Welcome to the 4th Annual Gospel Bluegrass Sunday!

Back in the days of my childhood, my uncle Charlie showed me bluegrass music like a newly unearthed treasure map. Amidst 10 kids of his own I was "Cousin Dan." Somehow he’d find time on a break from work driving trains or building a deck or paving a sidewalk in the yard or whatever project had his hands cracked and black. He’d take me down the basement to his workbench where he had a boom box. “Sit down. Listen. This is Bill Monroe. Ralph Stanley. The Dillards. Hank. Johnny. Doug Kershaw.” The list went on and on. What grabbed me in during those young years, was the sheer speed and raw emotion. No swagger. No chart-topping tricks or sexy image nonsense. Just grown men singing high as heck about being homesick or heartbroken. Don’t forget Heaven! There was always a gospel song (or ten!)

As my long journey home continued, I found myself at age 22 ‘neath a hundred-year Oak on the outskirts of a fiddle fest in Lyons, PA. There I saw a group of rustic fellas standing around in a circle, sharing joy and jubilation with anyone who moseyed on by for a look. They picked and sang bluegrass!! Uncle Charlie’s lesson’s flooded back like a long lost letter from home. Pieces to a puzzle I didn’t know was me clicked into place, like the last LEGO that’d been hiding in the cushions. I started what became The Manatawny Creek Ramblers with a promise to myself; to always have a bluegrass band. To look forward to finally fully forming into my inner Del McCoury at the tender age of 72.
I’m getting there. 25 years to go! Faith is a long journey home. Right?

In my experience, elements of faith and spirituality ring loud and clear here in the high and lonesome sounds of bluegrass: Community. Harmony. Simple kindness. Freedom. Friends. Comfort. Connection. Singing songs on Sunday…

Amen.

-Daniel S. Bower