Covering the Basses: Alan Bartram’s Two Band Stand
“Don’t just stand there with your teeth in your mouth!”
That’s not only the good-natured exhortation Alan Bartram’s dad would offer as a reminder to get busy: it’s the first line of “Gas and Oil,” a song performed by the Travelin’ McCourys that’s gotten a lot of notice, airplay, and positive reaction at concerts.
The song is Bartram’s reflection on the value of doing something challenging--in this case, cutting timber--with people one respects and loves. And the song’s staying power is evidence of Bartram’s emergence as a successful songwriter and lead singer.
Bartram, who was born in West Virginia and grew up in rural New London Township in Pennsylvania (where they know a thing or two about cutting timber) plays bass in not one, but two of the most popular bluegrass acts in the business: The Del McCoury Band and The Travelin’ McCourys. He grew up in a family that played music, but something magical happened when he followed the advice of an uncle.
“He said, ‘You need to go to a festival. You'll love it. There's lots of people to play with,’” Bartram recalls. “So I went to the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival in 1995 and got completely hooked. That was definitely a pivotal moment, and that really focused me on playing bluegrass.”
Still in high school, Bartram played guitar with 2nd Edition, a band he helped form. He switched to bass when a bandmate left. The band continued to get more gigs and more notice. A job filling in on bass for The Gibson Brothers on a ten-day Canadian tour was a confidence boost.
“That's a really nice feeling. Someone else wanted me to play in their band. That was the first time I'd played with another band. Eric and Lee Gibson were very important mentors to me and the rest of the band.”
Shortly after 2nd Edition went out of circulation (fellow member Justin Carbone would take a job playing with Special Consensus) Bartram, who had two degrees in horticulture and always figured he would work in that field, nevertheless followed his passion and moved to Nashville.
“This was in 2003, and it was really affordable then,” says Bartram. “And there was a new crop of bluegrass musicians moving to town. And I got to meet so many influential people. The bluegrass community is relatively small, and so it's pretty easy to meet the big dogs--you know, the people who can really make a huge difference in your musical career.”
He got to know Mike Bub, his predecessor on bass in The Del McCoury Band. He filled in with Ronnie Bowman and The Committee. Then he spent two years playing with Kenny and Amanda Smith. He not only gained valuable experience on this steady gig--he met and married Amanda’s sister, Kristina.
Bartram had filled in on bass with The Del McCoury band a few times--including playing on The Grand Ole Opry--before he was offered the full-time job in 2005. Four years later he also joined The Traveling McCourys, a new band fronted by Del’s sons Ronnie and Robbie. The bands have separate catalogs, tour schedules, and sounds. Bartram says playing in both units is challenging.
“It's definitely different. I don't know if I consciously switch approaches for each, but they are different entities with different material and different production. But it's an easy switch. It's not like I have to really get in kind of a particular headspace to do it.”
Though he wrote “Gas and Oil” by himself, Bartram often co-writes with artists such as fellow bassist Jon Weisberger or fiddler/singer/bandleader Becky Buller. “Shaker,” a song Bartram wrote with Buller, offers a vivid, unique perspective on the John Henry tale told by the man who held and rotated his drill. “Careful with that hammer, my life is in your hands!” the shaker admonishes John Henry in the song.
“I always thought the shaker never got enough attention, and I didn't know what a shaker was,” Bartram says about the origins of the song. “And so through research, I figured out, well, this guy's kind of a badass.”
Bartram’s bucket list might be nearly full. In addition to The Opry, he’s played Telluride, Bonaroo, Carnegie Hall, DelFest, and collaborated with The Preservation Hall Jazz band, among many others. He might be interested in a solo project one day, but touring with two bands and raising a family doesn’t leave a lot of bandwidth. One of his off-the-clock passions calls to mind the timber cutting he unromantically details in “Gas and Oil” and his training as a horticulturalist.
“I’ve got seven acres of land here where we live. Maybe an acre and a half of it is lawn, and the rest I kind of keep as a controlled meadow, I would call it. I try to encourage the native plants and discourage the non-natives. You can never really kind of win that battle, but you can try. And so it's a really great habitat for turkey and deer and hopefully quail. I did have a quail here last year, but I don't think he stuck around. But, that'd be pretty cool if I could somehow manage to carry some bobwhite quail here. They're getting pretty rare.”
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