Gillette News Record:
Planting Bluegrass Seeds by Michael DiBiasio, February 9, 2011
mdibiasio@gillettenewsrecord.net
The bluegrass group Bearfoot was serving up something special to Lakeview Elementary fifth- and sixth-graders before lunch Wednesday: a nice helping of breakneck bluegrass standards, originals and even a side of music education.
The quintet — mostly from Anchorage, Alaska — filled the tiny gym with their own medley of fiddle, guitar, bass and mandolin to see if they couldn’t get the students to stomp along and feel the music’s driving rhythm.
“Remember this name,” mandolin player Jason Norris said and then added: “Bill Monroe.”
And then the band was off, burning through a cover of “Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms.”
“This is the most engaged my sixth-graders have been in a long time,” said Lakeview music teacher Elin Mayo, as the song rose high into the gym’s ceiling.
When the music had quieted, the band ran down the line giving a little history of their instruments.
Norris explained the evolution of the mandolin — “or ‘man-lin’ as they say in the South” —and its picking styles. Bassist PJ George showed the students how he could pick, slap and even play the bass with a bow.
But guitarist Nora Jane Struthers had a different instrument to demo: the body.
“Your voice is an instrument and so are your feet,” she said, “Guess what happens when people play music? Other people want to dance.”
She kicked off her shoes and slipped into some heels.
“This is called flat-foot dancing,” Struthers said, as Norris and fiddle player Angela Oudean jumped into a rendition of “Little Rabbit.”
Struthers’ feet flew across the floor, stomping, clicking and dragging her heels to the music.
“It’s kind of silly, right?” she asked the kids.
The band also explained the half beat, or “boom chop,” of bluegrass music by dividing the gym in two halves: one half tapping their feet and the other half echoing the beat by clapping.
It wasn’t quite a barn party in the gym, but as long as the kids were listening and tapping along, the band was happy.
“These kids might be at the age where they’re too stubborn to admit they like bluegrass, but at least we planted some positive seeds today,” Norris said.
