Pulished in 11/2000 in Bluegrass Unlimited and reproduced with permission by Bluegrass Unlimited and Dan "Buck" Buckner.

The Bluegrass Blues get you when you don’t have enough Bluegrass Music in your life. The best cure for that is to get out and see some live bluegrass, but many folks live in areas where the local venues serve other tastes, generally in alcohol-oriented environments. The cure? Start a jam!

Jams have several positive things going at once. Most importantly, you are getting together with others who share your interest in Bluegrass Music, so the social aspect is obvious. If you are a musician, you have found a place to practice, learn, and teach. Jams are where the folk music process happens, learning by ear and by imitation. If you are a non-picking fan, you’ve found free entertainment and a chance to see, over time, the development of musicians who may well start bands and get famous!

To get started, you need at least one other musician. No kidding! If you have one picking pard, the two of you can form a nucleus. I’m assuming you can play a few tunes and maybe sing a little, but you don’t have to be ready for prime time. Of course, the more musicians, the more music, so pressure all your picking friends. Especially, try for a bass player. The bass serves as an anchor for your timing.

The next step is to find a public venue. That sounds ominous, but it needn’t be a big deal. Out here in Colorado, restaurants and taverns are willing to let us pick on off nights (Sunday through Wednesday). Other possibilities include grange halls, churches, schools—anywhere out of the rain.

And here is the "no bread" part. It means, in the jazz vernacular: no pay, no tips; otherwise you run into the serious problem of how to divvy up. Jams are a win/win proposition with your host venue in that they pull some trade on an off night, but your host will usually not want to pay anything. (Some hosts provide drinks and/or food on picking nights—see what you can negotiate.) So stick to the "no bread" philosophy. You will have an edge when dealing with that place for Saturday night gigs once you get good enough. Besides, the point is that you have a place to practice, and you don’t have to clean up afterward.

Once you have a place and two or more pickers, advertise the jam. Put it in the "weekly events" column of your local papers, put up posters in the music stores and anywhere else a musician might see it, and go to your local radio stations. Public radio stations will often put you on the air to discuss your jam during their Bluegrass Music show, but even a listing on their events roster is worth gold. Consider the "Musical Instruments for Sale" classified ads, too. None of this should cost much, if anything.

Go ahead and schedule your night, even if you haven’t heard that anyone is coming. You are reaching out blind, so you have no idea of who might show up. Play what you can, and remember that this is your learning time as well as practice in performance. Finish the songs, praise each other, have fun. And if you get a slow start, dig in and keep on picking. It may take a month or two of light attendance for the Bluegrass Grapevine to kick in. Remember, a first-time visitor who finds nothing happening won’t come again.

When others do come, get their names and phone numbers, and create a list of musicians who attend the jam, even if infrequently. Copy the list (include their instruments and whether they sing—I use "voice" as an instrument on my list) and hand it out to everybody. This list is a tool for cohesiveness, for bonding the musicians. When the list gets long, it serves as a tool for putting together a scratch band for a wedding or party.

How often you schedule your jam depends on how far folks have to come as well as their level of enthusiasm. Most of our jams are once a week, although there are some that are only once or twice a month.

Here in Colorado, the jams are usually suspended during the summer, as the musicians are doing other things (such as working gigs and attending festivals) and the fans are vacationing. So our jamming season is October through May, although there are some dedicated jams that continue through the year.

If your area has enough musicians and fans, start a Bluegrass Association. The Colorado Bluegrass Music Society, based in Denver CO, is our oldest group at twenty-plus years. The Society sponsors bluegrass events and issues a monthly newsletter, "Pow'r Pickin’", which lists jams, bands, and events, as well as classified ads, articles, reviews, and festival ads. The CBMS website is www.coloradobluegrass.org; their e-mail address is

Another great group is The Black Rose Acoustic Society, based in the Colorado Springs area. They too have a very complete newsletter and a website: www.blackroseacoustic.org. For e-mail, it’s: BRAS@blackroseacoustic.org. Their snail-mail address is: 1350 Pinon Ridge Ct., Woodland Park, CO 80863.

Both of these societies will happily discuss the founding and running of their respective groups, so call on them if you want some help.

I sincerely hope you will start up your own jam. I’ve been hosting a jam for fifteen years, and even with "no bread, just jam", it has always nourished me.

Dan "Buck" Buckner Profile by Bill Donaldson

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