Today’s reader mail is from Henry, from Pennsylvania. Henry’s a fundamentalist Christian who has downloaded the music we arranged and recorded for All The Way Home. He writes:
Hello, You people SICKEN me. You are nothing but
some CALIFORNIA scumbags who THINK they understand where
the bluegrass scene came frome.
Don't get me wrong...it's not about "butcher holler".
Hard times is hard times. But THEATER TRUOUPES are NOT
allowed. YOU SUCK. No matter how you do, you will
STILL SUCK.
We're not cartoons, dude. We're everywhere. "country
folks" is anybody who isn't yuppie/hippie SCUM. Everybody
who actually works, lives, believes, and DOES REAL
LIFE. We HATE you, friends. You are WORTHLESS.
From the fake-ass "jonbenet scandal", you're NOTHING.
You're pretentious suburban TRASH, pretending to a
heritage you wouldn't be worthy of being THROWN OUT OF.
It's not where your FROM, friend, it's what you VALUE:
REALITY, HOME, FRIENDS (chosen for reasons OTHER
than conformity and "clique") VALUES HUMANITY
LOVE SO you can BITE me, friends. You are nothing
other than poseurs, and worthy only of LAUGHINGLY VIOLENT
put-downs! SCREW OFF, JERKS! PS... The women
who played NUNS in NUNSENSE in our local THEATER TROUPE,
did NOT ask for admitance to the local CATHOLIC
COMMUNITY. comprendez vouz, scuzzbags???? Ps. BLOW
ME.
Isn’t it nice how Christians are so full of love and compassion?
John, How do you know he is a christian? I hope it was just a guess and not confession on his part.
I followed his e-mail address back through the dark twisty passages of the Internet. He is in a bluegrass band called the Goose Creek Boys, who don’t play bluegrass like any I’ve eve heard… it’s all about damnation and blood… very un-bluegrass bluegrass.
jwb
Hello, Mr. "Byrd-brain"
You can follow my email address through the "dark, twisty passages" of the deepest pit of hell for all I care. I said what I said, and I stand by it.
"All the way home" represented (from what I heard of it), a bunch of poorly thought-out, California wannabe-hippies who cannot sing, cannot play worth a damn, and insisted, nonetheless, in perpetuating the sort of "hayseed" imagery which makes Southerners (and bluegrass musicians) look like fools.
Now, on to a few of your OTHER misrepresentational slurs:
1. I am NOT a "fundamentalist christian", and we are only PARTIALLY a bluegrass band. (I don’t confine myself ot one specific genre — which is why I actually understand the underlying mentality behind the formation of Bluegrass better than you.) Bill Monroe was indeed a "crossover" artist before there was any such notion, in that he took elements from various musical genres he’d heard and/or that were circulating around at the time, and fused them into something GOOD.
He was also — not coincidentally — NOT a pretentious "theatre" wonk, who believes that a STAGE PORTRAYAL puts one in the same league as those who actually DO what you’re portraying, on a regular basis.
Additionally, I have my OWN opinions and views, which may not coincide with those of the other members of the group. TO read "my"opinions into the group is just crass — as well as the idea of "back-trailing" me like some sort of pathetic stalker wannabe.
I’ve DEALT with "theater" types before, friend — even been an accompanist for a local community theater on several occasions — and the fact is that performing in "all the way home" no more makes you a MUSICIAN — much less one of a particular GENRE — than performing in "nunsense" makes you a Nun, or even a Catholic.
Mp3.com was intended (before it degenerated completely) as a venue of ARTIST PROMOTION — not some wonky "hosting service" for a badly-sung version of the "crawdad song" from an off-off-off-off-broadway dinner theater in Pistolwhip, California.
And as far as our songs being "Un-biblical" — read some of the verses they never taught you in Sunday school, friend. It ain’t all "sweetness and light".
(and besides, I am a unitarian universalist myself. One of the members is a mennonite, and two others are United Methodists. Either specify which song your pathetic little sneer was about, or swallow the bile, and go on with your wasted life.
OH and, by the way:
Just gotta love the way you reacted to the criticism of your mp3.com site. It’s almost like you can’t actually deal with the idea that somebody might not have LIKED your stuff. When WE recieve hate-mail (which is sometimes the case) — WE shrug it off and go on with our lives.
YOU post it, and then back-trail the guy like a stalker.
Pathetic.
Cool, I have an arch-enemy now…
jwb