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>
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12/06/2003 05:52 PM
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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>
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12/06/2003 03:41 PM
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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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