Hello bluegrassers!  Well the time has finally come to reveal to you another bluegrass interview with a well known duo.  Of course this can only be Jake Smith and Joyce Carriker.  They have been around the KC area for many years and have made many contributions to the continuation of bluegrass music.  They are loved by many people and I am thrilled to share with you their music story.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!  A picture should be coming soon!

BB: Introduction:  Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? 
Jake: I was born and raised in the southern end of Kansas City, MO. My dad was musical, playing both mandolin and guitar, although not bluegrass. He bought me a mandolin when I was about 7 and an autoharp when I was about 10.
Joyce: I was born in Independence, MO, but did most of my growing up in Blue Springs and Buckner. I’ve been singing since I could talk, but never played an instrument until I got my bass. In the 60s and 70s I sang “country” while my husband, Don, played electric guitar.  I have three children, nine grandchildren, and four great grandchildren. I love reading, quilting, volunteering and playing music.

BB: When did you get started in your musical journey?
Jake: My bluegrass journey began when I saw “The Darlings” on the Andy Griffith show, and went out and bought a $19.00 banjo at Sears Outlet, and a banjo book at Cousin Jed’s Guitar Shed at Wild Woody’s. I started going to jams in the fall of 1989 with a little bit better banjo than that first one. (I’ve still got the first one, somewhere.)
Joyce: As I mentioned, Don and I were doing country music until
 his brother “drug” us to this place where “people just sat around on hay bales and played acoustic music”.  We thought that sounded pretty corny, but we went. And the rest is history.

BB:  What happened after that?
Jake:  I started going to Ozark Country jams in Grandview and to the bluegrass clubs.  A little later I played with “Georgia Rose” and Jim Boling. It was when I started playing with Dick Hugill’s “Over The Hill Bluegrass” that I actually started playing at festivals. It was while playing with the Hugills that I gained a lot of experience and stage presence…..I owe them a lot.
Joyce: After that first bluegrass show (the one with the corny haybales), we came back home, made a trip to Quigley Music, and Don traded all his electric stuff for his first acoustic guitar. He never looked back. We met the Hugills, the Merriots, and the Jacksons at East Lynne, MO. After a lot of picking together, Jack and Velva Merriot and Don and I formed “Shade Tree Grass”. After Jack and Velva left the group in 1981, I bought my bass, (from Cousin Jed’s Guitar Shed), we grabbed a young man named Richard Jewell, who later became my son-in-law.  In 1985, “Shade Tree Grass” decided to take a break so that Richard and Elizabeth could raise their babies.

BB:  Where did you go from there?
Jake: I played a full season with the Hugills, then in 1992 I met Don and Joyce Carriker at one of the Smithville festivals. We jammed together at that festival, and a little later on, I left the Hugills and joined “Shade Tree Grass” just as they were regrouping.  Eight months later, Don died from a heart attack.
Joyce: Jake started playing banjo with us as Richard wanted to play dobro.  We got to do a few shows together before
Don became too ill to perform. He was battling cancer, but managed to take in the July festival at Knob Knoster in 1993, before dying from a heart attack on July 17.

BB:  What happened next?
Jake: Joyce made an attempt to keep the group going after Don’s death, and Rex Green joined us. The “heart” just wasn’t there, so we didn’t play much longer.  Joyce and I, both, at the time needed someone in our lives, so since we were already good friends, we decided the “someones” we needed were each other. Not a lot of music was played for a few years until we started going to the jam session organized by Howard Roe in Buckner. That rekindled the interest in bluegrass music for us.
Joyce: We started playing in a group called “Playing In The Grass” with Harley and Mindy Ramey.  They were great to perform with.  Jake: In the fall of 1999, “Blue and Gray Pickers” came calling……that was a great three and a half years!  We got to do a lot of traveling to a lot of different festivals. And I got to be on my first CD. 
Jake & Joyce: We had the honor of being a part of Deryle Cline’s “Tri-State Ramblers” for a while, and that was a fun experience. There was never a dull moment with Deryle. The current band we’ve been involved with for the past ten years, “Bear Creek Bluegrass”, is still keeping us busy, and we’re still having fun with our music. We have three CDs……one every time we change guitar players.  We have a new guitar player, so we’ll probably have to start on another CD, soon.  

BB:  What is your favorite Bluegrass Band or Artist? Who influenced you the most?
Jake:  Honestly, I think for me, it’s still the original Dillards.
Joyce:  I don’t think I have a favorite, but I used to love the old bands such as “The Country Gentlemen” and Harold Rowden’s first group.

BB:  How many songs have you written? 
Joyce: I’ve written a couple of gospel songs….just the words, not the music.

BB:  What advice would you give to young people wanting to get started in Bluegrass?ulnone Jake: Learn the old basics of the original bluegrass, then build from there.
Joyce: Practice, practice, practice and jam, jam, jam!

