Because it’s a family-like society with common history and reference points, bluegrass is full of inside jokes. One endlessly shared laugh among insiders stems from Bill Monroe’s reputed, reported, oft-skewed and probably true quote about music he deemed outside the bluegrass ken: “ain’t no part of nothin’.” The irony is that while we adore our founding father’s iron will and acerbic way of putting things, most of us recognize that the music he formulated invites change and that even if Mr. Monroe would not like much of the great music being made in his shadow today, that’s okay.

Folks, we’ve been schooled. Five artists with ties to Nashville’s Belmont University played the Loveless Barn Wed night and showed our audience how its done, from joyful neo-traditional to barn-burning rock, with stagecraft, songwriting and instrumental chops to spare. Two of the bands already have national buzz and stature. One’s opening doors overseas. Two are on the make with bright prospects. What are they teaching those kids over there? 

We love them so much we had two “parades” at the Loveless Barn last night, worked into a larger parade of talented and diverse artists who once again lit up the place with joy, blues, passion and pathos. The David Mayfield Parade opened the show with surprises, laughs and shocking energy. Miss Tess and the Bon Ton Parade returned to Roots for a third time, showing remarkable growth and evolution. And our other (non-marching) bands were no less worthy of the crowd’s love and attention, which they gave in abundance. We didn’t have giant balloon floats, but we did have spectacle.

I love an epic. My favorite movies are Lawrence of Arabia and Lord of the Rings, clocking in a 3.5 hours and 10 hours respectively. I love it when a good ballgame goes into extra innings. And I’ve always admired Bruce Springsteen for his luxuriously long shows.

To launch this new season and new year, I started a new tradition yesterday at Roots. We set up a small studio at the Loveless Café during the day, and I interviewed some of our artists after sound check. They’re hanging around before the show and we’ve felt like the five minutes on stage just isn’t enough. So I’m excited to have more time to really figure these folks out, and  we’ll begin sharing these longer conversations soon. Yesterday I spoke with singer/songwriter Julie Gribble and modern-day blues man David Jacobs-Strain.

A barn in the country. Twinkly lights and little trees. What more could you want for a Christmas show? It was not a snowy night (in fact it was mercifully mild). But in every other respect, the scene at the Loveless was Currier & Ives in a headlock by Norman Rockwell. All for our final show of the season, a friendly two hours co-hosted by country duo Joey & Rory. 

They say that when two voices lock together in perfect harmony, there’s a mystery sound like a third voice. So how many extra voices are there when three people sing together? It sounded like a chorus of angels more than a few times yesterday at Roots, a cold Wednesday night when it seems fate brought us more three-part harmony than I would have thought possible on one show. Four out of five acts built their sound around three voices or achieved their climaxes with focused, beautiful vox humana in trio form.

It was a real treat watching Malcolm Holcombe’s set standing next to Matraca Berg last night. Like so many folks in the audience, not to mention your correspondent, she was transfixed by his intensity and emotional depth. She said something to the effect that she couldn’t believe she had to go on after him. I said really, that’ll be no problem. And of course she went up there and conjured up just as much magic, albeit of a different color and temperament. 

I wasn’t able to get any writing done on Thanksgiving morning, with family arriving and a big meal to prepare, so I’m reviewing this year’s big holiday Music City Roots from a couple of days’ distance. And that works, because over the last three years, the Thanksgiving Eve show has become a warm and emotional extension of my favorite holiday – the one with family and food but without the shopping mall pressure. Music has not traditionally had a big role to play in Thanksgiving, but maybe we’re changing that in some small way by starting a few traditions of our own.

My wife says I hyperbolize and that I’m ALWAYS coming home from Roots proclaiming it the BEST SHOW EVER, which isn’t really true, but yes I do tend to gush. But she and the rest of the family were there last night so they know what transpired. I’ll never declare any show best ever again, because it’s silly, but I can say confidently that we’ve had no show in our two-plus years that better captured our interwoven loves and passions: Nashville’s legacy, our community and music itself. The Red Beet Records Tom T.