Bluegrass pride
June 18, 2018 9:10 AM Subscribe
Just As I Am: "By age twenty, he was working consistently on the bluegrass-gospel circuit. One gig ended abruptly when he loaned his laptop to a couple of bandmates at a recording session. They got nosy and found photos from a hush-hush trip to Gatlinburg with his clandestine boyfriend. 'I don’t know how you and God are,' the bandleader thundered at Brandon, who stared at the floor, 'but you need to get it right. If you keep on this path, you’ll be in hell for sure.'”
California Bluegrass Pride:
“It was an absolute collision of two of my worlds I'd been very active in, but kept so completely separate,” Godman said.
He found work with a different band, but still felt the sting of professional and financial consequences related to others knowing his sexual orientation. Godman moved from Nashville to San Francisco in 2016 to work as a violin and bow dealer. He also connected with Grammy Award-winning bluegrass performer Laurie Lewis and joined her band, the Right Hands.
Thanks to an effort by the California Bluegrass Association (CBA), Godman and other musicians can now embrace their love for bluegrass while also finding acceptance of their sexual orientation.
They call it Bluegrass Pride, a formal effort to let the world know bluegrass music is for everyone. Volunteers with Bluegrass Pride have had a presence at bluegrass events through information tables and found a larger role at a major event in the Bay area.
Ted Kuster, CBA’s area vice president for San Francisco, said the idea for Bluegrass Pride emerged in 2016 after a group of members began brainstorming ways to connect with different audiences and younger generations.
“The last thing on the list was ‘let’s get a float in the Pride Parade,’” said Kuster, a banjo player and son of a preacher. “Before you knew it, people were starting to organize it.”
Brandon Godman: 2013 Grand Master Fiddler Championship Traditional Division, Go See Aunt Helmy, Unapologetically Me: "The true gift of music is that it’s a medium where you can come undone, be completely vulnerable with your audience, and be unapologetically you. You never know who might be listening."
California Bluegrass Pride:
“It was an absolute collision of two of my worlds I'd been very active in, but kept so completely separate,” Godman said.
He found work with a different band, but still felt the sting of professional and financial consequences related to others knowing his sexual orientation. Godman moved from Nashville to San Francisco in 2016 to work as a violin and bow dealer. He also connected with Grammy Award-winning bluegrass performer Laurie Lewis and joined her band, the Right Hands.
Thanks to an effort by the California Bluegrass Association (CBA), Godman and other musicians can now embrace their love for bluegrass while also finding acceptance of their sexual orientation.
They call it Bluegrass Pride, a formal effort to let the world know bluegrass music is for everyone. Volunteers with Bluegrass Pride have had a presence at bluegrass events through information tables and found a larger role at a major event in the Bay area.
Ted Kuster, CBA’s area vice president for San Francisco, said the idea for Bluegrass Pride emerged in 2016 after a group of members began brainstorming ways to connect with different audiences and younger generations.
“The last thing on the list was ‘let’s get a float in the Pride Parade,’” said Kuster, a banjo player and son of a preacher. “Before you knew it, people were starting to organize it.”
Brandon Godman: 2013 Grand Master Fiddler Championship Traditional Division, Go See Aunt Helmy, Unapologetically Me: "The true gift of music is that it’s a medium where you can come undone, be completely vulnerable with your audience, and be unapologetically you. You never know who might be listening."
I wish she'd given more information on the band with the lead who identifies as is a lesbian. I know it's not the same genre, but I'd kill for a lesbian cover of Callin' Baton Rouge
posted by FirstMateKate at 10:00 AM on June 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by FirstMateKate at 10:00 AM on June 18, 2018 [4 favorites]
I don't even want to read this because I can imagine... I grew up in The Birthplace of Country Music decades ago and know of hell fire and damnation. Got the F out of there is enough for me.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:13 AM on June 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by zengargoyle at 10:13 AM on June 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
It's a curious world—I inadvertently dated my way into the bluegrass scene (and quasi-step-parent status in another insane angle) by virtue of ending up with a gentleman caller dating his first man at forty-one in spite of my near-lifelong hatred of the banjo, high-pitched harmonies, and traditional musical forms...and it's been okay, and sort of weirdly eye-opening, too. I talk a good game about how much the world has changed in recent times for people like me, but there's still that residual hitch in my confidence from coming of age in the dark heart of the reign of the wingnuts' Saint Reagan, but it's odd when, as I'm wandering a bluegrass festival with a five-year-old hand-bridging her dad and me, trailing my gentleman caller from campfire jam to campfire jam, I'm introduced as his boyfriend to his old friends who show a brief flash of "huh, well, that's new" face before just shrugging and carrying on, because it's 2018 and the uptight Foxolds who give a shit about such things are rapidly dying off.
