November 11, 1995
Greenfield-Traditional bluegrass artists may say Maple Ridge doesn’t play “real” bluegrass, but you don’t have to be a traditional bluegrass artist to enjoy the music they do play.
Maple Ridge is a four-piece band with members hailing from all around the Pioneer Valley. Guitarist and vocalist Terry Atkinson, who also handles bookings, lives in Greenfield, while working for Adventura Travel in Amherst.
Joe Blumenthal is the owner of Downtown Sounds, which he has owned for nearly 19 years, on Pleasant Street in Northampton. In Maple Ridge, he plays bass, laying down the thump in the absence of drums.
Adam Sweet of North Hatfield was trained as a classical violinist, but fell in love with bluegrass. IN addition to his mastery of the fiddle, Sweet plays mandolin. His “day job” is as Operations Manager at Dr. Hauschka Cosmetics, which imports all-natural German products.
John Rough is an engineer, a geologist and a banjo player, from Chicopee. Though Rough can pick with the best of them, he often winds up the butt of Maple Ridge Humor.
“How do you tell when a banjo [picker] is standing on level ground?” Atkinson asked during a recent show at the Green River Cafe. “The drool is coming out of both sides of his mouth evenly,” she declared.
“What’s the difference between a banjo and a Harley? You can tune a Harley!” She asserts, though at least one Harley owner at the cafe claimed a Harley can’t be tuned either.
Interaction with the audience comes naturally for Maple Ridge. Watching them perform, I came away with the feeling that their western-style costumes fit the image. I got the distinct impression that they dress as they do, and play as they do, simply because its how they feel most comfortable.
That level of comfort is transmitted from their fingers to their instruments, through the sound system and out to the ears of those who listen.
I think what I like the best about the music Maple Ridge performs is that when they’re playing up-tempo it’s easy to find your feet tapping without fully realizing it. And when they drop down to a nice and slow ballad, it’s easy to become mesmerized by Sweet’s violin.
Sweet is the first to admit that Maple Ridge is a non-traditional bluegrass band. He said only Atkinson could be considered a musician trained as a traditional bluegrass artist.
Problem is, even Atkinson doesn’t see herself fitting the traditional mold.
Whether jamming in Blumenthal’s laundry room or performing live at the Green River Cafe, Maple Ridge harmonizes as well as any group of musicians I’ve seen.
The band’s duo and trio harmonies, song-writing and ability to improvise complement each other very well, and provide skillful arrangements of new material, as well as faithful renditions of old songs.
“We try to do as many originals as possible,” Sweet said. “It’s not always possible, because there aren’t many originals,” he conceded. Most bluegrass bands rely on covers of the traditional tunes, though Maple Ridge is known to “bluegrassify” classic pop oldies, such as “The Loco-Motion.”
Their rendition of that classic is about the closest thing to a rock tune they could dig up, and while I grew up on a steady diet of rock and pop from the ‘70’s, I found the Maple Ridge experience to be entirely pleasurable. In fact, the only complaint I could make of the Green River show is that they only played two sets.
Most musicians who perform live for an extended period of time have stories to tell about life on the road, and Maple Ridge is no different.
Sweet recalled an occasion when he and another band were booked for a music festival at Hampshire College. The headline R&B act was the legendary Sleepy LaBeef, with Sweet’s band scheduled for later in the day.
As fate would have it, apparently LaBeef hadn’t had enough when his set was done, so he joined Sweet’s band in jam session Sweet will likely never forget.
Rough, meanwhile, recalled a gig playing in a ski lodge in Worthington. While the band was still playing a bar fight broke out. “They just started beating the hell out of each other,” he said, adding “These guys came rolling around the stage.”
Rough was proud to declare that the band somehow managed to keep the audience, though by the end of the fight the sound system became a casualty.
The Jan. 27 gig at the Green River Cafe marked the first time in three years the band had played there. Atkinson hopes this will become a regular part of their public schedule.
There were no bar fights, and no famous celebrities joined them on stage, but they did perform more than two hours of perfectly enjoyable music.
The pieces of this band came together four years ago, Atkinson said. These are musicians who have clearly worked to hone their skills. Yet they receive little fanfare for their efforts.
This is why it pleases me so to be able to recommend this band to anyone who appreciates good music, whether it is pure, traditional bluegrass, or a variation of the genre.
Reprinted by permission of the author.