Rob Ickes - Monrobro (for all the dobro players out there)

[meanlezbo]

hell the more i hear it the better it gets, rob is fucking awesome..bill monroe would cumm on himself and hire him to play the dobro for the grass boys if he heard this..

[meanlezbo]

i think this is as sorry a piece of music i have ever heard..ikes is a clown

[reckonimokie]

Wow, I think I am moving to Tennessee where all this great Dobro is.

[anitadavideduo]

We met him in Nashville... wow!!!!!!!!!!

[maxneu]

Ickes is a badass, listen to the pickin on clapton album, its brilliant

[guitardavid79]

Ickes was on one of Claptons albums?

[maxneu]

No, it was a tribute to clapton. Just a bunch of Clapton's songs done in bluegrass style by a bunch of badass session musicians. Some really nice playing though.

[MaverickFestival]

Great !

[musictheropist]

rather boring!!!

[manictatter]

Precision King! Make no mistake, Ickes has coolness and accuracy of the lone gunfighter back in the day. More Ickes please.

[1kyredneck1]

why is it called monrobro, i think that is stupid!!! Bill Monroe, DID NOT ALLOW A DOBRO ON STAGE WITH HIM..HE WOULD NOT PERFORM WITH A DOBRO..i love the sound of a dobro, but Mr. Bill didn't..

[jocwalk]

Maybe it was a playful (or not) jab at Bill Monroe. It may also have something to do with the fact that Bill had a reputation for being a pompous farm animal. (I'll let you figure out which one.) Ask the guys in his band who worked their butts off on his farm as though they were his slaves. Monroe gets way too much credit for "creating" what we call bluegrass that had been played in the mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, etc. long before anyone heard of Bill Monroe.

[hawaiiandobroblues]

Your right about Monroe getting too much credit. No individual deserves that credit. The only man who could be said to have created the bluegrass of today is Earl Scruggs. I mean, he could have ended up in any number of bands with similar but different results.

[jocwalk]

Scruggs actually learned the style from "Snuffy" Jenkins (another North Carolinian) who in turn learned the style from Smith Hammett and Rex Brooks. Jenkins was really the one who first popularized the three-finger bluegrass style. Scruggs built upon that, improved the timing, and took three-finger bluegrass style to a faster, more fluid, highly influential level. Flatt & Scruggs defined bluegrass more than any other band.

[hawaiiandobroblues]

I've heard that Scruggs did not actually create the style himself. And I completely agree with  you about Flatt and Scruggs being the band which defined bluegrass.

Of course, the music all goes back to Celtic and African roots.

[jocwalk]

Well, the African thing has been way overstated by some. The whole African banjo influence is pretty dubious since there's documentation of similar instruments in Europe existing 9,000 years earlier. The main influence was in certain vocal styles from some of the black religious "callers" who ran black revivals but to this day, the similarities in bluegrass and traditional Irish/Scots music is astounding.

[hawaiiandobroblues]

I guess I was really referring the blues and Jazz influences.

Bluegrass is, in my opinion, the culmination of the development of the development of American roots music. There in undeniable influence of the music of Britain and Ireland, then there is the southern European influence of the mandolin, the singing styles of African Americans, the Jazz and blues licks, the early country influence, Hawaiian music through the dobro and so on.

I love bluegrass music.

[jocwalk]

No doubt as to the blues influence (like the song "Sitting on Top of the World" or "Lonesome Road Blues.") Still, the rhythms of bluegrass are still very, very similar to Irish/Scots music while some of the fiddle tunes that are still played are directly from Scotland or Ireland.

[HillbillyJ]

Actually I read Scruggs talking about that once and he more than openly states there were others before him. What he says though is that they played "virtually nothing" but the forward roll and he developed the defferent rolls to help bring out the melody or whatever. Its a common mistake to judge Earl as "the first three fingerer" because he wasn't, he made three finger picker better, less "sloppy" if you will.

[jocwalk]

There's no question that Scruggs made the instrument what it is today. Reno was very influential too but Scruggs ability to really make the banjo a lead instrument combined with his and Lester's notoriety established the sound of the banjo that is expected of players today. Few musicians have meant so much to an instrument and those who play it as Scruggs to the banjo (even though he was/is a good guitarist as well.)

[hawaiiandobroblues]

Actually, Bill Monroe DID allow a dobro on stage. He respected Uncle Josh.

