Bluegrass

Bluegrass is an acoustic string-band music developed in Kentucky in the 1940s by *Bill Monroe* and his Blue Grass Boys, drawing on old-time string music, blues, gospel and western swing. It is played on fiddle, five-string banjo — in *Earl Scruggs*'s three-finger style — mandolin, guitar, Dobro and upright bass, without drums, at fast tempos with virtuosic, improvised instrumental breaks traded between players. Singing is high and tight, the 'high lonesome sound', arranged in close harmony, and the repertoire mixes Monroe's originals, traditional songs and gospel material. Bluegrass anchors a durable festival and jam culture and continually feeds into Americana and country music.