ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 6, 1996 TAG: 9604090051
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEITH LAWRENCE KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
The black roots of bluegrass run deep. But despite their historic contributions, African Americans have virtually disappeared from the bluegrass community.
Dan Hays, executive director of the 2,500-member International Bluegrass Music Association, says he's never met an African American who plays bluegrass professionally.
And black fans are rarely found at the IBMA's September trade show and Fan Fest, a weeklong gathering in Owensboro, Ky.
``I have seen minorities at different events across the country, especially when there are other types of music,'' Hays said. ``And especially when they combine blues and bluegrass. Blues has definitely been a major influence on bluegrass.''
But bluegrass' inability to attract black fans may be changing.
Simmons Market Research's ``Survey of the American Household'' estimates that 244,000 African Americans bought bluegrass records last year.
That's 5.32 percent of the total 4.2 million sold, the survey reported.
``I'm not totally surprised,'' Hays said. ``Of course, there's always a question of what a person considers bluegrass.''
Alison Krauss has shipped more than 2 million copies of her latest album, ``Now That I've Found You: A Collection.'' And her appeal crosses a lot of barriers, Hays said.
Bluegrass as a genre is only roughly 50 years old. And the styles that influenced it came from both the black and white communities.
April 14 marks the 65th anniversary of the death of Arnold Shultz, a black Ohio County, Ky., fiddler and guitar player, who many music historians consider the ``godfather of bluegrass.''
``He put the blues in bluegrass,'' says Hugh Duke, who grew up in Ohio County, listening to Shultz at the same time as a young Bill Monroe. Monroe is considered the ``father of bluegrass.''
Shultz began playing with his family band before 1910. By 1928, he was working with banjo player Clarence Wilson and fiddler Pendleton Vandiver - Monroe's ``Uncle Pen.''
``A lot of today's most popular bands - the Nashville Bluegrass Band, Del McCoury, Tim O'Brien - harken straight back to the blues of that era and the contributions of black musicians like Arnold Shultz,'' Hays said at the 1994 dedication of a monument to Shultz in the Morgantown, Ky., cemetery where he lies in an unmarked grave.
Bluegrass has been slow in recognizing its debt to African-American music, Hays said.
When the Fairfield Four, a black gospel group, performed at the International Bluegrass Music Awards show in Owensboro in 1992, ``People were saying, `Thank God, we're finally acknowledging it,''' Hays said.
That year, Dan Mazer of Antioch, Tenn., reminded an IBMA forum, ``We need to get into the inner cities. We need to be proud of the African influences in bluegrass.''
And in a keynote speech to last year's IBMA gathering, Ron Thomason, founder of the Ohio-based Dry Branch Fire Squad, told the crowd to look around.
``We're pretty lily white,'' he said. ``There are a lot of women here today. And that's good because they fought hard to get here. But we have some bigotry we have to get over.''
Rounder recording artist Bill Evans of Owensboro is writing the dissertation for his doctorate in ethnomusicology at the University of California at Berkeley. His topic is ``Five-String Banjo Performance Styles in the Southern United States circa 1860 to 1946.''
The banjo, Evans said, is an African-American instrument that virtually disappeared from black communities in the mid-20th century.
In the early years of the century, Evans said, ``Blues, jazz and gospel began to center in the African-American community and banjos began appearing in rural communities. As recently as five years ago, there were just a handful of African Americans who still performed traditional music. But there have been a few in recent years who have discovered banjo music in their families and are taking it up again.''
``I have seen some African-American banjo players at the Tennessee Banjo Institute,'' Hays said. ``And there are a good number of black bass players who can play bluegrass. But I'm not aware of any who do it professionally.''
If there are any African-American bluegrass musicians, Hays would like to hear from them. He can be reached at IBMA, 207 E. Second St., Owensboro, Ky. 42303. Or call (502) 684-9025.
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