‘Catholic bluegrass’ a new musical mix

By Mitch Finley

Catholic News Service

SPOKANE, Wash. (CNS) -- Bluegrass music, with its high lonesome sound, has roots in both hillbilly music and early blues music.

In 1947, Bill Monroe, known as the "father of bluegrass music," put together what many regard as the first true bluegrass band, when banjo innovator Earl Scruggs joined Monroe's Blue Grass Boys.

Monroe always included sacred or gospel songs in his repertoire, but the primary influence was a generic evangelical Protestant Christianity. There are no gospel bluegrass "standards" about the Mass, the sacraments -- except vague references to baptism -- or any of the saints, in particular Mary.

Catholic bluegrass music simply has never existed -- until recently, that is.

Father Edward James Richard -- pronounced "Ree-shard," revealing the priest's Louisiana Cajun roots -- is a LaSalette Missionary priest who teaches at his order's Kenrick-Glennon Seminary near St. Louis.

On the side Father Richard, 50, is a bluegrass musician who has played guitar since he was a boy and five-string banjo since his college years.

"I learned by listening and watching others," he said, and he has the Scruggs book, "Earl Scruggs and the Five String Banjo."

He said his "main influence" is banjoist and singer Ralph Stanley, and he has "learned a lot listening to" the recordings of veteran five-string banjo player Butch Robbins.

With a bluegrass band he put together, Father Richard has recorded three CDs, the sales of which help support the missionary efforts of his order's 200 members in North and South America.

"I like bluegrass music," Father Richard commented, "and I have liked it since I first heard it (growing up in Louisiana). ... Music is spiritual and healing. It's a special gift that God gave us.

"Bluegrass music falls into the category of music that really belongs to the people," he continued. "It grew up out of tunes that were passed down from generations, and it has a lot of stories about common experiences. Gospel music is integral to bluegrass."

Sometimes, Father Richard changes "a word or two" in a classic gospel bluegrass song, "because," he said, "theologically or biblically, they were just wrong."

On his CDs, the priest includes songs he wrote based on themes that those outside Catholic tradition overlook.

"I write about the Eucharist," the priest said, "the Blessed Virgin Mary and other Catholic themes."

Father Richard often plays for non-Catholic groups, and he receives a warm welcome.

"I have played in a lot of churches of various denominations," he said, "(and) even in a synagogue. I have incorporated my music into my ministry. ... It is also an outreach to those who don't know about Our Lady of LaSalette. It seems to work well, also, when I can combine speaking of moral issues and performing."

Another influential Catholic presence in the American bluegrass music community is five-string banjo player and publisher John Lawless.

His company, Acutab Publications, promotes and supports playing the traditional bluegrass instruments, primarily banjo, guitar, mandolin and fiddle. Acutab produces both video and print learning resources.

Lawless grew up Norfolk, Va., in Sacred Heart Parish, attended the parish school and graduated from Norfolk Catholic High School in 1973. Today he lives in Roanoke, Va., and attends Mass at St. Andrew Church.

"My interest in banjo music goes back to a very young age," he remarked, "although I didn't start playing seriously until I graduated from high school."

He said that as a boy he was "a devoted fan of the 'Captain Kangaroo' program on television, and a regular character, Mr. Green Jeans, played a ... banjo on the show."

"It appealed to me right away, and the sound really stuck," he said. "It was reinforced by the '60s folk music my parents played at home -- Kingston Trio, etc. -- but it wasn't until I started hearing bluegrass banjo as a teen that the notion that I could learn to play really took hold."

Lawless said he has "pondered a good bit" the question of why relatively few Catholics actively play and enjoy bluegrass music.

"Part of it, I think," he said, "is simply the immigration patterns when European Catholics came to the United States. They tended to congregate around northern, urban areas while bluegrass music, and earlier hillbilly styles, were a southeastern, rural phenomenon."

Rarely these days, Lawless said, does he encounter negative attitudes toward Catholics in the bluegrass music community.

He said, however, that his favorite experience of ignorance concerning Catholicism came from a banjo student who asked, "What is it that you Catholics don't believe? It's something weird -- you don't believe that Jesus died on the cross?"

"I explained to him how the earliest Catholics preserved and compiled what he now accepts as the inerrant word of God, but I'm not sure he bought it," he said.

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Editor's Note: Father Edward James Richard's music is available at the Web site www.msmissionmusic.org. The site for John Lawless' Acutab Publications is www.acutab.com.