Second Wind

 "Great Show Tonite At The Blue Room Sessions-'Second Wind Bluegrass' Took Us Way Back In Time With Some Fine (Old School)-Music-Instruments And Lyrics..They Stitched Together Dark Old Ballads With Workin' Man Tunes That Made For A Dandy Show--Thank You Gals...Next Up-December--Mr. Brian Adams And Friends"

Nick Collura, Insea Sound Shop, Nelsonville, Ohio  November 20, 2010

 "Mark and I had a splendid time-- Mary Lee & Wolf sang and played the way I like singin' & playin'. :-) "

Robin Thompson, Dulcimer Player (mountain and bowed),  November 20, 2010

 

"Looks like you are having a blast with this and I really love your music."

Chris Raines, nephew, Flower Mound Texas, November 21, 2010

Alison Pittman
English 367.05
Professor Marcia Dickson
July 26, 2010

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy Music

As the famous bluegrass song "Keep on the Sunny Side" by the Carter family states,

“There's a dark and a troubled side of life.
   There's a bright, there’s a sunny side, too.
   Though we meet with the darkness and strife
    The sunny side we also may view.”

This song has always struck a chord with me, reminding me that no matter what darkness I face, there will always be a brighter day ahead. My family didn't have much money when I was growing up, but we never went without. There were many times in my childhood when reaching the sunny side seemed unattainable, but I was able to persevere through the difficulties and wound up being a stronger person for it. Perhaps I was drawn to bluegrass music because I grew up in rural southern Ohio in a small town that didn't even have a stoplight. Regardless of what drew me to bluegrass music, I wanted to see why others became involved in bluegrass music and what keeps them coming back.

My first interview was with Wolf on the evening of July 19 and took place in Lancer's Inn restaurant in Hebron. Despite having previously lived in Hebron, I had never been inside Lancer's Inn before. I was surprised at the compactness of the interior of the restaurant. There were only about six booths, ten seats at the counter, and about 12 freestanding tables. There was a crowd of about 30 people gathered inside to see the band Frosty Morning perform some of their bluegrass songs. The band had not yet started playing or even setting up yet, which gave Wolf and I plenty of time to become acquainted with each other.

Wolf was born and still lives in Lancaster and plays several instruments in the band Second Wind, including 6 and 12 string guitar, tenor banjo, autoharp, mandolin, and electric bass. She taught herself how to play all the instruments and said to me, "I can't read a note of music."” Wolf first learned to play guitar after her mother started taking lessons. "My mom started taking guitar lessons and she wrestled it for several months and just couldn't play and she put her guitar in a corner." She picked up her mother's guitar when she was 10 saying, "I picked up a 35-cent chord book and just started playing. It was easy." She first started performing in public when she was just 12. "Myself and two cousins at a junior night club at our high school. Three standing ovations in a row. We were so happy."”

Wolf has been in the band with her cousins, performing gigs at the local school as well as at a children's home in Lancaster. When she was around 22, she was in a self-proclaimed "country/hillbilly" bar band for about six years called the Banditos. She formed Second Wind with Mary Lee Raines about three years ago after meeting through a mutual friend. Wolf said, "We were sitting in the audience listening to Frosty Morning play and we were singing along. And then all of a sudden, we just started singing harmony with each other and it was good. We found out we were both guitar players, and just decided to sit down and jam one night and it was so easy, we started doing one song a night when Frosty opens the mike up during the second set and lets people get up and sing. It just fell together."”

Wolf said she remembers hearing bluegrass music when she was a child, but she got into other kinds of music. She says getting back into bluegrass music, "Was an odd situation. Three years ago I threw a birthday party for my mom. A friend came and told us about this band Frosty Morning that was playing at the Barn on York. Bluegrass all of a sudden just hit home with me. And almost immediately put a band together with a friend and we've got a CD out, and we've about a gig or two every month and things are just rolling along."”

When I asked Wolf about her favorite part of performing on stage, she said, "I think I'm a born ham. My skills have improved tremendously since we started playing regularly and jamming with other people. I worked 42 years trying to learn how to pick lead, and it was like beating my head up against a wall. All of a sudden, in the last year, boom, I can play! So it's really benefitted me as far as my skill level going up." For her most memorable experience on stage Wolf said, "There have been a few times when we're out at festivals and we'll be doing a song that I remember from my childhood like "Keep on the Sunny Side" or "Will the Circle be Unbroken" and somebody will walk by and start singing with us. They remember it from childhood, too. Sometimes, during some of the more emotional songs like "Will the Circle be Unbroken" about someone's mother dying, they'll break down and cry. That really gets you. It seems like I stumbled into a form of music here that's very roots-level and it grabs you emotionally as well as musically. Stuff like that sticks in your memory."”

