Why did St Patrick not play 'Foggy Mountain breakdown'?

Thanks to Colin Henry (left), who opens this subject for discussion:

Our editor’s recent St Patrick’s Day interview with Chris Stuart on Bluegrass Today got me thinking about the relationship of Irish traditional music and Irish bluegrass music. One sentence by our editor struck a chord: 'it is not usual to hear the two [trad & bluegrass] played at the same event.' Well, the chord struck must have been a seventh, because it led me on to thinking of one regret I have, which is that there is not more of a crossover/collaboration with Irish trad, particularly at sessions. The similarities between the two musical genres are obvious. Bluegrass has one or more of its roots in Irish trad, as is well documented. Both have the fiddle, guitar, and mandolin as standard instruments. The banjo is there too, albeit one is a four and one a five. Many tunes are common to both ('Red-haired boy'/'Jolly beggarman'). Why then do we not manage to play together much more often?

There are, I think a number of reasons for this, and I might look at some of these in another post; but one of the possible causes of the problem is that bluegrass players cannot/do not play trad well, and vice versa (with some limited and gifted exceptions); and so when you have both genres represented in (say) a session, each tends to play their own tunes, with the other not really able to participate. The instrument and the skill needed to play it in a particular style are an important factor in this. Both styles require a very high degree of ability to play well and thus a great deal of practice in that genre is required, leaving very little time to gain a skill in the other. I can speak with authority only in my own chosen instrument; so on a dobro, for instance, Irish music does not fall as naturally as on, say, a fiddle. To play jigs and reels on a dobro is a difficult thing to do well, and in the main each tune needs to be worked out rather than played on the fly. All of this takes a lot of practice time, which is not readily available after honing my skills on 'Fireball Mail' et al.

My experience is that bluegrass musicians like trad and trad musicians like bluegrass, so it’s not a rejection of the other’s music. It must therefore be something else and playing skill may be a major factor. Just a thought, and maybe food for some further thoughts. Comments welcome.

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