BB:  Anything else you want to say to wrap up this interview?
Joyce: It’s been a wonderful trip, and not always a smooth one.  The music has been such a blessing to me through all the terrific people I’ve become friends with. Jake has been a Godsend…..pulling, dragging, and shoving me through all my trials with my health and misadventures.
Jake: The music has been a wonderful gift from God, helping me through a lot of bad times in life, met many great people, made wonderful friends, and I met the most wonderful woman in the world to spend my life with. She’s my best friend, we do everything together…..evening working together as volunteer firefighters on the Collins Fire Protection District.  She can drag a charged fire hose with the best of them!

BB:  Thanks to both of you for sharing your music journey.   What an interesting story!  And thank you Jake for getting me started playing the banjo and telling me to focus on the “rolls”.   Looking forward to seeing around at one our festivals or club meetings.

Hello everyone.  This posting is to announce an upcoming bluegrass interview with a well known duo who have been playing for many years in the KC area.  For now, I will call them J&J, and let your imagination go to work.  They have worked hard in supporting HABOT for many years.  In fact they have performed at the club meetings on several occasions.  One of the J&J folks were instrumental in encouraging me to play the banjo.  Of course, he also would love to have the head of this picture mounted on his wall.  Can you figure out who it is?  If not, just wait it out and you will be reading all about it very soon.

Secondly, don’t forget to attend our 4th Friday jam this Friday, June 22nd that meets every month all year long.  We appreciate your support, talent and fellowship we always enjoy.  So come on out and enjoy the music and have a good time.

Thirdly, as a reminder there is a banjo contest on Wed, August 15th at 6:00pm at the state fair again this year so why don’t you sign up?  Here is the link to learn more about it. http://www.mostatefair.com/special-contests

Have a great day!
Bill

Hello everyone,
Today I am writing about an Arkansas Traveler.  I know many of you think I would be referring to the song entitled:  Arkansas Traveler.  You would be right in a sense BUT did you realize that there is a tomato called the “Arkansas Traveler”.   It truly is from Arkansas and is a hillbilly favorite because:
It will ripen in 80 days.  It is medium-sized pink tomato that is smooth and a beautiful rose color. An excellent variety that is tolerant to heat and humidity; crack and disease resistant.  Not to mention good flavor. If you want to learn more you can go to this site and see some pictures.  Arkansas Tomato

Now let’s get back to the song.  The song is typically an instrumental for the fiddle and is played at bluegrass jams every once in awhile.  It is a charming little song that can be a challenge to play on the banjo.  It also has lyrics about a fiddler from Arkansas that plays his fiddle in the rain with a leaking roof, but he didn’t mind.  Then along came by a traveler and heard him fiddling away.  He tried to tell him he needed to fix his roof, but the fiddler kept on playing and his feet were under water, but he kept on playing.  The traveler gave him advice on how to fix the leak, but the fiddler told him, that he can’t repair the leak when it is raining, and when it is not raining, it is not leaking.  So he told the traveler he better move along as he kept on fiddling.
 
Did you know that this song used to be Arkansas’ state song.  Here is some interesting information according to Wikipedia.
“The Arkansas Traveler” was the state song of Arkansas from 1949 to 1963; it has been the state historical song since 1987. The music was composed in the 19th century by Colonel Sanford C. ‘Sandy’ Faulkner (1806–1874); the current official lyrics were written by a committee in 1947 in preparation for its naming as the state song.

Here is video of what it sounds like and how to dance to it:
Arkansas Traveller – Fiddle and Dancing

Enjoy!  Let me know what you think by posting a comment.  I would love to hear from you.

Bill

Happy Mother’s Day!

Hello everyone.  Today is mother’s day and I hope each of you are spending some quality time with your mother or at least thinking about her if she has already passed away.  It is always good to reflect on who we are based on the influence of our mother.  There are many traditional bluegrass songs about mothers.  One of my favorite is:  “I If I could hear my mother pray again”.  The title and lyrics are just wonderful.  Of course it has been recorded by many popular artists as well.
 
According to wikipedia, “If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again” (1922) is a popular gospel song written by John Whitfield “Whit” Vaughan (1879–1945), as a tribute to his own mother, Clara Beady Burgess-Vaughan. The words are based on a text by James Rowe, an English settler living in Georgia during the early twentieth century. A 1934 recording of the song by Thomas A. Dorsey was selected in 2007 by the United States’ National Recording Preservation Board for preservation in the National Recording Registry.

One of my other favorites is: “I heard my mother call my name in prayer”.  See the inserted video of Ricky Skaggs singing this song in 2003.    Again it is a wonderful song with a great message for those of us who has lost their mothers.  Of course there are many songs in the bluegrass genre that are about mothers.  You should go to youtube and just google bluegrass songs mothers and you will find a variety of them for your enjoyment. 

Have a great day!  Bill

Hello everyone,
Today I was thinking what a fantastic Spring we are having.  This must be the best spring I can ever remember.  Seems like it is about a month early, but I will take any warm weather over cold any day.  Spring always brings about warm sunny days, birds singing, blooming flowers and lots of course, yard work!   I am not especially a “yard man” but I do enjoy the beauty of it all when it is freshly mowed, edged and blown off.

