There is a fair amount of bluegrass that I do NOT like, believe it or not! I can get pretty tired of the old chestnuts pretty quick. Thanks, Jerry, for all the good ShoreGrass remarks! We need more people like you who don't like bluegrass!

Coupla quick comments:

GrassStains said that bluegrass had "more a recording and performance tradition than a back porch stomp, so it may have a more commercial element in it"... This is apparently true of the early days, but today it definitely has more of a "back porch stomp" to it, especially around MY house. One of the reasons it is growing so much in popularity --yes, it is-- is because it is so participative and many people who start out as audience eventually take up an instrument and join in.

Bluegrass is generally not dance music, although a lot of the faster stuff --there are LOTS of slower songs, by the way-- is toe-tapping. It is rhythmic, however, with much less room for creative fluctuations and interpretations of tempo such as found in classical and some folk. There's no conductor to keep everyone together, and there are multiple musicians in a band or jam who need to hang together, after all.

(I'll be back...)