[ARSCLIST] Fw: [ARSCLIST] Bluegrass

[Dick Spottswood <dick@xxxxxxxx>]

Anyone care to correct or add to my
response?  Thanks, Dick

----- Forwarded by Dick
Spottswood/dick/AmericanU on 12/06/2003 06:16 PM -----

Dick Spottswood <dick@xxxxxxxx> Sent by: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx> 12/06/2003 05:52 PM Please respond to Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List

To:        ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx         cc:                 Subject:        Re: [ARSCLIST] Bluegrass

The word "bluegrass" wasn't applied to the genre until 1953-4.
 It was a quick descriptor for music played ala Bill Monroe, whose
band name since 1939 had been the Blue Grass Boys.  The North Carolina
music of Posey Rorer, the Mainers, Charlie Poole, the Hired Hands and others
is a direct ancestor of bluegrass.  Listen to Posey Rorer's not-very-good
Edison records alongside the Monroe-Flatt-Scruggs outfit of 1946-7.  The
differences should be as clear as the aforementioned difference between
Jelly-Roll Morton and Bud Powell. 

Dick Spottswood

Mike Loughlin <mikel78_rpm@xxxxxxxxxxx> Sent by: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx> 12/06/2003 03:41 PM Please respond to Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List

To:        ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx        cc:                Subject:        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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