Here are some thoughts about bluegrass music. There have been several threads on similar topics in the past. If anyone has any suggestions or other ideas please post your thoughts. I hope this isn't too long.

Bluegrass Music (Part 1):

Preface and Definitions

Bluegrass music has become popular again. There are more bluegrass pickers today than ever. With the popularity of the movie, "O Brother Where Art Thou?" and the hit crossover song from the movie, "Man of Constant Sorrow," bluegrass music has become a national and international phenomena.

Even though "O Brother" used the "hayseed" or "hillbilly" stereotype that was originally associated with early country and bluegrass (as portrayed in the 70's on TV show's like Hee Haw and the Beverly Hillbillies), the music today is a sophisticated concert music with virtuoso performers. There are many styles and categories within the "Bluegrass" label. Media and press sources often try to define parameters of "what is bluegrass" without understanding the origin or any definition of the word.

New progressive groups (including Alison Krauss and Union Station; Nickel Creek) have been labeled "Bluegrass" by the media. Many groups have evolved from traditional bluegrass that have become popular not only in the country market but also in the popular mainstream. Whether they are "bluegrass" or not depends on your definition of bluegrass.

My Journey: The Bluegrass Messengers

In 1980's in South Carolina I learned some of the bluegrass repertoire while playing with Derrick Phillips. When I started my bluegrass band, The Bluegrass Messengers, in the mid 1990's, I renewed my love affair with bluegrass and old-time music. Since I teach guitar, fiddle, dobro, bass, and banjo, the band began as an opportunity for some of my talented students to perform "live" the music that they had been studying.

As one of the guitarists and singers for the Messengers I have seen the evolution of our group through the last 7 years and four CD's. Although we aren't a professional group, we enjoy playing and have had the fortune to perform with Doc Watson and other talented musicians.

Some of the students that have played with the Messengers have gone on to become successful bluegrass musicians and have won top prizes in bluegrass competitions. This has been the most rewarding aspect of organizing the Messengers.

For more information see the Bluegrass Messengers Online: BluegrassMessengers.com


What Is (Blue Grass) Bluegrass?

The word, "bluegrass," or originally two words, "blue grass," is a species of grass (Poa pratensis) identified with "Kentucky blue grass," which has running rootstocks and spreads rapidly. It is valuable as a pasture grass, as it endures both winter and drought better than other kinds, and is very nutritious.

Bluegrass is not really blue-it's green, but in the spring, bluegrass produces bluish-purple buds that when seen in large fields give a rich blue cast to the grass. Early pioneers found bluegrass growing on Kentucky's rich limestone soil, and traders began asking for the seed of the "blue grass from Kentucky." The name stuck and today Kentucky is known as the "Bluegrass State."

Bill Monroe (1911-1996), the Father of Bluegrass Music, created the bluegrass genre. By the 1920's Monroe had settled on the mandolin as his instrument. After performing first with brothers Birch and Charlie (Monroe Brothers), then as a duet with Charlie, he formed his own band in 1938. Later that year in Atlanta he organized the first Blue Grass Boys, which he named in honor of his home state, a trio with guitar, fiddle, and mandolin.

The band's personnel changed much over the years, but the classic bluegrass group was formed by Bill Monroe in the winter of 1945, when a young banjo player named Earl Scruggs, and guitarist/vocalist Lester Flatt, joined the band. The origin of bluegrass music is generally attributed to Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys' 1945-1946 band with Earl Scruggs featured playing three-finger style banjo. Many believe bluegrass music started that day that Earl Scruggs joined Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Chubby Wise, and Cedric Rainwater on the stage of the "Opry." His three-finger banjo roll style is what gives the bluegrass its "drive."

A Definition

The term bluegrass is a nickname from the "Bluegrass State," (Kentucky) that is applied to the music of Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys in the late 1940's. Bluegrass music is an acoustic ensemble music characterized by driving rhythms, improvised instrumental solos and close (high) harmony parts. The five primary concert instruments established by Bill Monroe are the guitar, the mandolin, the upright bass (or bass), the three-finger style banjo, the fiddle. Other instruments include the dobro (resophonic guitar played with a slide), electric bass, harmonica and sometimes percussion (drums, spoons etc.). Each instrument has developed a distinct role and style of playing within the bluegrass group.
Bluegrass music is considered a part of country music. Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass, explained it this way: "To me bluegrass is really THE country music. It was meant for country people."

The Origin of Bluegrass and the Bluegrass Genre
While some fans of bluegrass music date the style back to 1939, when Monroe formed his first Blue Grass Boys band, most believe that the classic bluegrass sound began in winter of 1945, when Earl Scruggs, a 21 year old banjo player from North Carolina, joined the band.
Scruggs played an innovative three-finger picking style on the banjo that energized audiences, and has since become simply, "Scruggs style" banjo. Equally influential in the classic 1945-46 line-up of the Blue Grass Boys were Lester Flatt, from Sparta, Tenn. on guitar and lead vocals against Monroe's tenor; Chubby Wise, from Florida, on fiddle; and Howard Watts, also known by his comedian name, "Cedric Rainwater," on acoustic bass.

The bluegrass genre (it take two groups to create a genre) was created when Ralph Stanley's band played a cover of Monroe's "Molly and Tenbrooks" arrangement in 1948.

