Passing on the Gift at Common Ground on the Hill

Scott Ainslie stepped onto the stage and swept back his long, graying hair. He slung his 1931 National, a guitar he bought 20 years ago in a pawn shop in Georgia, over his arm.

 And then he began to play the blues.

“If I’ve got a guitar, and a street corner, I can make a living,” he said. “And I can get to your heart as effectively with my guitar, and my hands, as a rock n’ roll band can, and maybe closer, because it’s just me.”

Teaching the historical roots of blues music, especially to the younger generation, is an essential part of Ainslie’s work. He told Patch why the Blues are so important at a recent Common Ground on the Hill concert.

Common Ground is a two week arts festival at McDaniel College. Artists come from around the globe to teach and learn unique and interesting art forms. 

“Human culture, just like the dodo, can disappear,” he said. “In human terms, what the old men and women of blues gave me is a profound gift, I have a responsibility and a desire to give it away again.”

Ainslie said he learned his ‘gift,’ particularly fiddle, from 70-year-olds in West Virginia who couldn’t write, but could play. At the same time, he was a music theory undergraduate, composing eight-tonal brass quintets.

“I like the art of a good song,” he said.

He said he even appreciated the contemporary styles of hip-hop and rap.

“I was paying more attention to it when it was not so heavily commercial and heavily gangster,” he said. “I think that America is in love with guns and violence and I don’t think we need to glorify that. But it very quickly became a parody where people we’re talking about 'bitches and hoes'.”

Those contemporary styles are more present, according Ainslie. But he said he will always attempt to reach the younger generation as long as there is a market for his traditional music, like at Common Ground.

He’s tried to accomplish this goal by transcribing the full works of Robert Johnson, a Delta Blues musician who died in the 1930s. Johnson, according to Ainslie, influenced the likes of the Rolling Stones and Eric Calpton. Ainslie has developed a “how-to-play DVD” and sheet music, and continues to dedicate many of his sets to Johnson.

“People think they know what the blues is,” he said. “It’s an identifiable thing. And especially with this concert, this is focused around one set of culture, one style of music, and it helps sell it, it’s a marketing thing.”

Though Blues Night is one of the most popular concerts at Common Ground, and Ainslie said he has seen the audiences grow in the 14 years he’s attended, he said the camp has slightly shrunk since the economic downturn.

“I kind of lose money when I come here,” he said. “[But] this is my life’s work. This is part of what we do, I’ve been given my life by elder musicians who showed me what they knew, and welcomed me into their homes. This is one of the ways I give back.”

For a list of his tour dates, click here.

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