Most of the country acts doing bluegrass now are people who used to do bluegrass before. My taste is very traditional, and I take my bluegrass seriously so I hope they won't ruin it with their star syndrome. On the other hand, it's the music I love regardless of who does it, so if I hear good bluegrass on the radio (yeah, right, imagine that) I don't care who's doing it.

I was actually more upset with Alison Kraus giving up bluegrass to become a country/pop star or whatever genre it is that she does now. I remember seeing her at Strawberry Park bluegrass festival with Alison Brown playing banjo, and they were just two kids in jeans putting on a helluva show. I have no problem with them growing and experimenting musically, but I do miss the sounds they used to make.

As for jumping on the bluegrass bandwagon, this music begs people to jump aboard. It's all about participating, and probably the majority of people who attend a few bluegrass festivals eventually take up an instrument and join the bandwagon. The connotations of jumping aboard are different though, because there's rarely any serious money involved, so people do it for love, do it for community, do it for the music. Maybe those country/pop stars have the same motivation?