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BILL JORGENSON'S ARCHIVES |
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I have put
together some interesting events and stories from the last 58 years. 1975-1980
Bill Monroe
visits Cozy Cove's
Bill Jorgenson is
inducted into Americas
The first annual Bill
Jorgenson Festive Jam in Egg Harbor 9/9/2000 Bill Plays at The
Regency Suites Hotel's Smok'n Joe's Lounge Bluegrass
Magazine Features AND COMING THIS SUMMER:
Bill
Performing at the 8th Annual Milwaukee Area Bluegrass Festival 4/7/2001
Bluegrass kicks it up a notch for new fans By
Kendra Meinert
Inside Jorgenson’s cozy log home on a country road outside of Sturgeon Bay is a modest testament to their enduring relationship. Walls are strewn with antiques and instruments — dobros, mandolins, guitars, fiddles and banjos. They’re lined up in cases like dominos in a back hallway. “I don’t want to brag,’’ Jorgenson said. “But I can play all of them a little bit.’’ With that, the humble musician the legendary Bill Monroe once called “the father of Wisconsin bluegrass’’ settles into an easy chair and grabs the 1923 mandolin at his feet. “I gotta get picks on,’’ he said, fishing in his trouser pockets. “I’ve never dropped picks yet. That’s a sign of getting old. I can hang on to them pretty good yet.’’ Then come the first strains of “Shackles and Chains,’’ followed by the saddest of lyrics delivered with the sweetest of smiles: “On a long lonesome journey I am goin’. Oh, darlin’, please don’t you cry…’’ Jorgenson could go on for hours and not repeat a song. His bluegrass catalogue, like his network of musician friends, is endless. “Down by the Old Mill Stream,’’ “Rubber Dolly,’’ “Golden Slippers,’’ “Two Little Girls in Blue.’’ “To me, them are some of the best that ever was,’’ he said. “I like antiques, and I like old songs. And they’re better — most ... are better. “What gets me is them kids think they’re beating on a drum and they’re making music. But they never learn the good acoustic songs, and they never will, or how to bend strings and make it sound better. It’s a shame. They’re listening to that rap and hippity music. I’m not saying it’s all bad, but most of it is.’’ Old is new again Jorgenson has known for more than a half-century what some people are just discovering: Bluegrass is where it’s at. Even Rolling Stone has conceded that “hillbilly music is huge.’’ A story in the Aug. 30 issue chronicles “how music as old as the hills became the hot new thing,’’ crediting the resurgence in a genre originated by Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys in 1945 to the success of the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?’’ soundtrack. The CD from Joel and Ethan Coen’s Depression-era movie has sold a surprising 2 million copies. Green Bay is getting in on the trend, too. Aside from annual events such as last weekend’s Bluegrass Bash in Cecil, pickers and grinners like Eddie Biebel and Amazing Grass are popping up at area clubs. Saturday’s first-time Bluegrass & Brews event will feature local musicians like Jorgenson as well as renowned dobroist Josh Graves of Flatt & Scruggs fame and fiddle player Kenny Baker. “Bluegrass is hot right now,’’ said Rob Billings, music coordinator for Bluegrass & Brews. “A lot of younger people don’t know what it is. They hear ‘bluegrass’ and think, ‘I don’t like that.’ “Unfortunately, the TV show ‘Hee Haw’ did a lot of damage. It kind of made it look like everyone was a bunch of hicks, but that’s not really what the music is all about,’’ he said. “We’re hoping that the young people come down and bring their friends.’’ Next generation Nathan Sitzman will be there — both as a fan and a performer. The 23-year-old De Pere native got turned onto bluegrass while living in Colorado. He picked up another band’s mandolin at a jam and asked if he could give it a try. When he moved back to Wisconsin six months ago, he hooked up with Jorgenson (“He’s my buddy,’’ Sitzman said) at a jam and started playing mandolin in Burnt Toast & Jam and Amazing Grass, which includes bluegrass versions of Dave Matthews Band and The Who songs in its sets. “Bluegrass is picking up everywhere. There’s a revival going on,’’ Sitzman said. Touring bands like Leftover Salmon and String Cheese Incident, which appeal to Phish followers, have helped bring bluegrass from the underground to the mainstream, he said. “Bluegrass just incorporates everything I appreciate in music, like dynamics, harmony and musicianship,’’ Sitzman said. “It’s romantic, but it’s powerful music, too. And the history of it; it’s American music.’’ Here to stay Eddie Biebel played in The Brown County Bluegrass Boys and The Back Porch Bluegrass Band during the last bluegrass heyday of the ’70s. He still includes that music in his weekly Wednesday gigs at Gallagher’s Off Broadway. In the ’70s, it was “Foggy Mountain Breakdown’’ from “Bonnie and Clyde,’’ The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Will the Circle Be Unbroken’’ and “Dueling Banjos’’ from “Deliverance’’ that helped bluegrass break out, Biebel said. This time, he thinks the mass-produced, rock-influenced country “weirded out’’ a lot of traditional country fans. “The simplicity and pureness of bluegrass music takes people back to simpler times. And these are pretty crazy times. I think people are looking for that.’’ Biebel said. It doesn’t hurt that bluegrass, with its room for improvisation, is often happy, infectious music. The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia turned a lot of Deadheads onto it, Biebel said. If you scour record stores, you’ll even find albums featuring bluegrass covers of AC/DC and Beatles songs. Jorgenson has seen bluegrass come and go. “Just when it starts to get popular, someone finds a way to knock it down again.’’ But not if he has his way. This spring, Jorgenson packed up some of his instruments and visited 10 area elementary schools to introduce the next generation to the music. “They just feel like jumping around for some reason when they hear it,’’ he said. And that makes him smile. Check out Bill's New Festival at Heritage Farms in Kweaunee, June 11-12-13- 2006 BILL's 75h Birthday Channel 5 WFRV TV TRIBUTE (high speed internet needed) Bill's 75th birthday was December 22, 2005) CLICK HERE
Please see funeral page for final notes....
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