"I don't know if you know this part or not, but all the music in the world is not bluegrass music."

When I got hooked on bluegrass, I started out with the music, but I stayed for the people. Ron Thomason is one of those people.

Ron Thomason founded and still leads today a traditional bluegrass and gospel band called the Dry Branch Firesquad. These fine players have been host several years now to the annual Greyfox Bluegrass Festival in Ancramdale, NY, which I had the pleasure of attending in 2004.

That year, on a sweltering July day on beautiful Rothvoss Farm, I sat with other would-be mandoliners and drank in his wit and wisdom along with a little bit of actual instruction. I had more fun and learned more about how to use my instrument in those 90 minutes than I had since I bought the damn thing. Later, in front of a crowd of some 15,000 bluegrass fans, in his thick western (not, West) Virginia drawl, he spun out his usual stream-of-consciousness editorial on the state of humanity, the wonders of nature, the stupidity of politics, the futility of war, and the beauty of spirit. Add to this that the gentleman taught both Shakespeare and math to kids whose parents might not even have known how to read, and you get a sense of the order of human being you'll find in Ron Thomason.

If you're not able to join me next week at the IBMA World of Bluegrass FanFest to hear Ron rant in person, I hope you'll jump to the link below, which will take you to the Rounder Records page featuring the Squad's latest, "Live at the Newburyport Firehouse." Listen a while, laugh, and remember: "The big difference between bluegrass music and folk music, is that people LIKES folk music."

http://www.rounder.com/index.php?id=album.php&musicalGroupId=350&catalog_id=6669