In the case of Allan and Rick Spinney, family members who play together, stay together.
The brothers grew up exactly a year apart in Nova Scotia. Besides sharing an Aug. 5 birthday, they both learned musical instruments — respectively the guitar and banjo.
After labouring on the same logging team, the two formed a bluegrass band, and now spent much of the year singing, playing and touring together.
Their latest Spinney Brothers album is quite appropriately called Side By Side — which the brothers always have been.
Younger bro Rick has met plenty of feuding siblings, and attributes his close and harmonious relationship with Allan to a simple thing — pecking order.
“Most things in life are simpler if you know the pecking order,” said Rick, who performs with the Spinney Brothers band on Sunday, Oct. 23, at the Elks Lodge in Red Deer. “I just accept that Allan is the older one” and by virtue of being born first, he occasionally gets deferential treatment.
“I guess I’ve been more submissive over the years,” admitted Rick. “But I find it’s when both people are too headstrong that problems start.”
Being the second, easy-going kid hasn’t worked out too badly for the 45-year-old banjo player, who contributes original songs to the group that also includes mandolin/fiddle player Gary Dalrymple and bassist Terry Mumford.
One of Rick’s latest is I’m Gonna Try. The toe-tapper is about a guy, who not being a whiz at architecture or art, can’t promise his love a castle or painting, but concludes with “all I can say is I’m going to try.”
Another relatable tune about an average Joe is the band’s cover of a Sheb Wooley ditty. It’s about a man who walks out of the shower and doesn’t recognize the chubby, bald person staring back at him from the full-length mirror.
Don’t Look Good Naked (Anymore) is a good icebreaker with the audience, said Rick, with a laugh. “We have an older demographic, a lot of our fans are 50, 60, 70 years old, so it’s a little easier for them to relate to a song like that.”
Rick believes the appeal of bluegrass music is that it’s about regular people who face life’s trials with a certain stoicism and acceptance. The music that originated in the rural, blue-collar parts of Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee has a working-man flavour to it, said Rick — and an irrepressible energy.
The musician attributes this to the infectious, driven sound of the five-string banjo. “It certainly struck a nerve with me,” he said, noting he wanted to learn to play the instrument as soon as he first heard it.
Although the Spinney Brothers perform a lot of traditional bluegrass tunes, Rick has heard some purists say it’s with a difference. “One lady from North Carolina said she’s heard a lot of banjo players, but she feels I play with a certain accent. She said, ‘It’s kind of like the way you guys speak in Canada. It’s really neat.’ ”
Tickets to the 7 p.m. concert at 6315 Horn St., sponsored by the Waskasoo Bluegrass Music Society, are $25 from the Parkland Mall service desk, 53rd Street Music, and the Key Hole. For out-of-town ticket locations, call 403-347-1363.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com
— copyright Red Deer Advocate