The Birth of Bluegrass
In the 1930s bluegrass music came into being from the vison of Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs and other stringband instrumentalists. Bluegrass combined the keening austerity of Appalachia with the exuberance of hot jazz.
Bill Monroe once described bluegrass music:
- "It's got a hard drive to it. It's Scotch bagpipes and old time fiddlin'. It's Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. It's blues and jazz and it has a high lonesome sound. It's plain music that tells a good story. It's played from my heart to your heart, and it will touch you."
Bluegrass Music Suggestions:
Bill Monroe:
Flatt & Scruggs:
The Stanley Brothers:
Jimmy Martin:
Del McCoury Band:
Alison Krauss + Union Station: