Bluegrass music is a form of
American roots music which has its own roots in
Irish,
Scottish and
English traditional music. Bluegrass was inspired by the music of
immigrants from the
British Isles (particularly the
Scots-Irish immigrants of
Appalachian), as well as that of rural
African-Americans,
jazz, and
blues. In bluegrass, as in jazz, each instrument takes a turn playing the melody and improvising around it, while the others revert to backing; this is in contrast to
old-time music, in which all instruments play the melody together or one instrument carries the lead throughout while the others provide
accompaniment. Bluegrass is distinctively acoustic, rarely using electrical instruments.
Bluegrass as a style developed during the mid 1940s. Because of war rationing, recording was limited during that time, and the best that can be said is that bluegrass was played some time after
World War II, but no earlier. As with any musical genre, no one person can claim to have "invented" it. Rather, bluegrass is an amalgam of
old-time music,
blues,
ragtime and
jazz. Nevertheless, bluegrass's beginnings can be traced to one band. Today
Bill Monroe is referred to as the "founding father" of bluegrass music; the bluegrass style was named for his band, the
Blue Grass Boys, formed in 1939. The 1945 addition of
banjo player
Earl Scruggs, who played with a three-finger roll originally developed by Snuffy Jenkins but now almost universally known as "Scruggs style", is considered the key moment in the development of this genre. Monroe's 1945 to 1948 band, which featured Scruggs, singer-guitarist
Lester Flatt, fiddler Chubby Wise and bassist Howard Watts, also known as "Cedric Rainwater," created the definitive sound and instrumental configuration that remains a model to this day.
By some arguments, as long as the
Blue Grass Boys were the only band playing this music, it was just their unique style; it could not be considered a musical style until other bands began performing in similar fashion. In 1947
the Stanley Brothers recorded the traditional song "
Molly and Tenbrooks" in the Blue Grass Boys' style, and this could also be pointed to as the beginning of bluegrass as a style.
Bluegrass is not and never was
folk music under a strict definition; however, the topical and narrative themes of many bluegrass songs are highly reminiscent of "folk music". In fact, many songs that are widely considered to be bluegrass are older works legitimately classified as folk or old-time performed in a bluegrass style. From its earliest days to today, bluegrass has been recorded and performed by professional musicians. Although amateur bluegrass musicians and trends such as "parking lot picking" are too important to be ignored, it is professional musicians who have set the direction of the style. While bluegrass is not folk music in that strict sense, the interplay between bluegrass music and folk forms has been studied. Folklorist Dr. Neil Rosenberg, for example, shows that most devoted bluegrass fans and musicians are familiar with traditional folk songs and old-time music and that these songs are often played at shows and festivals.
Traditional bluegrass, as the name implies, emphasizes the traditional elements. Traditional bluegrass musicians are likely to play folk songs, songs with simple traditional chord progressions, and use only acoustic instruments. They generally follow the pattern set by
Bill Monroe and the
Bluegrass Boys in the late 1940's. In the early years, traditional bluegrass sometimes included instruments no longer accepted in mainstream bluegrass, such as washboards, mouth harps, and
harmonicas. Traditional bands may use bluegrass instruments in slightly different ways (claw-hammer style of banjo playing, or multiple guitars or fiddles within a band). In this sub-genre, the guitar rarely takes the lead (the notable exception being
gospel songs), remaining a rhythm instrument. Melodies and lyrics tend to be simple, and a I-IV-V chord pattern is very common.
Nationally popular traditional bluegrass bands include
Ricky Skaggs and
Kentucky Thunder,
Dan Paisley and
the Southern Grass,
Ralph Stanley and the
Clinch Mountain Boys,
James King Band and arguably,
Larry Sparks and the
Lonesome Ramblers and The
Del McCoury Band.
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