Rhythm & Roots: Are YOUR Roots Showing?

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Roots.
Drive down State Street. Past Tim White’s country music mural on the right, the old Cameo Theatre on the left, the Paramount on the right and so on.
Just think. The Carter Family, Pop Stoneman, Jimmie Rodgers – they all drove along, walked about and recorded here and thus exploded what author Nolan Porterfield termed “the big bang of country music.”
Roots.
“The roots can’t be any deeper than what Bristol has,” said Darrell Scott, who will perform on Sept. 18-19 during the three-day 9th Annual Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion, which begins tomorrow.
Now, let’s look into yesterday for the varied roots of some of those who will perform.
“Roots are the beginning,” said Jamie Dailey of bluegrass duo Dailey and Vincent, by phone recently from Nashville, Tenn. “It’s Bill Monroe and The Stanley Brothers, Jim and Jesse, the Wilburn Brothers. They cut a path in their day, and it’s what helps us along today.”
“Us” meaning bluegrass musicians.
But there’s more to Rhythm & Roots than bluegrass. Take Patty Loveless and her two “Mountain Soul” albums. Each volume digs into the roots of her East Kentucky past and summons a sound that to unlearned ears may sound bluegrass. It’s not. Call it mountain music, East Kentucky style.
“Roots, it’s going back and revisiting,” Loveless said.
Yet exploration of roots does not mean that one has to have lived among them to locate and then experience them.
“Today, a lot of kids would like to experience vinyl, so they’re going back,” Loveless said. “I love the popping and cracking of vinyl.”
So does Webb Wilder, who will rock the Roots on Sept. 18.
Sure, Wilder and Loveless appreciate some of the same musicians. However, the Southern Mississippi-born rocker’s influences differ vastly from those of Loveless. His roots are rock. Mostly.
“Everything I do comes from a rock and roll center,” Wilder said by phone from his home in Nashville, Tenn. “I come from the South. But there’s a British Invasion influence on me.”
Look no further than Wilder’s latest album, “More Like Me.”
Midway through rumbles his cover of The Beatles’ “She Said Yeah.” But crack the code of Wilder’s musical recipe, and curious Georges will find more than just John, Paul, George and Ringo therein.
“Oh, The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, The Everly Brothers,” Wilder said. “I love The Faces. Johnny Cash is a huge influence on me.”
How’s that for rhythm and roots?
Fine and dandy, according to Scott.
“Roots are honest,” he said.
The writer of Loveless’ hauntingly beautiful “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” can pen songs of the mountains as well as anyone. But he’s also written tunes recorded by Garth Brooks, played as a session musician for such pop-country acts as Rascal Flatts and get this: some of his roots rock, too.
“I love Little Feat, The Allman Brothers, even The Police,” Scott said by phone from his home in Nashville, Tenn.
Yet listen to his music. As heard on his stellar album from last year, “Modern Hymns,” a slew of sounds influence his well-contoured music.
“I listen to rock and blues and jazz, Southern Baptist hymns,” Scott said. “I listen to it all, and let it absorb into me.”
Darrin Vincent of Dailey and Vincent, who will appear at Rhythm & Roots on Sept. 20, emerged from a musical family that includes his sister Rhonda Vincent. He played in Ricky Skaggs’ band for years.
Vincent loves country music and the Statler Brothers. He’s a Christian who enjoys gospel music. Country and gospel impact his and Dailey’s music, but just as Wilder comes from a rock base, he comes from a bluegrass base.
“Roots is what we feel bluegrass has come from,” Vincent said. “To be a part of that is an honor. The father Bill Monroe is in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Bluegrass Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and we love that. Roots are extremely important.”
Boogie on out to Rhythm & Roots and hear bluegrass. Hear straight country, old-time string band music, blues, folk, rock, gospel and mountain music too.
Much of those sounds will have emerged from litanies of roots. Yet bear in mind a vital-to-music aspect – roots grow.
“Sometimes I’m right in the middle of my roots and sometimes I’m exploring other things,” Scott said. “We are people who need to blaze into new territory, too.”

TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at features@bristolnews.com.