I'm sure there is some backlash. I know several people who love most forms of traditional music but won't play or listen to bluegrass (or country) because they feel it's too closely associated with political and social attitudes they find abhorrent. Others, myself included, try to look past those things and embrace only the music.

I remember attending the large bluegrass festivals in the late sixties and early seventies. It was a time when long haired young people were sometimes brutalized and shorn by insecure rednecks. Still, hippies and rednecks could attend a bluegrass festival without the slightest tension. They listened and jammed together and even helped each other deal with the, often spartan, accomodations. No one talked about social or political issues, they just played music.

These days I'm usually too busy to get far afield but the bluegrass players here in eastern Iowa aren't rednecks and have no tendancy to exclude people. Bluegrass festivals here aren't too rigid. The same players might be in a hard core jam in the morning and sitting in a folk song circle that afternoon. Being a bluegrass festival, bluegrass music predominates but we don't see many folks with bad attitudes toward other players.

I agree that bluegrass music is way too white even when there is no intended descrimination. Isn't it odd that American whites feel drawn to the music of other ethnicities but the reverse is not necessarily true.

      - Mark