[PeterHackman]

Answer: Listen to the melody.

[GravyBoatJohnson]

It defiantly does not suck.

[bobrocken]

Damn!!!! I wish I could see the whole video! This is awesome stuff. I love Rob's style and technique.

[Burtnernie]

He's definitley doing his own thang....

[andykinskywalker]

does anybody know what tuning he is using here?

[dobrostarr]

I don't think Rob and Jerry sound anything alike...Jerry plays lots of scales and series of pull-offs and hammer-ons...Rob's breaks are intellectually stimulating as well as full of feeling while keeping the melody in mind...

[hawaiiandobroblues]

I've seen Rob live and he is undoubtedly one of the greats.

And to say he is a Jerry Douglas clone is something I REALLY disagree with.

[brentbrown]

WOW! Jerry who?

[YourBaptistFather]

MORE!!!

[resopicker]

Wow and I'm going to Reso-summit that Rob is organizing this fall....yeeehaw! Can't wait!

[musicluvrs88]

awesome! Have fun!

[dobro41]

he's good but really just another Jerry Douglas clone

[MerlynSchutterle]

I don't think so, dobro. The technique is quite different. Jerry makes great use of his thumb. I think they both play too fast and lose the element that a reso does best - long mournful slides. Give me Josh or Bashful. If I want to hear fast hammers and pull-offs I will listen to Vince Gill.

[biznork]

That's crazy.

[jocwalk]

I couldn't disagree more. While Josh Graves was good, Ickes has taken the dobro to an entirely new level. I'm a huge Blue Highway fan. Much of what Rob does is so subtle, you barely notice it but would definitely notice its absence. He can wear it out more than anyone I've heard then be equally proficient at little melodic slides and punches to emphasize a musical or lyrical phrase. I think you'd change your opinion drastically if you listened to more Blue Highway.

[1kyredneck1]

blue highway!!???..hells fire..this world has went to hell in a handbasket..amateurs at best..AULDRIDGE HAS forgot more than ickes..

[jocwalk]

You can't possibly be that ignorant. When guys like Sam Bush say of Blue Highway "You know it's tight and it's right," and Ricky Skaggs sings their praises, that says a lot. There's not another band in bluegrass with their overall level of musicianship, vocals, and song writing. Ickes is known as the most highly sought after dobro player in the business.

[bamertide]

your a damned idiot.

[1kyredneck1]

you ignorant bastard. BILLS GROUP DID NOT USE THE DOBRO, AND THOUGHT IT ANTI-BLUEGRASS. MORE OF A COUNTRY INSTRUMENT. cuss me to my face and see what happens ASSHOLE. HELL I GOT A RIGHT TO MY OPINION..EVEN IF IT DIFFERS WITH YOU, EINSTEIN..

[1Lawman104]

your right they play too fast its all about speed to these young whippersnappers and the uneducated eat it up!! mike auldridge, josh and oswald are far above the others..

[christofersk8s]

mike witcher is a fine young dobro player

[bigjim97]

They play fast, but they also can slow it down and play with the same great emotion that Josh Graves and Mike Auldridge brought before them. It's not all about speed, but if you've got it, why not use it!

[darblipner]

Not all of BH's songs are fast. Yeah...they are uneducated like the thousands who love them. Ignorant statement.

[theprojektcouk]

Look up "Nashville Acoustic All Stars" for a recording of Rob doing this with Casey Driessen and Noam Pikelny on a recent trip to Scotland. Stunning players all and really nice guys also.

[sav1028]

Gotta love the Gettysburg Bluegrass Camporee!

[musicluvrs88]

heck yeah! 7 more weeks till the May festival (not that I'm sounting or anything ;])! are you going?

[sav1028]

Yeah! I'm a Gettysburg College alum and I live less than two hrs away, I never miss the Gburg festivals!

[musicluvrs88]

oh wow, we've probably seen each other at some point. I've only missed two Gburg festivals in my entire life. lol Guess I'll see there then! Since you're that close you might be interested to know that Alecia Nugent, Nothin Fancy and Audie Blaylock are going to be at American Corners tomorrow night in Denton, MD. I don't know how close you are to there or if you like them but thought you might wanna know.

[dahack31]

for anybody wondering, this song is "Monrobro," by Blue Highway on their album "Still Climbing Mountains."

[adolpho]

so fast .... very great

[lazor3001]

great blues style!