American Music
John Duffey interview
John, if I'm right the Seldom Scene was an accident.
All of the members of the group had gotten out of the music business. We had been with other bands, me with the Country Gentlemen, Mike with the New Shades of Grass, and we all happened to be at a social event; a party. Suddenly we were in the corner, playing and singing a few songs. There was a bar in Washington DC that wanted a band and we said why don't we got here and take a few box a week during the regular cardgame. From there it became something, without any particular intention. It just worked, shall we say:  we became famous (laughing) without intending to go back in the business full time
Not too long ago New Grass Revival had a chart record. Does that mean there is a growing interest for bluegrass and/or newgrass?
There has been for some time. People call it now newgrass but we wish they' call it acoustic music. We wish we weren't labelled. We do different types of music but we do it acousticly instead of electrically. And so far we are pretty succesful. So we do it our way instead of dong it their way and it seemed to have worked.
The Seldom Scene is the only acoustic band at this festival. Is this a different type of audience for you?
In the States it's separated. As I told you before,crossing over toa different audience is difficult. Country music fans don't want us and we don't wanna play for them. There isn't much crossover in the US between the two. They are pretty much one way or the other. So this is different for us but as the audience appreciates what we're doing we enjoy it too.
Among the albums you have recorded is one with Jonathan Edwards. How did you get together?
Jonathan had moved into the area where we live, the suburbs of Washington DC and he started coming to the Birchmere, an acoustic club where we are working now for over 11 years, every thursday night. One night he came in and introduced himself and said he knew a lot of our songs and that he would love to sing a few with us. He did and proceeded to do this and after a while we said by the lack of something better, why don't we do an album together. So we gathered up the material and recorded it.

Did it sell as good as the other ones?
So far it hasn't  made any difference. It hasn' sold any better or any worse. The best we did was "Live at the Cellar Door" recorded in that nightclub in Washington. That is still selling although it is recorded at Christmas week in 1974.
Are you still working with the same line-up?
No,the original singer/guitarplayer was John Starling. He was a doctor in the army. He stayed til september 1977. He spent a year and a half figuering out if he wanted to be a musician or a doctor and I think through family pressure he became a doctor. But the others, Ben Eldridge, Mike Aldridge, Tom Gray and me are original members.
For my ears the Seldom Scene isn't a traditional bluegrass band. Is that your intention?
Well, the one problem with this type of music, I felt, is bringing in new material. Songs about mothers, dogs and little kids. So we decided that there is  a lot of music out there. So people send us songs and without changing ourselves we did songs like Eric Clapton's  Lay down Sally. We do it with other instrumentation. Shall we say it has been extremely helpful and good for he music to bring in material like that.
Do you feel like being a crossover band between bluegrass and country?
For me there hasn't been country music since Hank Williams. It has all began since Elvis Presley came along. Nashville said: We can do that too. So they changed the whole scene. A lot of it was "poor man's rock 'n' roll" or whatever you may call it but there wasn't much country music in it for a long time. I think Ricky Skaggs comes very close. But I don't consider us a country crossover band. The crossover audience we get are the rock fans.
I know a record store owner in Kentucky who ownes three different stores in three different towns and he told me that we have the strongest audience because some buy Seldom Scene and Led Zeppelin and that doesn't make any sense to me. So in the crossover field we work more to the rock fans.
Is there any differe3nce in audience?
We were in Toulouse in France and the audience was really good. The only thing I suffer from is that I only speak English. I told my wife yesterday that if I was going to be here for a longer time I definitely would have brushed up my German, but for only two days...
Another real succesful tour we did was in Japan in ortober 1985. That was great and it was the only time I've seen people in an auditorium with monoculars looking what you do. how you play certain things. I really enjoyed that.
Last question.There's a bluegrass show at Fan Fair. How come you'e not playing there?
Only because we weren't invited. We don' t mind much, we really like it here but maybe next year.
The year was 1987, the place Wetzlar, Germany, John Duffey was recovering from a mild stroke,felt good enough to play and talk although he wasn't a 100 % yet. Little did we know he had only ten more years to go. He was a Gentleman who should never be forgotten.
(The Seldom Scene)
BLUE RIDGE CABIN
In memory of a Seldom Scene Country Gentleman,
born 1934 Washington D.C.
passed away 1996 Arlington, VA
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1972  Act 1
Rebel
1977  The New Seldom Scene Album
Rebel
1983 At the Scene
Sugar Hill
1975 Live at the Cellar Door
Rebel
1985  Blue ridge
Jonathan Edwards & Seldom Scene
Sugar Hill
left to right: Tony Rice, Ben Eldridge, John Duffey, Alan O'Bryant, Ricky Skaggs, Sharon White, Linda Ronstadt, Lou Reed, John Starling, Tom Gray, Emmylou Harris, Jonathan Edwards, Paul Craft & Mile Auldridge.
1988  15th Anniversary Celebration,
live at the Kennedy Center
(and their very special guests)
Sugar Hill
1992 Scene 20
20th Anniversary concert
Sugar Hill
1996 Dream Scene
Sugar Hill
2000 Scene it all
Sugar Hill
2000 Always in style: a collection
John Duffey
Sugar Hill
1987  The Seldom Scene at Wetzlar, Germany
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