I just had a brief discussion with someone about a local bluegrass jam. He was one of the founding members of the jam and has a very emotional attachment to the music. He's a bass player. If it were up to him, if you didn't qualify either via your instrumentation or stylistic approach you would not be welcome to the jam that he has been supporting. His advice, just go off and start your own event. Of course others at the event do not adopt his strict policy and it's a constant angst for him to even have to listen to those who do not perform within his strict definition of bluegrass. I was questioning this definition and that set him off. In an extemely agitated state he threw the keys of the grange hall, where the event takes place, at me, effectively announcing his refusal to help in this regard with the event if I couldn't see things his way.

Knowing something about the early days of the father of this idiom I challenged him to define what his definition of bluegrass was. He wasn't interested in any kind of head to head discussion on the topic. He simply stated that his only interest was in bluegrass music. He didn't want to hear folk music, or blues music, or swing music, or old timey, or fiddle tunes, or anything else at the event.

Correct me if I'm wrong here folks, but didn't Bill get influenced by an awful lot of what was going on around him at the time he first began playing. Certainly those influences were what helped to create bluegrass.

I was told by a friend of his that they thought bluegrass was a dying art form and that only a few in the area were of like mind. How can they keep this dying art form alive if their attitude about others trying to join in is, "Be bluegrass or get out"? Not everyone is going to immediately be able to solo leads from the get go, or be able to play bluegrass bass, fingerpick banjo, mandolin, fiddle, or Dobro. Even Bill himself didn't create bluewgrass in a day. He further illuminated that their jam has been beset by other styles of music in the past like rock and roll and that they went so far as to post a sign that stated only bluegrass should be played.

It occurred to me that Bill probably did not start out with the notion to create such a rabid point of view about this music. The idea that this bass player could allow the creation of a few notes on various instrument(s) upset him so much is strange to me. I feel like he's lost the whole point to playing and entertaining with music. I guess my point of view is just more tolerant than his.

I have some covers of Bill doing gospel music. How can this attitude of exclusivity by his devotees jive with that particular religious point of view?

It just seems to me like there should be a more open attitude about it all but this fellow does not seem to think so. Does that make his ideology more of a club or cult association with the music? If it's a club then by all means keep away any of those who don't meet your standards. Maybe the word jam is where the grey area lies. Jam seems to imply a mixture of elements. It is a "bluegrass" jam but what is bluegrass?

I don't mean for this conversation to get too high and lonesome. Just the facts please. What is a good working definition of the style?

Thanks all, ghost