Henry's Worry Blues - Nate Layne

My name is Nate Layne. I am 41 years old and I live in Columbia, Virginia, a small rural town (population ~60) in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I have lived in Virginia all my life, and my family has been in the area for many generations. My parents grew up in Virginia and North Carolina farming tobacco and cotton as well as raising livestock. I grew up hearing a lot of country and bluegrass music, but I really liked some of the popular music of the day, especially rap. As a teenager, I listened to punk rock and industrial music and was in an avant-garde band called Idiot Wind. We made a lot of our instruments.
A girlfriend from Franklin County, Virginia (also known as the moonshine capital of the world) introduced me to the music of Charlie Poole, and, around that time, I first heard clawhammer banjo at a bluegrass festival. I was smitten with this older style of music and researched it endlessly, discovering blues banjo players such as Dock Boggs and Roscoe Holcomb. From there, I dove straight into country blues. My primary influences come from both the hillbilly and the black country blues traditions.
Shortly after I started playing country blues, I co-founded a band called the Hi-Tone String Ticklers and, although we played mostly local gigs in and around Richmond, we traveled as far north as New York City and as far south as Charlotte, North Carolina. I used to busk quite a bit in Shockoe Bottom, a historic area of downtown Richmond. Now, I am mostly a back porch picker, but I have played on public television and on the radio.

For over a decade, I have attended old-time music festivals in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, including Mount Airy, Glen Maury, Clifftop, the Charlie Poole Music Festival, and Fiddlin' Bear. I don't compete very often in the festival competitions, but I have been fortunate enough to have won blue ribbons for best fingerstyle guitar picking and best Charlie Poole song.

Why do I like the blues? I like it first and foremost because of the way it sounds. I like the driving, sexy rhythms and the crooked, gapped melodies. I like the lonesome vocal cries and the blunt honesty of the lyrics. I like the call-and-response dialogue between the voice and guitar.

Even though the blues is at its heart a simple musical form, you quickly realize when you try to play it how complex and difficult it can be. I like that it is mostly a personal endeavor and, when played well, needs no accompaniment from others. It can be dirty or clean, mean or sweet, funny or tragic. It is infinitely malleable as a form and is versatile enough in content to express the entire range of human experience.
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”