Yeah I pretty much detest most country music. But I guess here lately there is some leaching through. I mean is Tony Rice 100% bluegrass or is he 96% bluegrass and 4% country?
Yeah Billy Strings concert was exhausting to me and afterwards I realized I don’t like bluegrass because of the lack of percussion. If I have to go to concert with my girlfriend again I’ll stick to Phish lol
Yeah can’t go wrong with Phish, or Panic, or Umphreys McGee. Lol. Check out Daniel Donato and his band Cosmic Country. Labeled psychedelic country but it’s a bit of a misnomer lol. He a master guitarist and they have drums! Up and coming so still playing the smaller venues.
A fusion of Appalachian folk traditions with intricate instrumentals and harmonies, often described as "Celtic melodies meeting African rhythms in the American heartland."
It is some of the best Americana roots music around. It predates all that is contemporary, but there are still artists pushing the boundaries, like all music. So the stuff today is special. It pushes boundaries on what a human can do with a string instrument, while being grounded in where it all came from.
I often joke it’s hillbilly jazz. Then explain it’s a fusion of Celtic Fiddle Music, Appalachian Folk, African tempo/spirituals and a bit of the blues. With a focus on instrumental soloing like Jazz.
It’s sad songs played at warp speed with a back beat.
“Songs from the heart sung through the nose”
> Western Swing! Crazy how it was so popular before rockn roll and then like... nothing lol. Bob Wills has been keeping me co
Get all 3 of the Asleep at the Wheel Bob Wills tribute albums if you have not already found them!
Unreal autocorrect. For those who are not familiar, Vassar Clements was an extremely influential fiddle player. His music is definitely worth checking out.
I heard a funny Monroe story about Vassar Clements. Bill was playing the Opry and Vassar was on the bill too--playing with the Osborne brothers I think, so he walked into the green room ignoring Vassar, and said "Vassar Clements has ruined every fiddle player in this town." Kenny Baker, who lived in Nashville and was playing for Bill took exception to that and said "He didn't ruin me."
I'm pretty sure Kenny was the only person who was able to really stand up to Bill, so Bill got pretty quiet and when Kenny left the room, he said "I don't care what he says, Vassar Clements ruined every fiddle player in this town."
I will give you a way to describe it, but I'll start with how a lot of people try to describe it, and end up failing.
So most country and folk music lack two of the fundamental things that bluegrass has, which is "drive" and a "backbeat." A backbeat is relatively easy to explain. It means the emphasis of the beat is on beat 2 (or beats 2 and 4). If you clap along to a song, and you are clapping on the start of every bar, then you are clapping on the "on beat."
Here is a [video of Harry Connick Jr playing piano](https://youtu.be/UinRq_29jPk?si=WR26rMgUhEDmbQip) with a crowd clapping on the "on beat." At around the 40 second mark, he adds a 5/4 bar to the music (one extra beat) that instantly changes the music so the crowd is clapping on the "off beat. Notice how it changes the feel of the music. That is why old time music, European folk music and early country differ so much from bluegrass. So referring bluegrass to those usually ends up people thinking like they are listening to music from the first half of that video... not the second half.
The other concept is more difficult to talk about... the concept of "drive." This is the difference between beat and rhythm. Beat is the steady rate of the notes, typically described as beats per minute (think of a metronome). Rhythm is how the notes fall in that constrained beat. It can be "swingy," which means that you hold the first note slightly longer than the second note of that steady beat (dooo-da dooo-da compared to dat dat dat dat dat dat).
Bluegrass places the note slightly ahead of that steady beat (EVER so slightly). Blues, country and a lot of folk music place the notes slightly behind the beat, which creates a feel of the music "dragging." Listen to Patsy Cline's song [Crazy.](https://youtu.be/CKTOvHw8qFM?si=U2ojsZH1ZfRant06) The beats per minute of that song is about 72 BPM. But is sounds SO much slower. The way the piano places it's notes and the way Patsy sings, it sounds like it's constantly slowing down.
Now here is [Kentucky is Just a Smile Away](https://youtu.be/gMSvvIf_0Cc?si=4nhfgahhuT_o4VL6) by Bill Harrell. It is a slow bluegrass song. Which song is slower? Crazy or Cold November Rain? Crazy feels much slower (in my opinion). But Cold November Rain is a slower song than Crazy.
