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Description of Bluegrass

 
Acoustic string band music in the country tradition comprises high, plaintive singing, fiddle, mandolin, five-string banjo, guitar and upright bass. The music spotlights tight harmony singing and improvisational instrumental solos. Thematically, the music can be either secular or sacred, but many important artists come from a gospel tradition. Widely regarded as the father of bluegrass, Kentucky native Bill Monroe was a vastly influential bandleader, chart-topping singer/songwriter, and innovative, virtuoso mandolin player. The 1946 incarnation of his Blue Grass Boys featured Earl Scruggs' pioneering five-string banjo playing and Lester Flatt's singing and guitar playing. They would all ascend to bluegrass legend and establish the paradigm for bluegrass to come -- namely the Stanley Brothers, the Osborne Brothers, Reno & Smiley, and Flatt & Scruggs. In the 1960s and '70s, a progressive element cropped up in bluegrass with bands such as the Kentucky Colonels, the New Grass Revival, Boone Creek, and many others augmenting the high-lonesome sound with elements of jazz, thereby broadening the canon to include songs from folk, rock and pop genres. And then there's the new traditional movement, which seeks to bring bluegrass back to its purist roots, ironically through newfangled production techniques. But the bluegrass we are referring to here encompasses the genre as a whole, with the heaviest emphasis on the genre's purist blueprints.
 

Top Bluegrass Tracks

 
Play Track Artist Price
1. When You Say Nothing At All Alison Krauss
$0.99
2. Keep On Lovin' You Steel Magnolia
$0.99
3. Baby Mine Alison Krauss
4. Down To The River To Pray Alison Krauss
$0.99
5. How's The World Treating You (Feat. James Taylor) Alison Krauss
6. Whiskey Lullaby (Feat. Brad Paisley) Alison Krauss
7. I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow (Radio Version) Soggy Bottom Boys
$1.29
8. I'll Fly Away Alison Krauss
$0.99
9. Blessed Be Alison Krauss
$0.99
10. The Lucky One Alison Krauss
$0.99
11. Jolene Dolly Parton
$1.29
12. When You Come Back Down Nickel Creek
$0.99
13. I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow (Band Version) Soggy Bottom Boys
$1.29
14. Missing You (Feat. John Waite) Alison Krauss
$0.99
15. Baby, Now That I've Found You Alison Krauss
$0.99
16. Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby Alison Krauss
$0.99
17. You Will Be My Ain True Love (Feat. Sting) Alison Krauss
18. The Lighthouse's Tale Nickel Creek
$0.99
19. I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow Alison Krauss
$0.99
20. Let Me Touch You For A While Alison Krauss
$0.99
21. Let Me Touch You For Awhile Alison Krauss
$0.99
22. 9 To 5 Dolly Parton
$0.99
23. The Hand Song Nickel Creek
$0.99
24. I Will Always Love You featuring Vince Gill Dolly Parton
$1.29
25. Ode To A Butterfly Nickel Creek
$0.99
26. Lay Down Beside Me (Feat. John Waite) Alison Krauss
27. Out Of The Woods Nickel Creek
$0.99
28. Jacob's Dream Alison Krauss
$0.99
29. Reasons Why Nickel Creek
$0.99
30. You're Just A Country Boy Alison Krauss
$0.99
31. Down To The River To Pray Alison Krauss
32. In the Jailhouse Now Soggy Bottom Boys
$0.99
33. Here You Come Again Dolly Parton
$0.99
34. I Will Always Love You (Original Version) Dolly Parton
$1.29
35. Smoothie Song Nickel Creek
$0.99
36. The Fox Nickel Creek
$0.99
37. Sweet Afton Nickel Creek
$0.99
38. Restless Alison Krauss
$0.99
39. This Side Nickel Creek
$0.99
40. I Will Always Love You Dolly Parton
$1.29
41. Gravity Alison Krauss
$0.99
42. Every Time You Say Goodbye Alison Krauss
$0.99
43. Away Down The River Alison Krauss
$0.99
44. New Favorite Alison Krauss
$0.99
45. The Lucky One Alison Krauss
$0.99
46. Cuckoo's Nest Nickel Creek
$0.99
47. Chiseled In Stone Vern Gosdin
$0.99
48. Islands In The Stream Dolly Parton
$0.99
49. I Will Alison Krauss
$0.99
50. Spit On A Stranger Nickel Creek
$0.99
 

