BLUEGRASS

Lieven,
I watched a series on TV with a guy called Phil Cunningham, a scottish musician, he mainly plays the accordian but can play much more. ( he plays along with Aly Bain, the famous scots fiddler)
So anyway, he had a program that ran for 6 or 7 weeks, he was touring Scotland looking at all different types of music from Folk to Rock, from pop to churchy stuff too, everything that has reflected and inspired the people of Scotland, or at least quite a few of them.
In his last episode he ventured out of Scotland to America and Canada.
He was talking a lot about bluegrass and country folk, folk, country etc.
Bluegrass was born when the Banjo was introduced to the fiddle,guitar, accordian. The scots and irish took over the accordians and fiddles, not too sure where they guitar came from to join bluegrass and I am sure I am right in saying Phil said the Banjo was introduced to america from Egypt or somewhere like that.
The banjo was never played along with the fiddle/mandolin etc until it started in America.
As far as I could make out from what a lot of the famous ( I am pressuming they were) bluegrass players were saying, bluegrass was a combined mixture of instruments and cultures to get the results of bluegrass. They just sat and jammed away with acoustic intruments.

It also said on the program that bluegrass is coming back in a big way after some film soundtrack has been outselling other albums. The film wit hGeorge Cluney in it. I have not seen it yet so I have no idea what the soundtrack is like but i think it must be good.

Ken

Although alot of so called 'pure country' fans don't like to admit it, the blues has influenced nearly every style of American music in some way. Bluegrass developed from a type of folkish music which if I'm not mistaken was called 'grass roots', songs known by front porch pickers and an appalachian take on standard hymns. the fact that the fiddle, banjo, and mandolin, three of the most prominent bluegrass instruments, came from Africa suggests that early rural blues singers and freed slaves had some kind of influence on the first bluegrass pickers. Bluegrass seems to stay close to traditional gospel music, probably part of its growth came from playing out of the hymnals with thier own kind of instruments.
  Texas had a significant flow of Irish settlers, who brought with them a ballad style of song and a love for drinking. When Texas cowboy culture grew from this and met the mexican picking styles of the southwest, what emerged were large halls where people would meet to eat drink and listen to music. The 'western ballad' grew from this style of music.
  In louisiana you had cajun music, probably due to french influences, louisiana folks loved accordian.
    All across the south rural blues was springign up, in alot of ways the ideal of a guy singing alone with a guitar about love and loss and hopping trains can be accredited more to blues than anybody.
  NOW, when music started to be marketed you had variety radio shows. You were booked according to this standard, if you were white and from the south, you went under the 'Hillbilly music label', if you were black and from the south you were 'blues', and if you were from a big city like New York or something you were called 'Pop'. In the south there started to pop up these shows, where people from Texas, Louisiana, and Appalachia would meet to be on the hillbilly music radio. When these styles met, mixed with each other and in alot of ways with bluesy structures and ideals, there was given birth to..... drum roll.... country music.
While all of the styles that made country music continued to grow on thier own, bluegrass and country blues seemed to mix well togther, hence Hank Williams and Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe could all at thier own respective periods play the grand ole opry.
  Blues mainly, and even  a little bit of bluesy country pickin' went on to influence guys like Jerry Lee and Elvis and Johnny Cash, while the tunes of guys like Muddy Waters, in particular a song called 'rolling stone', drifted across the water, and the culmination of THOSE styles became rock and roll....
  Isn't it cool how music all ties in together? As far as that goes I could go on about how all these things found thier way back to America for guys like the Allman Brothers and Charlie Daniels Band, but I need to go finish getting ready for church.
  Hope this helps some doc. Merry Christmas by the way,
                                        LR

All You Need is Love

For anyone looking for their first taste of Bluegrass, I would recommend the album "Will The Circle Be Unbroken". The album is attributed to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, but includes many legends of Bluegrass.

From Wikipedia:

Will the Circle Be Unbroken is a 1972 album officially by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, but with collaboration from many famous Bluegrass and country-western players, including Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, Bashful Brother Oswald, Norman Blake, and others. It also introduced fiddler Vassar Clements to a wider audience.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_the_C … e_Unbroken

While the first album is the best by far, there are some gems in the 2 follow up albums as well. The box set (5 CD's, 1 DVD) for $30 is a bargain.

Bluegrass was started by a fellow named Bill Monroe and was what he called originally "that high lonesome sound."  It is essentially the love child of old time country music and Scots highland music.  A Scots fiddler would find himself/herself quite comfortable at a Bluegrass jam. 

