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From: mlf@druxv.UUCP (Fontenot)
Newsgroups: net.music.folk
Subject: Re: bluegrass and traditional styles
Message-ID: <1552@druxv.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Apr-85 14:41:55 EST
Article-I.D.: druxv.1552
Posted: Thu Apr 18 14:41:55 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 19-Apr-85 00:49:58 EST
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I think Bill Monroe takes a lot more credit than he really deserves
for the "invention" of bluegrass.  Probably the most destinctive sound
in bluegrass is the 3-finger banjo style, and it was Earl Scruggs, not
Monroe, who did the banjo picking;  Moreover, I doubt that Earl was
really the only banjo picker using that style, even though the frailing
style was much more common.  And as for the singing, there are lots of
other groups who do a very different, and much nicer, job of harmonizing
(e.g., the Bluegrass Cardinals, the Seldom Scene, and the Country Gentlemen).
Not all bluegrass lovers accept the "high-lonesome" Monroe sound as the
essential defining element of bluegrass.

                                          Mike Fontenot
                                          Denver, Colo.
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