“Ryan,” John said as we picked up our forks. “You have any interest in going to a bluegrass festival?”
“Sure,” she said. “But only if I can play in it.”
And John looked at her very levelly. He hadn’t even begun to eat his dinner.
“Did Frank say anything to you about this?”
“About a festival? No,” Ryan answered. Although John and Barb looked skeptical, I believed her; I would have heard about it too.
“Which festival?” Barb asked.
“It’s called River Rocks, Frank said. Down in Rhode Island. I don’t know anything about it, but Frank told me it might be a good opportunity.” John shrugged.
“That could be fun,” said Barb. “I don’t think you’ve ever heard any live bluegrass, have you, Ry?”
“Never ever,” Ryan said. “When is it?”
“End of August. The tickets aren’t cheap.” John rubbed his chin. “But ... Frank thought you might be able to go as a performer.”
“What?” Barb said.
And Ryan grinned.
“She’s barely thirteen,” Barb protested.
John opened his hands to avoid blame. I just sat there with my head going back and forth like I was watching a tennis match and wondering what the odds were that I’d be allowed to go to Rhode Island too.
“There’s a new-artist stage,” John went on. “Sounds like they have young talent perform sometimes.”
“What do I have to do?” Ryan asked.
John finally looked back at her. “Record a tape, I think. And if they like it, there’s an audition in June.”
“I’ll get started, then,” Ryan said.
“Hold on, now,” said Barb. “Your father and I have to talk about this. We need to check this thing out, make sure it’s going to be a—well, a wholesome place for young ladies. Heck, we need to look at the calendar to see if we can even make those dates.”
“Do what you need to do,” Ryan said, spooling a massive bite of spaghetti onto her fork.
That was her, to a T; she didn’t want to wait. She wanted everything to move as quickly in reality as the vision that was materializing in her head. I could almost feel the energy radiating off her from the other side of the table. In her mind, I knew, she was already on that stage in August, unleashing her music into the breeze off the Atlantic.
Frank
She crushed the audition tape, of course. I helped her with the application form and let her use the little studio and mic equipment in my shop to record two songs of her choosing. She wanted both of them to be original, but I encouraged her to do at least one cover—the judges would want some point of comparison. We’d been working on “Travelin’ This Lonesome Road” by the Osborne Brothers, so she went with that.
I’ve talked a lot about her string skills, but not much about her voice. I know so much has been said about it—hell, they’ve had folks down at Johns Hopkins write articles about her vocal cords by now. But it was just real pretty even then, sweet and clear. A Massachusetts kid through and through, but Ryan managed to nail that traditional bluegrass vocal break that’s such a hallmark of the genre. Maybe it was in her blood, with Barb being from Kentucky and all.
It was still a young girl’s voice, but it had some weight to it. She sang like she was really thinking about the words coming out of her mouth. How many kids genuinely grasp the feeling an adult would have, listening to a song like “Lonesome Road” about being all alone while storms are raging.But she did, somehow. Or was at least able to represent what she didn’t fully understand.
She did do a couple of takes to get a recording she was happy with. After the third or fourth time around, Ryan ended the song and did this firm nod of her head, and I knew. To be honest, all the takes had sounded like winners to me.
“That sounds real nice in your range,” I said.
And she looked straight at me and told me, “Well, that’s why there should be more bluegrass singers who are girls!”
And I laughed. Notather, not at all, but—well, she did like to speak her mind. And she wasn’t wrong.
With the next piece, I let her go ahead and record one of her own songs. I’d worked with her a little bit on some of them. I know this book you’re writing isn’t about me, but I’m not too humble to admit Ihad some success back in the day. I was the leader of my jug band, and we did do the festival circuit and some New York shows on the songs I wrote. Got a couple of awards for them, nothing to puff me up too much, but enough for a steady gig schedule. I was happy to help Ryan out with chord progression, hooks, bridge ideas, the like.
