We Have Music in Our History

By Lenelle Janis
Virginians have inspired many kinds of good music like the bluegrass group which will be the entertainment at our December banquet. Otto Shelor’s Bluegrass America is from Chesapeake and has a loyal following locally for this traditional folk based music. It is music for the present day, coming entirely from America’s heritage out of Virginia’s mountains. A popular style of country music, it remains closest to the traditions of the mountains that border Virginia and Kentucky, its roots with the intrepid Scots, English and Irish who settled there. They brought the Irish jig and the English ballads and from them created a distinctive and unique American sound.

Country music came to general notice in 1916 when Cecil Sharp published folk songs of the Appalachian Mountains and Texas fiddler Eck Robertson cut the first record of "old-time music" in 1922. Radio broadcasts soon followed, reaching the rural area with cowboy songs and barn dance programs. In 1925, the first radio station in Nashville broadcast the barn dances that soon took the name Grand Ole Opry. Country music steamed ahead and a recording industry was formed.

Different styles of country have developed still adhering to the essential characteristics; its content, instrumentation and singing style. The story comes first in importance, telling about practical things of home, real life experiences and work (Tennessee Ernie Ford’s "Fifteen Tons") and always deeply personal (Coal Miner’s Daughter). More rhythmic than melodic, the instrumentation always centered around the banjo, fiddle and guitar accompanying a solo or duet sung with a high tenor voice. The fiddle was the poor man’s violin, simplified and held differently so that they could also sing. The early stars of the hillbilly style were the members of the Virginia based Carter family, who were basically a vocal trio first recorded in 1926. The "down home" characteristic of dress and manner has stayed proudly cowboy/country to the present as country spread out from its rural beginning.

Bluegrass stayed at home in the mountains, fast virtuoso and sometimes instrumental-only "mountain music." The banjo, fiddle and mandolin led the melody, and backed by guitar and string bass, it made spirited music devoted to domestic themes, American values and a positive outlook. It had its documented beginning in the Kentucky/Virginia border area around Bristol and has now spread all the way to a bluegrass festival in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

Bill Monroe is acknowledged as the in blue grass when his Blue Grass Boys first appeared at the Grand Ole Opry in 1939. The band was different from traditional county because of its hard-driving and powerful sound utilizing traditional acoustic instruments, highly distinctive vocal harmonies, and the innovation of the mandolin. Mandolin, banjo, fiddle, guitar and bass formed the format for the band. Songs and rhythms from string bands, gospel (black and white), work songs and country and blues were in solo, duet and quartet harmony. Monroe was noted for his "high lonesome" solo lead singing and for his spectacular mandolin style as in "Rawhide" and now is acknowledged the "Father of Bluegrass music."

Classic bluegrass sound jelled in 1945 when Earl Scruggs introduced his innovative three-finger picking style on the banjo now known as the Scruggs style. Another member of Monroe’s band was Lester Flatt on guitar and lead vocal against Monroe’s tenor.

The Dobro or resophonic Guitar was introduced when Scruggs and Flatt formed their own band. We owe artists like these for music like "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," "Dueling Guitars" and the triple platinum sound track for "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" "Tennessee Waltz" is classic country that moved into the mainstream.

Pop music was adapted European music, but country was American and only American, its performers were American, its stories and sounds were American. The sound of country embodied the history of America and represented its basic heritage and character.

{This material can be found more fully on county and bluegrass websites. What I gathered here is notable for the excellent material I had to omit. I didn’t even mention "Your Cheatin Heart."}LJ

The above information on the history of Bluegrass was obtained by Mrs. Janis through www.Google.com sources, retrieved on 29 October, 2011.