Hi Mark,

I appreciate your input. Yes, the scholars have put the point on "the birth of bluegrass" quite precisely, haven't they?

Problem is, scholars only make such proclamations based upon recorded evidence--in this case music recordings.

It isn't so simple though, when you are talking about music that was being played, but not recorded. Especially during Great Depressions and world war.

But I'm not going to be the one to research that aspect of bluegrass. I just find it curious that everyone is so quick to assume that just because there is very good research by academics on a subject, that somehow means we have 'a whole truth' about a thing. That is never the case with academic research, but it does speak volumes as to why so many baby boomers think 'experts' have all the answers, and we can't legitimately challenge them and their results.

I have always found it interesting that bluegrass is one of the most important musical developments in the US to emerge from that era, yet we don't tend to look at why that particular music offshoot took off and captured the musical imaginations of so many Americans who had lived through the Great Depression and the war. I'm far more interested in that aspect of the music than it's 'origins', which I really don't care much about at all.