JAMMERS & ATTENDEES CONSPICUOUSLY ABSENT FROM WORLD OF BLUEGRASS 2011

Where have all the jammers gone?

Hallways are empty – most every one.

Where have all the jammers gone?

Convention Center's no fun

When will they return ?  Oh, when will they return?
(Got the tune yet?)

Guest Blogger: Terri Holloway
writes about impressions of empty
hallways and smaller crowds at
IBMA's World of Bluegrass

Noticeably absent this year from IBMA's World of Bluegrass are the hallways filled with impromptu jams. New “rules” have opened up the Convention Center's hallways to these jammers. But, it doesn't seem to be a case of “build it and they will come”. In wandering around we found just a few, but they were comprised of two or three musicians. Gone were the monster jams of yesteryear. Ditto for the Renaissance Hotel's hallways.

I queried one attendee about this, and he was just as bum-fuzzled about it as I was. Disappointed too. He came to jam and found himself just a poor, wayfaring stranger. He said he thought about just climbing into his car and sleeping, since it was just too noisy from “people talking” - the wrong kind of noise to stay awake to - to sleep in the lobby chairs and there wasn't any music to be found.

Today was the first time that the Exhibition Hall was open FREE to the public – whomever the public should be – and we found a couple of multiple-person jams happening in the (wide) aisles of the Exhibition Hall. Martin had their big maroon tent (and trailer), as did Elderly Instruments have their yellow one. Bluegrass Unlimited was still giving away tons of goodies packaged in a great tote bag (a switch from the backpacks of years past) to new subscribers. New this year, and generating some buzz, was the John Lawless – Terry Herd collaboration of Bluegrass Today, the newly expanded and renamed Bluegrass Blog. However it didn't appear on this “FREE DAY” that the procedural changes made much of a difference from Exhibit Hall attendance of past years.

Artists, contained in booths, were aplenty, all entertaining those who bothered to show up. The most intriguing set-up was from Quicksilver Productions (the new joint collaboration between Quicksilver and Pickin' Productions). Their footprint took up a two booth by two booth square (essentially taking up the room of four exhibitors), but was set up on the diagonal. Exhibition hall attendees were able to walk up two sides of their cd table to reach the artist corral. In that enclosure, surrounded by tables full of cd's from each represented group, those represented artists, and an occasional guest (like Laurie Lewis), rotated through every little while to entertain the assembled few.

Another buzz heard around the hall was about Brooke and Darren Aldridge's new sponsor, Sun Drop. While other bands have been able, in the last few years, to attract major sponsors, these two have found a partnership on a much subtler scale.

For those carrying too many give-aways from bands and vendors, the Delta Reign band was handing out eco-friendly brown paper bags to haul all that acquired loot and sharing their concept of our music.

Blue Highways TV had a crowd-pleasing give-away in the form of capturing potential viewer contact information: a daily drawing for a BHTV baseball cap and denim shirt. Two lucky entrants every day of the Exhibition. While I was visiting, Denise Hitchcock drew the Wednesday winners, one of whom happened to be an IBMA conference volunteer. The other was a visitor from Russia. Although conference attendance seems to be at an all time low, it certainly is globe-ranging.

Reprise:

Where have all the people gone?

When will they return? Oh, when will they return?