03 October 2020 - Plague Journal Day 204

Micah 6:8
1 Corinthians 14:6-12
Yes, your life matters.

We all are still sheltering in place, but I'm here to keep you sane and entertained.
One could hardly ask for much more than that, now could one?

I had a really nice musical experience these past couple days. This has been the IBMA World of Bluegrass week, and I actually "attended" more of it this year than just the awards shows as in years past.

The awards show was well done, and it was fun but also distressing to realize that each of the nominees had recorded an acceptance speech to be played should they win. That couldn't be easy - thanking everyone for something you hoped for, but didn't actually win. Anyway, I was pretty happy with most of the winning choices, and the musical performances were quite good. As I said, beyond tbut awards show I managed to check some of the other sessions as well (including the industry awards show the day before - congrats to Jack Tottle!).

The day after the awards show I joined a mandolin workshop with Alan Bibey (IBMA 2020 mandolin player of the year), and I was really pleased with how that went. I really thought it was going to be something I'd have on in the background and then when it was over I'd realize that I hadn't paid any attention. Nope. He was engaging, played a lot of licks to demonstrate what he was teaching - or mostly how he was answering questions from the audience - and it all worked.
Then I joined a vocal workshop with Johnny & Jeanette Williams. Again, this was actually way better than I would have expected. They explained the various forms of (trio) harmony in bluegrass and demonstrated each with a live song. It's pretty fun to hear folks say this is the structure of this harmony and then go ahead and sing it so you can hear what they mean. Who knew you could do all this online and have it seem like you were really getting some attention? I certainly didn't, but I'm glad I gave it a try anyway.

Good on you, IBMA!

Keep Calm and Stay Away.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The mental health issues related to our lockdown and the pandemic are especially hard for people with depression. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has a 24 hour helpline: 800-950-6264.