Beginning in the 1960s and early 1970s, the Washington DC area was home to several bands that were expanding the boundaries of bluegrass repertoire. The Country Gentlemen and the Seldom Scene both performed songs from outside traditional bluegrass sources, including … Read More
Dick Bowden’s reference in a recent comment on the HVBA website to the “big tent, anything goes” nature of bluegrass music these days got me thinking…I started to outline some thoughts in a comment but the comment grew too long … Read More
This week’s post focuses on a subject of interest to nearly everyone who plays bluegrass: jam sessions. Jams are informal musical gatherings where musicians make music for the joy of it. They are found everywhere bluegrass is played. Although the … Read More
Bluegrass Roots-The Carter Family In my last post, and several others, I mentioned the Carter Family as a fertile source of repertoire for bluegrass artists. Harry Smith included four Carter Family songs in his Anthology of American Folk Music and … Read More
In prior posts I have mentioned in passing some of the sources of bluegrass vocal repertoire. These included old time sources such as the Carter Family, whose songs have been covered by bluegrass artists from the Monroe Brothers (actually pre-bluegrass) … Read More
The sad news of Tony Rice’s passing on Christmas Day has prompted many well deserved and insightful tributes to his extraordinary skills as a guitar innovator and singer. It’s safe to say that Tony Rice’s influence is heard in nearly … Read More
Happy New Year. Let’s hope for better things for all of us in 2021. This week’s post was suggested by a reader who directed my attention to a video on You Tube’s Fiddle Channel. The Fiddle Channel is the creation … Read More
My last post explored some of the reasons that Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys became the most popular bluegrass band in the history of the music. Their extraordinary talent and that of the Foggy Mountain Boys, … Read More
When Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs left Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys in 1948, neither of them could have foreseen that their partnership would become the most successful band in bluegrass history. My next two blog posts will … Read More
Blog Post #10 discussed The Anthology of American Folk Music, consisting of 84 recordings of folk, old time, blues, Cajun, and gospel music originally released in the 1920s and early 1930s. These recordings were collected and annotated by disc collector … Read More