Bluegrass is a genre steeped in tradition, with songs passed down through generations. Women have always been part of that history, but their contributions have often been overlooked as figures like Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers and Tony Rice have stood at the forefront.
Growing up in Michigan with a large extended family, Lindsay Lou learned traditional music at family gatherings.
She later moved to Nashville and found herself in the same neighborhood as Molly Tuttle and fellow Michigander Billy Strings. The three became friends, regularly getting together to jam and help each other write songs.
As Lou learned more about the women who helped shape bluegrass, she set out to bring their contributions into the spotlight with her new album, Lindsay Lou Presents Bluegrass Women.
Bluegrass is communal by nature. It has a long history of artists supporting each other's work and collaborating on stage and in the studio. Bluegrass Women carries on that collaborative tradition. Lou enlisted an impressive roster of contemporary players, including Molly Tuttle, AJ Lee, Laurie Lewis, Tatiana Hargreaves, Courtney Hartman, Sarah Jarosz, Brittany Haas, Aoife O'Donovan and Phoebe Hunt. These are musicians who have helped shape today's acoustic music scene and have been staples on JPR for many years.
With Lou leading the vocals and guiding the highly-skilled ensemble, the group moves through a collection of songs written, co-written or first recorded by women.
One standout is I Only Exist, originally recorded by Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys. The song was written by Stanley's wife, Jimmie, and her friend Joyce Morris. Its account of leaving a troubled relationship makes you wonder if it's based on personal experience: “When your roaming and rambling days are through, you'll pray for a love like I had for you.” Lou is joined on the track by Bronwyn Keith-Hynes and Wila Frank, whose fiddles play off each other in syncopated lines, alongside AJ Lee on mandolin and Courtney Hartman on guitar.
The album is accompanied by a four-part mini-documentary on YouTube, which offers a glimpse into the recording sessions and Lou's thinking behind the project. In the series, she describes bluegrass as a meeting of traditional Appalachian music and Southern blues — a reminder of the genre's interconnected roots.
A good example is CC Rider, a blues standard recorded by Gertrude “Ma” Rainey in 1924. The song has since been interpreted across a range of genres, but on Bluegrass Women, Lou and the ensemble return to its blues foundation. Her rich lower-register vocals weave their way over banjo, dobro, acoustic guitar and mandolin, giving it a traditional bluegrass vibe.
Bluegrass Women is a lesson in the tradition of bluegrass. It's also a great collection of classic tunes featuring gorgeous harmonies and some of the best acoustic pickers in the business.
We'll be exploring Bluegrass Women on The Folk Show, Sundays 6-9pm, and Open Air, weekdays 9am-3pm, on JPR's Rhythm and News Service.
