Creek and has taken country and bluegrass through even glossier waters. While her solo material is not featured here, her accomplished fiddle playing is given a chance to shine as she and Sara Watkins, who also has a lovely singing voice, start up “Blue Moon of Kentucky”.

While many new artists bring the old and established into a modern realm, others attempt to take it as far back to the roots as it’ll go. One such artist is Wylie Gustafson, whose Northwest range yodel à la Jimmie Rodgers and Gene Autry conjures images of cowboys around a campfire under an impossibly starry sky and the occasional howl of a coyote heard over the Montana plain (Gustafson’s real-life home) — perhaps a cow skull lies in the foreground for further authenticity. Contrivance aside, his delivery of this mythos is very effective in the fantastic cover of Tex Owens’ classic “Cattle Call”, with Doc Watson accompanying on guitar. Gustafson’s falsetto yodeling is something impressive in itself to witness, as he deftly taps into that most deep-seated American cultural ideal that is the Old West.

On the other side of the coin lies a more commercially-driven approach to roots music as tackled by John Cowan, formerly of progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival, which included Sam Bush and Bela Fleck as members (the latter being another prime example of a roots musician turning to jazz — and an effectively accomplished one at that). Cowan deviated from his acoustic origins and took off as a solo rock act wherein his voice developed the polish of a pop star. “A Good Woman’s Love” boasts excellent music but Cowan’s histrionic rock-ballad singing grates on the nerves, pierces the eardrums and is totally out of place alongside this music. It pains me to defame what Watson claims to be “one of his favorite singers” but this really is a misstep — one of the few on the entire video. Even Tim O’Brien’s “A Mountaineer Is Always Free”, though a bit too idiosyncratic, has its moments. On the more positive end is Alison Brown, whom Doc Watson introduces as “like a daughter” to him. Brown is a skilled progressive banjo player with an equally skilled backup band and a strong tendency towards long mellow jams. The mixture of styles, apparent even in the title, on her instrumental “Mambo Banjo” recalls both Bela Fleck and the Grateful Dead but with a slight new-age polish. Much like the rest of the music at Merlefest, regardless of personal taste or preference, the musicianship is uniformly superb.

But what is country music without a beautiful female voice to dole out sweet melancholy with the voice of an angel hailing from, say, Montgomery? Well she’s actually from Kentucky but the sentiment still stands with Patty Loveless. An established star, Loveless has made a career of singing accessible country songs with that Nashville shimmer but with a foot well-planted in the classic style. “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” is a gorgeous, haunting narrative ballad about the struggle of life centered around a Kentucky coalmine. Loveless rings out her voice as clear as a bell, soaring over suitably forlorn and equally beautiful music. The effect, along with one female and one male harmony, is reminiscent of Stevie Nicks-era Fleetwood Mac — yet is cautious not to descend into preciousness.

“Amazing Grace” wraps up the Anniversary Jam with Chris Thile’s willowy mandolin and Doc Watson singing so sweetly that the moment fully envelops him and he begins to choke up. The ghost of Merle passes over the stage and one can’t help but submit to the beautiful sadness. A more fitting and marvelously spine-tingling conclusion to this heavenly celebration of music there could not be.

For anyone whose interests lie outside the setlists of corporate radio and MTV, and who are ultimately disillusioned with the state of music today, experiencing Merlefest is a must. The amiable and simple nature of the musicians; the way they exchange smiles on stage in the event of a fumble, for example, betrays a real warmth amongst them, a respect and friendship forged by their mutual passions. These are encouraging notions for those who feel the division between performers and fans is impenetrable. At Merlefest, all pretenses of public image and spoiled stars cease to exist, letting the music take center stage. The 15th Anniversary Jam video and accompanying CD (the latter being a selection of highlights from the considerably longer video) offer nice glimpses into an event that truly needs to be witnessed in person for full effect. So after you’ve whetted your appetite with these excellent recordings, start planning your trip to Wilkesboro ’cause there’s only 328 days ’til pickin’ time.