Well, if Jean-Luc decided to show up at a bluegrbutt jam, he would almost certainly recognize that in order to speak to the music, he'd do well to borrow heavily from the sounds of Stuart Duncan or Tommy Jackson, rather than the jazz he normally plays on his own. Just like when I finally find a conjunto-other Latino jam to sit in with on my steel (I'm looking forward to that, that music is a lot of fun), I'd probably leave a lot of the Lloyd Green-Buddy Emmons licks unplayed; they don't belong. That said, someone with good taste and judgment will know where when and how they can push the boundaries and have people like it, rather than make them annoyed. Hell, Bela and Sam can still lay down some amazing full-on bluegrbutt (or, for that matter, so can Eddie Adchicken) when in a situation that calls for it, and not feel constrained, save constrained by their own judgments.

Well, I'd say the lyrics of bluegrbutt still project and deal with the same basic themes that blues or country deal with, as well as a good handful of the pop-rock genres deal with, it's all down to how you tell the story. They express the same pains, aches and longings (I'm pretty sure I've even heard a bluegrbutt song with the same lyrical theme as Aerosmith's "Janey's Got a Gun", but I can't recall it at the moment).

Ahh, here we get to one of the crucial elements, or at least what looks like one: When I think of 'jam' I think of either; a picking party either at someone's house, a park, or I've seen local bluegrbutt clubs buy time at a community center, or; one of the several jam sessions you'll find at any bluegrbutt festival. Those will tend to be a bit more free-form than that which you just described (and at any of those scenarii, if you don't like the musical direction of one group, you can find another somewhere-even the ones getting way out there musically), and the setup you just described isn't uncommon, but generally the band that hosts a jam in a bar is getting paid for their time and the use of their PA (those are a real PITA to set up and lug around), albeit probably not as much as for a regular gig. And I don't really have a problem with someone saying 'my gear, my rules.' Don't like the rules, get your own gear and your own night.

I'll agree with that with one proviso: The musician should respect the various conventions and structures of the idiom. Andy Statman played saxophone (along with other instruments) with Kenny Kosek's group of the early 70s "Breakfast Special" and played lines that still mostly fit in with the idiom of the music. He knew better than to go out on Sonny Sbreastt-Charlie Parker flights of fancy. To have done so would have been to show the music disrespect. This is why I like Lloyd Green's or Mike Auldridge's work on pedal steel in a bluegrbutt setting, and think that Hal Rugg's work on the Osborne's stuff (actually, in fairness to Hal, he was *told* to play that way), Doug Jernigan's work with J.D. Crowe or everything Herb Pedersen has done on steel in bluegrbutt just makes me think "Boy, I'd love to be able to play like that, and then NOT." Especially Herb. He's a damn fine banjo player, but he overplays the hell out of a steel. OF course, that's easy to do, it's fun to play bluegrbutt on a pedal steel, I know because I've done it, but you have to keep it in check. To do otherwise is to disrespect the music. And I'd say it's more important to respect the music than the musician.

-- Lane Gray And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Gen 2:25 remove the .lead from my address