Bluegrass, ‘the high lonesome sound,’ to fill Vacaville Museum
Somewhere between traditional blues and country is bluegrass, the Southern string band music with its hallmarks of bluesy harmonies, rapid tempos, coupled with high-pitched vocal and instrumental sounds.
In the 1940s, Bill Monroe, one of its inventors, called it “the high lonesome sound.”
That sound will be heard Friday night in the Vacaville Museum, where the Music in the Museum series continues with a local bluegrass ensemble, Matt & George and Their Pleasant Valley Boys (spoiler alert: not all of them are boys).
During a brief telephone interview Tuesday, mandolin player Matt Dudman said the appeal of bluegrass is its all-American authenticity.
“I guess, off the top of my head, it's the purity of acoustic music in general and creating something really beautiful,” said Dudman, 56, of Dixon, a recording engineer.
“We play acoustic instruments and sing,” he added. “It's real American music. It was invented here in America.”
The ensemble, which performs using a single microphone, the traditional way, has been together for 18 years, said Dudman, who teaches sound recording at Solano Community College.
Other members include George Goodell, 69, of Davis, on banjo; Jenny Lynn Williams, 45, Dudman's wife, on guitar; Mark “Cousin Rainwater” Eagleton, 50, of Woodland, on bass; and — “Helping us out” for the Friday show, said Dudman — Shane Kalbach, of Stockton, on fiddle. And everyone shares the vocal chores.
Explaining how Eagleton received his moniker, he said, “It was a combination of famous bluegrass bass players' names.”
Dudman and the others entertain for weddings, corporate events and parties all over Northern California, including regular appearances at the Dixon Lambtown Festival and the Father's Day Festival in Grass Valley.
The Pleasant Valley Boys also have performed on the ABC affiliate KXTV in Sacramento, at the International Bluegrass Music Association “Fan Fest” in Kentucky, on Louisiana's Abita Opry, and at the International Bluegrass Music Museum's River of Music Party in Kentucky. They've even taken bluegrass abroad to France and Vietnam.
Well, Dudman taught business classes in Haiphong, in the northern part of Vietnam, while there with wife Jenny, and, of course, played music, he said.
At the group's website, at www.pleasantvalleyboys. com, a YouTube video provides a glimpse into the band's instrumental and vocal styles in performances of four gospel tunes: “A Voice From On High,” “To a Cross on a Lonely Dark Hill,” “You Can Feel It In Your Soul,” and “I'm Traveling On and On.”
In a press statement, Sarah Olsen-Menon, the director of the Buck Avenue museum, a center for Solano County history, praised the group's abilities, adding that the audience can expect “a fast-paced, entertaining music show” unequaled in the greater Solano area.
“Their passion for bluegrass music aligns perfectly with our commitment to celebrating cultural heritage and artistic expression,” she said.
The concert is part of the museum's ongoing efforts to foster community engagement and appreciation for the arts, said Olsen-Menon. Before and after the show, attendees will have a chance to enjoy the museum's exhibits and explore the history of Solano County, she added in the prepared statement.
By all accounts, including Olsen-Menon's, the evening will be filled with skilled musicianship, close harmonies and engaging arrangments of bluegrass.
And like all bluegrass and the so-called “mountain music” of Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys, the sounds of Matt & George and Their Pleasant Valley Boys defy all things modern and high-tech and have absolutely nothing to do with our 21st-century throwaway culture.
IF YOU GO
What: Music in the Museum series
With: Matt & George and Their Pleasant Valley Boys
When: 7p.m. Friday
Where: Vacaville Museum, 213 Buck Ave.
Tickets: $35
Online: www.vacavillemuseum.org
Telephone: (707) 447-4513