ARTICLES

‘Bluegrass Mass’ tied in with Bristol festival

By Jean Denton
Special to The Catholic Virginian

There was some Catholic toe tapping to the strains of banjo and fiddle as the first ever “Bluegrass Mass” was celebrated in September exactly where it belonged: the “birthplace of country music,” Bristol, Virginia.

The unique Mass at St. Anne’s Catholic Church was held on the weekend of Bristol’s annual Rhythm and Roots festival, September 19–20. It was the brainchild of pastor Father Timothy Keeney and the work of another priest — and Bluegrass musician — Father Edward Richard.

Father Richard, a professor and vice rector of Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis, brought a small ensemble of Bluegrass musicians from Louisiana and Kentucky to help him lead worship through the music he composed, at Father Keeney’s request, especially for this “Saint Anne Rhythm and Roots Heritage Mass.”

Parishioners had practiced the Bluegrass-style Mass parts for several weeks so by the time they arrived at church, they were excited about this worship “first” in the familiar musical genre born and bred here in their Appalachian Mountains.

Bristol, which straddles the state border with Tennessee, was the site of the “1927 Bristol Sessions,” a recording session that launched the careers of the Carter family and Jimmie Rodgers. It is considered by music historians to be the “big bang” of the commercial country music industry — hence the “birthplace” designation.

Father Keeney, pastor of St. Anne’s for eight years, said the Bluegrass Mass was something he’d wanted to do since he first arrived in Bristol.

“This form of music is an integral part of Bristol’s history and culture, and the church should always be a vehicle for dialogue between God and people in every age and culture,” he said.

“I’d been looking for a while for someone to write a musical setting for the Mass in the idiom of Bluegrass,” he explained, “but I couldn’t find the right person. There were plenty of people writing Bluegrass music, but not where the music served the liturgy.”

About a year ago a parishioner discovered Father Richard’s music and told Father Keeney about it. Soon afterward when the two priests met by telephone, they each knew they’d found a match.

Both had an interest in Bluegrass as a musical expression of an American culture. They also shared a profound respect for the liturgy.

“I’d been asked before — quite a few times,” Father Richard said about composing a Bluegrass Mass, “but until now I resisted. My idea was never ‘to go liturgical’ with this.”

However, he said, “Father Tim’s request was a bit more understandable. This is the area of the country where Bluegrass comes from; it is a big part of the Rhythm and Roots festival here. He (Father Keeney) told me, ‘You really need to do this. The people here need something Catholic that is part of the experience that goes on in our town.’”

Ordained a priest of the Missionaries La Salette in 1991, Father Richard began playing music as a boy in DeQuincy, Louisiana. He learned guitar and harmonica from his mother and was encouraged by other close relatives including an uncle “on the Cajun side of the family” who played French accordion.

After he developed his picking skills on the banjo, he met Sue and Clifford Blackmon and Ron Yule.

“They were the main people who played Bluegrass in that area where I come from and they were a big help and an inspiration to me,” he said. They’ve been playing together ever since.

The three joined him in Bristol over the weekend and, along with another friend, Bill Edlin from Kentucky, made up the band that led the Bluegrass Mass at St. Anne’s.

“I have to say it’s kind of astounding to be doing this here in this part of the country where this music I love comes from,” Father Richard said, noting that neither he nor the other band members had been to Bristol before.

“We love this stuff — it’s in our blood. And we have a similar spirituality with the people here. Our people are country people, so we find it easy to identify with them,” he said.

Celebrating a Bluegrass Mass was more than performing Bluegrass style music during the church service. Father Richard wrote Bluegrass music for the Mass parts that were incorporated into the liturgy, including the Gloria, Sanctus, Alleluia, Memorial Acclamation and the Amen.

They also sang popular Bluegrass gospel songs for the entrance and during communion and ended with the assembly ever-so-gently swaying to the recessional, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.”

After the three weekend Masses, Father Keeney reported, “The comments were almost universally positive. Everyone seemed to have big smiles on their faces as they left church.”

Referring to his initial hesitancy about writing the Mass, Father Richard pointed out, “I’m sensitive to my position in the seminary and the church, and I don’t want people to be offended. But there are a lot of different expressions of the liturgy.”

At the seminary, he laughs as he imagines his students hearing about the Bluegrass Mass and saying, ‘Really? Father Richard, the guy who celebrates the Tridentine Mass everyday?’”

Father Keeney is more certain. “The church has a message with which it has been gifted, the Kingdom of God and the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. It must use every idiom, method and melody it can to proclaim that truth. It is a truth that the world needs to hear,” he wrote in a guest column for the Bristol Herald Courier newspaper.

While the Mass drew many visitors who were in town for the Rhythm and Roots event, the pastor emphasized that the purpose of creating the Bluegrass Mass was not simply to “offer another venue for a festival.”

“Art can often be the vehicle that allows people to hear the message. It can touch a person’s heart with beauty. It can make him or her laugh and dance. It has the power to capture one and deliver them before the throne of God,” he said.

Following a common practice in Bluegrass, Father Richard based the music for the Mass parts on traditional folk tunes. The “Holy Holy,” for instance, he derived from a familiar melody known as “Shady Grove.”

Writing the Bluegrass Mass was not easy, he admitted.

“It had to be authentic — faithful to the liturgy and the words of the liturgy,” he explained. “It also had to be true to the genre. It must sound like Bluegrass, and I wanted it to sound like old-time Bluegrass in respect for the people of Bristol and the area.”

The biggest challenge, he said, was that it had to be “something people can sing, because singing the Mass is for the whole assembly.”

“It is all about giving glory to God,” he said.

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