Bluegrass gained its name and traditional format in the 1940s and 1950s through the work of such pioneers as Bill Monroe and the Stanley Brothers, but--as with so much American music--its roots extend deeper into the past. Like country music and rock-n'-roll, it emerged from older traditions of folk and string-band music, drawing from that tremendous cultural reservoir of the Appalachians. From that rich and fertile stew, bluegrass carved its own niche with dexterous interplay of acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, and fiddle, and layered, “high lonesome” harmonies.
If the roots of bluegrass extend mighty deep--even jumping the pond to draw upon ancient Scottish and Irish ballads--and its formal entrance on the national scene dates back to the mid-20th century, the art form is far from a museum piece. From the jazz-inflected bluegrass leanings of artists like Bela Fleck to second-generation maestros of the traditional style like Ricky Skaggs and Del McCoury, bluegrass has not only stayed breathing--it continues to spark new musical converts.
Keeping Bluegrass Spirit Alive
The Coen brothers' 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? helped refocus attention on old-time American folk, country-blues, and bluegrass music--a fitting climax to the underground “alternative-country” boom of the 1990s. The movie and its accompanying soundtrack record featured a host of performers, perhaps most notably the bona fide bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, who performed a chilling (and Grammy Award-winning) a capella rendition of “O Death.” During this era, roots artists like Steve Earle and Alison Krauss wore their bluegrass influences on their sleeve. Earle, a legendary disciple of the Texan singer-songwriter legend Townes Van Zandt, has performed in a variety of styles straddling rock-n'-roll, country, and acoustic folk, but he's also paid direct homage to traditional bluegrass. In 1999, he teamed with the Del McCoury Band on The Mountain, recorded fully in the style. The ghostly harmonies of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, contemporaries of Earle's, have a bluegrass ring, even if the music is more skeletal folk-blues.
With access to the old records more full and open than ever before, and with Americana masters like Earle and Welch helping tune youthful ears, bluegrass continues to inspire up-and-coming musicians. The magic of old songs like “Angel Band” and “East Virginia Blues”--with their heart-rending melodies and plaintive words still speak to ageless quandaries of the heart and the soul. Significantly, too, the flashy musicianship and breathtaking speed characteristic to many bluegrass tunes work as well--maybe even better--in a boozy tavern or sweaty dancehall as they do in more refined settings. And a lot of this next-generation bluegrass music takes place nightly far from the Kentucky hills, smack dab in the middle of America's big cities.
Modern Approaches
Some new bluegrass groups choose to carry on the traditional sound and repertoire, which is itself an age-old practice: It's the oral tradition, and invokes all those kitchen-table and back-porch hootenannies that have maintained some of these songs and melodies for hundreds of years.
Other musicians, however, have taken the spirit of bluegrass and applied it in new directions. A group like Old Man Markley out of California explores a marriage of punk and bluegrass, a hybridization not so unusual when the common energy of the two genres is considered.
A punkish energy is also on display in the bluegrass-heavy sound of Old Crow Medicine Show, formed in the late 1990s in Nashville. Since stepping onto the national stage, the group has played alongside such Americana notables as Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and landed a durable hit--“Wagon Wheel”--from an improbable songwriting “partnership” with Bob Dylan: Old Crow songwriter Ketch Secor added new verses to a Dylan chorus laid down in bootlegged sessions for the 1973 soundtrack of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
Some popular ensembles, like Yonder Mountain String Band, fuse bluegrass and old-time country with a jam-band aesthetic--not a terribly far leap, given, say, the Grateful Dead's bluegrass leanings--to create a sub-genre sometimes called “jam-grass.”
Meantime, a general revival of related old-time jug- and string-band music by young musicians everywhere from Portland, Oregon to Brooklyn synchronizes well with the ongoing bluegrass tradition. Practitioners of these playful and bawdy styles like the Carolina Chocolate Drops are both keeping alive a lively and colorful art form deep-woven in America's history as well as driving its evolution with covers of contemporary songs and stylistic mash-ups.
High, Lonesome, and Vibrant
Bluegrass, in other words, is alive and well, burning bright through the fingers and voices of young people captivated by its heritage and its magnetic sound. Through them, America celebrates an important foundation stone of its musical heritage in the best way possible--by giving the tradition room to grow and expand.
