Bluegrass as Genre		Printable Version (PDF)
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Contents Introduction Mountain Ballads African-American Influences Recordings & Radio Monroe Brothers Blue Grass Boys Bluegrass as Genre

It took several years after Flatt and Scruggs’ departure before bluegrass was officially considered its own genre. “Blue Grass” was considered more of Bill Monroe’s trademark: not only was his group called the “Blue Grass Boys” but Monroe had recorded four songs with “Blue Grass” in the title, christened his tour bus the Blue Grass Special, named the professional baseball team that traveled with his show the Blue Grass Club, and released a 1950 songbook titled “Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Country Songs” (Rosenberg 98). However, it was not until 1956 when Monroe actually referred to his music as bluegrass. While visiting Rising Sun, Maryland’s New River Ranch, Monroe told the operator that the country music park was “a wonderful booster of the bluegrass type of music” (98). The naming of the genre most likely occurred as a marketing tool by radio deejays and record companies. While audiences were demanding groups that played with the “bluegrass sound”—fast-paced, rhythmic old-time music with virtuosic solos and tight vocal harmonies—deejays and record companies were the first to pick up on the demand for the fledgling genre. Bluegrass was still considered a part of country music, which was coming under fire in the 1950s with the advent of rock ‘n’ roll. That new genre, which was a concoction of rhythm and blues, country, and gospel music, was claiming country musicians by the handful. Hank Williams and Roy Acuff had already been accused of changing their styles in order to get radio airplay. As country musicians began dropping traditional country instruments such as the fiddle, audiences who liked the sound were drawn to the genre of bluegrass. This genre-bending by mainstream country artists further solidified bluegrass’ status as a genre unto itself.

The Stanley Brothers performing "It Takes a Worried Man" on "The Pete Seeger Show," YouTube

However, some artists were considered to have a bluegrass sound even though the artists themselves never considered themselves as such. When the Stanley Brothers—comprised of guitarist and singer Carter and banjo player and tenor singer Ralph—first came on the scene, Monroe resented that the band was categorized as bluegrass, as he thought the Stanley Brothers were merely copying his signature sound. Much later, Ralph Stanley confided that he never identified his sound as bluegrass, saying that he has always preferred the term old-time mountain music (Rogovoy). Mandolin player Everett Lilly, who played with Flatt and Scruggs for two years in the 1950s, calls bluegrass a “’feud word’ and prefers to describe his music as ‘American folk and country music’” (Rosenberg 102).

Whatever Stanley and Lilly’s feelings on the genre, it has become an accepted form of music, whether it be a subset of country, folk, or old-time music. At this time, bluegrass has established itself as a viable genre that has grown in popularity and international renown. Bluegrass festivals can be found throughout the US and abroad, evidenced by the European World of Bluegrass Festival. Rosenberg tells of Akira Otsuka, a mandolin player who moved to the US from Japan with his band the Bluegrass 45 in the early 1940s. He continued his career in the US, playing with different bands.

A featurette about Bleck Fleck & the Flecktones that includes alive performance at the 17th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colorado, 1991, YouTube

Bluegrass has not remained static. Several musicians in the 1960s and 1970s mixed bluegrass with other genres. Bluegrass has even spawned his own sub-genre, newgrass, which includes the use of drums and electric instruments. The most famous practitioner of this is multi-instrumentalist Bela Fleck who fused together jazz and bluegrass. However, many bluegrass purists do not approve of the liberties some musicians have taken with the genre. Rosenberg describes these fans as “cut from a somewhat different cloth. Their loyalty is not to the musicians but to a musical concept, an ideal against which they measure every bluegrass performance” (362). He also states that fans have become unforgiving with the stylistic wanderings of musicians who have fused together genres (340).

In the 20th anniversary edition of his “Bluegrass: A History,” Rosenberg discusses the changes in the world of bluegrass since his book was first published in 1985. The most important contribution, he adds, is from fiddler and singer Alison Krauss, who helped break through the gender barrier of a genre that saw mostly men as its practitioners. Krauss was also involved in the soundtrack for the Coen Brothers film “O Brother Where Art Thou?,” whose soundtrack was touted as bluegrass. Rosenberg dismissed the bulk of the soundtrack as bluegrass, stating that “Man of Constant Sorrow” is the only true bluegrass tune in the film. (As a side note, “Man of Constant Sorrow” was made popular by the Stanley Brothers; it has already been noted that Ralph Stanley never believed his music to be bluegrass.) Whatever the appellation, the soundtrack did bring more awareness to the genre and made an unlikely pop star of Ralph Stanley, who sang an a cappella version of “O, Death” on the soundtrack.