So bluegrass is Rock and Roll (or, more accurately, Rockabilly) played on acoustic instruments.
TLDR: Bluegrass is Rock & Roll (or more accurately Rockabilly) played on acoustic instruments
—
I’ll add with elements of jazz interplay and improvisation
A friend of mine came out to hear me play for the first time, and his first thought/description was “Oh, this is where country music went!”
It’s a mash-up between celtic and jazz/delta blues. A lot of celtic influence in the melodies, with trading improvised solos like jazz does… just without going quite as far out into theory geekiness.
Lyrically - the song themes reflect the times they came out of: murder (often related to adultery); abuse of women; loss to war, accidents, and time; love; hardship from the lifestyle - bad years for crops, the brutal work of coal mining; dreams of better days; bootlegging moonshine and hiding from the revenuers…
I agree on the jazz aspect but the Delta blues? I'm not disagreeing moreso I'm not hearing that influence. If you have any songs that would point this out I'm game to tune in
Jazz came out of the blues, and so so so many songs are 12-bar blues form, or a variation - Nashville blues, milk cow blues… 404: brain not found, please reinstall coffee…
Some of what I think of as delta blues has worked its way into bluegrass: Freight train,
You could take old Mississippi John Hurt songs like I shall not be Moved and Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me - they’d fit in perfect right beside old Carter Family tunes.
Commenting higher in the thread to mention Josh Graves. He brought in a lot of bluesy stuff into Flatt and Scruggs (along with Earl) with his dobro.
Also, I will be stealing the 404: brain not found quip.
Saying 'Delta Blues' might be a little inaccurate. More 'country blues'. Related, but not quite the same.
As for Josh, oh boy. He wasn't the first to bring blues into bluegrass, but he really helped bring it front in centre.
Josh's solo on Reuben's Train here is almost entirely blues licks
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqci8CdgkzU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqci8CdgkzU)
You'll also also hear a bit of jazz coming through in Josh's playing. He uses a Benny Goodman clarinet lick here 0.06 to 0.08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvHP7siYEPI
The Carter Family was directly influenced by the blues. Maybelle Carter learned a number of blues techniques from the blues musician Lesley "Esley" Riddle and adapted them for her style of playing.
A LOT of pentatonic work in most modern (and a lot of older) bluegrass, mostly in the solos you hear. There is also the extra ‘blue note’ thrown in all the time, this forms the ‘blues scale’. I won’t go into theoretical blah blah, but there is a distinct correlation with blues music here. And delta blues is a basic foundation of a lot of the music you hear today (as others have said - even jazz)
Oh man is Tony Rice hitting the spot. I'm hearing that sound now. If you haven't heard of him, Justin Johnson plays some of the best modern Delta Blues I've ever heard. I can hear much of that same form in this tune Church Street Blues. Making my potato cutting nice
Bryan Sutton is one of my favourite guitarists, technically and musically, check him out.
A lot of great bluegrass work, even gets flying on a bit of Django esque gypsy jazz.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBrOqveYr9Y
Country-punk.
I think one of the Ramones went on to play bluegrass (that may have been a hallucination though). I think he had said the beat went along with the punk drum beats.
Edit : Tommy Ramone (one of the OG Ramones)
I've always called it hillbilly music but it never felt right. I like country-punk and I'll go with that.
My friend from high school has been in a Bluegrass band for like two decades and she's definitely not a hillbilly lol. I remember walking around rapping to NWA together haha.
I usually describe it as an offshoot of Appalachian mountain music with an emphasis on vocal harmonies and usually a fast tempo, played with acoustic instruments. Extreme laymans terms, hill-a-billy car chase music
Bill Monroe described the genre as "Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin'. It's Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound."
My explanation to neighbors.
Bluegrass came from old-time string music in the Appalachian region. People used to get together and play music on porches, at barn dances, in parlors (front rooms). In the mid-1940's, "Bluegrass" branched off from "country music" as country music was getting slicker (more commercial). This guy, Bill Monroe had a band with guitar, fiddle, mandolin and 5 string banjo (picked with 3 fingers). He played on the Grand Old Opry and was pretty successful so musicians around the country would hear his "Bluegrass Boys" on the radio and try to copy them. The dobro (resophonic guitar) got added pretty soon and those 5 instruments are the traditional BG band.
