Bluegrass religion

I don't believe I've said much in this blog about my interest in bluegrass music. I enjoy trying to play the five-string banjo, and I have great admiration for the musicality of the outstanding pros and amateurs in the bluegrass world. Arising mainly from life in the rural southeastern region of the US, bluegrass is actually an amalgam of many musical traditions, including Appalachian folk music -- and its antecedent Scotch-Irish ballads and tunes -- plus old-time "hillbilly" country music.

Another significant influence comes from southern gospel music of the Stamps-Baxter quartet and "Heavenly Highways" songbook variety. It's not uncommon at bluegrass festivals and jams to hear gospel songs like "I'll Fly Away," "Old Time Religion," "Father Along" and others mixed in with the foot-stomping breakdowns, fiddle tunes, and rowdy drinking songs. This causes me to think about the spiritual values that seem to be connected to the bluegrass genre to some degree.

‘Bluegrass religion’ is generally reflective of a somewhat generic American religion in the south. It mixes patriotism, ‘family values,’ and traditional concepts of sin and salvation. And like that cultural religious leaning, it also has its blind spots. There is a decided preference for the 'old fashioned church' in bluegrass gospel, and the image usually conjured is that of a small rural congregation where singin’ and shoutin’ are customary, and it’s typically not far to ‘the river.’ The notion of a heavenly reunion with departed parents or other loved ones is used either as a way of showing one’s love and admiration for them, or as an exhortation to the sinner to mend his ways lest he not be present for the rejoicing. Life is regarded as a ‘journey.’ People are often seen as wanderers, wayfarers, pilgrims, orphans -- and thus to be pitied and cared for – or rakes, laggards, drunks, and ne’er-do-wells – thus in need of redemption. The journey has a heavenly destination (one hopes!), typically referenced as ‘home.’ En route, there is the inevitable 'valley' through which one must pass, and ‘no one can walk that lonesome valley for you.’ A pristine childhood, recalled in such a symbol as a ‘cabin on the hill,’ will be recaptured someday in a land of forever, where ‘no one will be a rank stranger to me.’

Individualized salvation available through Christ, imminent mortality/judgment, lost youth/innocence, nostalgic idealization of family, hope in tough times, unrelieved travail and toil in this life, worldly temptations leading to destruction, the offer of divine forgiveness and mercy ‘before it’s too late’ – all these topics jostle along the syncopated melodies of bluegrass music. Knowing that ‘time is filled with swift transition,’ the singer/listener is urged to ‘hold to God’s unchanging hand.’ The theological dynamics of the lyrics may be expressed in rather prosaic ways, yet there is in the music a profound sense of being in touch with the strivings of the human spirit, and the succor that genuine faith affords. In a sense, the bluegrass high note soars from the soul of the “least of these.” It voices a solidarity with the weak and downtrodden, a desperate appeal to the wayward, a promise of release to the captive [‘Like a bird from these prison walls I’ll fly, I’ll fly away!’].

Bluegrass gospel music may not be sophisticated lyrically, musically or theologically. But it sings of a spiritual dimension in the human experience which is often thought-provoking, haunting, even compelling.