CMT: I am interested in the genre historically when you contrast bluegrass with jazz and blues becoming popular music. And while there is definitely a market for country, it’s still perceived differently than jazz, which is thought of as American classical music by some. When I asked you about notation, I was trying to figure out if that is part of the reason why bluegrass is perceived differently?

SB: Some people have uttered the idea that bluegrass is a sort of country jazz. The way that Bill Monroe and his early music departed from old time string band music, it must have been very progressive then. And in some ways it sill is. If you come from the world of bluegrass it seems to give you a training ground and allow you to play in other forms of music. Because we do improvise our solos – you have a pattern to go by, of course – and it is a part of our musical vocabulary when you come from the world of bluegrass. In that way the music is very jazz-like.

The music is not voiced with the same chords, though. When Bill Monroe started, bluegrass was blues and Scotch-Irish fiddle music. The fast notes of all the fiddle influenced music was related to jazz.

CMT: Are there limitations to the form?

SB: I think that there are limitations to any form.

CMT: Jazz has obviously developed in a different way than bluegrass, though. There is not an equivalent to free jazz in American Roots music. Or is there?

SB: Come hear my band, we’ll show you. It is kinda like when the New Grass Revival Band started, we began playing in a way that people still copy. It is the same thing as my hearing John Coltrane doing “My Favorite Things” and the way he could solo over one chord for a while.  We were influenced by people like that even if we played string instruments. There is a form of free improvisation that does occur. That does not mean that everybody does it, we are known to do that though, and you can hear it on the newest cd. “Souvenir Bottles” has, what I would term, open ended solos. With that comes a great responsibility, because you have got to build your solo, have a starting and ending place. Of course, the listener has to be able to hear that too as well as the other people in the band. We have got to pay attention to a cue or be looking for where the ending might come. But that influence enables me to switch over and play with groups like Bill Evans’ Soulgrass.

CMT: I have seen you play before. It was at either the first or second Appalachian Uprising, when it was still in West Virginia.

SB: We’re going this year too.

CMT: I went to school down there – I think it was the first year of the festival. The campgrounds are in Ohio now. So, do you tour mostly during the summer?

SB: Yeah, I mean that is when the festival season starts up. I guess we already have hit the point where most of my shows are at outdoor venues. We just did our first festival a few days ago. Saturday we were in New Orleans for the New Orleans Jazz Festival – that was a blast. This coming weekend we will be at Merle Fest down in North Carolina.