Bluegrass initiative brings regional genre to UNC

Bluegrass music will now have a formal presence on campus with the creation of the Bluegrass Initiative. 

Led by Jocelyn Neal, professor in the music department, the Bluegrass Initiative includes a course on the genre and a new bluegrass ensemble — the Carolina Bluegrass Band. 

Neal, who has previously taught courses on the history of country music and American popular music at UNC, taught a pilot course on the history of bluegrass music in spring 2015. This semester she created the course MUSC 294: Bluegrass Music, Culture and History. 

Neal said she started this initiative to build on UNC’s incredibly diverse group of musical ensembles, and to give bluegrass music and bluegrass musicians formal recognition at UNC.

“If you were a banjo player, there wasn’t a place for you in the music department formally,” Neal said.

She said she also wants to incorporate the rich history and research of the genre that is already on campus. Other colleges and universities across the country have bluegrass ensembles, but UNC's program is different with the combination of research, history and performance.

“The initiative is bringing together all of the pieces of the University that are already addressing bluegrass in phenomenal ways,” Neal said.

In July, she hired a local professional bluegrass musician, Russell Johnson, to direct the Carolina Bluegrass Band. 

“He has a wealth of musical maturity that is going to translate into a great musical experience for our students,” Neal said.

Johnson, a member of three different bluegrass bands — New Vintage, Grass Cats and Diamond Creek — has performed bluegrass across the country as well as recorded chart-topping bluegrass music for 27 years. 

Johnson, who graduated from UNC in 1985, said he was honored to be hired by Neal to direct the band.

He said the band currently consists of 14 students and is only in its fourth week of rehearsals. The students all have different levels of musical and bluegrass experience, but he said the band is making big strides and the students are fulfilling the hopes he has for the band.

“I want the students to enjoy performing, enjoy having learned the music, enjoy the history of the music and see how a bluegrass band is put together," Johnson said. "I want them to be confident in performing as an ensemble, and I think we’re going to do that. We have so much talent.”

Maddie Fisher and Andrew McClenney are both students in the band. 

Fisher, a junior double major in environmental studies and music, plays mandolin for the band and said she has had a great experience so far.

“It’s really cool that this is something we're being able to do. It brings in a lot of different people than the music department would otherwise,” she said.

McClenney, a first-year music major, plays bass for the band. He said he had very little prior bluegrass experience, but wanted to join the ensemble to learn more about playing in the genre and to better himself as a musician.

He said he has already learned a lot from Johnson and from being a part of the ensemble, and is looking forward to how the initiative will help the bluegrass program at UNC grow.

“I’m hoping that Carolina will build on the program in the future," he said. "One of the big issues in music education is it shuts off musicians outside from jazz and classical, when there are many students who play bluegrass or popular music. So if you have a program that allows them to do that, they can really better themselves and it creates a better program in general."

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