Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion in Bluegrass
Bob Dylan said it in 1964, “The Times, They Are A Changing.” Around that time, the Civil Rights Movement was burning a hole in our consciousness sometimes dividing North and South, and bluegrass music was still emerging from diverse musical forces.
In 1964, Bill Monroe’s band included Steve Arkin and Don Lineberger on banjo, James Monroe on guitar and bass, Sandy Rothman on guitar and banjo and Peter Rowan on guitar. It was 19 years after the debut of Flatt & Scruggs with Monroe. It would be another seven years before the Seldom Scene emerged, morphing out of the Country Gentlemen whose classic lineup of John Duffey on mandolin, Charlie Waller on guitar, Tom Gray on bass and Eddie Adcock on banjo broke new ground bringing non-bluegrass music into the genre.
What you don’t read in those names are the diverse influences behind the bluegrass sound. The merging of sounds that come from Africa, The British Aisles, work songs, ballads, hoedowns and field hollers. You don’t hear where Ralph Stanley learned clawhammer banjo from his mother, or whose mothers sang them old ballads that seeped into their own singing. You don’t the names of the genre’s leading women, like Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, for whom Monroe wrote the song “The One I Love Is Gone.”
Just as the planet is reckoning with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), so is the bluegrass world, along with its roots and branches. The time has come to have the hard discussions, climb the learning curves, and begin the work to open the doors making everyone feel welcome in the bluegrass community. As current IBMA Board Chair Ben Surratt said, “It’s not just that you are welcome here, we WANT you here,” in addressing the IBMA’s fledgling efforts to create a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force.
There are some remarkable people out there swinging the doors wide open, change-makers who believe that anyone who wants to participate in bluegrass can and should. The Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) program in NC, VA and TN opens its classes to ANY youth interested in learning to play Bluegrass and Old Time Music. Anni Beach in Chandler, Arizona has run the Jam Pak youth Bluegrass & Blues program for over 20 years, encouraging Black, Native, Hispanic, White, Bi-Racial, all religions, all identities of kids to play music in bands informally and on tour together. The California Bluegrass Association helped launch Bluegrass Pride, which became an independent 501(c)3 non-profit recently. Their mission statement includes, “We aim to uplift the genre of bluegrass as a whole to receive LGBTQ+ folks openly, and to promote allyship with all marginalized peoples within the industry and musical community. We do so by creating opportunities for community building and resources for musical skill development, such as concerts, jam sessions, showcases, festivals, parades, tutorials, recording, and more!”
The IBMA dipped its toe into the wide world of DEI in 2017 with Rhiannon Giddens’ Conference keynote speech, a worthy 45-minute dive into the roots of bluegrass. With the encouragement of more than 20 IBMA members, the organization also launched its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force in 2018.
I’ve asked four questions to a group of inspirational people for their perspectives on where we’ve come from, where we are and where we are headed. Maybe you’ve been thinking about this already. Maybe the notion of a transgender, gay, Asian, Hispanic, or Black bluegrass player is new to you. Or maybe you are one of those people. I invite you to dig in, read, learn, agree, disagree, and most importantly, consider participating in one or more of the continuing efforts to make bluegrass a welcoming community for players, fans, friends, vendors, presenters—everyone.
First, some background on folks who helped me with this article, in alphabetical order.
Why do you feel it is important to welcome all makes, models and tribes of people into bluegrass?
Jake: I feel that it’s important to welcome all kinds of people everywhere; bluegrass is no exception. I think every economic sector should be aware of the fact that America will be a majority-minority in the very near future. If we want the music to survive and grow, we need to open the gates.
Sarika: It makes the music more vibrant and expressive, and helps it evolve and progress. Bluegrass was created from an amalgam of musical styles, and its origins reflect the diversity and uniqueness of American music. For the genre to continue to thrive, it is important that it continue to reflect the diversity of broader society.
Anni: I have experienced in all these years of teaching and building a huge bluegrass band of all kinds of children how the music as the core brings children into a great social order. Bluegrass music provides a solid, well-structured kind of music and format which can bring joy and understanding when all kinds of people can play and gather together. Our world needs people who can relate easily to each other and have peaceful living with open hearts. Bluegrass can do that. It’s an avenue of serious social change.
Justin: The banjo, a descendent of traditional instruments of Africa (especially West Africa), is not the only facet of bluegrass that has a direct tie to Black, Brown, Indigenous, and/or Asian folks. We need to more intentionally connect the dots between the diverse, representative musical “primordial ooze” that birthed bluegrass and its modern iterations. Furthermore, the more folks who love bluegrass, the better chance it has of surviving in a world that continually demonstrates its priority is not to keep a niche vernacular, aural tradition like ours alive.
