Quote:
Originally Posted by cmbdiesel
Well, newgrass has become the classics now. 
Done a lot of work with all the members of NewGrass Revival, and they are slowly becoming the elders of the bluegrass world....
We lost Earl this year, and none of the other true old timers are getting any younger either.
Of course Del and his brood are carrying the torch of old time traditional bluegrass with style. Even if Ronnie breaks it down every bit as fast as any of the kids playing speedgrass... |
I can respect that. One of my favorites for years is Ricky Skaggs. his style pays great homage to the past generation.
I spent my formidable years of childhood in Southern Ohio, on the peak of Peach Mountain. The Peach Mountain Boys would practice during the week outside of Henry and Martha's barn, down in the holler. The sweet sounds of bluegrass would waft up the side of the hill on the summer breeze every evening just after supper time, and wouldn't stop until well after my bedtime. I would be starting my evening chores of throwing scratch down for the chickens and feeding the rabbits, just as the music started. They played a balanced mixture of bluegrass and newgrass, and would end each evening with solid goldgrass.
Nothing takes me back to my childhood quicker than that sound. The calming effect it had on me as a child was amazing. It still has that effect on me...when life is getting rough, listening to gospel bluegrass quenches the thirst.
My grandmother and her sisters made up the gospel group, The Williams Sisters. They would sing on the radio every Sunday when they lived in western VA and eastern KY...Harlan county area, to be exact. My grandpa fell in love with my grandma just by listening to her voice on the radio...before he ever met her.
My family is steeped in bluegrass and country music...Hank Williams was my grandma's 1st cousin, and my grandpa played the fiddle and banjo as a late teen/early adult in and around Harlan proper, when he wasn't working in the coal mines in the 1930's and 40's.
Currently, I have a cousin,
Megan Linville, who is living in Nashville that has already recorded a handful of songs, all of them country music. She recorded them in Johnny Cash's cabin, which is now a studio.