The curious state of contemporary bluegrass music has given rise to a debate about its essence. Is the quintessential roots genre allowed to mutate in order to survive — as it has through countless “jamgrass” bands — or should it remain embalmed as an artifact of Americana?
At heart, of course, is a tug of war between tradition and perception.
“As far as modern string bands go, there’s a lot of different subgroups in the genre these days,” said Dave Simonett, singer and guitarist in the bluegrass act Trampled by Turtles. “There’s the jammy stuff, the real traditional stuff and then whatever we are.”
Indeed, the Duluth, Minn.- based Trampled by Turtles tinkers with bluegrass tropes as much as any other nu-grass act, weaponizing its mandolin, banjo, fiddle and high harmonies the way punk bands do their electric guitars and strangled vocals.
But the kinship between countrified genres like bluegrass and more contemporary forms of boundary-pushing music (psychedelic rock, punk) runs deeper than most of us realize.
“Energy is a big thing, especially with punk rock. You could take any punk song you want and play it acoustically, (and) it would be a bluegrass song,” Simonett said. “They share simple chord structures and it all boils down to this raw music that just kind of comes right out of you and isn’t really polished up that much.”
It makes sense that Simonett, whose band headlines the Bluebird Theater tonight and Saturday, cites the Rolling Stones and Sex Pistols as influences. Critics have compared Trampled by Turtles’ music to a cross between standard- issue folkies such as Townes van Zandt and iconic punk acts like the Clash.
After five albums in as many years, the Minnesota quintet certainly justifies the comparisons. Although flying under the mainstream radar, the band plays between 150 and 200 shows annually, steadily winning over festival- going jam-band fans, country audiences and indie-rock hipsters alike.
The lightning-fast “White Noise,” a song off last year’s “Duluth” album, exhibits the aggressive picking style that led the Onion’s A.V. Club to dub Trampled by Turtles “perhaps the best live band” in Minnesota. But tracks such as “Empire” hew closer to the Avett Brothers’ aching melodies and wall-of-strings aesthetic, while the somber “Methodism in Middle America” could easily pass for a Nirvana cover rendered on a rural back porch.
“My focus has always been songwriting and, in concert, more of an energy thing,” said Simonett, who cut his teeth in rock bands and still maintains a rock side project. “I’m not saying I don’t like the other side. There’s something to be said for someone who can play a guitar faster and better than anyone else. A lot of bluegrass bands are cover bands, and they’re really judged on how well they can play.”
Trampled by Turtles, however, is more concerned with spark and emotion — which is why they recorded their forthcoming album live in the studio.
“We found that for this band, the hook for it is that live energy,” Simonett said. “That’s a challenge for a lot of bands, especially in recording studios, and our goal was to play in the studio like we do live. You capture what it’s like playing next to each other with no overdubs, and it’s much quicker that way.”
With their inaugural appearance next year at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, and similar gatherings around the country (Stagecoach in California, Rothbury in Michigan), the band seems poised to break through to the same mainstream that so badly wants to classify and categorize it.
Simonett is fine with that — as long as people keep listening.
“Some people think they need to know exactly what music sounds like before they hear it, but now it’s so accessible. You can just go online and you don’t even have to buy it. The genre naming game is so obsolete, so call it whatever you want.”
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
trampled by turtles.
Roots/ bluegrass. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., with Ben Sollee. Today-Saturday. 9 p.m. $16.50-$18. 866-461-6556 or
