Bluegrass / Mountain String Band
Bluegrass is an acoustic, string-driven branch of country music built on the five-string banjo (played Scruggs-style three-finger roll), fiddle, mandolin, guitar, dobro, and slapped upright bass, all powering a high, hard-driving ensemble sound. Tempos run fast with a propulsive backbeat carried by the mandolin chop and walking bass, while solos pass around the circle like a jazz combo trading breaks. Vocals are pitched high and tense — the famed "high lonesome" lead topped by stacked tenor, baritone, and bass harmonies, often delivered without amplification around a single microphone.
History
Bluegrass crystallized in the mid-1940s when mandolinist Bill Monroe assembled the classic Blue Grass Boys lineup featuring Earl Scruggs's revolutionary three-finger banjo and Lester Flatt's guitar and lead vocals, debuting on the Grand Ole Opry and recording landmark sides like "Blue Moon of Kentucky" for Columbia. The genre takes its very name from Monroe's band, itself named for his native Bluegrass State of Kentucky, and it drew on older Appalachian string-band, old-time fiddle, gospel quartet, and blues traditions. When Flatt and Scruggs left in 1948 to form the Foggy Mountain Boys and the Stanley Brothers adopted the sound, bluegrass became a distinct movement rather than one bandleader's style.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Blue Moon of Kentucky — Bill MonroeSpotifyYouTube
- Foggy Mountain Breakdown — Flatt & ScruggsSpotifyYouTube
- Man of Constant Sorrow — The Stanley BrothersSpotifyYouTube
- Rocky Top — The Osborne BrothersSpotifyYouTube
- Choctaw Hayride — Alison Krauss & Union StationSpotifyYouTube
- Uncle Pen — Ricky SkaggsSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Neil V. Rosenberg, "Bluegrass: A History"
- International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA)
- Bill C. Malone, "Country Music, U.S.A."