Lowcountry,

There are a great many GREAT bluegrass songs. "Fox On The Run" happens to be a rock-n-roll song written and performed by Manfred Mann, a British R&R band from the '60s.

For a northern, urbane listener unaccustomed to bluegrass music, the challange is to let go of preconceived notions about what music must be. We have the same problem listening to any music from a different culture.

Bluegrass musicians listen to all other forms of music and often adapt some of that material to their own chosen genre. Results of this experimentation can be varried but that is how the music grows and evolves. On the other hand, I've often been saddened to hear folks put bluegrass music down because it doesn't sound like the music they are used to or isn't what their friends like.

For a really great set of bluegrass songs, pick up the recent "Ancient Songs" CD by Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. The liner notes provide a wonderful background for the music and go a long way to explain why it sounds the way it does.

Songs like "The Walls Of Time," "Tall Pines" and hundreds of others present the best of what bluegrass music has to offer when expertly performed. If you listen to the best of the bluegrass fiddle players and then listen to vocal harmonies, you'll see that one immitates the other back and forth in a way that is truly exciting. You get aspects of blues, jazz, gospel and pop mixed together with folk and old-timey influences presented with musicianship and intensity of a very high order. It may be an acquired taste but I think you'll find it worth acquiring. At least I hope so.

Let me know what you find out.

- Mark