I'm sure there are many amongst the mudcat historians who can elaborate on this and correct whatever misconceptions I might have, but here is my two-bits worth. . .

As I understand it, although the two kids grew up in the same neighborhood, so to speak, the roots of bluegrass are more European and the those of the blues more African. You can here much of the Scottish and Irish influences in bluegrass and appalachian music. Blues roots can be heard distinctly in the work chants the field hands and plantation workers used to keep their often forbidden language and culture alive in the new world. Of course, there has been so much cultural cross pollination that you can find bits and pieces of one in the other, lyrically in common themes and in the use of the same instruments.