'Put your soul out there': Carolina Bluegrass Band performs fall semester concert

On Nov. 23, the Carolina Bluegrass Band had its fall semester concert to unveil the music they have been working on for the past few months. The band, comprised of 17 members, is split into three smaller ensembles. Each ensemble consists of traditional bluegrass instruments such as acoustic guitar, banjo, fiddle and mandolin. 

Outside of Moeser Auditorium in Hill Hall, students in the Bluegrass Experience class — an introductory bluegrass course at UNC — set off the night with a jam in the lobby as attendees made their way to grab tickets and head into the auditorium. 

After a quick introduction, the first ensemble started with the a cappella Appalachian folk song  “Bright Morning Stars.”

“Bright morning stars are rising, day is breaking in my soul,” they sang.   

“We kind of all realized in the band that we all really loved to sing, so we wanted to do an a cappella song,” Emilyn Bishop, guitarist and singer who joined the band this semester, said. 

The set then moved into a fast and funky number, followed by a deep and soulful song. During “anything” by Adrianne Lenker, band director Tatiana Hargreaves joined to play the fiddle. 

Hargreaves guided the band members through the entire process: assisting with song arrangement, teaching effective rehearsal techniques, improving individual skills and fostering collaboration within the group. 

“A lot of times everyone can play their own instrument or play their own parts, but putting them together is the hard part,” Hargreaves said. “I found myself helping a lot with how to work together as a band and what makes each band distinct.” 

Booth Bassett, a senior mandolin player who joined the band this semester, said that practices progress from mastering the chords and rhythm of a specific song to refining lyrics and eventually focusing on the emotion in each verse, making the songs become realistic stories. He said that practice over the semester was intense — in a good way — because of how committed everyone is to creating something beautiful. 

The second ensemble brought traditional bluegrass to the auditorium, wearing formal dress and starting with the traditional “Crawdad Song” and “Old Train” by Nikki Pederson and Herb Pederson. “Faded Love,” an old western fiddle track — created by Bob Wills, John Wills and Billy Jack Wills and inspired by North Carolina fiddler Bobby Hicks — was dedicated to Hicks and to western North Carolina. 

Townes Ellum, who plays the fiddle, has been with the band for six semesters and played his final show with Carolina Bluegrass on Saturday. He said he found his closest friends by joining this group and that anyone remotely interested in bluegrass should join. 

Ellum pitched “Crawdad Song,” choosing it because it was the first traditional old time folk song he heard in his life. He thought it was fitting to go all the way back to his roots with bluegrass for the last show.

The final ensemble played songs such as Andrew Marlin's “Wake Me,” which could be considered bluegrass-pop, to “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind” by Dolly Parton and “Four Wheel Drive” by Bela Fleck, more country-leaning bluegrass songs. The show was concluded by the traditional “Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms”, a song that all members of the Carolina Bluegrass Band played together. 

Something particularly memorable about the performance was that each member of the band was able to pitch their own songs, which culminated in aspects of the individual players' personalities shining through during the show. All of the players had a unique twist and texture to the way they play or sing. 

“What I like about bluegrass is you can get out there, and you don't have to play perfect instrumentation,” Basset said. “But you're leading a song, you're singing, you're playing and you get to just put your soul out there.” 

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