Some Categories of Bluegrass

Traditional Bluegrass- is the authentic bluegrass music as the founding fathers played it. If Bill Monroe, the Stanley Brothers or Flatt & Scruggs didn't play it, and if it isn't played exactly as they played it, then it isn't bluegrass. This the 'classic' bluegrass sound.

Contemporary Bluegrass- isn't that far from traditional except it has more modern chord progressions with jazzier chords and some substitute chords. There are more distinct harmonies sometimes in three or four parts. Groups like the super group Seldom Scene or the Tony Rice Unit fit in the contemporary category.

Progressive Bluegrass- also known as newgrass, dawg music, jamgrass, and many other names, this type of music is often instrumental but always of a completely different arrangement than traditional or contemporary bluegrass. It commonly crosses genre borders by using electric instruments or fuses bluegrass with rock or jazz or other more mainstream music forms. Often younger with a varied music taste, the fans of progressive bluegrass don't care what you call it as long as it's good. Bela Fleck & The Flecktones (jaz), Leftover Salmon, and Nickel Creek are examples of what can be considered progressive bands.

Roots of Bluegrass

Bluegrass music evolved from music indigenous to the Southern Appalachian region including fiddle tunes, folk songs and blues. Monroe called it, "the old Southern sound."
Music from the Southern Appalachian region draws heavily on older forms including:

1) English ballads and songs brought to the US by the early settlers
2) Fiddle and instrumental music both from overseas and the US
3) Minstrel songs from the mid 1800's
4) Gospel or shape-note hymns and tunes
5) Popular songs and broadsides from the 19th Century

Around the turn of the century (1900) came the tin-pan alley songs, the medicine shows, ragtime, blues and jazz. Later in early 1920's the emergence of the rural string bands like the Leake County Revelers, Weem's Stringband, the Carter Brothers as well as solo performers like Fiddlin' John Carson, Doc Boggs, French Carpenter, Uncle Dave Macon and Clarence Ashley laid the foundation of bluegrass. These and the early country music artists like the Carter Family, Charlie Poole, the Mainer's, the Stoneman's, the Delmore's and the Blue Sky Boys played the old songs and old tunes now called "Old-time" music.

Old-time Music

Old-time music was the name given to mountain folk music. Old-time music is the main foundation for bluegrass music. It is the kind of music that Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers and in fact most rural people prior to the mid nineteen twenties, were raised with. It is the old unaccompanied English ballads like Barbara Allen, new American songs like Wild Bill Jones, old fiddle tunes like Devil's Dream, and newer banjo tunes like Cumberland Gap. It's a rich and varied heritage of music - as rich as the roots music of any country. It was played throughout rural America but has been identified with the rural Southeast, especially in the mountains. It is sung and played on a variety of acoustic instruments including the guitar and mandolin, which were newcomers to it in the early twentieth century. It was played by African-Americans as well as the English and Euro-Americans. Generally music before the 1940's is called "Old-time" music.

Old-time music is traditional folk music of the Southern Appalachians mixed with the influences of African-American musicians. The fiddle came over from Europe with the immigrants, the banjo came from Africa in primitive form and was refined and developed in the US cities in the minstrel era which started before the Civil War. The Civil War spread the banjo and the minstrel tunes into the remote Appalachian mountains, where they were adopted. So a general time frame for "old-time" music would be from the 1840's to the 1940's.

The term, "old-time music," can be traced back to 1923, when Georgia's Fiddlin' John Carson waxed "The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" for the OKeh label. Ralph Peer deemed Carson's performance "pluperfect awful," but enough rural Americans disagreed to make the record a hit, the first in the history of what's now called country music. Carson remarked at his first whiff of success: "I'll have to quit making moonshine and start making records." Carson's music appeared in OKeh's popular music catalog under the "old-time music" category.

Most of the "old-time" musicians were white rural agrarian Southerners. They had no formal music training and played primarily stringed instruments. Their song repertoire could be broadly divided between secular and sacred and further subdivided into categories of traditional, commercial (often of sufficient vintage to have entered oral tradition), and original (often topical and tragic) songs. These general elements are found equally in the commercial "old time music" recordings of the 1920s and in the performances captured decades later.
Similarities and Differences Between Bluegrass and Old-time Music
Bluegrass has some of these characteristics of the old-time string bands from the 1920's and 30's. Certainly the vocal style is similar and some string bands sang a high harmony part. The vocal style is also similar the to the old gospel and shape-note singing found in rural churches in the south. The rhythm guitar style of the string bands with bass notes on the beat, off beat strums and bass runs is very similar to bluegrass rhythm guitar. The style of fiddling is also very similar.

The main difference between an old-time string band sound and the bluegrass sound is the banjo. Some bluegrass enthusiasts credit Earl Scruggs and the development of the three-finger or "Scruggs" style banjo playing as the origin of bluegrass. Most old-time bands have a claw-hammer or mountain style banjo player. Although other old-time performers like Charlie Poole played three-finger style, the banjo was usually used in an accompaniment or back-up role.
From the unified sound of old-time music, bluegrass music developed distinct styles for each instrument of the group. Today each member of the bluegrass group should be a soloist and provide specific rhythms and fills.

-Richie