country bluegrass?

IMO bluegrass should be with the Jam band forum (currently labeled only as Grateful Dead / Phish unfortunately). Bluegrass / Newgrass / Slamgrass is much more a part of the Jam band scene than the Country scene (at least as far as the type of people we have here are concerned). That's my opinion...there ya go.

 

bluegrass has much closer ties to country than it does with the jam band scene. whatever you call "country" today, kinda came from bluegrass. at the very least, bluegrass and country have the same roots. a lot of people call it "classic country," but the name isnt important.
in the jam scene, bluegrass has made a very large space for itself, but it´s the bluegrass that´s moving into the jamband genre. not the other way around.
the current music labeled "country" today is more like pop-country. it sucks.

 

"the current music labeled 'country' today is more like pop-country. it sucks."


That's exactly the point! Considering what country is today, and what bluegrass / newgrass is today...well you see where I am going with this...

 

Actually what most people call bluegrass today is what "country" was 40, 50, or 60 years ago. And along about that time, around the early 1940's, a new band started becoming very popular which had a huge impact on country music. As I heard one DJ on Sirius radio (bluegrass channel 65) say recently, "If there was no Bill Monroe, there'd be no bluegrass." That is true, because there was no such thing as bluegrass music before Bill Monroe came along with his band, the Blue Grass Boys, so named for the lush blue-blossomed grass of his home state of Kentucky, and that name was later given to his distinctive style. A lot of traditional Southern Appalachian mountain music that predates Bill Monroe is sometimes incorrectly referred to as bluegrass. But the term bluegrass somehow kind of stuck on Bill's special way of playing and singing the old country music, and nowadays almost anything that has sort of an old country sound like almost everyone played in the 40's and 50's seems to come under the broad category of bluegrass.

What I don't like to hear is people referring to the old-timey country or traditional mountain music that was in existence prior to Bill Monroe coming on the scene as "bluegrass." I think many "old-time/traditional" musicians in the Asheville, NC area (mecca for both old-time and bluegrass music) would cringe at being called "bluegrass" musicians.

Bluegrass and country may have had the same roots, which generally was old-time mountain music, but old-time music is as different from bluegrass as bluegrass is different from contemporary country.

What is "country" today is so far removed from what used to be true country music that I don't think it deserves to be called that. Nashville-pop might be a better term.

 

but see thats the problem. so many kids are like "i love the grateful dead! i love all music except country." country music has a bad name. we need to bring it back. country music just means music from the country. blues is a form of country music, only with stronger rythm and african influences but it developed in the mississippi delta, by country folk in the country. rock and roll itself is a synthesis of country music melody and blues rythm. its too bad all this gun-totin, bible bangin, flag wavin radio shit makes a mockery of american roots music. if you go on the road or to see a true bluegrass band, you'll hear what its really about - playing off of different rythms and melodies, and singin about life. jamgrass/newgrass is great but it definitely isn't true bluegrass. true bluegrass is, as the forum shows, old-timey country music, played really fast. jam band have incorporated bluegrass style jams into their music but often these bands like string cheese incident use a drumset, and original bluegrass music has no rythm instrument except the standup bass. also the use of electric instruments strays away from the original bluegrass sound. yonder mountain string band comes pretty close, but i would still call them jam/pop bluegrass