The Missing Piece

I might as well say something about the general lack of blues in bluegrass music.

The Country Gentlemen, The Seldom Scene – those groups at the forefront of the progressive bluegrass trend – were always better when they kept a little blues in their bluegrass.

At minimum, their best work was suffused with the passion – if not the bent notes – of the blues. The same is true today of artists like The Truffle Valley Boys, Jussi Syren, Nathan Stanley and Michael Daves. Keep the blues – both the notes and the passion – in bluegrass, I say.

Here are Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys with a thrilling textbook example, “Rocky Road Blues”.