LET’S ROLL: Ask Dr. . Due to scheduling complications, we couldn’t record at the same time. Bryan and Tim O’Brien laid down the , Hot Rize for Public Consumption , and vocal parts in Nashville, then Nick Forster and I added bass and am lucky to have had some neat We were all pleased with the way they banjo in Boulder. This is not my favorite opportunities in music these days. came out, and one, the Norman Blake song way to record, though it can get convincing Along with three banjo camps and six Church Street has started climbing results. Hot Rize is a band in which the Ior seven jam camps a year, I’ve gotten to the national bluegrass chart. whole is greater than the sum of the parts, perform with a number of cool groups in a The recording process was a first for and the synergy is hopefully part of what variety of places (Ryman Auditorium gets recorded. and Carnegie Hall in just the last One great advantage though, was week, yow!). Lately, I even did some that I had an unpressured recording recording for a “real record label”— situation with just an engineer in a that endangered species that manages small home studio, and the freedom to to hang on despite the current plight take whatever time necessary to get the of the record business. desired result. Brand new on Another factor in this recording was are two cuts by Hot Rize, part of the rarity of the opportunity, Hot Rize’s ’s splendid album first recording of the millennium (wow, “Almost Live.” These are the band’s just that word sounds momentous), and first studio recordings since 1990, our first ever with Bryan, who’s played and the cuts are two numbers we’d eight years with us now. Because Hot never played until Bryan asked us to. Hot Rize (Pete Wernick, Tim O’Brien, Nick Rize had and has a lot of fans, I imagined Forster, Bryan Sutton) Photo by Tim Timberlake our cuts would be listened to closely, so I resolved to do my part not just passably, but ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ D G ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ A D ^^^^^^^^^^

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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Tuning: aDGBD, capo 2nd fret (5th string to B). Key of E. Tab by Brian Ford Rzzzzzzzzzzzzz4zzzzz4zzzWRzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzW D Tzzz3zzzzz3zzzHzzzzzHzzzUTzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzU By Norman Blake, as performed by Pete Wernick with Hot Rize TzzzHzzzzzHzzzHz2zzzHzzzUTzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzU TzzzHzzzzzHzzzHzHz4zHzzzUTzzzz0zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzU on Bryan Sutton’s “Almost Live” release on Sugar Hill Records. SzzzHzzz0zHzzzHzHzHzHzzzVSzzzzHzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzV ^^^^Q^^^I[J^^^I[K[K[J^^^^^^^^^Q^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Visit Pete at www.DrBanjo.com blues. to give the listener my best, and something The IBMA Awards Show their classic Old Home Place. new. At this writing, the show is a very special The one Hot Rize number we got to do Church Street Blues is a medium and very recent memory. By the time you was a band standard Untold Stories, selected tempo song in E. It’s a wry portrayal of a read it, you may have heard it on one of because our co-host, , just broke musician in Nashville: “Get myself the 300 radio outlets, including Sirius XM happened to have a major country hit with a rockin’ chair and see if I can lose, these Radio. Just guessing, but it might have it a few years after our bluegrass-scale hit. thin dimes hard times, hell on Church been the most-heard bluegrass broadcast Only one little problem. We do it in F and Street Blues.” When tackling a new song, in history. It was certainly exciting to be she does it in A. I always ponder the feeling it gives off, to a co-host and play three songs with Hot A modulation from F to A would be guide my musical contribution. This song Rize, especially backing the two Hall of pretty weird. We decided to lower our has a nice understated lilt, a country boy Fame inductees, the Dillards and the three section by a half step, F down to E. Now down on his luck but with a wink in his surviving members of the Lonesome Pine the modulation would be a pretty common eye. Fiddlers: Bobby Osborne, Melvin Goins one, E to A… right in the middle of the The first job as always: scope out the and Paul Williams. Yes, it’s on YouTube. first full break! It’s the one I start, and then chords and melody. The song does not I take some pleasure in having been the instant I’m done with a big E note, call for any big flourishes. I decided to the one to dream of having these two Bryan jumps in in the key of A. Kathy just play the tune, with maybe a few nice groups perform at the show, despite the sings, the harmony is now a trio with Nick subtleties to personalize it a bit. As I often longstanding tradition that Hall of Fame singing the third part, and we finish in A. It explain the process to my banjo campers, I members don’t play on the night they’re sounds good and is easy enough to say, but start by trying every way I can to play the inducted. I guessed (correctly it turned for me there’s a block when altering a Hot melody, in hopes of finding some sounds I out) that all the inductees would be glad to Rize song so dramatically. I’ve probably especially like. The chords change pretty participate. They are lifelong performers, played Untold Stories 500 or so times. And fast, and I found that trying to finger all of after all! In particular, the Lonesome so I probably put in about three hours of them as they whizzed by was constricting. Pine guys are all (though in their 70s) in practice over two days just on that song, to After much experimentation I wound top form, and showed us some inspired make sure to undo some of my muscle and up deciding that the other instruments singing, each taking a verse of Pain in sonic memory of how the song goes. would take care of the chords and I would My Heart and nailing the trio besides. And the happy ending is: I did fine. So play the melody mostly in a sort of raga- What an honor to play behind those guys! glad to represent us banjo players in some style, moving up and down the 2nd string Backstage I suggested to Bobby and Paul fashion on the year’s most listened-to at first and then on the 4th string, with that they try to twin a solo on harmony bluegrass program, heard worldwide! compatible tones on the 1st and 5th strings , and they obliged with a very Thanks to Brian Ford for the tab of droning away in a smooth even roll. With tuneful duet. Being on stage with the four Church Street Blues. the capo on the 2nd fret and 5th string tuned original Dillards (whom I first saw in up to B, I had the root note of the key (E) 1964) was also a special moment, singing Visit Pete at www.DrBanjo.com and also the fifth scale note (B) sounding throughout, if I kept hitting the 1st and the 5th string. It’s interesting that in G tuning, the root note and the fifth are also heard as drones a lot, on those same two strings— but in G, the root note is on the 5th (G) and the fifth (D) is on the 1st string, the reverse of how it is in the D format. A great challenge, with payoff as “listenability,” is to phrase the melody just the same as a singer would sing it. That means putting the melody notes in very certain places, and filling the spaces between with good sounding notes that allow a smooth roll. With enough trial and error, and using the index for melody notes, it worked out. To me this level of detail is the gold standard of creating banjo breaks. We always have the choice to approximate the melody and not worry about every note and its placement. But the “playing the words” tradition championed by my heroes and John Hartford keeps the bar high, and I don’t want to slack on the gold standard.