Band Dynamics NEVAH's BlueGrass Instrument prt-2

As mentioned in part 1 of my band dynamics blog … NEVAH, Maine's a-typical Progressive NewGrass - BlueGrass - Country (like) music band is made up of eight (8) members … with numerous backgrounds / talents. Each member can play more than one musical instrument, however, on-stage we tend to lean towards a "single" instrument" subbing occasionally when the need arises.

Our sound is really hard to define. Some folks think we lean towards a Country music sound where as others focus on our Bluegrass twangs, with a leaning toward NewGrass, and still a percentage of folks don't label us at all and simply like our overall tonality, vocals, harmonies, instrumentation and of course … fancy dress. We labeled it PROGRASSIBLLY music to cover the wide range of NEVAH.

Our instrumentation is as follows (from stage left to stage right - upstage to downstage - see photos):

We have a terrific percussionist who plays congas and snare along with other rhythm-ish instruments. Next to the congas is our drummer, a guy who has done it all, played every genre of music and who understands and works with our needs. To the right of the drummer is our Pedal Steel, Dobro and occasional 2nd/3rd and/or 4th guitar player, we all marvel at some of the sounds he creates. Back in front over to stage left is our acoustic lead guitar player who also plays banjo and mandolin and whose fingers occasionally have to be drenched in cold water to cool them down after a lead. To the guitarists immediate right is our flute, penny whistle, sax, kazoo and a few hand held percussive instrument player who adds a different touch to our tunes elevating the music to another level. Dead Center is our Electric Bass player, another talented instrumentalist who has done it all with an amazing musical sense and who keeps the band moving along. To his right is our lead Mandolin player who also picks a mean guitar when called upon for the task, the sweet leads of his mandolin playing are a joy to behold, plus he's got an ear for tuning that keeps us all … "IN" and "ON" pitch. And last, but not forgotten is our Kavanjo amplified Stelling Banjo player (me), who also plays some rhythm guitar – I'm there and try to be on and in time.

NEVAH Maine's Bluegrass Band - Set-up Sans Drummer

The pictures are of two set-ups, above shows the band without our drummer and below is the band without the percussionist (Conga player).

NEVAH Maine's Progressive Bluegrass, NewGrass Band

With so many varied instruments we create a wonderful onstage audible and visual dynamic, a wall of pleasing sound … most of the time … and as we rehearse, arrange, re-arrange and continue to grow we are learning how to"listen" and embrace the "less is more" philosophy of sound. The instruments, I think, lean towards a country, bluegrass feel, but with electric bass, drummer, flute/sax we can cover so many styles of music that we are only limited by the time we have to practice and perform. We can and have played rock-ish tunes, Celtic, Irish, Gypsy melodies, etc. The hard part is, again, the "less is more" philosophy of playing. And on top of that we tend to feature our vocals, the human instrument.

I think one of the nice things about this bands instrument dynamics is our ability to listen, discuss, try, add or eliminate, rework and then practice an arrangement. And the repetition of the process until we feel a tune is ready to be heard outside our rehearsal space. Everyone, if they so desire, has input, and we may not agree with some of the choices made, but we at least attempt to work through the suggestions and use our instruments wisely in each tune. For the most part we come up with what I feel are strong arrangements that work for us and fans of NEVAH seem to enjoy.

NEXT NEVAH BLOG: How we get along musically