Post by fogcitygal on Aug 27, 2007 5:33:27 GMT -5
from The Tennessean:
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Friday, 08/24/07
Krauss' banjo man finds life, bluegrass beyond the band
Ron Block releases spiritual album, plans to take his music to church
BY PETER COOPER
Staff Writer
"When self-worth is tied to achievement, it shouldn't hurt a musician's confidence to be the most-heard banjo player in bluegrass.
For the past 15 years, Ron Block has been that banjo man. Block's tasteful banjo and guitar work is an integral part of Alison Krauss & Union Station, the only bluegrass-based band that regularly sells albums in chunks of gold (500,000) and platinum (1 million).
"When I began playing music, I began to get self-worth from it," said Block, who will join his bandmates for a show Saturday at Sommet Center. "When I joined Alison's band (in 1991), it was the pinnacle for me of how I felt about what I did. They were the band I really wanted to play with. So I went up on the roller coaster. But what goes up must come down."
And it did come down. If a person's value lies solely in his musical accomplishment, then his worth is lessened with every botched studio take and every imperfect note. "My perfectionism sometimes went to ridiculous proportions, and it ended up crashing me," he said. "I ended up feeling like I wasn't any good. On the outside, I had a loving wife, a great job, a house and the things people call success. But I didn't have inner success. And I became very distant and withdrawn. I'm surprised somebody in the band didn't say, 'Take a long break.' It was evident that I was in a really bad place."
Enter 'DoorWay'
Many of the songs on Block's new DoorWay album deal with Block's rise from such depths. "The broken heart is soil for the seed," he sings on "The Blackness of the Need," while "Someone" asserts "Contentment doesn't come from what you say or what you do."
It's a gospel album of sorts, as Block's spiritual recovery was based on Bible passages in which God declares a love of mankind. "I began to believe the truth about myself based on what the Bible says about me," he said. "Within a few years, it changed my life completely."
The "completely" part does not mean Block isn't driven to fulfill his prodigious capabilities as a musician and as a songwriter, but it does mean that he no longer confuses his value as a bandmate with his value as a person. And it also means that he and his family can go on vacation without the banjo and guitar coming along for the ride. He's driven, but not by fear of failure.
"We're always struggling to figure out who we are," said Jerry Douglas, the world's foremost Dobro player and another key player in Union Station. "And when you're in a band where everything you do goes to help that band, you have to remember, 'For me to do good things for this band, I have to do good things for myself as well.' "
Douglas said that Block's melody-oriented approach to his instruments makes it possible for Union Station to shift from blitzkrieg bluegrass to layered acoustic pop. "It's like he has two brains: He can play banjo in the style of Earl Scruggs but have the sensitivity of a classical guitar player," Douglas said. "You don't run into that much. He's a real intuitive, sensitive person, which is clear if you listen at all to his playing or to his lyrics."
Krauss and Union Station will be taking significant time off in the next year, and Block plans to use some of that time to get out and tour on his own, bringing his songs — the ones from both of his solo albums and the ones he wrote that were recorded on Union Station albums — to different audiences. "It feels like I'm coming out as a new artist," he said. "This band has become my comfort zone. With DoorWay, I've been feeling an inner push to go to churches and to other places and play and sing. It feels like God put his foot on my butt and shoved me out of my comfort zone." "
-------------------------
Friday, 08/24/07
Krauss' banjo man finds life, bluegrass beyond the band
Ron Block releases spiritual album, plans to take his music to church
BY PETER COOPER
Staff Writer
"When self-worth is tied to achievement, it shouldn't hurt a musician's confidence to be the most-heard banjo player in bluegrass.
For the past 15 years, Ron Block has been that banjo man. Block's tasteful banjo and guitar work is an integral part of Alison Krauss & Union Station, the only bluegrass-based band that regularly sells albums in chunks of gold (500,000) and platinum (1 million).
"When I began playing music, I began to get self-worth from it," said Block, who will join his bandmates for a show Saturday at Sommet Center. "When I joined Alison's band (in 1991), it was the pinnacle for me of how I felt about what I did. They were the band I really wanted to play with. So I went up on the roller coaster. But what goes up must come down."
And it did come down. If a person's value lies solely in his musical accomplishment, then his worth is lessened with every botched studio take and every imperfect note. "My perfectionism sometimes went to ridiculous proportions, and it ended up crashing me," he said. "I ended up feeling like I wasn't any good. On the outside, I had a loving wife, a great job, a house and the things people call success. But I didn't have inner success. And I became very distant and withdrawn. I'm surprised somebody in the band didn't say, 'Take a long break.' It was evident that I was in a really bad place."
Enter 'DoorWay'
Many of the songs on Block's new DoorWay album deal with Block's rise from such depths. "The broken heart is soil for the seed," he sings on "The Blackness of the Need," while "Someone" asserts "Contentment doesn't come from what you say or what you do."
It's a gospel album of sorts, as Block's spiritual recovery was based on Bible passages in which God declares a love of mankind. "I began to believe the truth about myself based on what the Bible says about me," he said. "Within a few years, it changed my life completely."
The "completely" part does not mean Block isn't driven to fulfill his prodigious capabilities as a musician and as a songwriter, but it does mean that he no longer confuses his value as a bandmate with his value as a person. And it also means that he and his family can go on vacation without the banjo and guitar coming along for the ride. He's driven, but not by fear of failure.
"We're always struggling to figure out who we are," said Jerry Douglas, the world's foremost Dobro player and another key player in Union Station. "And when you're in a band where everything you do goes to help that band, you have to remember, 'For me to do good things for this band, I have to do good things for myself as well.' "
Douglas said that Block's melody-oriented approach to his instruments makes it possible for Union Station to shift from blitzkrieg bluegrass to layered acoustic pop. "It's like he has two brains: He can play banjo in the style of Earl Scruggs but have the sensitivity of a classical guitar player," Douglas said. "You don't run into that much. He's a real intuitive, sensitive person, which is clear if you listen at all to his playing or to his lyrics."
Krauss and Union Station will be taking significant time off in the next year, and Block plans to use some of that time to get out and tour on his own, bringing his songs — the ones from both of his solo albums and the ones he wrote that were recorded on Union Station albums — to different audiences. "It feels like I'm coming out as a new artist," he said. "This band has become my comfort zone. With DoorWay, I've been feeling an inner push to go to churches and to other places and play and sing. It feels like God put his foot on my butt and shoved me out of my comfort zone." "