The Change That I See in Bluegrass Over The Past 20 Years.

[Wahoo]

My band uses an accordion, because we have a great player and no fiddle. He can fill a lot of the space otherwise filled by the fiddle. Other than the major advantage of playing with a good friend and wonderful person, it makes us a little different. Some think that's good, YMMV.

[tmsweeney]

I thought I heard somewhere that early on Monroe had an accordion in some formation of a group. Accordion was (and still is) quite a common instrument to be found in households in the the time period when Monroe was starting out.
go to any Celtic music jams and accordions can easily outnumber most other instruments except for whistle perhaps.
While the classic fiddle mandolin banjo guitar and bass ensemble retains a certain magic about it, there are enough examples of great Blue Grass music that deviates from the classic ensemble.

[JiminRussia]

I thought I heard somewhere that early on Monroe had an accordion in some formation of a group. Accordion was (and still is) quite a common instrument to be found in households in the the time period when Monroe was starting out.
go to any Celtic music jams and accordions can easily outnumber most other instruments except for whistle perhaps.
While the classic fiddle mandolin banjo guitar and bass ensemble retains a certain magic about it, there are enough examples of great Blue Grass music that deviates from the classic ensemble.

I wish that I old find that old photo of a band that Bill Had put together in his early days. It showed a woman accordionist whose name I don’t remember. This was long before Bill formed The Bluegrass Boys in (I think?) 1944.

[Mandolin Cafe]

Sally Ann Forrester who shows up in our This Day in History three times.

Accordion solo comes in around 1:56

Credits say:
Mandolin: Bill Monroe
Accordion: Wilene "Sally Ann" Forrester
Bass: David Akeman
Bass: Bill Westbrook
Fiddle: Robert R. "Chubby" Wise

[newton]

Roy Acuff had a lot of accordion on his records for a while. It sounds good to me.

[newton]

Lot of accordion on this classic too.

[Drew Egerton]

Here is a fun video from Marcel that is somewhat related to the discussion.

[tmsweeney]

That was awesome, while I was aware of most of it, the bluegrass history after 1960 is somewhat elusive, there was a lot he missed but I understand the need to compress and highlight the most well known artist and material, and he was 100% correct about Doc, it doesn't matter which tune or album you listen to, your life will change after the first time you hear Doc Watson.

[tmsweeney]

That was awesome, while I was aware of most of it, the detailed bluegrass history after 1960 is somewhat elusive to me ( as it seems to go in 1000 different directions) , there was a lot he missed but I understand the need to compress and highlight the most well known artist and material, and he was 100% correct about Doc, it doesn't matter which tune or album you listen to, your life will change after the first time you hear Doc Watson.

[Mandolin Cafe]

Getting a bit off topic possibility but in response to the post above, the podcast Fresh Air recently had a superb show dedicated to what would have been Doc Watson's 100th birthday. List to it here.