Bluegrass with the Correct Theology

 

Bluegrass with the Correct Theology

By Blackfriars Staff

It was a Marian summer for The Hillbilly Thomists, a band of eight Dominican friars, who spent much of their summer touring with their new album Marigold, whose title song is an homage to the Blessed Mother. Playing 12 cities, at venues as varied as the Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, the Nordic Museum in Seattle, the oldest parish in Utah, and a music festival in Asheville, NC, the tour’s last stop was the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage in Washington, DC!

Debuting at #2 on the bluegrass charts, Marigold, the band’s fourth album, held its spot for a few weeks right behind Billy Strings, who is kind of a phenom in the bluegrass world, Fr. Justin Bolger, O.P. said. The album builds on the same great music we’ve come to expect from this talented band of friars, with more of them expanding into the role of songwriter for this album. “We’re all Dominicans and we all have the same view of theology and of the world, but it’s expressed in different ways when you have different songwriters,” said Fr. Simon Teller, O.P., “and that leads us musically in a different direction too.”

Fr. Simon said there’s a common theme running through their music rooted in Flannery O’Connor. He explained that Flannery writes about how God’s grace is at work in a world that is broken and that oftentimes grace appears in ways that are unanticipated and sometimes strange. “So, the theme of God’s grace in the midst of a fallen world gives our songs a kind of optimism,” Fr. Simon said, “and there’s a kind of joyful approach to suffering or to the brokenness of humanity, not because we undervalue it, but because we have confidence that where sin abounds, grace abounds.”

Fr. Justin added to this insight, saying “thus we (the band) do not fall prey to Nietzsche’s critique of an over—Platonized Christianity which empties the world of meaning, because there is meaning in the world. But we live for the other side too.”

The other side is another way of saying death—another theme permeating the band’s music. “But we’re not singing about death in a morbid way or in a way that is escapist. . .we’re trying to do it in the tradition of the ars moriendi,” Fr. Justin explained. “In the Catholic Church, we have this art of dying, and music has always been a part of that certainly for Mass and prayer, processions, etc., but this is a weird, hillbilly contribution to the ars moriendi.”

 

 

Fr. Justin said the band also borrows from Flannery O’Connor’s theory (which she took from Jacques Maritain) which holds “the good of the art is the art itself.” He recalled how Flannery said something to the effect that in our age we don’t need flattery, we have advertising agencies to do that. Rather, our art should show us who we are at a given moment in time. “So, we can expect the art of our time may be like Flannery’s time,” Fr. Justin said. “You can call it jarring, or nihilist, or ugly—but it’s revelatory. And that’s why it has staying power. Because she is trying to jar us. And God is trying to do that too. And hopefully, good art does that as well.”

What people have found in the music of The Hillbilly Thomists is that it’s authentic and it’s about the faith. One fan in DC told the friars what he likes most about their music is “it’s bluegrass with the correct theology.” Fr. Justin said he thinks the big crowds they saw at each concert this summer reveal there’s a bit of a void with respect to music that is dealing with faith that is not overly pious or hitting you over the head with a message. “Our music is more invitational, observational, while also being devotional.”

Fr. Justin’s sister Maggie encouraged him to write a song about the Blessed Mother, thus the song and title track, Marigold. “It’s sort of an Advent song,” Fr. Simon said. “A song about expectation. The seed is hidden, waiting for it to bear fruit, waiting for it to appear in our lives.” Fr. Justin added it’s essentially a song about patience. “Our Lady teaches us through her own suffering to be patient for good things that God has promised.” Several people reached out to the friars this summer to tell them how much this song has helped them through a time of suffering and helped them to see that in going through loss, there is also this message of hope.

To learn more about The Hillbilly Thomists, visit hillbillythomists.com

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Photo Credit: All Photos by Jeffrey Bruno

 

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