Bluegrass & Country & American Swing

Ella Beck

Member
A thread for posting Country Music, Bluegrass, & other American forms of music popular in the twentieth century.
 

Ella Beck

Member
My all-time American favourite, I am a man of constant sorrow, by Ralph Stanley.

Much better than later imitators, The Soggy Bottom Boys etc, because Stanley sings with utter sincerity.

 

Ella Beck

Member
I just love that Bluegrass sound - fiddle and banjo are a match made in heaven, or the Appalachian Mountains!

 

Ella Beck

Member
American Swing is a very different sound, but still very evocative for me - the music of old black & white American films. Usually I don't like smooth music, I prefer tunes with a bit of rasp or nubbliness. But American Swing is just so beguiling. :)

 

Ella Beck

Member
Old Time Music is another American musical genre that I love. And Bruce Molsky is my favourite Old Time Fiddler. Here's a great video of his, Jack of Diamonds / Picking the Devil's Eye. Towards the end, Bruce's bow starts coming apart as it's used so vigorously. :)

 

John Watt

Member
The American movie "Deliverance" contained a banjo and acoustic guitar duet called "Dueling Banjos".
It can be said to be the most popular "hillbilly" song of that generation.
Here we have two of the finest Nashville banjo players, in a hillbilly setting, playing their version.
There is only one other American banjo player I have seen performing on television who does more,
including a late night Johnny Carson talk show guest appearance, playing solo banjo,
an L.A. hippy style player, but I'll be danged if I can't remember his name or band.

Using a Fender Stratocaster or Telecaster with a warm and clean amplifier sound,
take a piece of cigarette pack foil and fold it up less than a quarter inch wide,
and use your fingernail to burnish it against a hard surface, sharpening the creases.
Weave it loosely across the strings by the bridge and fold it loosely at the edges,
and you create what sounds like an authentic banjo.
A Nashville session player on his honeymoon in Niagara Falls heard me finger-picking,
approaching me after the set to invite me over and show me this trick.
He thought my solo in "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" turned the song into a rainstorm.
Our Mohawk lead singer, '58 Les Paul playing band-leader, started that.
Customers would warn him about playing rain songs when it was getting time to go home.

 
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