Along those lines of Spring, I was also thinking of an old song entitled:  “Sittin’ on top of the World”.  It has been played or recorded by just about any professional musician in a variety of genres’.  However, I really enjoy the bluegrass version.  The video is of Highland Rim performing a nice Bluegrass rendition.

Here is a little history according to wikipedia:
“Sitting on Top of the World” (also rendered as “Sittin’ on Top of the World“) is a folk-blues song written by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon, core members of the Mississippi Sheiks, a popular country blues band of the 1930s. Walter Vinson claimed to have composed “Sitting on Top of the World” one morning after playing a white dance in Greenwood, Mississippi.^[1]
The song was first recorded by the Mississippi Sheiks in 1930 (on the Okeh label, No. 8784), became a popular cross-over hit for the band, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.^[2]
In May 1930 Charlie Patton recorded a version of the song (with altered lyrics) called “Some Summer Day”^[3] During the next few years cover-versions of “Sitting on Top of the World” were recorded by a number of artists: The Two Poor Boys, Big Bill Broonzy, Sam Collins, Milton Brown and Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. After Milton Brown recorded it for Bluebird Records the song became a staple in the repertoire of western swing bands.^[1]

“Sitting on Top of the World” has become a standard of traditional American music. The song has been widely recorded in a variety of different styles – folk, blues, country, bluegrass, rock – often with considerable variations and/or additions to the original verses. The lyrics convey a stoic optimism in the face of emotional setbacks, and the song has been described as a “simple, elegant distillation of the Blues”.

Hope you enjoyed your history lesson and have a joyous Easter.

See at one of the Friday jams.
Bill

Hello everyone.   As a banjo player, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the death of Earl Scruggs at 88.  Without question he was the most influencial banjo picker of all time.  His “three finger style” propelled bluegrass into the main stream of American culture.  He is most famous for performing two songs.  The first was brought into our living rooms from the TV series, “Beverly Hillbillies”.  The song of course was “The Ballad of Jed Clampett”.  The second song was the theme song for the movie entitled: “Bonnie and Clyde” and was instrumental song was called:  “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”. 

These two songs are standard equipment for any banjo player that is serious about their playing.  Ironically, the songs are quite different in the skill it takes to play them, with the first one is pretty simple while the second song is fairly complex in the skill level required to make it sound right.

Earl Scruggs has a long musical journey but during his last few years, he played with a lot of famous musicians.  One of these is the actor/comedian, Steve Martin, who is an excellent banjo player himself.  Earl started playing with Bill Monroe and later become very popular with Lester Flatt and the became well known as “Flatt and Scruggs”.  The story goes on and on….

Earl was never one to really want any awards of noteriety, but just wanted to play the music he loved.  He will be missed a lot but his legacy will live on and on.  

Bill

Jim: As most people who know me know, I am very involved in the local bluegrass movement.  I really enjoy the people in bluegrass and intend to keep doing it for a long time

Thanks for reading this interview and if you know of anyone else who would like to be interviewed just let me know.  Bill 

Hello everyone,

WOW! Did you know that Spring officially begins this year on March 20th?  With the mild winter we have had I can already see some transformation in my yard.   If you look around you may even see a daffodil blooming as noted in my picture.  The bradford pear trees are getting ready to “pop”.  Spring is all around us.

This is always encouraging because before too much longer we can go outside and do some outdoor picking.  In another month I think I will grab my banjo and a couple of friends (yes, I have more than one) and have a mini-jam outside just for fun.  It goes like this;  pick and play, take a break and enjoy some hot banana nut muffins with hot coffee, and back to jamming, then repeat.  How much fun is that?  The only problem is that the cool weather is tough on the instruments, not to mention our fingers.   Spring jammin’ is really fun and
helps pull us out of the winter (what winter?).   What gets you off the couch and outside?  Take advantage of the upcoming warm days and do something constructive to enjoy life.

Don’t foget to attend the annual spring HABOT youth talent show in April because it is always fun to watch and see all the new talent coming on the scene for future generations.

Speaking of HABOT, don’t forgot to attend the next meeting this coming Friday, March 16th.   Click here for more info:  http://habot.org     It is always the largest recurring Bluegrass event in the Kansas City Area.  Hope to see you there.

Other news, more interviews coming soon!  This next interview is with very nice guy and he has a lot of talent.  He plays a variety of instruments but tends to focus on the mandolin.  Can you guess who it is?  Keep checking back as you will find out real soon.

If you know of anyone who wants to be added to my email list just have them send me an email at  banjobarron@sbcglobal.net

Boom Chick,
Bill

Hello everyone.  I think you will find this interview especially interesting because it is about a local duo.  Of course they are Nick and Loretta Rivard.  They are very special people and friends to many of us around this area.  I thank them for sharing their journey.

or playing with dad as the ‘leader.’  Mom grew up in Harlan County, Kentucky.  Her family did not play acoustic music.  All of our family activities centered on music and song.  This is true to this day, even after my parents have long since passed away.