One of the many things that I love about acoustic traditional American music, (aka. bluegrass), is that it takes the music from the past, (cover songs), then honors the past by having everyone in the band take their first solo closely based around the original melody, and then it encourages everyone in the band to “stretch out” or improvise on the second solo.

Then they pass that along to those coming up behind them. In the process of passing those updated songs along where they honor the past, they also make room for the present. They write new songs and make them a part of the package with the old songs. Then the “little ones” are taught the whole thing and encouraged to repeat the process.

Other styles of music creep in creating a hybrid of sorts, leading to searching for a better terminology. That’s where the “Newgrass”, “Dawg Grass”, “Space Grass” and “New Acoustic” terms came from. Then most folks just went back to calling it all “bluegrass”.

I’m convinced that’s why bluegrass has such an incredible number of exceptionally talented young musicians in its ranks. The kids are told to learn the old songs, …spice them up, …then write some new songs! Then teach the whole shebang to your kid brother/sister or the kid next door.

Bob
................................
http://soundcloud.com/bobcflatpicke/music-in-the-mountains