We’re all connected through music. 

There is a benefit bluegrass concert called The Full Freight on April 5th in Ypsilanti at the Corner Brewery.  This is exciting not only for the great music, but because it is also one of many efforts to save Ypsilanti’s historic Freighthouse. 

Before I tell you more, let me first reset another post I did a while ago when I declared a Bluegrass Weekend.  That wasn’t the only time I’ve written about bluegrass on the site - it’s no secret that bluegrass runs as deep in my soul as soul music itself, especially bluegrass that’s made in my home state of Michigan.

In the Bluegrass Weekend post, I wrote about one of my favorite bluegrass musicians ever to strum a Michigan banjo - and that’s Ford Nix.  I have several of his records, none more rocking than his self titled on Detroit’s Walker label, where he plucks the two headed banjo like the devil himself.

 

When my friend Gerard visited last summer, we sat down and listened to my records.  Mama Don’t Allow by Ford Nix was one of his favorites.

Listen to Mama Don’t Allow:

I just recieved a note from a personal friend of Ford Nix: Bob Leaman from Murphy, North Carolina.  Bob says that because of health concerns, Ford no longer performs music.  Bob plays pedal steel guitar and often plays gigs with Ford’s brother, John Nix.  I replied back to Bob that I wished Ford well and to let him know that I have several of his records and I enjoy them very much.

Ford knew how to put a rocking, jam based twist on bluegrass, but still kept one foot firmly planted in the roots of this traditional American genre.  Another record of his that I have is a bluegrass gospel record he did much later on with some old timer friends of his from North Carolina.  It’s on the Flying Squirrel record label, called Songs That Never Grow Old.

The note from Ford’s friend came the same day a neighbor from down the street asked me if Cousins Vinyl was interested in any way in helping out with The Full Freight benefit concert at the Corner Brewery on April 5th.  The Freighthouse in Ypsilanti is a building that has brought people of all ages and races together, seeped in the deep roots of our heritage as a city.  For many years, the restored Freighthouse, located on Cross Street in the heart of historic Depot Town, and a stone’s throw from the Huron river, served as a Saturday morning gathering place for coffee and doughnuts, as local bluegrass musicians played free for the people.  But for the past four or five years, the Freighthouse has been shut down due to much needed repairs.  At least $250,000 is needed to restore it back to working condition.

The local Ypsilanti band Black Jake and Carnies, the self proclaimed “Original Kings of Crabgrass”, and with whom my neighbor is a member, will be there along with eight other banjo oriented bands.  Mark Maynard also has a post about this along with other info on the Freighthouse and this effort to restore it. 

I would like to think that old Ford Nix, wherever he is, would like nothing more than to see this concert and Freighthouse restoration movement carried through, so those songs he sang about that never grow old can keep on living right here in good old Ypsilanti.