Bluegrass music is a type of traditional American music that began in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The name comes from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Bluegrass music has influences from African American styles like blues and jazz, as well as North European styles such as Irish ballads and dance music. Unlike country music, bluegrass is usually played only on acoustic instruments, including the fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, and upright bass. Musicians who played with Bill Monroe, such as 5-string banjo player Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt, helped develop the style. Bill Monroe once said, "It's a part of Methodist, Holiness, and Baptist traditions. It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound."
Bluegrass music uses acoustic stringed instruments and focuses on playing beats that happen between the main beats. These off-beats can be "driven" (played near the previous bass note) or "swung" (played farther from the previous bass note). Notes are played before the beat, unlike in laid-back blues, where notes are played after the beat. This creates the more energetic sound of bluegrass. In bluegrass, like in most jazz, one or more musicians take turns playing the melody and adding unique variations, while others provide background music. This is especially common in songs called breakdowns. This is different from old-time music, where all musicians play the melody together or one instrument leads while others support. Breakdowns often have fast tempos, complex instrument techniques, and unusual chord changes.
Characteristics
The violin (also called the fiddle), five-string banjo, guitar, mandolin, and upright bass (also called the string bass) are often joined by the resonator guitar (also called a Dobro) and sometimes the harmonica or Jew's harp. This group of instruments began in rural dance bands and became the foundation for the first bluegrass bands.
The fiddle was made by Italians and first used in Europe during the 1500s. It was among the first instruments brought to America. It became popular because it was small and could be used in many different types of music, including country, classical, cajun, and old-time music.
Banjos were brought to America through the African slave trade. White Americans started paying attention to them when minstrel shows included the banjo in their performances. Before the Civil War, the "clawhammer" or two-finger style of playing was common. Today, most banjo players use the three-finger picking style made famous by musicians like Earl Scruggs.
Guitars are mainly used to provide rhythm. Other instruments may play solos over the guitar during breaks, and sometimes guitarists also play these solos. The guitar came from 18th-century Spain, but American-made guitars were not made until the C.F. Martin Company started producing them in the 1830s. Today, the most common way to play the guitar is called flatpicking, unlike the style used by early bluegrass guitarists like Lester Flatt, who used a thumb pick and finger pick.
Bassists usually play pizzicato, which means plucking the strings. They may also use "slap-style" to make the beat more noticeable. A bluegrass bass line typically alternates between the root and fifth of each chord, with occasional more complex patterns.
The choice of instruments in bluegrass has been debated for many years. Traditional bluegrass musicians believe the correct setup is the one used by Bill Monroe's band, the Blue Grass Boys (guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and bass). Some groups have added other instruments, like the dobro, accordion, harmonica, piano, autoharp, drums, electric guitar, or electric versions of other instruments, which is called "new grass." Even Monroe sometimes used different instruments, such as a string orchestra, choir, and pre-recorded bird sounds.
Another key feature of bluegrass is vocal harmony with two, three, or four voices. The highest voice often has a dissonant or unusual sound, known as the "high, lonesome sound." The order of voices in a harmony is called the "stack." A typical stack has a baritone voice at the bottom, the lead voice (singing the main melody) in the middle, and a tenor voice on top. This can change, especially when a female voice is included. For example, Alison Krauss and Union Station used a different stack with a baritone and tenor voice, and a high lead voice sung by a female vocalist. This arrangement was common in the early days of bluegrass.
Both the Stanley Brothers and the Osborne Brothers used a high lead voice with the tenor and baritone voices below it. The Stanleys used this technique in their recordings for Mercury and King records. The Osborne Brothers made this style famous when they recorded for MGM in the late 1950s. This vocal arrangement became a key part of the Osborne Brothers' sound, with Bobby Osborne's clear, high voice at the top. The Stanley Brothers also used a high baritone voice in some of their recordings for Columbia Records between 1949 and 1952. Mandolin player Pee Wee Lambert sang the high baritone part above Ralph Stanley's tenor voice, both above Carter Stanley's lead vocal. This arrangement was also used by other groups, including Bill Monroe, who used it in his 1950 recording of "When the Golden Leaves Begin to Fall." In the 1960s, Flatt and Scruggs added a fifth voice to their gospel songs, a high baritone that doubled the baritone part. E.P. Tullock (also known as Cousin Jake) or Curly Seckler usually sang this part.
