History Main / Bluegrass

Bluegrass is a form of American music related to FolkMusic and CountryMusic. It has its origins in [[Myth/MountainFolklore Appalachian music]], folk music from the British Isles, and 19th-century African-American music. It began to be recognized as a musical genre in the 1930s, and got its name from Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys; though it has its origins across the region of UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}}, it is most commonly associated with the state of Kentucky. Bluegrass is traditionally played on some combination of banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar, fiddle, dobro, and upright bass. Bluegrass songs typically have the instruments take turns playing the melody or improvising on it. In songs with vocals, the lead singer is often accompanied by one or more harmony voices.

Bluegrass is a form of American music related to FolkMusic and CountryMusic. It has its origins in [[Myth/MountainFolklore Appalachian music]], folk music from the British Isles, and 19th-century African-American music. It began to be recognized as a musical genre in the 1930s, and got its name from Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys. Bluegrass is traditionally played on some combination of banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar, fiddle, dobro, and upright bass. Bluegrass songs typically have the instruments take turns playing the melody or improvising on it. In songs with vocals, the lead singer is often accompanied by one or more harmony voices.

* Music/TheNativeHowl (mixed with thrash metal)

* [[Music/JDCroweAndTheNewSouth JD Crowe & the New South]]

* [[Music/BelaFleckAndTheFlecktones Béla Fleck & The Flecktones]]

* Music/HotRize
* [[Music/JimAndJesse Jim & Jesse]]
* Music/AlisonKraussAndUnionStation
* [[Music/DoyleLawsonAndQuicksilver Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver]]
* [[Music/DelMcCoury Del McCoury]]
* Music/BillMonroe

* Music/DocWatson
* Music/GillianWelch
* Music/{{Panopticon}}, while primarily a metal band, often performs acoustic bluegrass material. Examples appear on ''Kentucky'' (half the songs, making up about a third of the album by running time), ''Roads to the North'' ("The Long Road Part I: One Last Fire" and "Norwegian Nights"), ''Autumn Eternal'' (though only the intro), ''Collapse'' (about the closing five minutes of the opening track), ''It's Later Than You Think'' ("...Speaking... (Collapsed Version)"), the Waldgeflüster split ("Trauerweide II"), and apparently the second half of the forthcoming ''The Scars of Man on the Once Nameless Wilderness'', the last of which will have no metal material.

Bluegrass has a reputation of being an unsophisticated, provincial style of music, but in recent years, it has been growing in popularity (partly due to its use in films like ''Film/OBrotherWhereArtThou''). Many mainstream country artists have released bluegrass albums, and celebrities as diverse as [[Music/TheGratefulDead Jerry Garcia]], Creator/SteveMartin, and Yo-Yo Ma have dabbled in it. It is also becoming more well-known world-wide.