This was our December interview by Ian Chant...

Anybody who knows a damn thing about bluegrass will tell you it's really awsome. Feed and Seed would agree.

As anyone who has taken money from me on the last two Super Bowl Sundays will confirm (with a smirk that lets you know they're looking forward to the playoffs again this year) I'm a betting man. So I'm gonna go ahead and lay a bet right now that in your weekly travels through Bellingham's finer taverns, clubs and public houses, you're not running into a ton of bluegrass music. In fact, I'm willing to wager that when I bring up bluegrass, you're a little unclear on exactly what that means.

Bluegrass is one of America's earliest fusion genres, taking its initial cues from the traditional folk music of Scottish and Irish immigrants to Appalachia. The genre later incorporated the improvisational influence of early jazz to roots style string music to create something completely different, a quick strumming folksy band playing fast and loose, talented musicians bouncing off of one another and reacting to one another

one the fly, each instrument and sound giving and taking the lead in it's own time. And after that woefully inadequate description, I'll make one more bet, that you're still kind of wondering exactly what bluegrass music sounds like. And since you're wondering that, I'll recommend that you check out Feed and Seed, a Bellingham five-piece bringing badass bluegrass to the masses.

Feed and Seed has come a long way since their initial incarnation as The Singing Girl Scouts, an "emo-grass" street band comprised of Feed and Seed founding trio Jess Duey on guitar, Orin Dubrow on bass fiddle and Mark Anderson strumming the banjo, as well as another friend of the three, Andy, who didn't move on with the rest to Feed and Seed. After Mark, Jess and Orin met mandolin player Dave Maguire at the Subdued Stringband Jamboree in 2004, Feed and Seed became an official institution.

Their debut effort, Standard Family Reunion, was recorded by bassist Orin during a couple of epic, booze fueled graveyard sessions, and the album was a hit with fans at various gigs, including a now defunct monthly Bluegrass Jam session hosted by the Wild Buffalo, one of many shows the band worked regularly early on in their career, a stroke of luck that Maguire attributes to some of the band's success. After playing as a four piece for a while, the band added fiddling phenom Kat Bula, also of "Pirates r' Us and 17 other bands," making Feed and Seed the official title holder of Band with the Most Side Projects (Maguire also plays with the Quickdraw Stringband, while Duey, Anderson and Dubrow make up Hoss, an electric country trio), a claim not made lightly here in Bellingham.

So how does someone in the 21st century Northwest Washington end up playing roots music that originated in Appalachia? Well apparently there's plenty of ways to get to the same place. Mark and Jess claim they "weren't any good at playing rock," and sought out something else, much to the dismay, one must imagine, of Jess' parents, who proudly brought their son up on a steady diet of butt rock, weaning him on Slayer and Motorhead from an early age. When the two began playing bluegrass, they dragged Orin along with them initially, though he now seems to love what he's doing.

At the other end of the spectrum, Spokane native Kat grew up in a "huge fiddle playing community," starting banjo lessons very young but soon switching to the violin. Meanwhile, Dave, who hails from western New York, had to seek out the genre after getting played out on mainstream rock. "It was hard being a bluegrass fan in Buffalo in '93... there was no popular presence," Maguire found himself following the artists who influenced musicians he respected and found himself infatuated with the sound, attracted most to "the level of skill involved in playing the songs. The tunes are simple, but they're improvisational, so you need a lot of skill to make it work."

But while they play traditional sounding tunes, Feed and Seed is anything but your standard bluegrass band, a point never made clearer than when they show up at one of the many traditional music festivals that provide a common stage for the band. Take their recent trip to Moo-Grass in Tillamook, Oregon. "We'd been playing in bars for three weeks," says Kat, " and when we opened up the van in front of the 'No Booze' sign at the entrance, beer cans just started rolling out of the van."

Playing for an older, more conservative in audience than one usually finds in Bellingham, the band has to clean up their act a bit for these bread and butter shows. According to Maguire, "There's a conservative element that wants everybody to look and sound like bluegrass bands out of the '50's." The discomfort goes both ways, though, as Duey points out the creepiness inherent in following Partridge Family style bands consisting of a Cleaver-esque mom, dad, daughter and a 9-year-old boy playing banjo who's sponsored by Gibson. "It's bizarre and kind of gross," he sums up.

But considering these audiences are almost certainly robbed of both a bluegrass version on "Crazy Train," as well as a self described "Cypress Hill Medley," it's hard not to have a bit of pity for the festival crowds. They cannot possibly understand what they're missing out on.

That said, the festivals and small towns are still enjoyable gigs. "Everybody's there to see bluegrass bands," Duey says. And the band is looking forward to the Bluegrass and Old Tim Festival in San Francisco on their February tour, where they look forward to a warmer than usual reception for their "drunken haggardness."

In the meantime, you can catch the band around town playing tracks from their second album, McKinley's Ghost, at Boundary Bay on December 13, or at what promises to be an epic show with something fopr everybody alongside Emerald Bison and The Wilson Project at the new Whaam! Space in January.

"We're going to try and set up in three different corners and alternate songs, so nobody can just come for one band," Bula joked.

Well here is a little review we received on McKinley's Ghost (2006). It was even translated by a real German!

"I almost skipped the group, no idea why, it can't be because of the cover. I was pretty stressed out on that day because CD Baby offered me just so many bluegrass cds, but while many of these cds were not even important or good enough to talk about, this one here is extraordinary. Ok, maybe I was arleady a little prejudice because this is exactly my style that these guys are playing and they even find exactly the right words! Still they have rough edges not least of all in their lead singing. well, there would be some little things to complain about but all in all their work is soo successful that you just forget about these."

Taken from

http://www.iwde.de/recordnews/cd/august2006/CD%20NEWS%20August.htm

Translated by

Doro Niedere

 

Hopefully you all have had a chance to see us live, if you haven't though here is the next best thing: A 40 second clip of us playing Crazy Train!

http://www.grassdogstudio.com/jamboree2006/FeednSeedCrazyTrain.MOV

If you or your family has any Feed & Seed pictures, recording or videos, send us a copy, we love to check them out!

Howdy from The Lords bedpan,

Get on the wagon ladies and gentlemen, Feed & Seed has started the official Feed & Seed E-mail list. You'll get occasional updates about shows and news about our growing line of hygiene products for men. Send us a message through myspace or directly to our E-mail at feedandseedbluegrass@yahoo.com

Please include your name and E-mail address, also please notify us if you would be interested in trying new Feed & Seed anti-balding, UV protective, re-exfoliating scalp balm*.

Thanks

*new Feed & Seed anti-balding, UV protective, re-exfoliating scalp balm has been proven to cause severe sun burns, scalp loss, balding and liver failure by the State of California. Feed & Seed assumes no liability for loss of life, hair or other injury. It is also assumed that new Feed & Seed anti-balding, UV protective, re-exfoliating scalp balm is not intended for use on the living.