Hi, Bobert: There are some more ingredients to go in the stew. When I simplify things to black and white gospel, it is just that... a simplification. Lines blur, just as they do between Jimmy Rogers and the country blues guitarists, Little Richard/Boogie Woogie/gospel
shouts/rock and roll. When I do the workshop, it's perhaps artificially limited to black gospel and white, non-bluegrass gospel. Bluegrass gospel has a whole feel of its own, that maybe Wilco could talk about.

Let me compare(on paper... you have to provide the ears... the difference in approach to Farther Along by the Carter Family and The Fairfield Four. The Carter Family take the song very straightforward, with their chugga chugga rhythm propelled by Maybelle's guitar..

Farther along, we'll know all about it
Farther along, we'll understand why
Cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We'll understand it all by and by

You can hear the alternating bass line pumping along underneath the melody.

Take the same song, let the bass sing the lead, and you get more of a "call and response" version of the song..

Lead: Farther along                   We'll know
Harmony             Farther along we'll          know all about it

Lead: Farther along                   Understand why
Harmony             Farther along we'll             Understand why

Lead: Cheer up my brothers                  live on
Harmony                   Cheer up my brothers    line in the sunshine

Lead: We'll understand                   We'll understand
Harmony                We'll understand it                We'll ...

On the last line of the verse, the bass singer may repeat "We'll understand" and the harmonies will keep answering "We'll understand it" until the lead finally closes out with "By and By." At the end of the song, the lead will probably start improvising lines, and the harmonies will just keep repeating "We'll understand it," until the lead sings "By and By," and they'll respond with "By and By."

I can hear all of this in my head as I'm typing it, but if you haven't heard a bass lead on this song, the best I can suggest is to listen to the bass lines in your head, slow and lazy. The rhythm of the song is slowed down to give space for the lead to improvise.

Having the bass sing the lead in this style is very commonplace in black gospel. Good old A.P. Carter only sang lead on a handful of songs, and they still had that chuga chuga rhythm to them.

One thing that you can be sure of, Bobert, is that the Carter Family heard a lot of blues and black gospel, and the black gospel quartets heard plenty of white gospel and country music. Joe and Frankie, in my group, grew up listening to the Grand Ole' Opry as much as they did to black gospel and blues. Get them anywhere near a bluegrass band at a festival and you'll never pry them away. But, when we do a white gospel song like Angel Band, they just naturally slip in a bass line, and some other lead-in lines. They can do Carter Family real well, too, and get a big kick out of it. I've often done Farther Along, Carter Family style, before joe sings bass on the version like the Fairfield Four. We do a pretty good Carter Family. But, nobody would confuse the two versions.

As long as there's some interest in this, I'll keep offering my observations, and look forward to hearing yours. I'd like to hear Wilco talk about bluegrass gospel. It's very different than the Carter Family (even when Monroe did songs associated with the Carter Family.) There's also a very recognizable, almost formalized harmony in bluegrass, and it's far more instrument driven than black gospel... much of which was done a capella, or with just a single guitar until the contemporary gospel folks added drums, keyboards, a bass guitar and a couple of lead guitars.

Jerry