americana

Last weekend was jamming with the Ethiopians. This weekend it's me and the roomie hitching a ride with my dad and his fellow musicians down to the hinterlands of Medina for one of the biggest bluegrass jams in Ohio.

I tagged along a couple years ago to this thing with my dad and one of his best friends and it was like this huge party. It's held in this church and each of the classrooms off to the side has a group of musicians all sitting in a circle playing off each other. There's a shared knowledge as far as songs go because most of them are traditionals, and if you're not familiar with the song, everyone's very willing to show you what to do.

What's good about this one is that there's so many little clusters of people, you can gravitate toward the others who've got similar skill levels or musical interests. It's not the kind of music that lends itself to egomania because of its communal nature, so everyone gets included and the ones who are really gifted get their chance to shine in turn.

I'm not exactly sure what it'll be this time around, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be good.