Bluegrass songs often tell stories about everyday life in the places where the music originated. They may describe lost love, personal conflicts, or changes in the region, such as the effects of mountaintop coal mining. They also often describe the difficult lives of people in rural areas like Appalachia with limited resources. Some songs in the bluegrass style have been written to protest issues, especially those related to the coal mining industry. Railroading is another common theme, with songs like "Wreck of the Old 97" and "Nine Pound Hammer," based on the legend of John Henry.
History
Bluegrass music developed from old-time music and traditional music in the Appalachian region of the United States. This area was home to many Scottish American immigrants, who brought their musical traditions from their homeland. These traditions included jigs and reels, often played on the fiddle. At the same time, Black musicians introduced the banjo to Appalachia. In 1945, Earl Scruggs created a special way of playing the banjo called the "three-finger roll," which allowed fast, flowing notes that matched the energetic sound of bluegrass music.
During the 18th century, settlers from Britain and Ireland moved to Appalachia, bringing their musical traditions. These traditions included English and Scottish ballads, which told stories without musical accompaniment, and dance music like reels, played with a fiddle. Many older bluegrass songs come directly from the British Isles. For example, songs like "Pretty Saro," "Pretty Polly," "Cuckoo Bird," and "House Carpenter" are from England and keep the English ballad style. Songs like "Leather Britches" and "Soldier's Joy" have Scottish roots. The dance tune "Cumberland Gap" may be based on the tune from the Scottish ballad "Bonnie George Campbell."
Bluegrass music was often used to accompany rural dancing styles like buckdancing, flatfooting, or clogging. As bluegrass spread to cities, people began listening to it for its own value, especially after sound recordings became available. In 1948, bluegrass became a separate genre within the post-war country/western-music industry, a time now called the "golden era" of traditional bluegrass. From the beginning, both professional and amateur musicians played bluegrass. While amateur musicians and informal gatherings like "parking-lot picking" were important, touring musicians shaped the direction of the style. Radio stations dedicated to bluegrass also helped create different subgenres.
Bluegrass was first grouped under folk music and later called "hillbilly." In 1948, it was placed under the "country and western" category for radio charts. Four important scholars—Artis, Price, Cantwell, and Rosenberg—described bluegrass as emerging between the 1930s and mid-1940s. However, the term "bluegrass" was not used to describe the music until the late 1950s. It first appeared in the Music Index in 1965, where it was linked to "Country Music; Hillbilly Music." This listing remained until 1986, when bluegrass received its own entries in 1987.
Many bluegrass songs have themes similar to folk music. Some songs considered bluegrass are actually older folk or old-time music pieces played in the bluegrass style. Scholars have studied how bluegrass and folk music influence each other. For example, folklorist Neil Rosenberg noted that many bluegrass fans and musicians know traditional folk songs and old-time music, which are often played at shows, festivals, and informal gatherings.
The word "bluegrass" also refers to a type of grass in the Poa genus, most notably Kentucky bluegrass. A large area in central Kentucky is sometimes called the "Bluegrass region," even though it is west of the state's hills. The term "bluegrass" likely came from the name of the Blue Grass Boys band, formed in 1939 with Bill Monroe as its leader. Because of this connection, Bill Monroe is often called the "father of bluegrass."
