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Re: [ARSCLIST] Bluegrass



For my further elucidation, what is the difference between this description
and the music Posey Rorer and the North Carolina Ramblers  recorded for
Edison in the 1920?  To read Edison's rejection opinions of Rorer's music is
pretty funny.  He got pretty irate and sent Rorer quickly back to NC.  I
think two sides out of eight takes were issued.  Every part of this
description fits Rorer's music.  I am not saying he created bluegrass music
either, but  I think Monroe created the name "bluegrass" but certainly not
the music.-Mike Loughlin



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

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