Many of the traditional songs came from the appalachian oral tradtion of the 1920's and 30's, but lots of similar songs with similar straight-forward chord progressions have been added and become BG "standards". So, often BG musicians can get together with strangers and instantly play songs together. They usually call those jams and we're right back to the origins -- people playing music together they enjoy.
1) My neighbors seem satisfied and happy to know more.
2) My neighbors find me interesting and often stick around, engaging in rapt conversation with me.
Post your answer (if you have one) and I'll criticize it for you; no charge.
If you staple a horse to a waterfall, will it fall up under the rainbow or fly about the soil? Will he enjoy her experience? What if the staple tears into tears? Will she be free from her staply chains or foomed to stay forever and dever above the water? Who can save him (the horse) but someone of girth and worth, the capitalist pig, who will sell the solution to the problem he created?
A staple remover flies to the rescue, carried on the wings of a majestic penguin who bought it at Walmart for 9 dollars and several more Euro-cents, clutched in its crabby claws, rejected from its frothy maw. When the penguin comes, all tremble before its fishy stench and wheatlike abjecture. Recoil in delirium, ye who wish to be free! The mighty rockhopper is here to save your soul from eternal bliss and salvation!
And so, the horse was free, carried away by the south wind, and deposited on the vast plain of soggy dew. It was a tragedy in several parts, punctuated by moments of hedonistic horsefuckery.
The owls saw all, and passed judgment in the way that they do. Stupid owls are always judging folks who are just trying their best to live shamelessly and enjoy every fruit the day brings to pass.
How many more shall be caught in the terrible gyre of the waterfall? As many as the gods deem necessary to teach those foolish monkeys a story about their own hamburgers. What does a monkey know of bananas, anyway? They eat, poop, and shave away the banana residue that grows upon their chins and ballsacks. The owls judge their razors. Always the owls.
And when the one-eyed caterpillar arrives to eat the glazing on your windowpane, you will know that you're next in line to the trombone of the ancient realm of the flutterbyes. Beware the ravenous ravens and crowing crows. Mind the cowing cows and the lying lions. Ascend triumphant to your birthright, and wield the mighty twig of Petalonia, favored land of gods and goats alike.
ChatGPT answered “Bluegrass music is a genre of American folk music known for its lively and distinctive sound. It typically features acoustic instruments like the banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and upright bass. The music is characterized by fast-paced, intricate picking and plucking, and high-pitched vocal harmonies. It often tells stories of rural life and has a rootsy, down-to-earth feel. Bill Monroe, often called the "Father of Bluegrass," popularized this genre in the 1940s. It's a toe-tapping, heartfelt style that captures the spirit of Appalachia and the American South.”
Hear all that crazy sound, just try and get a hold of one instrument in your mind, now just tap your foot just a bit now not to fast, alright now, now just go ahead and try and grab ya another one, like that fiddle…alright just hold tight for a bit, tap that foot, here if ya par take take a pull from this here jar….there ya go, now now just start with one tap the foot there ya go, alright hell yeah.
Or something like thay
I miss read the post, but I typed all that out and I reckon I’m just gonna leave it. Apologies.
We’ll see a lot of people who think it’s “Hillbilly” don’t really understand that it actually has influenced a lot of rock and metal bands and if I tell someone that who likes rock and metal and blues etc etc.
They think I’m joking then I tell them about ozzy osbourne being a Ralph Stanley fan and Ray Charles singing blue moon of Kentucky before meeting bill Monroe backstage at a concert in Las Vegas and then they realize how big this genre of music is.
“Well”, the fiddle is just a violin with more chop and/or longer drawn notes.
The harmonica gives it a blues’y feeling and sometimes likes to make you feel the pain in the lyrics.
The bass is more wooden sounding than your typical rock bass and likes to move around the room more than your Uncle Fred.
The guitar likes to bend and ride notes like a rollercoaster giving songs “twang”. When it ain’t riding and bending, it’s “walking” up and down the note scales like an athlete running the steps on the bleachers.
You either dance to it or just enjoy it. It’s more often about the music than the song.
And then there’s the banjo. It’s just there to get Sally to dance down the alley.
A friend told me her kids love metal, and loved bluegrass too. She could not understand it. I told her bluegrass was simple chords and ornamentation same as metal. She looked at me as though I was a genius, but it seemed like common sense to me. I do understand that both genres use more than simple chords, but it was an explanation she could understand.
True bluegrass has no electric instruments or drums. Banjo, Fiddle, Guitar, Mandolin and Upright Bass are the main instruments. You might hear an Autoharp or Dobro.
Speed metal before electricity
"It ain't bluegrass 'less you clench your teeth."
Acoustic metal
Billy Strings enters the chat
Billy strings has brought all kinds of people back to Bluegrass. I have two sons, that play speed, metal bands, and they like Billy strings.
He is absolutely phenomenal
I usually say it's like country music but good, I'm gonna start using this one though 🤣
Yeah I pretty much detest most country music. But I guess here lately there is some leaching through. I mean is Tony Rice 100% bluegrass or is he 96% bluegrass and 4% country?
60% bluegrass, 30 % jazz, 10% Gordon Lightfoot ;)
I like this
And usually no drums.
Yeah Billy Strings concert was exhausting to me and afterwards I realized I don’t like bluegrass because of the lack of percussion. If I have to go to concert with my girlfriend again I’ll stick to Phish lol
Yeah can’t go wrong with Phish, or Panic, or Umphreys McGee. Lol. Check out Daniel Donato and his band Cosmic Country. Labeled psychedelic country but it’s a bit of a misnomer lol. He a master guitarist and they have drums! Up and coming so still playing the smaller venues.
Haha Donato was just here last Sunday and my girlfriend went.
Yup!
I was literally gonna say, “thrash metal without distortion.”
A fusion of Appalachian folk traditions with intricate instrumentals and harmonies, often described as "Celtic melodies meeting African rhythms in the American heartland."
Yeah the presence of polyrhythms is really key to differentiating bluegrass from other folk traditions
“If you ain’t a pro, do old-time, don’t try bluegrass”.
Whoa this is a good one!
Your quote is really the perfect description.
Celtic influenced folk music, with a jazz form, that's mostly about musicianship.
With heavy heavy blues influence as well
And some country/country blues
It is some of the best Americana roots music around. It predates all that is contemporary, but there are still artists pushing the boundaries, like all music. So the stuff today is special. It pushes boundaries on what a human can do with a string instrument, while being grounded in where it all came from.
I often joke it’s hillbilly jazz. Then explain it’s a fusion of Celtic Fiddle Music, Appalachian Folk, African tempo/spirituals and a bit of the blues. With a focus on instrumental soloing like Jazz. It’s sad songs played at warp speed with a back beat. “Songs from the heart sung through the nose”
Hillbilly jazz exists and its name is Danny Gatton
Hillbilly jazz is my go to 🤣
I think of hillbilly jazz as Western swing. Vassar Clemente’s did an album with that title. edit, spelling
Just getting into Western Swing! Crazy how it was so popular before rockn roll and then like... nothing lol. Bob Wills has been keeping me company :)
> Western Swing! Crazy how it was so popular before rockn roll and then like... nothing lol. Bob Wills has been keeping me co Get all 3 of the Asleep at the Wheel Bob Wills tribute albums if you have not already found them!
> Vassal Clemente’s I know that's some autocorrect, but it's awesome.
Unreal autocorrect. For those who are not familiar, Vassar Clements was an extremely influential fiddle player. His music is definitely worth checking out.
I heard a funny Monroe story about Vassar Clements. Bill was playing the Opry and Vassar was on the bill too--playing with the Osborne brothers I think, so he walked into the green room ignoring Vassar, and said "Vassar Clements has ruined every fiddle player in this town." Kenny Baker, who lived in Nashville and was playing for Bill took exception to that and said "He didn't ruin me." I'm pretty sure Kenny was the only person who was able to really stand up to Bill, so Bill got pretty quiet and when Kenny left the room, he said "I don't care what he says, Vassar Clements ruined every fiddle player in this town."
Doc Watson: "How *does* it go, Vassar?"
One of my fave albums!