Bluegrass music began in the mid-1940s. In 1948, the Stanley Brothers recorded the traditional song "Molly and Tenbrooks" in the style of the Blue Grass Boys, marking a key moment in bluegrass's development. Monroe's band from 1946 to 1948, which included Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, Chubby Wise, and Howard Watts, created the classic bluegrass sound and instrument setup still used today. Some argue that bluegrass became a musical style only after other bands started playing similarly. In 1967, the banjo piece "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" by Flatt and Scruggs became famous worldwide after appearing in the movie Bonnie and Clyde. However, the similar old-time music style had already been recorded long before the film.
Ralph Stanley shared insights about the origins of bluegrass and its name.
Subgenres and recent developments
Traditional bluegrass music focuses on the original style and structure created by Bill Monroe and his band, the Blue Grass Boys, in the late 1940s. Musicians in this style play folk songs using simple chord patterns and only acoustic instruments. However, during performances for large audiences, these instruments are often amplified. In most traditional bluegrass bands, the guitar usually plays a rhythm role, not the lead, except in gospel songs. Melodies and lyrics are often simple, frequently using the key of G, with a common chord pattern of I-IV-V. Instrumental breaks are short and played between song sections, usually based on the song’s melody. Breakdowns, which are a series of instrumental solos by different players, are also common. Since the 1990s, younger musicians have worked to bring back the sound and structure of traditional bluegrass, a movement called neo-traditional bluegrass.
The group the Country Gentlemen started the progressive bluegrass movement with their 1960 album Country Songs, Old and New. This album combined traditional ballads like "The Little Sparrow," "Weeping Willow," and "Ellen Smith" with traditional bluegrass instruments and faster mandolin and banjo playing, different from the styles of Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs.
Traditional bluegrass became popular alongside mainstream country music through radio and TV shows like the Grand Ole Opry. This led many young musicians, not only from the South, to play bluegrass on college campuses and in coffeehouses during the American folk music revival of the 1960s. These artists often added elements from other genres, like rock and roll. Earl Scruggs, of the band Flatt and Scruggs, introduced more complex music styles, such as jazz-inspired banjo and bass duets, which changed the genre’s original structure. In the late 1960s, Scruggs collaborated with saxophonist King Curtis and included songs by Bob Dylan, but his bandmate, Lester Flatt, who preferred traditional styles, disagreed, leading to the group’s breakup in 1969.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the band New Grass Revival used electric instruments and songs from other genres, making "newgrass" a term for progressive bluegrass. Over time, this style evolved, blending with folk, rock, and jazz. Festivals like the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, RockyGrass in Colorado, and MerleFest in North Carolina began featuring artists from outside the bluegrass tradition, connecting bluegrass with other music scenes.
After the death of Jerry Garcia, who started his career in bluegrass, and the end of the Grateful Dead, the "jam band" scene grew. These bands included groups that played progressive bluegrass with long, exploratory solos, a style called "jamgrass." Bands like Leftover Salmon, the String Cheese Incident, Yonder Mountain String Band, the Infamous Stringdusters, Railroad Earth, Greensky Bluegrass, and Billy Strings became popular. In recent years, groups such as the Punch Brothers, the Jon Stickley Trio, and Nickel Creek have created a new form of progressive bluegrass with complex arrangements similar to classical music. At the same time, indie folk and folk rock bands like the Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons, and Trampled by Turtles have used bluegrass rhythms and instruments in their music, as have the Branson-based band the Petersens.
Bluegrass began in the United States but has grown into an international music form. Organizations like the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), formed in 1985, now operate worldwide and give annual awards. In 2012, a critically praised Belgian film, The Broken Circle Breakdown, featured Flemish musicians playing bluegrass music central to the story. International bluegrass groups include Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra and Ila Auto from Norway; Rautakoura and Steve 'n' Seagulls from Finland; Druhá Tráva and Poutníci from the Czech Republic (home of the subgenre Czech bluegrass); Hutong Yellow Weasels and The Randy Abel Stable from China; Heartbreak Hill and Foggy Hogtown Boys from Canada; the UK’s The Beef Seeds, Southern Tenant Folk Union, and Police Dog Hogan; and Australia’s Flying Emus, Mustered Courage, and Rank Strangers.