Category: Bluegrass

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Scott Diehl and Lance Frantzich of The Storytellers speak with Christina Fuoco-Karasinski, Pasadena Weekly Executive Editor on February 6, 2022

What can fans expect from your show when you play the Coffee Gallery?

Lance: Attendees can expect a carefully curated collection of our favorite songs from our considerable song list. Songs with compelling stories, lyrically and melodically speaking. They can expect three-part harmony singing, tight rhythms and soulful inspired lines from our soloists. That’s what we’re shooting for anyway. And they can expect to hear our original song “The Ballad of Bob Stane”, our tribute to the owner of Coffee Gallery Backstage.

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The late, great Jerry Garcia two-timed the band he is most associated with – the Grateful Dead – to perform a purer bluegrass style of music in the 1970s.

Let it never be forgotten that the first instrument Jerry Garcia performed on was the banjo. The iconic lead in the iconic band, the Grateful Dead, first picked up the instrument in 1950 and played it for more than a dozen years before working up the nerve to audition for bluegrass legend, Bill Monroe.

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The 2020 coronavirus might have, at best, taken the banjos, guitars and fiddles to YouTube. But with luck the acoustic strings shall return in 2022.

If one appreciates bluegrass music, one need not hire a bluegrass band to hear it, nor need they follow the social media page of the best local bluegrass band in the city. They need only be in the know of where and when their favorite California bluegrass festival is scheduled.

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Will toe-tapping banjo and fiddle riffs ruffle feathers at a business party? Maybe – if you’re lucky. Bluegrass is absolute fun and a universal crowd pleaser.

The corporate event planner sometimes has to go way out on a limb when selecting musical entertainment. What will be “just right” for the occasion? What genre is “in” with the attendees – or, should you surprise them with something unexpected?

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Why go with bluegrass? Maybe the question is why not get some fiddle, bass, guitar and banjo music when it comes to tying the knot?

Bluegrass music for a wedding or wedding reception might not be for everyone. But neither are Pachelbel’s Canon, Wagner’s Bridal Chorus, or Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (the latter of these sounds a little sexist anyway). Neither is pop, funk, or disco.

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The guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass fiddle, fiddle, and dobro come together to produce arguably the most American of music genres, with 17th century roots.

For many, the bluegrass style of music might have established itself in their ears as the banjo and fiddle most prominent from those all-time greats, Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt. But pull up some of the wonderful videos of their band, The Foggy Mountain Boys 7, on YouTube and you’ll see the other instruments that complete the sound: a standup bass, acoustic guitar, sometimes a mandolin and the dobro.

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