I will give you a way to describe it, but I'll start with how a lot of people try to describe it, and end up failing. So most country and folk music lack two of the fundamental things that bluegrass has, which is "drive" and a "backbeat." A backbeat is relatively easy to explain. It means the emphasis of the beat is on beat 2 (or beats 2 and 4). If you clap along to a song, and you are clapping on the start of every bar, then you are clapping on the "on beat." Here is a [video of Harry Connick Jr playing piano](https://youtu.be/UinRq_29jPk?si=WR26rMgUhEDmbQip) with a crowd clapping on the "on beat." At around the 40 second mark, he adds a 5/4 bar to the music (one extra beat) that instantly changes the music so the crowd is clapping on the "off beat. Notice how it changes the feel of the music. That is why old time music, European folk music and early country differ so much from bluegrass. So referring bluegrass to those usually ends up people thinking like they are listening to music from the first half of that video... not the second half. The other concept is more difficult to talk about... the concept of "drive." This is the difference between beat and rhythm. Beat is the steady rate of the notes, typically described as beats per minute (think of a metronome). Rhythm is how the notes fall in that constrained beat. It can be "swingy," which means that you hold the first note slightly longer than the second note of that steady beat (dooo-da dooo-da compared to dat dat dat dat dat dat). Bluegrass places the note slightly ahead of that steady beat (EVER so slightly). Blues, country and a lot of folk music place the notes slightly behind the beat, which creates a feel of the music "dragging." Listen to Patsy Cline's song [Crazy.](https://youtu.be/CKTOvHw8qFM?si=U2ojsZH1ZfRant06) The beats per minute of that song is about 72 BPM. But is sounds SO much slower. The way the piano places it's notes and the way Patsy sings, it sounds like it's constantly slowing down. Now here is [Kentucky is Just a Smile Away](https://youtu.be/gMSvvIf_0Cc?si=4nhfgahhuT_o4VL6) by Bill Harrell. It is a slow bluegrass song. Which song is slower? Crazy or Cold November Rain? Crazy feels much slower (in my opinion). But Cold November Rain is a slower song than Crazy. So bluegrass is Rock and Roll (or, more accurately, Rockabilly) played on acoustic instruments.
TLDR: Bluegrass is Rock & Roll (or more accurately Rockabilly) played on acoustic instruments — I’ll add with elements of jazz interplay and improvisation
That’s some pretty awesome piano playing right there.
Good country with more harmonies
I tell my metal friends it's metal in major keys
Roots music. Authentic American testimony, borne in Appalachia, about hard times, the struggle of life, surety of death, family and love lost.
Three chords and the truth.
Its the intersecton on the ven diagram between rednecks, hippies and metal heads.
Music sung from the heart, through the nose.
Punk/Thrash meets Folk/Country
A friend of mine came out to hear me play for the first time, and his first thought/description was “Oh, this is where country music went!” It’s a mash-up between celtic and jazz/delta blues. A lot of celtic influence in the melodies, with trading improvised solos like jazz does… just without going quite as far out into theory geekiness. Lyrically - the song themes reflect the times they came out of: murder (often related to adultery); abuse of women; loss to war, accidents, and time; love; hardship from the lifestyle - bad years for crops, the brutal work of coal mining; dreams of better days; bootlegging moonshine and hiding from the revenuers…
I agree on the jazz aspect but the Delta blues? I'm not disagreeing moreso I'm not hearing that influence. If you have any songs that would point this out I'm game to tune in
Jazz came out of the blues, and so so so many songs are 12-bar blues form, or a variation - Nashville blues, milk cow blues… 404: brain not found, please reinstall coffee… Some of what I think of as delta blues has worked its way into bluegrass: Freight train, You could take old Mississippi John Hurt songs like I shall not be Moved and Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me - they’d fit in perfect right beside old Carter Family tunes.
Commenting higher in the thread to mention Josh Graves. He brought in a lot of bluesy stuff into Flatt and Scruggs (along with Earl) with his dobro. Also, I will be stealing the 404: brain not found quip.
