Fine Tuned: In Their Own Words
By Kelley Breiding
I initially received a phone call from the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, who explained the Fine Tuned project was pairing artists for a recording project, and asked if I would be interested in working with The Allen Boys and DaShawn Hickman (Surry County).
Having very little idea what Sacred Steel music was, and having an equally limited amount of understanding of what The Allen Boys do, I was all in.
It sounded like a musical adventure, and I was ready to try something new. The idea that we were both steeped in traditions from the same area, but didn’t really overlap before, was interesting, and I thought it could yield some interesting stuff.
My first move was to go to the church where they grew up playing and became who they are as musicians. I went down on a Sunday to the House of God Church (Mount Airy) and it was awesome from start to finish.
The band played music the entire time, whether someone was singing or just speaking, and the congregation was full of singers and people filled with joy who didn’t stay still or seated. It was really a great way to get to know the band better and get ready for the collaboration.
After that, we started meeting in the church to work on the music for the project. We had fun straight away. Our personalities were a great fit for enjoying the process together and we made fast friends. They were helpful to me about how to approach the music in their way, and I was also able to share my perspective with them and we all got a lot out of each other’s knowledge base.
In the end, we both played roots based, traditional music and could get things together easily, even though our genres didn’t really seem as similar as they ended up proving to be. We ended up with some great music for the recording session.
One was an original song, “Lord, I Need Your Help,” written by bassist Mitchell Fonville, which we took through many versions and tried a lot of ideas to get to the product. The song is a very emotional and solemn one, which required DaShawn Hickman and myself to really get connected into our feelings to make it what it needed to become.
In contrast, the “Walkin’ in Jerusalem” was a joy-filled number where I played banjo and sang on my own. The fun part of that one was that they had a different approach than I was used to in the bluegrass gospel versions I had heard, and we mashed that all together into something that represents of all of us.
We were collaborators and we learned about multiple things in this experience from each other. I think I got to explore different parts of my abilities and apply them in new ways through the collaboration.
As an artist, trying new things with other artists is really an amazing opportunity — and can be a scary one to take — but I am happy to say it has made me better as a performer and more confident about trying new things again in the future.
The project hasn’t really ended because we now have shows together and may find ourselves working more in the future. We certainly have come out of it as friends and ongoing collaborators. I would say to someone considering the Fine Tuned project to go for it — you will learn things about music and yourself that are invaluable.
Multi-instrumentalist and singer Kelley Breiding has developed a deep relationship and understanding with the old-time music of northwestern North Carolina and the communities that surround those musical traditions. Kelley is particularly noted for her clawhammer banjo playing in the famed Surry County Round Peak style and her strong singing, and she showcases these skills in several regional bands.
