Watch Sam Bush’s Paste Session Recorded Live at Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion
Paste Studio on the Road set up shop at the 2024 Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion in Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia, the annual music festival that’s been honky tonkin’ since 2001. The festival features Americana, Appalachian Roots and more, honoring the legacy of Ralph Peer’s 1927 Bristol Sessions that introduced the Carter Family to the world, and continues to inform and inspire musicians to this day. We chose the most fitting location for this intimate series, showcasing artists in the performance space inside the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, dedicated to telling the story of the Bristol Sessions.
Full Session
Mandolin legend Sam Bush treated us to a master class in roots music and music history, along with fellow bluegrass champion Stephen Mougin on guitar and background vocals. First up was “The Ballad of Stringbean and Estelle,” written by Bush, Verlon Thompson, and Guy Clark, a song about the tragic 1973 murder and robbery of the first banjoist in bluegrass history, David “Stringbean” Akeman, and his wife Estelle, at the hands of cousins John and Doug Brown.
The Ballad of Stringbean and Estelle
Born and raised in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Bush had access to the Nashville TV stations that broadcast The Grand Ole Opry and other local Nashville programs, allowing him to see and imitate the chords that Bill Monroe, The Carter Family, and other bluegrass OGs (OBs?) played.
Bush flawlessly segues from the first song to the second, using the Louis Marshall “Grandpa” Jones as the connective tissue in between. In “Stringbean,” Bush sings, “He saw no smoke from the chimney / So grandpa knew that something was not right.” Grandpa Jones and his wife Ramona owned the property next to Stringbean and Estelle, and Jones was the one who discovered the bodies the following morning. The second song in this mini set is written by Grandpa Jones, called “Eight More Miles To Louisville.”
Eight More Miles To Louisville
Between the second and third songs, we get an oral history of the Gibson mandolin that Bush has owned for the last 51 years, named “Hoss” long ago by Tony Rice. Traditional stringed instrumentalist Norman Blake purchased it in the early ’70s. Neither Bush nor Blake thought it sounded so hot, so they brought it to luthier Randy Wood, who took off the back, shaved down the braces, and did some “random hippie sanding” on the top (that’s Bush quoting Blake). Whatever spell Wood cast on the instrument, it came out sounding great, and Blake played it on the 1972 John Hartford album Morning Bugle. One night, Blake and Hartford decided they hated the original finish and scraped it all off, asking Wood to re-varnish it. Bush has been its custodian ever since, with periodic maintenance courtesy of Cincinnati renaissance man Harry Sparks.
Ridin’ That Bluegrass Train
Big thanks to Charlene, Danielle and the whole team at Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion, and to June and her team at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum for bringing these sessions to life. Stay tuned for more Bristol x Paste sessions on the way.