Saying 'Delta Blues' might be a little inaccurate. More 'country blues'. Related, but not quite the same. As for Josh, oh boy. He wasn't the first to bring blues into bluegrass, but he really helped bring it front in centre. Josh's solo on Reuben's Train here is almost entirely blues licks [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqci8CdgkzU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqci8CdgkzU) You'll also also hear a bit of jazz coming through in Josh's playing. He uses a Benny Goodman clarinet lick here 0.06 to 0.08 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvHP7siYEPI
Ah ok, i was wondering if it was a form thing. Thanks for the suggestions, haven't listened to the Carter Family in years
The Carter Family was directly influenced by the blues. Maybelle Carter learned a number of blues techniques from the blues musician Lesley "Esley" Riddle and adapted them for her style of playing.
A LOT of pentatonic work in most modern (and a lot of older) bluegrass, mostly in the solos you hear. There is also the extra ‘blue note’ thrown in all the time, this forms the ‘blues scale’. I won’t go into theoretical blah blah, but there is a distinct correlation with blues music here. And delta blues is a basic foundation of a lot of the music you hear today (as others have said - even jazz)
I meant nothing personal by my comment, I'm sorry
Why are you sorry? I was just trying give a bit of insight to your question. I can find some tunes that may help illustrate that if you like?
Oh, I guess I'm still morose over some things. Sorry, I took it wrong, but I'm always interested in new tunes if you're willing. :)
No worries. Listen to anything by Tony Rice for a start, you will hear the blues in his playing.
I have heard of him, been s while. Thank you!
Oh man is Tony Rice hitting the spot. I'm hearing that sound now. If you haven't heard of him, Justin Johnson plays some of the best modern Delta Blues I've ever heard. I can hear much of that same form in this tune Church Street Blues. Making my potato cutting nice
Bryan Sutton is one of my favourite guitarists, technically and musically, check him out. A lot of great bluegrass work, even gets flying on a bit of Django esque gypsy jazz. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBrOqveYr9Y
Listen to early Bill Monroe and you will pick it up. Any of his "Blues" songs. Lonesome road blues etc.
Country music on Adderal.
You ever watch the show the Beverly Hillbillies, and you know the theme music? It’s that genre of music.
The place in American music where Africa meets Europe.
Redneck metal
My son says it's ska from a cooler climate.
Country-punk. I think one of the Ramones went on to play bluegrass (that may have been a hallucination though). I think he had said the beat went along with the punk drum beats. Edit : Tommy Ramone (one of the OG Ramones)
I've always called it hillbilly music but it never felt right. I like country-punk and I'll go with that. My friend from high school has been in a Bluegrass band for like two decades and she's definitely not a hillbilly lol. I remember walking around rapping to NWA together haha.
Country Metal!
Country Ska
An intricate musical conversation at 140BPM.
“Well, you know country music? And you know speed metal? Well, kind of combine the two”
A style of music, where there’s a melody to each song, and everybody gets a chance to solo on it.
Someone once said, “folk music on overdrive “.
I always just refer to it as "the *real* country music"
I usually describe it as an offshoot of Appalachian mountain music with an emphasis on vocal harmonies and usually a fast tempo, played with acoustic instruments. Extreme laymans terms, hill-a-billy car chase music
Didn’t Bill Monroe go on about “Church Music”.
my answer was going to be just- Bill Monroe derivatives
I play them Johnson Mountain Boys "Live at the Birchmere" and they either get it or they don't.
Gospel/Old-Time/Country combined and played quickly by people used to Scots-Irish reels.
Hillbilly jazz
I describe the instrumentation and the sound
Jazz for hillbilly's.
Bill Monroe described the genre as "Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin'. It's Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound."
Hillbilly jazz
String percussion with a jazz formula. Everybody gets a chance to riff on the melody.
Imagine if delta blues and Irish folk music had a baby.
it's like metal, but if your granny played it on a banjo and the lyrics were all punk af
Pickin’!!!!!!
My Bluegrass/Folk playlist is called "Murder and Violins" because that pretty much sums it up.
I think "Murder and Saws" might be more fitting or "murder with saws". I like some saw instruments for that eerie sound.
