Bluegrass "Fact" Sheet

Origins of Bluegrass

Father of Bluegrass: Bill Monroe, aka William Smith Monroe, born 1911 Rosine, Kentucky, youngest of large family, d. 1996

Bill Monroe's musical influences: Mother Melissa's side of family was musical, she played fiddle, as did Bill's favorite Uncle Pen, with whom he lived with after his parents died. Also Arnold Schultz, local African-American guitar player whose musical skills were highly revered but never recorded.

Original Bluegrass Band: Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys, formed 1939, though the bluegrass sound was not clearly defined until Monroe's 1945-47 band.

Archetypal Bluegrass Band: Bill Monroe, mandolin; Earl Scruggs, banjo (3-finger style, or "Scruggs-style"); Lester Flatt, guitar; Chubby Wise, fiddle; Howard Watts, aka Cedric Rainwater, bass.

Sounds like...?: Bluegrass is a powerful, passionate music, often hard-driving but with plenty of room for jazz-like improvisation, and an emphasis on a singing style and vocal harmonies that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up when it's done well. The subject matter of the songs encompass traditional country themes as well as a wide variety of contemporary concerns. Bluegrass music has been called "folk music in overdrive," although its two main music elements are: (1) the ballads, dance tunes, and religious music --- which evolved into old-time country music and "brother duet" vocal styles --- brought by immigrants from the British Isles; and (2) the evolving African-American styles of blues, jazz, gospel, and ragtime.

Source of Name: Kentucky known as Bluegrass State, Bill Monroe wanted to acknowledge his origins

Instruments of bluegrass: standard group includes mandolin, banjo, fiddle, guitar, upright bass. The banjo is of African origins, the mandolin is Italian, the guitar, Spanish, and both the fiddle (violin) and bass are descended from the Arab rebec, with techniques & manufacturing refined in Italy & Germany. The other common bluegrass instrument, the resophonic guitar or Dobro, originated in Czechoslovakia and was first used in Hawaiian music.

Musical sources of bluegrass: "Old time" country music, known at the time as "hillbilly" music was primarily from English, Irish and Scots origins, as handed down in Appalachian areas. African banjo music, as sped up and altered in the North Carolina area and brough to bluegrass by Earl Scruggs, Snuffy Jenkins and Don Reno; gospel / church music of the south (Baptist, Methodist and Holiness Churches), and African-derived tunes, harmonies and rhythmic influences were incorporated by Bill Monroe into a music that was sped up and the vocals were pushed up into higher registers, to create the "high lonesome sound." Influence of jazz and western swing is apparent: bluegrass song arrangements follow the convention whereby featured instruments take solo breaks, improvising on the melody. (In contrast to Old Time music, in which the typical arrangement is for the instruments to play mostly in unison.)

Bluegrass in Film, TV: While the use of bluegrass in film and TV tends to reinforce the "ignorant hillbilly" stereotypes, these mass media appearances do have the effect of introducing the music to urban audiences. Film: Bonnie & Clyde (Flatt & Scruggs & Foggy Mtn. Boys), Deliverance, and this year's O Brother, Where Art Thou (Coen Bros.). TV: Hee-Haw, Beverly Hillbillies, the Andy Griffith Show.

Bluegrass as "hillbilly" music: some old-time stringbands or jugbands preceeding bluegrass (in the tens and twenties, for example) played up the "hillbilly" image, wearing overalls and straw hats, carrying whiskey jugs, speaking with exaggerated country twangs, singing novelty songs about mules, etc. Radio and recording executives encouraged this image to categorize and sell the music to rural audiences and rural folk newly moved to the cities. Bill Monroe preferred the image of the gentleman farmer, insisted his sidemen wear suits and rejected the hillbilly label, comporting himself in a dignified, if aloof manner. An additional difference was that Monroe preferred to play his music at concerts, rather than for dances. Old time music was primarily dance music.

Bluegrass as "folk" music: in the 60s, bluegrass was promoted to urban, educated audiences as part of the Folk Music revival. It was warmly received, spawning a concert at Carnegie Hall by Flatt & Scruggs, college-circuit tours that supported many bluegrass musicians, and inspiring the careers of "second and third generation" bluegrass favorites like the New Lost City Ramblers, Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, etc &.

Bluegrass as "white"music: although many southern states had laws actually requiring that record stores keep "race" records (recorded by African-American artists) separate from "hillbilly" or "country" records, there is no clear distinction between the music of white and black southerners. Like Hank Williams, one of Bill Monroes earliest musical teachers was an African-American guitarist, in Bill's case, Arnold Schultz. Bill hired African-American DeFord Bailey to tour with him for some time, despite the difficulty it caused when trying to find a boarding house that would take both "races." The banjo is originally a gourd instrument that came with West Africans who were forced into slavery here. The "blue notes" that differentiate bluegrass from old time country music are attributed to African musical influence. The shift in rythmic emphasis from the down beat (as in Irish music) to a punched back beat can be seen as another element of African musical influence on bluegrass.

Women in bluegrass: Bessie Lee Mauldin played bass and toured with early Bluegrass Boys, and Sally Ann Forrester played accordion and sang with the Bluegrass Boys during WWII. Women have become more present in bluegrass in recent decades: Alison Krauss, fiddler, bandleader, and best-selling artist in the history of the music; Allison Brown, banjo player, composer and band leader; Lynn Morris, guitarist and bandleader; San Francisco's own Good Old Persons, spawning award-winning musicians Sally Van Meter (Dobroist), Laurie Lewis (fiddler, singer, band leader, composer) and Kathy Kallick (guitarist, singer, bandleader, composer); and South Bay favorite Sidesaddle has a 20 year history as a majority-female band. More than half the bands in the SFBOT have women musicians. The NCBS, CBA and IBMA all have women board members, "Bluegrass Unlimited's" editor is a woman, and IBMA board member Murphy Henry publishes a quarterly "Women in Bluegrass" publication.

Monroe's Bluegrass Boys as farm team of the genre: Monroe was a demanding bandleader with a rigorous touring schedule and an ear for recruiting and developing young talent. For these and other reasons, the Bluegrass Boys had a fairly regular turnover, with many of Monroe's sidemen spinning off to form their own groups or anchor other "bluegrass" outfits in their home territory. Notable players and spin-off groups: Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs (Flatt & Scruggs & the Foggy Mtn. Boys), Jimmy Martin, self-proclaimed "King of Bluegrass" (Jimmy Martin & the Sunny Mtn. Boys), Carter Stanley (The Stanley Brothers), Peter Rowan (The Peter Rowan Band).

Bluegrass Institutions: Grand Ol' Opry, Nashville Tennessee; WSM (Monroe stronghold station that shared his initials); Martha White Flour sponsorship of Flatt & Scruggs; Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom Festival (Bean Blossom, Indiana); International Bluegrass Music Association; Bluegrass Unlimited magazine; Bluegrass Festivals across the US, i.e., the Bluegrass Classic in Ohio (now a children s cancer benefit), Father's Day Festival in Grass Valley, CA (26th year in 2001), etc.