Bluegrass Music Guide: History and Artists of Bluegrass

Bluegrass is a subset of country music, traditionally played on acoustic string instruments like guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle (violin), and upright bass (string bass).

The bluegrass style began in the southern Appalachian Mountains. The genre likely takes its name from Kentucky bluegrass, a species of plant native to central Kentucky. Early pioneer Bill Monroe hailed from "the Bluegrass State" and called his nascent group Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys. Key figures in early bluegrass also hailed from eastern Tennessee and southwest Virginia. Today, bluegrass songs are played around the world as a celebration of Americana.

The instruments and old world music that inspired bluegrass date back to the English, Scottish, and Irish settlers of the seventeenth century. Bluegrass has often been absorbed into the larger country-western music genre. Before the "bluegrass" name caught on, the genre was sometimes called “old-time music" and was even associated with the pejorative label “hillbilly music.”

• 1930s origins: The genre of bluegrass did not emerge until the 1930s when artists like The Monroe Brothers (led by Charlie and Bill Monroe) began performing as a string band—a group anchored around guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and bass, with no drums. In 1939, the Monroes’s band appeared on the syndicated radio program Grand Ole Opry and introduced bluegrass to legions of country music fans nationwide.
• Other musicians spread the genre: Bill Monroe also helped launch the careers of other iconic bluegrass musicians, such as banjoist Earl Scruggs, guitarist Lester Flatt, fiddle player Chubby Wise, and bassist Howard Watts. Later, Flatt and Scruggs would break off as a duo and spread bluegrass music beyond its Appalachian roots.
• A tradition of its own: By the 1950s, artists like Monroe and Scruggs encouraged the use of "bluegrass" over “hillbilly music,” and the moniker stuck. The bluegrass mantle has been carried on by artists like Ralph Stanley and the Stanley Brothers, Doc Watson, the New Grass Revival, the Del McCoury Band, The Steep Canyon Rangers—led by renowned actor Steve Martin.
• Bluegrass today: Live events, like the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco, have helped introduce bluegrass bands to young and urban audiences. Additionally, the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky offers a comprehensive look at the genre from its inception to the present day.

From its inception in the 19302, bluegrass music maintains many of the same key characteristics:

1. 1. Acoustic instrumentation: Bluegrass rarely uses electric instruments and instead centers around the acoustic components of a string band.
2. 2. Fast tempos: Compared to traditional country music, most bluegrass songs tend to move at a very brisk pace. This, combined with bluegrass songwriters' preference for major keys, makes bluegrass an upbeat, jaunty genre.
3. 3. Off-beat comping: When bluegrass players perform accompaniments, they typically favor off-beats or upbeats, rather than downbeats.
4. 4. Virtuosic playing: The bluegrass genre can be a great medium for virtuosic soloing on acoustic instruments.
5. 5. The high, lonesome sound: Multi-part vocal harmonies are common in bluegrass music. The lead vocal, usually a high tenor, croons in a high, lonesome sound, while the other singers harmonize in what bluegrass players call a "stack."
6. 6. Frequent reinterpretations of folk standards: Some bluegrass bands perform mostly original songs, but many others center their repertoire around interpretations of traditional folk songs from the United States, England, Scotland, and Ireland.

The core bluegrass ensemble consists of five instruments: the acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and upright bass.

Optional bluegrass instruments include resonator guitar, harmonica, lap steel, jug, accordion, jaw harp, and various handheld percussion instruments (including washboard, spoons, and egg shaker). These instruments are layered onto the five core bluegrass instruments.

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