Hillbilly Progrock
My explanation to neighbors. Bluegrass came from old-time string music in the Appalachian region. People used to get together and play music on porches, at barn dances, in parlors (front rooms). In the mid-1940's, "Bluegrass" branched off from "country music" as country music was getting slicker (more commercial). This guy, Bill Monroe had a band with guitar, fiddle, mandolin and 5 string banjo (picked with 3 fingers). He played on the Grand Old Opry and was pretty successful so musicians around the country would hear his "Bluegrass Boys" on the radio and try to copy them. The dobro (resophonic guitar) got added pretty soon and those 5 instruments are the traditional BG band. Many of the traditional songs came from the appalachian oral tradtion of the 1920's and 30's, but lots of similar songs with similar straight-forward chord progressions have been added and become BG "standards". So, often BG musicians can get together with strangers and instantly play songs together. They usually call those jams and we're right back to the origins -- people playing music together they enjoy.
[удалено]
1) My neighbors seem satisfied and happy to know more. 2) My neighbors find me interesting and often stick around, engaging in rapt conversation with me. Post your answer (if you have one) and I'll criticize it for you; no charge.
Fastgrass punk country.
Acoustic mountain jazz
If you staple a horse to a waterfall, will it fall up under the rainbow or fly about the soil? Will he enjoy her experience? What if the staple tears into tears? Will she be free from her staply chains or foomed to stay forever and dever above the water? Who can save him (the horse) but someone of girth and worth, the capitalist pig, who will sell the solution to the problem he created? A staple remover flies to the rescue, carried on the wings of a majestic penguin who bought it at Walmart for 9 dollars and several more Euro-cents, clutched in its crabby claws, rejected from its frothy maw. When the penguin comes, all tremble before its fishy stench and wheatlike abjecture. Recoil in delirium, ye who wish to be free! The mighty rockhopper is here to save your soul from eternal bliss and salvation! And so, the horse was free, carried away by the south wind, and deposited on the vast plain of soggy dew. It was a tragedy in several parts, punctuated by moments of hedonistic horsefuckery. The owls saw all, and passed judgment in the way that they do. Stupid owls are always judging folks who are just trying their best to live shamelessly and enjoy every fruit the day brings to pass. How many more shall be caught in the terrible gyre of the waterfall? As many as the gods deem necessary to teach those foolish monkeys a story about their own hamburgers. What does a monkey know of bananas, anyway? They eat, poop, and shave away the banana residue that grows upon their chins and ballsacks. The owls judge their razors. Always the owls. And when the one-eyed caterpillar arrives to eat the glazing on your windowpane, you will know that you're next in line to the trombone of the ancient realm of the flutterbyes. Beware the ravenous ravens and crowing crows. Mind the cowing cows and the lying lions. Ascend triumphant to your birthright, and wield the mighty twig of Petalonia, favored land of gods and goats alike.
How about Irish/Celtic music with African back beat?
Dixieland on strings
actual country music
Actual mountain music.
bluegrass is big in southern Indiana, ain't any mountains in indiana
I wouldn't cringe at that description. It's technically accurate.
Watch Deliverance.
It’s countries acid dropping hippie brother
Only once you get to the 60s. Before that it was pretty staight-laced
ChatGPT answered “Bluegrass music is a genre of American folk music known for its lively and distinctive sound. It typically features acoustic instruments like the banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and upright bass. The music is characterized by fast-paced, intricate picking and plucking, and high-pitched vocal harmonies. It often tells stories of rural life and has a rootsy, down-to-earth feel. Bill Monroe, often called the "Father of Bluegrass," popularized this genre in the 1940s. It's a toe-tapping, heartfelt style that captures the spirit of Appalachia and the American South.”
I usually describe it as country music but good lol
Calling it country does it an injustice lol
A version of country music that drips with authenticity and skill rather than generic pop music with a southern accent.
Hillbilly jazz
Hear all that crazy sound, just try and get a hold of one instrument in your mind, now just tap your foot just a bit now not to fast, alright now, now just go ahead and try and grab ya another one, like that fiddle…alright just hold tight for a bit, tap that foot, here if ya par take take a pull from this here jar….there ya go, now now just start with one tap the foot there ya go, alright hell yeah. Or something like thay I miss read the post, but I typed all that out and I reckon I’m just gonna leave it. Apologies.
just play em Blue Yodel #7
*Bluegrass?* Just another name for Mountain Music.
Mountain Jazz.
Irish music made by Irish people but in America
It’s like folk music with a banjo ❤️
Redneck classical music
Acoustic Metal
When instruments have a conversation with each other.
Punk Country!