Alice: Why would you want to exclude anybody on the basis of who they are? Anybody who loves the music and wants to play it should be able to. If they are judged, it should be on ability, taste, etc. and all the things that musicians are generally judged on.
Tray: To me the importance of making sure all people are included is a necessity in all walks of life not just Bluegrass. Being a music influenced by people from all different genders, races, and ethnicities, it would be “anti-bluegrass” to not include all people and make them feel welcome. It hurts the industry immensely when diversity is not welcome, because not only does it discourage the musician but also the fans that are of different backgrounds that might come to see and hear these diverse groups. This limits a worthy artist’s opportunities and the potential diverse audience they may bring to the event.
How does the traditional definition of bluegrass interface with your vision of who bluegrass includes today?
Michele: Like songs, music genres are not final on the date of creation. They evolve in the hands of those who interpret and play them—in the context of culture. Bluegrass was identified as a genre in a time when the music industry’s record label system was actively segregating Country music from “race records” (which would become R&B), to commercialize both genres. Prior to that construct, stringband music was made by people of many walks, together; community-made, not defined by marketing. In the wake of Country and Rhythm & Blues being forced apart, Bluegrass emerged, taking its own route. It was born with a spirit of independence and good-naturedness—and became a community. Like all things, it bore societal elements we now see are problematic and seek to correct. Sexism, racism, homophobia and other forms of prejudice were pervasive. Bluegrass has a tremendous opportunity to accept these truths and course correct.
Sarika: Before my daughter (Uma Peters) saw Rhiannon Giddens playing the banjo, she thought the only banjo players were white men. It has been amazing to see the growth and increasing diversity in the music in certain spaces. There is an entire generation of diverse musicians who are helping with the growth and progression of the genre.
Justin: True traditionalist bluegrass is actually more inclusive than today’s constructed ideas and narratives around traditional bluegrass would suggest. Even if you did go back, all the way to the very beginning, before even Bill Monroe had named his Blue Grass Boys, you would find the music being made in that day that felt like bluegrass – old-time, country, down home blues, and string band music, all mixed into that American melting pot—you would find it categorically representative, made by folks of all walks of life, identity, and background. Because that’s how vernacular musics are made.
Philip: Bluegrass has been both a musical style AND a cultural practice. The cultural practice has been entwined with a lot of very hetero-white exclusive feeling spaces, mostly not deliberately so, but still with that feeling and effect for more marginalized people. It is perfectly possible to disentangle the musical form and many of the essential parts of the cultural practice (jam circles) from any exclusivity that doesn’t have to do with the music.
What do you feel the most important next step is for the bluegrass community regarding DEI?
Patrice: Twenty years ago, you had to work hard to make sure women were a part of a festival line up. Then people started paying attention and making space. I think it’s safe to say it is far easier to “find” women in bluegrass today. When young girls started seeing someone who looked like them on the big stage, it became ok to aspire to that. And they did and now there’s a passel of them onstage. The first step is simply noticing that something or someone is missing. Then you make space fort them.
Anni: Recruitment! We must actively seek out people, particularly children, and begin bluegrass groups. Create a register of bands and individuals that reflects DEI. Get this register out to promoters. As our trade organization, IBMA needs to set the example. Get it on the main stages, like “Shout and Shine.” Promote through pictures. Put people of color in the promotions that go out for anything. Magazines need to do stories and photos on people of color. Create a unified statement on DEI that can go to all bluegrass organizations and promoters and ask that they commit to making an effort for DEI.
Sarika: Many people still have a traditional notion of what/who bluegrass includes. This is perpetuated to some extent by certain festivals, contests, venues, and a broader “public-facing” image of the genre. Spreading the message that bluegrass welcomes a diversity of people is an important next step, as is spreading that the actual history of the genre is more diverse and consists of an amalgam of musical styles that many might not be aware of.
Ben: To have more people of all “makes, models and tribes” involved in every way imaginable—songwriting, recording, performing, activation in the industry in all manners. Encouraging active membership of IBMA, engaging with others in the organization, voting for awards, serving on committees, committing to the furtherance of the genre through every portal.
Philip: The next step is to move beyond statements of good intentions to setting concrete goals: I think it’s high time for IBMA, for instance, to set gender parity goals for the programming at WOB and the Awards Show, establish a timetable and move towards it. I think they should require affiliated festivals to do the same, and to provide public DEI plans with goals for training and diversifying their own staff, management, and volunteers.
