Antedating of "Blue Grass" Music

[Jonathan Lighter]

Maybe the 1939 radio show featured classical musicians from Kentucky.

Or old-time (non-"bluegrass") string bands.

"Bluegrass," as played by Bill Monroe and others, is rooted in folk styles,
but its arrangements are distinctive and sophisticated.

JL

On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 11:46 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Blue Grass" Music
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 7:59 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> > It seems odd that such a term would first be  found in connection with a
> > Boston radio station.  It is also possible that the term here is
> referring to > some other kind of music emanating from Kentucky.
>
> That could well be, but my memory is that, back in the day, blue grass
> was considered to be an important genre of American folk-music, like
> Cowboy/Western and Negro spirituals, also broadcast around the country
> and featured in the movies.
>
> There used to be a traveling stage-show, called the "American Folk
> Festival," that included not only the usual American sounds, but also
> even (white) folk-music music from Europe and "the other USA": the
> Union of South Africa, such as the stylings of Joseph Marais &
> Miranda.
>
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org