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Independent Bluegrass Music

Bluegrass is an outgrowth of country music. Originally a way to keep country pure as the genre's popularity continued to grow, it has developed into a style of its own. The artists most responsible for bluegrass is Bill Monroe - the genre itself was named after his band. Monroe developed the genre's signature style (hard, fast tempos with high, close harmonies and an emphasis on instrumental technique) in the mid-1940s, popularizing it in the '50s. By the end of that decade, their sound had become part of country music. During the '60s, such groups as the Dillards took bluegrass further, adding rock and jazz influences to the music and creating progressive bluegrass.

One of the most important instrumental changes that occurred happened in 1945 when Earl Scruggs joined Bill's band, the Bluegrass Boys. Earl picked the banjo differently than Bill's previous Banjerist, Stringbean. Earl played a style known as three-f inger, and later known as "Scruggs-style." Now, Earl didn't invent this style, but he was the one responsible for bringing it out and introducing it to the public at large. In Scruggs-style the thumb, index and middle finger pick the banjo (with fingerpi cks) quickly, alternating fingers. What you end up with is an amazingly fast array of notes.

Bluegrass styles include contemporary bluegrass (The Nashville Bluegrass Band, The Country Gentlemen, Connie and Babe), traditional bluegrass (Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers, Ralph Stanley) and progressive bluegrass (J.D. Crowe and the New South, Alison Brown, Jerry Douglas).

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