The Bluegrass Journeymen - Almost nobody else can do this!

The Bluegrass Journeymen are a collective of accomplished musicians aimed at presenting traditional American Bluegrass Music to the world. Each member performs in a variety of bands back home, bringing original tunes and a deep knowledge of the bluegrass traditional songs and history to the table. While traveling abroad they play gigs, plan musical outreach and organize cross-cultural musical collaborations and lessons with local folk musicians. Their last tour to India was a great success with gigs at popular New Delhi spots such as The Piano Man Jazz Club, Depot 48, Lodhi Garden Restaurant, house concerts, an arts festival and the US Embassy. While bluegrass music is the focus, you will also hear country, old time, jazz, swing and plenty other influences in their tunes. The Journeymen are : Patrick Fitzsimons on the Mandolin, Billy Cardine on Dobro, Alex Koukov on the Banjo, Bridger Dunnagan on the fiddle, Jack Cloonan on the guitar, Skyler Marsh on the Bass with Elliot Siff managing the band.   Patrick Fitzsimons, in conversation with Srishti Das from Loudest.in, spoke to the Journeymen at The Bar Cat during The Gig Week about their voyages in India and their experience with Serendipity.  Srishti from Loudest: How is it like, returning to India after your successful tour last year? Patrick from The Bluegrass Journeymen: The first one was like a trial run, we were feeling it all out. We thought, let's go to India and play some Bluegrass and see what happens! Got a bunch of gigs and made so many connections on that first trip that we had to come back! So we just HAD  to do the whole thing over again, and add some more elements to it. [embed]https://www.facebook.com/bluegrassjourneymen/videos/366328810504461/[/embed] Srishti:  Is it a completely new line up this year? Patrick: Yeah, except for me. I’m still the mandolin player. Other than that, we’ve got Billy Cardine now on the Dobro and he’s one of the best, recognized, known Dobro players in the US. He’s incredible! We met him at a festival called Rockygrass, in Lyons,  Colorado.  He mentioned that he studied the slide guitar for a month in India, with Debashish Bhattacharya from Kolkata. He also knew a lot of Indian classical music, and he’s been teaching us a lot of this. Our last trip was more about us  playing some Bluegrass for the Indian audience. Now, it's more about blending of Indian ragas and Bengali folk music, Bluegrass and all these other elements coming together. Srishti:  Is there a specific form of Indian music that you are working with? Patrick: Mostly Bengali folk songs and Baul music that we got introduced to the last time we were here. Billy is also teaching us some stuff that he has written, for an instrument called Chatterangi, that Debashish has invented. Srishti:  Are you planning to collaborate with different folk artists this time? Patrick: Yes! We already went to Shanti Niketan outside Kolkata, and did a whole jam session with Baul musicians out there. We are also heading to Rishikesh, for 3-4 days. We hope to play some gigs out there. In Delhi, we are playing at The Pianoman on the 10th and 11th of December, from where we will be heading to Mumbai to do MTV Cafe, so it should be real fun. Srishti:  The last time you were here, did you feel like you made an impact? Everyone remembers The Journeymen introducing Bluegrass music to India. Patrick: Yes definitely. We feel like are on the ground floor! Srishti:  How is your whole tour planned out? How is it like financially? Is it easy for a Band from America to perform in India? Patrick: Actually no, it's not really easy. Almost nobody else can do this. Srishti:  What are the things that you learned from your last time in India, that you made sure you got right this time? Patrick: A lot of logistical planning. It goes from big to small. Small things like, make sure your direct inputs have batteries. Last year, we were playing a gig and started a small fire on stage, trying to plug an American thing in! We are paying attention to little details like getting everything planned out, to knowing exactly where we are going to be be at what time. Sometimes accommodation is cheaped out a little bit. Last time we were in Pahadgunj, in a cheap sort of hotel, but we are in a much better place now. Srishti:  How has been the turnout and response during this tour? Patrick: It has been great! We got a lot of Facebook followers last time. They have been are really pushing it, getting into the whole thing! Srishti:  Are you guys planning to record? Yes, once we get to America. Our guitarist has some connections to a studio, outside Denver, we are going to put down some tracks. Also, we’re filming a documentary. That is the main purpose of this trip! We are doing a lot of interviews with Indian musicians and exploring the similarities between American folk music and Indian folk music because Bluegrass is a form of folk music too! It’s acoustic and comes out of that Appalachian tradition. We are planning collaborations on the record as well. Srishti:  That means we can look forward to a really big cross country tour when the album launches, right? Patrick: We’re addicted to it now, We’re not gonna stop. Srishti:  What are your plans six months in? Patrick: We played in the US consulate in Kolkata and they mentioned a possibility of supporting us a little more next time, like air travel and accommodation. Things like these will make it a lot easier to do it again. Srishti:  Do you have anything to share with all the Indian people who have been following your music? Patrick: Stay tuned for the next chapter, watch what we’re doing, if you are interesting in knowing more about Bluegrass music, please get in touch. If you want fiddle or banjo lessons, we have great players here too! [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS_e5WpQ0fM[/embed] Srishti:  Maybe you should do some workshops! Patrick: Definitely. We played for an all-girls school near Kolkata this time, and we are going to be donating a few of the violins to their music program. We are going to come back next year and check up on them, see what progress they’ve made. In fact, a crazy thing happened at the school. We said we’d love to donate some violins, and the school mentioned that they do not have a violin program or teachers and what they really needed is a harmonium. And then, there was like this weird serendipity moment. There was a guy that happened to be walking by when we were playing on the terrace. He heard our music and said I play too! He went up, and he just played beautifully. The school  hired him as a violin teacher that very day, when we were there, with a salary and everything! If Bridger was not playing the fiddle that day, this guy would have just walked past and nothing would have happened. It’s interesting…. We are really looking forward to coming back to that school next year. Srishti:  Do you play any Indian instruments? Patrick: Yes, I have a Dotara and a Sitar. I’m planning on getting a Sarod this time around.