The Appalachian mountains stretch from the Green Mountains in Vermont down through New York where they are called the Catskills down into Pennsylvania where they are called the Appalachians into Maryland where they're called the Catoctin Ridge and into Virginia where they're called the Blue Ridge and into Tennessee and North Carolina where they're called the Smokies.  Same range.  They are among some of the oldest mountains in the world, and prior to a couple ice ages ago were higher than the Himalayas.  Now they are old and tired and worn down by glacier and mostly civilized by cities and highways, but some of the old magic is left.  And that old magic expresses itself in music.  The very roots of this mountain range can be expressed in the key of C is seems. 

The land was settled by Englishmen and Italians and Germans for the most part, but the wilds were expanded into by Scots and Irish.  There was so much intermarrying, we actually frequently refer to them as Scoth-Irish ancesters here.  No one quite remembers the old timer's nationalities from six or eight generations back.  As they moved across the land, expanding the very edge of western civilization facing immeasurable odds and dangers, they brought music with them.  The mountains liked the music, and the Appalachians forevermore will be known by the reels and jigs of old-time Appalachian Mountain Music. 

Bill Monroe took that music, added some guitar and banjo and some old-time style Country lyrics sung in a tenor voice, and you've got Bluegrass.  It's a mixture of personality, music style, leftover magic, whatever instruments were laying about, and geology. 

The very best bluegrass band I have ever heard play live was a family band called "The Bluegrass Brothers."  You can here samples of them here: http://thebluegrassbrothers.com/  When I went to see them, they did two sets and got two standing ovations from a usually stoic audience that I can only recall ever giving a standing ovation to the goodbye concert done by The Johnson Mountain Boys.  I was worried that the mandolin player and the bass player were going to have to be carried off stage.  Whatever they had in them, they poured out in their singing and playing. 

- Zurf

p.s. I concur on the "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" series.  I listen to it frequently.  It contains instrumentals and a capela, and everything in between. 

p.p.s.  A bluegrass concert is likely to be the only spot where you will hear the musicians sing about the lauditory benefits of Floyd Country moonshine and heartfelt worship of Jesus in the same set - knowing the guys on stage are fully aware of each.

The seats that line the back wall of The Station Inn in Nashville, TN are the very same seats that used to be in one of Bill Monroes retired tour buses.

No argument about Bill Monroe being the premier pioneer, but Dr. Ralph and Carter Stanley along with the Carter family certainly deserve their share of credit for helping keep it alive.  Ralph's high lonesome sound can still be heard today as the Clinch Mountain Boys still tour.  I can't wait to see them again at Merlefest in April.

Oh yeah.  The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band does a great job of showcasing a lot of diverse talent on Will The Circle Be Unbroken.

WAW, all these answers. So, in fact BLUE (BLUEGRASS) has not a direct "link"with BLUES?
I tried to name some USA styles.
- Country & Western.
- Bluegrass.
- Blues
- Rock & Roll
- Gospel
- Jazz
- Rockabilly.
- R&B (I hate this word, used a lot AND covering a lot of songs,  Béyoncée, Whitney Houston.....)
- Rap (C rap). There are some great "rap" songs, it has again Afro-American roots and some songs are real great. But "the performers", HOW CAN THEY STILL STAND RIGHT, WITH ALL THE GOLD THEY WEAR?
In Chicago, busy to find route 66, we ended up somewhere, I opened the roof (When I'm travelling in the USA, I always rent a Mustang Convertible), my EX-girlfriend replaced my crouches, and the rear window: broken. I must admit that there were a few strange individuals. I have a tiny golden chain with a small guitar. They asked me if I was a musician, and of course I said yes. I also told them that I was  BIG in Europe, and that I was looking in the USA, to see what I had to do to be successful there. Those people arranged everything, for that broken window, they even called the cops. The policeman never stepped out of his car, and he asked me if I knew where I was. Answer= Chicago, correction by the cop, yes in CHICAGO = the worst and most dangerous place in Chicago. What I saw there, it was also a gas station, was, seen through European eyes, unbelievable, men and/or women driving in Mercedes, Ferrari, Porsche.....and all these people were phoning and listening to rap, really loud.
If I wrote down what I heard, you would hear only "beeps." I never saw this in my life. A police car, with 1 person, and his story. I still can't believe it "most dangerous area in Chicago." I think he needed to lie, it was a mysterious place, but I was received and treated as a king. Are there other places like this? I also witnessed a few arrestations, and that, you won't find either in Europe. 7 cops, to arrest 1 man, not so much different with movies. Violent, aggressive and all Afro-Americans.
So far, the rap.

Hey, topdown.  Where are you?  I'm in New Bern originally from Statesville.

Nope.

The term "bluegrass" comes from Kentucky, where it is actually a strain of lawn grass.  http://www.bluegrasses.com/

Kentucky is also where many of the scotts-irish immigrants settled.

And thus was born bluegrass music.