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Q&A with Bruce Molsky
Besides Jawbone, Molsky tours with Grammy-nominated Fiddlers 4 and the international collaboration Mozaik, a hodge-podge of Balkan-Irish sensibilities, Eastern-European multi-instrumentalism and Dutch string playing. He took the time to answer a few questions by e-mail as he was touring Japan:
• Q: Was (the idea of combining bluegrass and old-time) a concept you had been wanting to explore for a long time? What was it about Paula and Tony that made this seem like an appropriate group in which to do this?
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For more about the folk festival For profiles on Tony Trischka and Paula Bradley, check out the Empire's Alaska Folk Festival section in Sunday's paper or visit juneauempire.com/folkfestival |
• Q: What has Jawbone allowed you to do that you haven't been able to do before?
   
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• Q: Is there still such a clear divide between old-time and bluegrass?
• A: Depends who you talk to. It continues to be a very strong issue for a lot of people, and to others it's really unimportant. One music grew in part out of the other; but many of our heroes in both traditions didn't express stylistic territorialism about it. It was all just music to them. We hope that audiences who listen to us enjoy the experience the same way and don't think too hard about that stuff. My own musical growing-up was focused on nothing but old-time and blues for many years, but lately that's changed, and I'm enjoying crossing lines. If it's done with respect and sensitivity, then the experience can be uplifting. That's where I'm at these days, and I want listeners to go there too.
• Q: Mozaik has problems playing in America due to visa restrictions. Is the band strictly playing abroad for the foreseeable future? How important are your explorations with Mozaik to your playing as a whole?
• A: Mozaik is extremely important to me and takes a lot of my time these days. But bringing a band like this to the U.S. is functionally very difficult as long as our national policy insists on punishing legitimate visiting artists with overly restrictive visa requirements. I've been touring outside of the U.S. for many years now, and have never visited a single country in all my travels that has not welcomed me as a touring musician. This is simply not the case for musicians from other places touring in the U.S. and is evidenced by the big drop in the number of them who come here to perform. It would be a thrill to bring Mozaik back to the U.S., and I hope that can happen sooner rather than later.
