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Re: [ARSCLIST] Bluegrass
For everyone's elucidation, bluegrass
is the name given to the branch of country music that Bill Monroe created
in the mid-1940s on Columbia records & the Grand Ole Opry. Normally
the instrumental components include virtuoso mandolin (a la Monroe), banjo
(a la Earl Scruggs), fiddle, guitar and string bass. Vocally, voices
are pitched high, and choruses are sung using something close to hymnbook
harmony. Topically, the subjects stay close to death, mother, Jesus,
and dysfunctional love. Sentiments of alienation from home, God,
a loved one etc. are common.
Artists closely associated with bluegrass
since the 1940s include Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs, the
Stanley Brothers, Jim & Jesse, Mac Wiseman, the Lewis Family (gospel),
the Country Gentlemen, and the Osborne Brothers. Current bluegrass
(and near-to-bluegrass) acts include the Isaacs (gospel), Ricky Skaggs,
Alison Krauss, IIIrd Tyme Out, Blue Highway, Nickel Creek, Rhonda Vincent.
Recently Dolly Parton has recorded memorably in the bluegrass idiom.
Dick Spottswood