Author Bio:
Liz contributed this guest post for BearShare.com - Liz is a freelance music writer. For more information on how to get free mp3 music downloads from BearShare visit their website.
If the roots of bluegrass extend mighty deep--even jumping the pond to draw upon ancient Scottish and Irish ballads--and its formal entrance on the national scene dates back to the mid-20th century, the art form is far from a museum piece. From the jazz-inflected bluegrass leanings of artists like Bela Fleck to second-generation maestros of the traditional style like Ricky Skaggs and Del McCoury, bluegrass has not only stayed breathing--it continues to spark new musical converts.
Keeping Bluegrass Spirit Alive
The Coen brothers' 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? helped refocus attention on old-time American folk, country-blues, and bluegrass music--a fitting climax to the underground “alternative-country” boom of the 1990s. The movie and its accompanying soundtrack record featured a host of performers, perhaps most notably the bona fide bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, who performed a chilling (and Grammy Award-winning) a capella rendition of “O Death.” During this era, roots artists like Steve Earle and Alison Krauss wore their bluegrass influences on their sleeve. Earle, a legendary disciple of the Texan singer-songwriter legend Townes Van Zandt, has performed in a variety of styles straddling rock-n'-roll, country, and acoustic folk, but he's also paid direct homage to traditional bluegrass. In 1999, he teamed with the Del McCoury Band on The Mountain, recorded fully in the style. The ghostly harmonies of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, contemporaries of Earle's, have a bluegrass ring, even if the music is more skeletal folk-blues.
With access to the old records more full and open than ever before, and with Americana masters like Earle and Welch helping tune youthful ears, bluegrass continues to inspire up-and-coming musicians. The magic of old songs like “Angel Band” and “East Virginia Blues”--with their heart-rending melodies and plaintive words still speak to ageless quandaries of the heart and the soul. Significantly, too, the flashy musicianship and breathtaking speed characteristic to many bluegrass tunes work as well--maybe even better--in a boozy tavern or sweaty dancehall as they do in more refined settings. And a lot of this next-generation bluegrass music takes place nightly far from the Kentucky hills, smack dab in the middle of America's big cities.
Modern Approaches
Some new bluegrass groups choose to carry on the traditional sound and repertoire, which is itself an age-old practice: It's the oral tradition, and invokes all those kitchen-table and back-porch hootenannies that have maintained some of these songs and melodies for hundreds of years.
Other musicians, however, have taken the spirit of bluegrass and applied it in new directions. A group like Old Man Markley out of California explores a marriage of punk and bluegrass, a hybridization not so unusual when the common energy of the two genres is considered.
A punkish energy is also on display in the bluegrass-heavy sound of Old Crow Medicine Show, formed in the late 1990s in Nashville. Since stepping onto the national stage, the group has played alongside such Americana notables as Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and landed a durable hit--“Wagon Wheel”--from an improbable songwriting “partnership” with Bob Dylan: Old Crow songwriter Ketch Secor added new verses to a Dylan chorus laid down in bootlegged sessions for the 1973 soundtrack of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
Some popular ensembles, like Yonder Mountain String Band, fuse bluegrass and old-time country with a jam-band aesthetic--not a terribly far leap, given, say, the Grateful Dead's bluegrass leanings--to create a sub-genre sometimes called “jam-grass.”
Meantime, a general revival of related old-time jug- and string-band music by young musicians everywhere from Portland, Oregon to Brooklyn synchronizes well with the ongoing bluegrass tradition. Practitioners of these playful and bawdy styles like the Carolina Chocolate Drops are both keeping alive a lively and colorful art form deep-woven in America's history as well as driving its evolution with covers of contemporary songs and stylistic mash-ups.
High, Lonesome, and Vibrant
Bluegrass, in other words, is alive and well, burning bright through the fingers and voices of young people captivated by its heritage and its magnetic sound. Through them, America celebrates an important foundation stone of its musical heritage in the best way possible--by giving the tradition room to grow and expand.
Author Bio:
Liz contributed this guest post for BearShare.com - Liz is a freelance music writer. For more information on how to get free mp3 music downloads from BearShare visit their website.
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