After my easy and wonderful conversation with Wolf, I was looking forward to interviewing Mary Lee Raines, her partner in Second Wind. Mary Lee had been sitting quietly nearby listening to my conversation with Wolf, so no doubt she was prepared for any questions I would have for her. Mary Lee was born in Canal Winchester and now resides outside of Kirkersville. About bluegrass Mary Lee said, "I kind of always liked bluegrass, but I didn't know that I was going to play it. Like Wolf said, we started going to hear Frosty Morning and we started singing along and we were doing harmony, and our harmony was really good. Somewhere along the line, we figured out we both played guitar and we both played in bands. We decided to make a band and we decided to perform."”

Mary Lee, like Wolf, is also a talented musician who plays many instruments. She plays the 6 and 12 string guitar, autoharp, fiddle, and the mandolin. She said, "I am taking lessons on the fiddle. I started playing the fiddle last year." She took piano lessons as a child and bought her first guitar when she was 12. She said about buying her first guitar, "I saved up my money. I lived on a farm, so it was a big deal to go anywhere and actually do anything. So, I tried to talk my mom into taking me to town to Sears and Roebuck to get my guitar, which I'm pretty sure cost something like 25 to 35 bucks. Finally she gave in, and we went to town and I picked out this guitar."”

Growing up, Mary Lee said, "My dad didn't like to have the radio on, but he had Hee Haw. He had the Grand Ol Opry on TV. It was there. I didn't think about it much. I didn't think about what kind of music it was, as opposed to other kinds of music. It was comfortable music. To me, bluegrass is mashed potatoes and gravy music, not sushi music. It's comfortable. It feels good. It's really good when it's hot and has salt and pepper on it."”

Mary Lee first started performing while she was in college at Ohio University in Athens. She said, "I started playing in stairwells because the acoustics were so good. A bunch of people I knew wanted to sing along. We ended up with four or five people and we started working on songs. It was me playing guitar and everybody singing. We did some harmonies and we started going to open mike sessions at the Gravel Pit. It was the basement of somebody's house. They had a stage up front. Every weekend, a bunch of people got together and went on stage and sang. We did that for a year, year and a half. This was the late 60s, early 70s and there was a lot going on at that time and everybody was dropping out. One by one, I lost all my bandmates."

Mary Lee didn't start performing again until she met Wolf and formed Second Wind. As for her favorite part of performing, Mary Lee said, "It's when everything is right. When the voices are right, the music is right, the microphones are set properly, everything is in balance. We're doing something that we enjoy and that everybody likes. Those are usually the fast pieces like "Freightliner-Crosstie Walker." We go back and forth with one verse of one song and one verse of another song. Then at the very end, we get back together and we're doing two verses at the same time. We end it together. You have to think about it. You can't look at something and get distracted.‘"East Virginia Blues" is one of our best blends. Our harmonies are good on it, they're fun, they're fast. We have a good time with it".”

Mary Lee said she didn't have one particular memory of performing bluegrass that stands out, but said, "There are times when everything is just right and everything clicks. You're making a connection with the audience. You're looking at them and they're looking at you and you're singing to them and they're listening to what you're singing. They start smiling or tapping their feet or singing along, or nodding and you realize you've got this whole thing going on. It's our voices and instruments and the group of people."”

With that, our interview concluded. Wolf and Mary Lee went to the other side of the restaurant to reserve their seats for Frosty Morning's performance. I realized I was hungry and ordered some mashed potatoes and a lemon-lime soda to tide me over until it was time to go home. Soon after I finished eating, Frosty Morning took the 'stage'.” I put the stage in parentheses because, truth be told, there was no stage. They were to be performing in a corner of the restaurant. I walked to the other side of the restaurant to get a better view of the crowd. The audience was primarily older people who appeared to be in their 60s and 70s, but I was surprised to see quite a few younger people among the spectators. When Frosty Morning began to perform, I noticed a large number of people singing along with the familiar bluegrass songs. That night, Wolf and Mary Lee did not take the stage to sing along as they had so many times before. Instead, it was the members of Frosty Morning jamming out on instrumentals and singing songs that were recognizable to many members of the audience. At one point, a photographer for a local newspaper showed up to take some pictures, and the members of Frosty Morning teased him about getting Pinky's, the tallest member of the band, head in the shot. A physically disabled young man was in the crowd and wanted to request some Elvis Presley songs. The band obliged and asked the young man to join them up front for a performance of  "Hound Dog."

That concluded my evening since I had an hour drive to get home.
Bluegrass music is, as Mary Lee perfectly stated it, “"Mashed potatoes and gravy music."” It's something that hits home for many people, regardless of whether they grew up in a rural area or in a city. It gives people hope and faith and the desire to look on the sunny side of life, even when it seems that life is at its dreariest.