Fowle, Bluegrass then and now



 Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys

Bill Monroe born William Smith Monroe on September 13 1911, the hills of Kentucky. He created the bluegrass music genre. The origin of bluegrass music originally came to America with the migrants in the 1600's coming from Ireland, Scotland, and England. As the settlers moved south they wrote songs of daily life in the new land farming and the hills they moved to. The style consisted of gospel and blues style music. Bill Monroe introduced the music with the styles and rhythms consisting of gospel, string bands, black laborer songs, country, and blues music. The vocals of bluegrass music was harmonies in duets, trio, and quartets. The choice of instruments for this style of music was the mandolin, fiddle, banjo, guitar, and standup bass. What separates bluegrass from country music is the hard-driving style of acoustic instruments and the high vocal harmonies. These high vocals are in the upper range and referred to the "High Lonesome" sound. This sound gives the music its nasally timbre sound. 




Resources:
"Bill Monroe." Wikipedia, 10 October 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Monroe
Bluegrass Heritage Foundation. "A brief history of bluegrass music." 2021, https://bluegrassheritage.org/history-of-bluegrass-music/
Library of Congress. "Bluegrass Music." https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200152684/


The New Grass Revival

The New Grass Revival band founded in 1971, plays a style of American progressive bluegrass music "New Grass." Sam Bush one of the vocals is considered the originator of the progressive bluegrass style. This band basically threw out the traditional style of bluegrass by the way the dressed, long hair, and performing songs by many different genres of music which stepped away from the mountain music style. They also went away from the high register pitch to just singing the song which kind of lost the high lonesome sound. During this time many looked down on them because they thought this new style was disrespecting to Bill Monroe. Newgrass music introduced electric instruments, piano, and even drums. They also introduced rhythms of other genres, chord progressions, and long jam session style improv during the songs. This style of music adds lots of elements from jazz, folk, country, and rock. 


Resources:
"New Grass Revival." Wikipedia, 27 August 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Grass_Revival
"Sam Bush." Wikipedia, 18 July 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Bush

So, after doing this research I was amazed, just how early progressive bluegrass originated. Some of the bluegrass bands I have been listening to actually classify as the new grass genre, Allison Kraus for one. I remember listening to her as a young kid at a festival in Maine. I grew up with the old lonesome sound blue grass, which I still love today. You can see the major difference between them is that the new grass uses electric instruments, amplifiers, and they don't follow the traditional style, timbre, and harmonies of the high lonesome sound. They do however still use the mandolin, banjo, bass (which usually is electric), and guitar (usually using both acoustic and electric. I will say that I do like the new grass stuff as well. I knew a little about it, but after this I am really liking some of this new grass stuff, that I have researched and some of it is to new age for me to consider any type of bluegrass. You should take some time and listen to some. Nothing beats the stories and gospel of old time bluegrass. I love that high register of the voices and if you listen close they always have someone with a baritone voice. I do believe that people just introduced to new grass style would eventually find traditional bluegrass and enjoy it. I barely touched the surface of this genre of music, and I hope you enjoyed it.

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