A performance of the Beatles' "I Will" by Alison Krauss and Union Station, YouTube

Whether one agrees with the bluegrass purists or not, it is natural for genre to take on mutations and adaptations as it grows. This means that the bluegrass repertoire is growing as well; on various albums, Krauss has covered a wide variety of songs in the bluegrass, from the Beatles “I Will” to the Foundations’ “Build Me Up Buttercup.” While these seem unusual choices for a bluegrass performance, it must be remembered that string bands in the pre-bluegrass days performed popular songs and novelty songs that were not part of the Appalachian mountain repertoire. Just as bluegrass was formed, through the accumulation of bits and pieces of traditions from various American ethnic and social groups, it can be built upon in the same way.

List of Visuals

1. A live Bluegrass music at Shreves Store in Smoke Hole Canyon, WV, September 5, 2009.
   http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smoke_Hole_-_Shreves_Store_2.jpg
   Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

2. A map of the subregions of the Appalachian Mountain region, known as Appalachia. The Appalachian subregions are contiguous regions of relatively homogeneous characteristics (topography, demographics, and economics) within Appalachia
   http://www.arc.gov/research/MapsofAppalachia.asp?MAP_ID=31
   Appalachian Regional Commission, November 2009

3. A 1939 field recording made by Alan Lomax of a Southern prisoner singing the "Barbara Allen." The author of the ballad is unknown, but its earliest known mention is a January 2, 1666, entry in Samuel Pepys' diary. "Barbara Allen" is one of the many ballads that were brought across the ocean by Scots-Irish settlers in the Appalachian Mountains.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qmn77A8Oyk
   YouTube

4. "Star in the East" from the 1854 edition of The Southern Harmony, pg. 16. The Southern Harmony was one of the shape-note hymnals used in churches in Appalachia.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Star_in_the_east.png
   Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

5. A selection of lined-out hymnody sung by members of the Indian Bottom Association, Old Regular Baptists, at Defeated Creek Church in Linefork, KY, in 1993. Lining out goes back to the 17th century, and is basically call and response music.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQmfHLpCQcU&feature=related
   YouTube

6. "Away Down South in Dixie," ca. 1898. Two African American soldiers with guitar and banjo seated in front of open tent at US Army mobilization camp for the Spanish-American War.
   http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
   Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division

7. Hunter Robinson demonstrates clawhammer banjo playing on his Harmony banjo. Using the tuning gCGCD, Robinson plays old-time musician Hobart Smith's version of "Soldier's Joy."
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcUsZy_qeic&feature=related
   YouTube

8. "Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, 1931." Photo courtesy of the BCMA Museum, for "Birthplace of Country Music - The Bristol Music Story," a Tennessee Local Legacies project.
   http://www.americaslibrary.gov/es/tn/es_tn_bristol_1_e.html
   America's Library, the Library of Congress

9. A 1920s recording of "Dance All Night with a Bottle in Your Hand" by Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49tsYtp3qQI
   YouTube

10. The Monroe Brothers, Bill and Charlie, c. 1936.
    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MonroeBrothers.jpg
    Wikimedia Commons

11. A 1930s recording of "What Would You Give in Exchange for Your Soul?" by the Monroe Brothers
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MeVLA3rjvE
    YouTube

12. A 1950 recording of "Mule Skinner Blues" by Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys. Monroe recorded the tune several times throughout his career.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydSFc7O9LRc
    YouTube

13. A forward roll on G major chord in both standard notation and banjo tablature, accompaniment pattern characteristic of Scruggs style
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Banjo_forward_roll_on_G_major_chord.png
    Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

14. A 1949 recording of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" by Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. The recording was used in the soundtrack of the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_Y3mnj-8lA
    YouTube

15. A man playing a Dobro guitar. Dobros are most often played as lap steel guitars.
    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Man_playing_dobro.jpg
    Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

16. The Stanley Brothers performing "It Takes a Worried Man" on "The Pete Seeger Show."
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMJz-puzniU&feature=related
    YouTube

17. A featurette about Bleck Fleck & the Flecktones that includes alive performance at the 17th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Telluride, Colorado, 1991.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiCWCV7a1oQ
    YouTube, Produced by Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Inc./Mus!c Link Corp. 1991.

18. A performance of the Beatles' "I Will" by Alison Krauss and Union Station
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3989jHX3sMQL
    YouTube

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11. Small, Christopher. Music of the common tongue: survival and celebration in African American music. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1987. Print.