View Full Version : The early bluegrass sound
I have been revisiting the Bill Monroe 4 CD boxset, and I rediscovered a noticeable difference in the flavor of the early Bill Monroe stuff. Alot of it has a real fun edge to it, the lyrics are much less practiced and much more spontaneous, and the bass does alot of walking around almost in a jazzy sort of way.
On other "Stringbean-era" recordings, you know, the WSM stuff that had accordian, and I noticed the same kind of playfullness, and almost approaching a gypsy-jazz feel at least rythm-wise.
Thinking of songs like "Heavy Traffic Ahead", "In the Pines", stuff like that. Are there any modern bands pursuing that earlier "fun" bluegrass sound, or is that a bygone pursuit?
mandopete
Aug-17-2004, 7:09am
It's interesting you should mention this as Heavy Traffic Ahead has always been one of my favorite Monroe tunes. I see it as more "jazzy" than much of his later material.
There seems to be a movement in bluegrass now to add a "walking bass" line to tunes to give it more of a jazz feel. I think the first person the really hit on this was Karl Shifflett, but I have also noted it on recent recordings from David Long and King Wilkie. Anybody else seeing this?
Pete Martin
Aug-17-2004, 10:34am
Monroe always like Western Swing (Goodbye Old Pal, etc.). To me the accordian band pre Scruggs sounded much more like western swing bands than they did to the post Scruggs Bluegrass bands.
KevinM
Aug-20-2004, 12:32pm
Del McCoury Band (the great Mike Bub) flirts with the walking bass line too, and I too was interested in how much this changes the dynamics of the music - it seems especially effective (as it is in rock 'n roll) when a solo is unleashed as if the entire band has suddenly gone wild....yep keep that one in your back pocket for sure...
mandopete
Aug-20-2004, 2:17pm
Mike Bub is one of best "bass slappers" out there!
Fretbear
Aug-21-2004, 9:16pm
It's not just the bass either; Heavy Traffic Ahead is a classic example of how much swing was in the playing of the original bluegrass band; people often say that that band's music was the example, but that part got left out somehow. Earl's back-up and lead were also very swingy....