The blue notes in bluegrass
Chris Stuart & Backcountry bring California bluegrass to Caltech
By Bliss 03/18/2010
It’s hard to believe, but there was a time when the greater Pasadena area was something of a musical hotbed. Late saxophonist Jimmie Maddin used to tell of honking jazz at 1950s-era lounges like Walsh’s on Colorado Boulevard and the Green Hotel. Talk to veteran musicians and deejays who came of age in this region in the ’60s and ’70s, and you’ll hear colorful stories of folk, bluegrass, country and rock musicians (including future country-rock luminaries like Clarence White and David Lindley) jamming at parties, schools, parks, coffeehouses, bowling alleys and clubs throughout the area. In the ’90s, a funky, genre-spanning musical community percolated in myriad clubs here, until it slowly dried up as Old Town’s corporate creep advanced.
All that transpired amidst a civic climate that fostered community and connection — between artists, sure, but also between musicians and listeners, venue owners and their clientele. It’s something we are in need of now. The live music scene is getting hammered by obvious economic woes, the prevalence of affordable home entertainment, and municipal policies disinclined to support loud volume or potentially rowdy patrons.
Like everyone else, the acoustic music community is struggling, but it’s resilient. Over at Caltech, the Caltech Folk Music Society continues to make worthy contributions to the school’s noticeably lighter concert calendar. This weekend, Chris Stuart & Backcountry trek north from San Diego for a performance that promises to hit the blue notes in bluegrass.
Frontman Chris Stuart is an award-winning writer whose songs have been recorded by a clutch of top bluegrass artists, including Dale Ann Bradley, Doyle Lawson, Claire Lynch and Dan Paisley. In tandem with invaluable banjoist and harmony singer Janet Beazley, who also contributes tunes to their repertoire, Stuart & Backcountry purvey bluegrass that is quintessentially Californian: less hard-driving than Bill Monroe’s original template, but smooth, stylishly performed, with some Celtic pennywhistle and an emphasis on harmonies and strong, lyrically evocative material.
“Saints and Strangers” from 2003 remains the group’s most dramatic and diverse album, with vividly etched songs like the haunting Mayflower-set title track and honky-tonker “Twenty Naked Pentecostals in a Pontiac.” Five years later, “Crooked Man,” the band’s third proper album, introduced their new lineup featuring ex-Weary Hearts guitarist Eric Uglum and his stepsons, bassist Austin Ward and fiddler Christian Ward. All are familiar to Topanga Festival audiences and West Coast bluegrass aficionados. Stuart & Co. have slowly ascended to the vanguard of contemporary California bluegrass bands over the past decade, but it’s rare to hear them this close to home. Bluegrass itself is rarely heard in local venues these days, so bluegrass fans are advised to mark their calendars.
Chris Stuart & Backcountry play at 8 p.m. Saturday in Caltech’s Beckman Institute Auditorium, 400 S. Wilson Ave., Pasadena; $15 ($5/youth). Info: (626) 395-4652. chrisstuart.com.
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