Music, and especially bluegrass has always been a large part of my life, and the music that we made here is very special to me. These are pictures (photos by Amy Weinstein) from the Borders Bluegrass jam that took place “each and ev’ry Monday night” until May 5, 2008 at the Longmont location of Borders Bookstore. This now takes place at La Vita Bella Coffeeshop on each Saturday morning beginning at 10:30 AM and FM (Ol’ Roadhog was just kiddin there — part of bein’ in show biz!). We are a rotating cast of approximately eight musicians playing because we love to play. On any Saturday morning, a subset of the group shows up. We sometimes draw from a common pool of bluegrass music, but what happens is much like a musical conversation in that it unfolds without rehearsal. Often we are playing a song for the first time, and rely on the context of what is unfolding around us to create music on the fly. We play in a circle because we rely heavily on hearing each other and visual cues about what is happening with the music at any time.
A more common occurrence is that of a bluegrass “pick”, where all levels are invited. The situation at La Vita Bella’s is, by choice, more controlled. At the beginning, we used the metaphor of a musical “Pot Luck”, in that we never knew exactly who would show up on a particular evening and what each would “bring to the table”. As we have continued, we have a mix of a regular repertoire and songs we are doing for the first time. For me, it is always exciting because it is always spontaneous.
Read more about what music is to me . . .