Bluegrass Through and Through: Ag Hill Band Celebrates the Old-Time American Music

By: Jamie Creamer

Bluegrass–Country music played on unamplified stringed instruments (banjo, fiddle, guitar and mandolin) and characterized by a distinct, high-pitched, nasal style of singing that creates a so-called "high lonesome" sound.

They don't have a tour bus and roadies, and they haven't yet been invited to appear onstage at the Ryman. But on Auburn's Ag Hill and beyond, a bunch of bluegrass musicians known as Heart Pine are making quite a name for themselves.

Playing mostly traditional bluegrass and gospel, with a scattering of good old hard-core country classics, Heart Pine offers a toe-tappin', knee-slappin', hand-clappin' sound that entertains audiences of all ages and all walks of life.

Heart Pine is a regular part of the lineup at certain annual events–including, every fall, the AU Agriculture Alumni Association's Ag Roundup and the Lee County Historical Fair and Loachapoka Syrup Soppin'–and stays steadily booked year-round at events ranging from family days at nursing homes to banquet nights at trade association conferences.

Heart Pine's founding members are bluegrass aficionados Jim Armstrong and Dale Monks, two Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES) researchers and Extension specialists who are bluegrass to the core. Armstrong is AU's wildlife damage management guru in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences; Monks focuses on cotton production in the Department of Agronomy and Soils.

The musical partnership began a decade ago, shortly after Monks moved to Auburn and started attending Auburn Church of Christ, where Armstrong is a member. Armstrong's wife, Shaliah, met Monks first and told her husband he just had to meet this new guy who, she had discovered, was big-time into bluegrass. Armstrong was a bit skeptical.

"People'll say they're bluegrass fans, but then you can say something about Bill Monroe"–who, as anybody even halfway literate in the genre knows, is THE father of bluegrass music–"and they'll say, ‘Who?'" says Armstrong, a man who would have a Ph.D. in bluegrass history if such a degree existed. "That tells you right there, they are not serious about bluegrass.

"But Dale–Dale was serious."

They started getting together to play now and then, Armstrong on his mandolin and Monks on the banjo. Soon, they recruited fellow church member and AAES researcher Kenny Brock to join their sessions. Brock, a pathobiology professor in the AU College of Veterinary Medicine, is a masterful guitar picker and has a rich, deep voice that perfectly complemented Armstrong's and Monks' tenor voices. The members of the trio called themselves the Rank Strangers, the title of a gospel song penned by "I'll Fly Away" writer Albert Brumley.

Brock eventually had to bow out of the band due to other commitments, but in the meantime, Monks' wife, Terri, had come on board.

"One day she mentioned that she'd like to learn to play the bass fiddle so she could play with us every now and then, and the next day, Dale went out and bought her one," Armstrong says. The Monks basically learned the instrument together. Like Armstrong and Brock, the Monks play by ear.

With Brock gone, the group, which at some point had dropped the Rank Strangers name, was in serious need of someone on lead guitar. Enter bluegrass fanatic Will Underwood, who has bachelor's and master's degrees in wildlife sciences from Auburn and currently is working toward his Ph.D. under Armstrong. Not long after Auburn businessman Will Hardy–who, incidentally, is a CoAg alum with a master's in agricultural economics–joined the group on rhythm guitar.

As for vocals, it's Armstrong and Monks singing lead and tenor; Mrs. Monks, harmony; Hardy, baritone; and Underwood, bass.

It was Monks' idea to rename the band Heart Pine. Heart pine is the actual heartwood of the Southern pine family of trees, primarily the longleaf, shortleaf and loblolly. Heartwood, which begins to develop after 20 or so years of growth is the older, harder, nonliving central wood of trees that is usually darker, denser, less permeable and more durable than the surrounding sapwood.

"It just had a good sound to it, and it was the kind of name we were looking for, because it reflected our agriculture and forestry and wildlife ties, and it was traditional and Southern," Armstrong says.

As mentioned earlier, the pickers do play for diverse audiences, both locally and "on the road."

"We play just about anywhere people invite us–conferences, banquets, formal programs, picnics, nursing homes, church dinners and so on–and so far most of our experiences have been positive," Monks says. "I can't say for sure that everyone who hears us is having a good time, but I can assure you that we are."

To keep variety in their shows, Heart Pine plays at least a couple of new numbers every time they perform.

"One of us will come up with something we want us to try, and we'll give it a try," Armstrong says.

Monks says all Heart Pine members are family-oriented, so to keep from interfering with members' after-work family time, Heart Pine usually practices weekdays during lunch, either across from campus at the Auburn Christian Student Center or, when the weather's nice, at the Arboretum.

"If we practice on the weekends or at night, that'll usually be either in our backyard, or Will Hardy's backyard, or Jim's backyard," Monks says. "We are very big in backyards."

Heart Pine is a tightly knit bunch. Monks says while it's bluegrass that got them together, it's friendship and fellowship that keeps them bound.

That's a big part of why none of the other members will even hear of it when Armstrong gets discouraged and says he's just going to give it up.

In his heyday, Jim Armstrong played a mean mandolin, picking those strings like nobody's business. So it bothered him, a few years back, when quite suddenly, every time he'd pick up the mandolin, his right hand refused to play. There wasn't any pain; the hand just went out on him. Same thing when he tried to write; it was nothing doing.

Eventually, he was diagnosed with dystonia, a somewhat rare neurological movement disorder in which involuntary muscle contractions cause twisting and abnormal postures. Often it affects only one part of the body. For right-handed Armstrong, it is, of all things, his right hand. He can't write checks; he can't take notes at conferences; and worst of all, he can only strum his mandolin.

"I had just bought the mandolin of my dreams, too," Armstrong recalls. "A 1924 Gibson, beautifully restored–the instrument I'd been searching for, for years and years. So I finally find it, and two weeks later, I get the diagnosis."

He's learned to take his condition in stride, but sometimes, he admits, the impact it's had on his music can get him down.

"The group was getting going real good when this happened," he says. "My not being able to play has really changed the dynamics of the group and what songs we can play.

"Sometimes I get to thinking they're probably just keeping me around for sentimental reasons."

Monks isn't even listening to that kind of talk.

"This is something we do for fun and relaxation most of all, and the whole key to why we all enjoy it so much is the fellowship that we have as friends," Monks says. "Jim is our resident bluegrass historian, tenor singer and the guy we depend on to remember all the words. If I have anything to do with it, Jim's staying with us."

Kind of gives a whole new meaning to Heart Pine's standard closer: "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."

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