Bluegrass Key Albums

 
Country Bluegrass
$5.99
Country Songs, Old and New
$8.99
Earliest Recordings
$8.99
Live In Japan!
$14.99
Muleskinner
$9.99
Now That I've Found You: A Collection
$8.99
The Best Of Cliff Waldron
$7.99
The Complete Mercury Recordings
$16.99
The Complete Mercury...
$9.99
The Essential Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys 1945-1949
$15.99
Wheatstraw Suite
$8.99

 

Filed Under

 
 

Bluegrass Key Artists

 
Alison Brown

Brown is a Bluegrass
prodigy whose instrumental
solo albums display her love
for both traditional music
and pop songs.

Alison Krauss

Krauss blends bluegrass'
rustic instrumentation with
folk-pop songwriting
sensibilities, fusing tradition
with innovation. Alison Kr...

Bailey Brothers

Active in the '40s and '50s,
the Bailey Brothers were a
Bluegrass brother duet act
that started out as old-timey
pop singers.

Bill Monroe

Monroe was one of the first
to popularize the Bluegrass
band paradigm of guitar,
acoustic bass, fiddle
mandolin, and banjo. The...

Chris Hillman

From the Byrds to the
Burritos and beyond,
Hillman plays truly
professional Folk-Rock,
Country Rock and Bluegr...

David Grisman

Known for his
collaborations with the late
Jerry Garcia, Grisman has
led his own Bluegrass
quintet dating back to the...

Del McCoury

McCoury has an old
fashioned family Bluegrass
band with tight, next-of-kin
close harmonies and tons if
instrumental exchange. H...

Doug Dillard

Doug Dillard's adroit
banjo-picking effortlessly
traversed from bluegrass to
pop and country rock
while retaining his style....

Doyle Lawson

Lawson is a critically
acclaimed mandolin player
who played joyous country
gospel songs with bluegrass
instrumentation.

Earl Scruggs

Scruggs injected his
matchless style of Bluegrass
picking with bits of rock
and pop while maintaining a
pastoral twang.

Flatt and Scruggs

Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs
were pioneers of
fast-pickin' Bluegrass music.
Their guitar and banjo
playing are unparalleled....

Hazel Dickens

West Virginian bluegrass
and folk lynchpin Hazel
Dickens has been recording
outspoken, purely
American music since the...

J.D. Crowe

J.D. Crowe was one of the
founders of progressive
bluegrass. His innovative
banjo playing pushed
bluegrass' margins outwar...

Jerry Garcia

Best known as the lead
vocalist for the Grateful
Dead, the late Garcia was an
admirable folk and
bluegrass player as well....

Kenny Baker

Kenny Baker, one of the
most sought after session
fiddlers, played with
bluegrass luminary Bill
Monroe as well as Don Gib...

Lilly Brothers

The Lilly Brothers were a
bluegrass act specializing in
those high-lonesome vocal
harmonies that only siblings
can sing.

Nickel Creek

This young trio from San
Diego plays devastatingly
beautiful bluegrass and folk
songs sung by an
angelic-voiced singer. Ma...

Ralph Stanley

Ralph Stanley's manic banjo
playing helped popularize
Bluegrass music via the
Stanley Brothers and the
Clinch Mountain Boys.

Rhonda Vincent

Rhonda Vincent is an
Americana wonder who
plays stellar country folk
and bluegrass. Her voice
can bring a man to tears....

Ricky Skaggs

Skaggs is a cosmic American
Bluegrass picker who cut
his teeth with the Stanley
Brothers as well as Emmylou
Harris' Hot Band. Arguabl...

The Kentucky Colonels

They were one of the very
first Progressive Bluegrass
bands, innovating traditional
picking with stylishly hyper
arpeggios. Playing Progres...

Vassar Clements

Vassar Clements is the most
legendary and innovative
fiddle player on the
bluegrass circuit. He's
played on rock albums, to...

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