- Moderator
- #61
I'm a bluegrass musician (mandolin, fiddle, and guitar), and have played professionally for 44 years. Irish and Scottish music did have an influence on the creation of Bluegrass by Bill Monroe & the Bluegrass boys in 1945, but BG (traditional) is still actually a true American art form, with its own consistent structure, and is very heavily influenced by the blues also.We get some really music shows on NPR and one of them, Shamrock and Thistle I think, did a segment on American music, including Blue Grass. They said it originated from the music brought by Irish and Scottish immigrants who settled in large numbers in the mountains of Appalachia.
Anyone who has ever tried to make the transition from playing Irish and American fiddle (ie dance) tunes to Bluegrass (as I did), knows the shock of suddenly having to really put some improvisation and creativity into their fiddling, rather than just playing a rote tune according to its prescribed melody.
Bluegrass is an interesting combination of Country, Folk, and Jazz.
That is fascinating - I knew Pogo was a muscician, I did not know you were Protectionist. Very cool!!!!