It's something that's noted, processed, and then the claw-hammer banjo spins up and the fiddle gets going and the mandolins start to chop and...oh my I think I need a break, at which point I'll tuck in my earphones for a little digital break and a walk through the campsites of DelFest with Mouse On Mars temporarily drowning out all those strings. I come back, refreshed by my beloved artificial sounds, and watch my handsome gentleman tearing up some music that I'd never have listened to in a million years if he weren't playing it and everything is fine.
Of course, I live in the Baltimore/DC orbit and this is paradoxically rich bluegrass country, and one of the best places to see music of this variety (and others of similar ilk) up close is a little basement in Jessup run by a fantastic transgender lady who interacts seamlessly with the young and hip and the older and more conservative alike in a cozy little house concert venue. It really is a whole new world, though I'll admit that living in the very tippy-top of what could reasonably be considered the South makes a big difference.
posted by sonascope at 12:51 PM on June 18, 2018 [12 favorites]
It's something that's noted, processed, and then the claw-hammer banjo spins up and the fiddle gets going and the mandolins start to chop and...oh my I think I need a break, at which point I'll tuck in my earphones for a little digital break and a walk through the campsites of DelFest with Mouse On Mars temporarily drowning out all those strings. I come back, refreshed by my beloved artificial sounds, and watch my handsome gentleman tearing up some music that I'd never have listened to in a million years if he weren't playing it and everything is fine.
Of course, I live in the Baltimore/DC orbit and this is paradoxically rich bluegrass country, and one of the best places to see music of this variety (and others of similar ilk) up close is a little basement in Jessup run by a fantastic transgender lady who interacts seamlessly with the young and hip and the older and more conservative alike in a cozy little house concert venue. It really is a whole new world, though I'll admit that living in the very tippy-top of what could reasonably be considered the South makes a big difference.
posted by sonascope at 12:51 PM on June 18, 2018 [12 favorites]
Apparently DC ended up bluegrass country because when it was gearing up for war it drew workers from a hinterland that covered the bluegrass heartland in Appalachia. A lot of them never went home afterwards.
My dad was friends with a fairly prominent bluegrass musician in DC, at least well enough that we spent a few 4th of July holidays at his house. Unfortunately, I can't recall the name or group, though The Country Gentlemen rings a faint bell...Aha! I had a faint memory that he was also a doctor, and a little research reminds me it was John Starling and Seldom Scene. Well, is, as far as I know they are still friendly.
posted by tavella at 1:19 PM on June 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
My dad was friends with a fairly prominent bluegrass musician in DC, at least well enough that we spent a few 4th of July holidays at his house. Unfortunately, I can't recall the name or group, though The Country Gentlemen rings a faint bell...Aha! I had a faint memory that he was also a doctor, and a little research reminds me it was John Starling and Seldom Scene. Well, is, as far as I know they are still friendly.
posted by tavella at 1:19 PM on June 18, 2018 [1 favorite]
Thanks for posting this. I'm happy to know that Bluegrass Pride exists, and Godman's fiddling is excellent!
posted by mixedmetaphors at 3:35 PM on June 18, 2018
posted by mixedmetaphors at 3:35 PM on June 18, 2018
I was at a recent show by Lavender Country (previously) and New York queer country band Paisley Fields and Eli Conley at El Rio in San Francisco. A representative from Bluegrass Pride was there handing out cards for this year's events.
Looks like Bluegrass Pride kicks it off tonight with a bluegrass jam.
posted by larrybob at 4:54 PM on June 18, 2018
Looks like Bluegrass Pride kicks it off tonight with a bluegrass jam.
posted by larrybob at 4:54 PM on June 18, 2018
Horrible that he got banished from a band for being gay. And kind of funny that one of the people that banished him had an honest-to-god change of heart after watching Brokeback Mountain.
posted by lilies.lilies at 9:09 AM on June 19, 2018
posted by lilies.lilies at 9:09 AM on June 19, 2018
I'd kill for a lesbian cover of Callin' Baton Rouge
I think the same thing every time I listen to it. Haven't come across one yet, but maybe I just need to add it to my karaoke list and make it happen for myself.
posted by Tentacle of Trust at 5:25 PM on June 19, 2018 [2 favorites]
I think the same thing every time I listen to it. Haven't come across one yet, but maybe I just need to add it to my karaoke list and make it happen for myself.
posted by Tentacle of Trust at 5:25 PM on June 19, 2018 [2 favorites]
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