Oh, and John Cusack Too.

Arguably it's merely a contrivance, an artifact, an outcome if you like, of my ongoing effort to learn to and subsequently play the banjo, but I have a bit of a taste for the bluegrass now. I could argue back, then, and put forth that I wouldn't have picked up the banjo if I had not some latent bluegrass-ness already in the wings waiting for it's discovery. You would then retort with a statement of your complete lack of interest in bluegrass and anyone who wishes to discuss bluegrass, even people who were so recently interesting to you.

Yes, in my attempts to find folks to attend bluegrass concerts and jam nights I have been meet with regular disappointment. Notably excepted is Blake, who expressed interest in the latter; unfortunately the jam night I found in Fremont occurs on Mondays, when both Blake and I have a league b-ball game. For the most part, however, when I ask how someone feels about bluegrass I am generally answered with a very cautious "why?" and a sense that the question was only a stall so the asker could determine the most diplomatic way to call me a hayseed with bad taste.

Fear not! For I discovered a coincidence the likes of which boggle the mind. See, I was at this concert where a friend of a friend's Latin Jazz band was playing. After they were done we were discussing music and whatnot (I generally relish a chance to inform someone I played in a jazz band). I asked him, as a man in the music scene in Seattle, if there even existed a bluegrass community in the area. His response was emphatic! He said there was not only a thriving bluegrass scene, but a revival occurring. I was excited but wary. That seemed odd to me.

But then I woke up last week to a NPR piece about a most recent Bluegrass revival in Western Washington State (which I take to mean Seattle). Since, much like the internet and the papacy, anything NPR says is absolutely true you ccould imagine my excitement.

All I need to do is gain enough confidence to play with others. A mass whose criticality is steadily being approached.


p.s. I am listening to a blugrass version of Tenacious D right now.

p.p.s I still hate modest mouse. Where is your god now?