This Is Why We Can't Have Bluegrass Things

I'm supposed to write an arresting opening line here -- one that grabs your attention, and sets the tone for the piece.

But, I am just. so. tired. 

You know, the kind of tired you get when you read self-important drool from what amounts to a major media outlet in your particular small pond. 

I'm speaking of this piece on rock's allegedly uneasy alliance with bluegrass and country music, over on the, um, "Bluegrass" Situation. The inspiration for the piece? "West Coast rockers", The Flying Burrito Brothers, and their groundbreaking album, The Gilded Palace Of Sin.

Uneasy alliance?

Who cares that bluegrass is as much about history as it is future?

Who cares about the rebellious, countercultural energy of bluegrass' first generation when you believe that bluegrass begins with a rapacious suburbanite from Champaign, Illinois? (Long hair, warp speed, hotshot instrumentalists, the high lonesome sound, the sketchy personal lives -- bluegrass wasn't exactly yer grandpa's sleepy string band)

And who cares if that selfsame major media outlet takes the name of bluegrass in vain, just to sell itself "as the authentic expression of a brand-name musical genre with considerable cachet" as I wrote here?

Some megachurch baby has a point to make, and he's gonna make it.

Let's sort this out, shall we?

Just how unlikely would it have been for a bunch of California hippies to ally themselves with country and bluegrass music?

Never mind the huge number of boomers and 1960s kids whose parents played bluegrass and country, live or via radio and records, in their homes. Never mind that this population included not only native southerners, but those who had taken the Hillbilly Highway in search of work. Never mind the bluegrass  versions of songs about that very phenomenon -- "California Cottonfields", "One More Dollar", and "Waitin' For the Hard Times To Go".


Let's instead focus on that most obscure and academic of cultural indicators -- television. 😂😂😂

How antagonistic were them librul hippies to country and bluegrass?

So much so that country and bluegrass artists The Carter Family, Flatt and Scruggs, Doc Watson, The Dillards, and Johnny Cash appeared on the beatnik showcase, Hootenanny. Premiere date? April, 1963.

So much so that country and bluegrass artists as diverse as Watson, Cash, The Stanley Brothers, Cousin Emmy, and The New Lost City Ramblers appeared and jammed with noted union supporter, Pete Seeger, on Seeger's Rainbow Quest TV show. Premiere date? 1965.

So much so that rockers like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Linda Ronstadt -- the last three based in California -- appeared and jammed with country star, Johnny Cash, on his eponymous TV show. Premiere date? June 7, 1969.

For the sake of chronology, let's review the release date for The Flying Burrito Brothers' The Gilded Palace Of Sin:

How easy was that?

I guess you have to know history to Google it.

You should be required to know history before you're  hired to write about it.