Bluegrass-Southern Gospel
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Bluegrass-Southern Gospel sets gospel lyrics and high, close harmony to bluegrass instrumentation — banjo, mandolin, fiddle, upright bass, and acoustic guitar — with the genre's signature high-lonesome tenor and driving flatpicked rhythm. It blends the Southern gospel emphasis on message and vocal blend with bluegrass drive and picking. Vocals feature soaring harmonies and trio or quartet arrangements. The mood is spirited, acoustic, and mountain-rooted, joining Appalachian string-band energy to sacred song.
History
Bluegrass gospel is as old as bluegrass itself, with Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, and the Stanley Brothers cutting sacred numbers from the genre's beginnings, and it merged with Southern gospel through family and quartet acts. Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver became renowned for bluegrass-gospel harmony from the 1980s, the Isaacs brought a family-bluegrass-gospel sound to the Gaither stage, and Dailey & Vincent and the Primitive Quartet carried it into the modern era. It cross-lists with the bluegrass/mountain gospel family and keeps sacred string-band music thriving.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- James R. Goff Jr., Close Harmony: A History of Southern Gospel (UNC Press, 2002)
- W.K. McNeil (ed.), Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music (Routledge, 2005)
- SGHistory.com and Singing News magazine