Paul: Advancing this priority within the bluegrass community with connection, education, collaboration, and empathy so those who may not have fully explored the various perspectives on inclusion issues do not feel ridiculed, shamed or pushed away for coming to discussions with feelings that may be different. Those emotional reactions often create even stronger barriers to overcome. Part of that is reducing the fear some people have that they are going to somehow lose the music and community they love. In actuality, it is not a zero-sum game of substitution. It is additive. It is growth. And, a lot of people would be surprised by the common threads and interests that exist.
What’s on YOUR mind about DEI in Bluegrass?
Justin: Diversity, equity, and inclusion in bluegrass isn’t optional for someone like me, because my identity already runs counter to many central (if not stereotypical) ideas around what bluegrass is and who “owns” it. My entire participation in this community is informed by my identity as a disabled, gay, queer banjo player. I’ve always had representation and equity in mind as I’ve interacted with this music – I began playing at age seven – so I know that it can be done. You can strive for a just world, especially in bluegrass, while still making and loving bluegrass music largely unencumbered by these big picture, existential questions. And often, you’ll find, the music actually benefits from having such mission-minded questions asked of and about it.
Tray: People often ask me how we get more diversity in music, and the answer is to first show people that it is a diverse form of music, and they will be welcomed no matter what. As a rare black bluegrass banjo player, I was welcomed into the music first by my grandfather, who introduced me to bluegrass, and then by my first longtime band, Cane Mill Road. As I now branch out on my own, and as a recent Mountain Home Records artist, I hope that I can serve as both a mentor and a role model to anyone that wants to engage in the bluegrass community.
Philip: Working as a supporting business to the community and the bluegrass marketplace, I am trying to find ways to influence our partners, such as festivals that come to us for sponsorships, to develop their own DEI plans and set concrete goals for inclusiveness in programming, in management, in staffing, and in the other vendors they work with. I want to do more work to network with other companies like ours to encourage them to do the same. Concretely, whenever I’m dealing with any organization, event, or even artist in bluegrass, I wonder whether all my employees, several of whom are trans and non-binary, would feel welcome at their shows, where the microphones that they built are being used.
Michele: If we commit to dialogue, we will be stronger. If we listen to and respect one another as neighbors, who have equal status and own our bluegrass community together, we will thrive.
Back to the writer, Cathy Fink:
The common threads around these discussions and responses are in synch with so much going on in the world around us. Bluegrass is certainly not the only genre of music reckoning with its past, present and future. From an emotional point of view, we all want to engage in one way or another with the music that speaks to us. And as fans, friends, presenters, booking agents, equipment manufacturers, stagehands, organizations, we must all play a part in opening the doors and keeping them open. As businesses, we know that the more people we engage, the more economically viable we are. There are win-wins everywhere.
If you want to dig in more, please check out these active resources:
IBMA’s DEI Task Force
ibma.org/about/dei-task-force
Bluegrass Pride
bluegrasspride.net/)
The Handsome Ladies
thehandsomeladies.org
Mission: “We support and encourage women bluegrassers of all levels, promoting the advancement of the individual musician within an inspired and connected community.”
Decolonizing the Music Room (https://decolonizingthemusicroom.com) uses research, training, and discourse to help music educators develop critical practices and center BBIA (Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian) voices, knowledge, and experiences in order to challenge the historical dominance of white Western European and American music, narratives, and practices.
I hope we have entered a time when we can embrace the heritage, history and future of bluegrass music without endangering the legacy of when this music took its name under the banner of Bill Monroe. All living traditions morph and mutate. Once upon a time a folksinger was not a songwriter. They sang ballads passed down to them knee-to-knee, word-for-word. Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger helped us see the light on that one, paving the way for a merging of tradition and necessity with large doses of artistic freedom. They borrowed from the past and wrote a new future. Once upon a time, old time music did not accentuate the off-beat with a driving mandolin and a soaring high tenor harmony. And once upon a time, a bluegrass band would not have sung a Bob Dylan song. I invite you to join me in embracing Ben Surratt’s statement regarding the greater bluegrass community, “We don’t just welcome you here, we want you here.” You love this music, come on in. While you’re at it, feel free to open the door for someone else.
Cathy Fink is half of the GRAMMY Award winning duo, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer. She is a master clawhammer banjo player and instructor, songwriter, producer, engineer and social music conductor.
