Jeremy Darrow

It seems that we have all survived the temporary banishment of Bluegrass Junction from satellite broadcast only to be faced with the short-lived but embarrassing hack of the IBMA Facebook page. What are we embattled bluegrassers to do!?

Allow me to share my family’s motto with you:

Don’t freak out.

It seems so simple, right? Let me tell you, when you have small children at home, like I do, not freaking out several times a day can seem like a lofty aspiration. And at first it is. But as you practice and refine the art of not freaking out, something really helpful happens; you begin to learn what things require an urgent response and what things don’t. You learn that lots of things can be ignored completely until they sort themselves out or go away. In your efforts to not freak out, you might gain a new sense of poise. You could even find yourself with a little extra time on your hands.

The now-resolved IBMA hack is a great example; social media hacks like this are an embarrassing fact of life now. They happen, then, with some effort (often somebody else’s), they usually get sorted out, and then they’re forgotten. It may be worthwhile getting a laugh out of it, but it’s not worth the energy, and time it takes to lose your head.

You may now be asking yourself what you can do with yourself, now that you have kept your act together in the face of minor aggravation. I have a suggestion.

Even if you aren’t someone who is “in the business”, if you’re a fan of Bluegrass, or any music, you have an interest in the success of that music. Hopefully, you want to see the form persist so that it grows and new music is made. So that boundaries are pushed, and new people are made fans. In this sense, we are all ambassadors for our favorite kinds of music and our favorite bands. In niche markets, like Bluegrass, especially, the vigorous support of fans is crucial; it is the lifeblood of the smaller, mostly independent, corners of the industry where influential publicity firms and big promotional budgets are rare. Social media, like Facebook, make it extremely easy to share music that you like with your friends. It is now effortless to share a song that you love, along with a small testimonial, and potentially turn your digital “friends” on to something that could be very special to them. And, it’s absolutely helpful to the artists behind the song. What better way to spend that newfound time and show off the new cool, calm, and collected you?

So, instead of losing our minds over temporary non-issues, let’s all strive to not freak out and instead share something good with our friends in the digital world.

Thanks for reading,

JD