I just love bluegrass music, especially gospel bluegrass, which, by the way, I am listening to right now, being that it is Sunday morning. It seems that bluegrass music is getting more popular every day. That may or may not be a good thing.
It is good because the more popular it gets, because of competition, the bluegrass bands get better and more are formed. Bluegrass festivals are becoming more popular and thus, more abundant. There are more places to listen to bluegrass and more opportunities to see it performed either live or on TV or radio.
It is bad because the more popular it gets, the better the chance that it could loose what makes it so great and unique; its roots. I have seen it happen to county-western music. C&W music now sounds more like rock than country. It was a slow process, but because of the need to increase its listening audience it left its true roots. I sure hope bluegrass does not do this, although I have heard some new groups that are leaning that way.
I consider “western” music the type that the Sons of the Pioneers, Gene Autry, Roy Rodgers and Dale Evens, and of course Bob Wills and his “Texas Swing” sound did. I consider “country” music to be first off, bluegrass. But for the sake of this blog, let us put bluegrass in a category all its own. Country music is the Wilburn Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Loretta Lynn, Porter Wagoner, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, and I could go on and on, but you get where I am coming from.
I have a satellite radio that never leaves the bluegrass station and I watch bluegrass shows on TV. The RFDTV channel has quite a few bluegrass shows and a lot of classic country music shows. Click here to see their web-site. Then click on the tab labeled “on RFD-TV” and then click on “music & entertainment” and a whole list of TV shows will come up. The Cumberland Highlanders and Reno’s Old Time Music Festival are two of the bluegrass programs that I watch every Saturday night.
Don’t get me wrong, I like all the music programs, especially the Bluegrass, the County & Western, and Gospel. If you have access to the RFD-TV channel, check it out. There are a lot of unique shows on that channel. It is not just for the farmer or rancher, but for all the family to watch together.
Now you're talking my language - bluegrass! I like the older style myself. The newer music played by younger artists seems to try to pick up the tempo to a frantic level, sort of like the devil chasing them through hell! I like Ricky Skaggs, but most of his music is up just too many notches.
ReplyDeleteThe old music I listened to as a kid growing up in Cincinnati (with a lot of transplanted Kentuckians living in the vicinity) was called hillbilly music.
We have some great Bluegrass over here too, one such band called 'Hogsnort Rupert Washboard Band' has been playing for much of the last forty or more years....
ReplyDeleteGypsy, Yep, the old ones were the best like Bill Manroe and Dr. Ralph Stanley. And some new ones like Dailey & Vincent.
ReplyDeleteTFT, That band has a neat name, I bet they play pretty music. How many Washboards have been worn out?
My mom really likes the bluegrass music! She and her fella (now gone) used to go to the festivals when they could!
ReplyDeleteAs for gospel, that is one of her favorites, I think!
Hey Hermit, nice of you to stop by. My wife says that my ancestors must have been from Appalachia. Since I am my happiest listening to bluegrass, being around tress, and in the mountains.
ReplyDeleteNo Wonder! Why you and I get along so well!
ReplyDeleteI record Ch 14 Gospel Bluegrass from 08:00 to 11:OO every Sunday morning!
I'm in Church at 11, and I get to hear the whole Blue Grass Train Show, when I get home.
WOOOOO WOOOOOO, Blue Grass Train is leaving the station!
Me (Gypsy( again. I see that the links are all for TV - I'm on a Verizon MiFi connection, which limits me to 5GB upload/download a month. I can get by with listening to some radio now and then, but I rarely watch any video because I'm sure it would eat up the bandwidth. Do you have any idea about this? What about some info on bluegrass music on radio. I listen to Pandora Radio which is fairly good and I can choose the artists and type of music I want, although they often throw other stuff in. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteErnest, You bet you, I listen to the Sunday morning Bluegrass Gospel. And yep woooo woooo the bluegrass train. . .
ReplyDeleteGypsy, I purchased my verizon mobile internet service a long time ago when you got unlimited up and down loads, so I will never let that expire. As you know, you can't get it anymore.
Go to XM radios website and check the cost and radios available. You could purchase one from them, altho it isn't cheap but on the road, it is nice to have.
Or you could just move to Appalachia.(grin)
There's a lot of genres of music out there. Then there's sub-genres of music that take the original concept and fuse it with other influences.
ReplyDeleteThen there's bluegrass. Out of all the genres in the world of music, this has to be up there with one of the happiest types. Even if you don't like it, you still enjoy it. How many other genre of music can you say that about?
Pipsqeed, I couldn't agree with you more. It can make you happy one minute and sad the next. But mostly it makes me feel real gooooooood.
ReplyDelete