To me Old timey music and Bluegrass are pretty much the same but Bluegrass has more virtuoso playing in the instruments



Captain Birdseye wrote:

"you must be joking,modern jazz style solos.
can you imagine thelonius monk and earl scruggs,chalk and cheese"

The Jazz in Bluegrass was Bebopish Jazz (modern for that time period) while Western Swing had Swing Jazz. Something interesting...

    BIll Monroes own personal thoughts on what Bluegrass was:

            
"It's got a hard drive to it. It's Scotch bagpipes and old-time fiddlin'. It's Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. It's blues and jazz and it has a high lonesome sound. It's plain music that tells a story. It's played from my heart to your heart, and it will touch you." - Bill Monroe


Kentucky's State Bluegrass Song: "Blue Moon of Kentucky"

Probably the best technical but easy description of Bluegrass...

      "Monroe is most famous for creating bluegrass music (although it was not labeled as such until many years later). Despite the notion that bluegrass is a traditional style, Monroe mixed elements of old-time string bands with the blues, rural spiritual singing, and jazz solos. He abandoned the breakdowns and "hootin' and hollerin'" that characterized rural string band music for carefully rehearsed numbers that incorporated virtuoso solos by each player. Monroe also pushed the mandolin to the foreground where the fiddle usually dominated country string-bands.

Bill Monroe: Creating a Tradition