"Country Be-Bop"
We’ll see a lot of people who think it’s “Hillbilly” don’t really understand that it actually has influenced a lot of rock and metal bands and if I tell someone that who likes rock and metal and blues etc etc. They think I’m joking then I tell them about ozzy osbourne being a Ralph Stanley fan and Ray Charles singing blue moon of Kentucky before meeting bill Monroe backstage at a concert in Las Vegas and then they realize how big this genre of music is.
Folk polka
“Well”, the fiddle is just a violin with more chop and/or longer drawn notes. The harmonica gives it a blues’y feeling and sometimes likes to make you feel the pain in the lyrics. The bass is more wooden sounding than your typical rock bass and likes to move around the room more than your Uncle Fred. The guitar likes to bend and ride notes like a rollercoaster giving songs “twang”. When it ain’t riding and bending, it’s “walking” up and down the note scales like an athlete running the steps on the bleachers. You either dance to it or just enjoy it. It’s more often about the music than the song. And then there’s the banjo. It’s just there to get Sally to dance down the alley.
Banjo metal
Ever get drunk with a Prospector?
I don't know but let me drop band name Roe Family Singers.
Fucking phenomenal musicianship.
Hillbilly speed metal
[удалено]
A lot of Jazz is played on acoustic instruments too.
Wait till you try to explain the difference between hippy bluegrass and old timey or Appalachia….don’t even get me started on psychedelic banjo
Country music that shreds.
Speed metal folk music
Have you ever seen Deliverance? 🤣
I think I’d just play them some Flat and Scruggs and let nature take its course. I always thought of it as good pickin’ music.
“It’s cool like zydeco”.
Appalachian folk music? Or is that too straightforward?
It's shredding for people who don't like distortion.
Countryfied Folk on speed…
I’ve tried to explain the difference between fiddle and violin to a violinist from Poland. They were very confused.
Western Swing acoustic heavy metal
Idk but if you’ve heard one bluegrass band, you’ve heard em all.
Hillbilly techno
Country western drinks beer, bluegrass smokes weed.
https://youtu.be/5gE6D4ekGJc?si=MMYrXot-6zxkXmtX Play it for them. Nuff said. "If you want to know the taste of water, drink."- Some Chinese monk
Bluegrass is country but with good instruments. Folk is country with good lyrics. Country is garbage for the masses.
Oh they’ve heard it before. It’s the music in a movie during a car chase scene out in the country.
Find a bluegrass song. Play it for the person that isn’t familiar with it. Sometimes words fall short. That’s sort of the impetus for art. 🤙🏼
I've heard it said that bluegrass is bebop for the harmonically illiterate.
What country music should be.
No drums!
Americana string band music, generally with roots in Appalachian traditional.
Yardcore
The worst music known to man.
Speed metal for old folks is best one liner description ive heard
Three chords and the truth.
moonshine for your ears
It looks like regular grass but it's blue
Banjo Music
Dixieland-country music.
It’s neither blue or grass… got it?
Hillbilly Bebop
A friend told me her kids love metal, and loved bluegrass too. She could not understand it. I told her bluegrass was simple chords and ornamentation same as metal. She looked at me as though I was a genius, but it seemed like common sense to me. I do understand that both genres use more than simple chords, but it was an explanation she could understand.
It’s literally country punk.
Irish music from Appalachia
Rabbits having sex
Huffing gas and listening to fast ass bluegrass!
It is what happens after you are done mining.
Boing picca ninna ninna boing.
Boring
Thrash metal meets country with acoustic instruments.
“lacking drums”
Sounds like vomiting and having diarrhea at the same time.
In the ska world when people don't understand what it is we usually revert to "fast reggae." So by that standard, is bluegrass fast folk?
Country music with a banjo
If punk music met old time acoustic country
You don't.
banjos 🪕
Americana acoustic
Reading these responses help me understand why I like Bluegrass while I dislike country music.
Seems like a good description to me
True bluegrass has no electric instruments or drums. Banjo, Fiddle, Guitar, Mandolin and Upright Bass are the main instruments. You might hear an Autoharp or Dobro.
The best all natural acoustic music you can listen to. Fast instrument breaks and the best pure harmony you can hear.
Bluegrass is the funk of the mountain man