William Smith Monroe was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter, who created the bluegrass music genre. Because of this, he is often called the "Father of Bluegrass".
Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Like mainstream country music, it largely developed out of old-time string music, though in contrast, bluegrass is traditionally played exclusively on acoustic instruments and also has roots in traditional English, Scottish, and Irish ballads and dance tunes as well as in blues and jazz. Bluegrass was further developed by musicians who played with Monroe, including 5-string banjo player Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt. Monroe characterized the genre as, "Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin'." It's a part of Methodist, Holiness and Baptist traditions. It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound."
Lester Raymond Flatt was an American bluegrass guitarist and mandolinist, best known for his collaboration with banjo picker Earl Scruggs in the duo Flatt and Scruggs.
Earl Eugene Scruggs was an American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style, now called "Scruggs style", which is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. His three-finger style of playing was radically different from the traditional way the five-string banjo had previously been played. This new style of playing became popular and elevated the banjo from its previous role as a background rhythm instrument to featured solo status. He popularized the instrument across several genres of music.
Scruggs style is the most common style of playing the banjo in bluegrass music. It is a fingerpicking method, also known as three-finger style. It is named after Earl Scruggs, whose innovative approach and technical mastery of the instrument have influenced generations of bluegrass banjoists ever since he was first recorded in 1946. It contrasts with earlier styles such as minstrel, classic or parlor style, clawhammer/frailing/two-finger style, jazz styles played with a plectrum, and more modern styles such as Keith/melodic/chromatic/arpa style, and single-string/Reno style. The influence of Scruggs is so pervasive that even bluegrass players such as Bill Keith and Don Reno, who are credited with developing these latter styles, typically work out of the Scruggs style much of the time.
Benny Edward Martin, was an American bluegrass fiddler who invented the eight-string fiddle. Throughout his musical career he performed with artists such as the Bluegrass Boys, Don Reno, the Smoky Mountain Boys and Flatt and Scruggs, and later performed and recorded with the Stanley Brothers, Hylo Brown, Jimmy Martin, Johnnie and Jack, and the Stonemans, among others. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
Flatt and Scruggs were an American bluegrass duo. Singer and guitarist Lester Flatt and banjo player Earl Scruggs, both of whom had been members of Bill Monroe's band, the Bluegrass Boys, from 1945 to 1948, formed the duo in 1948. Flatt and Scruggs are viewed by music historians as one of the premier bluegrass groups in the history of the genre.
Vassar Carlton Clements was an American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and bluegrass along with roots also in country and other musical traditions.
Josh Graves, born Burkett Howard Graves, was an American bluegrass musician. Also known by the nicknames "Buck," and "Uncle Josh," he is credited with introducing the resonator guitar into bluegrass music shortly after joining Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys in 1955. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1997.
The Nashville Grass was a bluegrass band founded by Lester Flatt in 1969, after the end of his partnership with Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. Flatt hired most of the Foggy Mountain Boys for his new band.
Gerald Calvin "Jerry" Douglas is an American Dobro and lap steel guitar player and record producer. He is widely regarded as "perhaps the finest Dobro player in contemporary acoustic music, and certainly the most celebrated and prolific." A fourteen-time Grammy winner, he has been called “dobro’s matchless contemporary master,” by The New York Times, and is among the most innovative recording artists in music, both as a solo artist and member of numerous bands, such as Alison Krauss and Union Station and The Earls of Leicester. He has been a co-director of the Transatlantic Sessions since 1998.
Charles Edward "Rusty" York was an American musician and singer, and member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He is probably best known for his rockabilly song "Sugaree".
The Great Dobro Sessions is a 1994 country music and bluegrass album featuring an all-star line-up of 10 American resonator guitar players, produced by dobro players Jerry Douglas and Tut Taylor.
Roland Joseph White was an American bluegrass music artist, performing principally on the mandolin.
Larry Christopher Sharp is an American musician, guitarist, singer, and record producer who participated in the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou?. He is considered to be an accomplished guitarist and has taken a special interest in advancing Lester Flatt's guitar style. Among other accomplishments, Chris has been nominated twice for a Grammy Award as a guitarist and producer and has won once. Bob Piekiel's seminal banjo instruction book describes Chris as "the cream of the crop." Willie Nelson also considers Chris to be among "the finest bluegrass guitar players in existence today.
Bluegrass Album, Vol. 5 - —Sweet Sunny South is a fifth album by bluegrass supergroup, Bluegrass Album Band, released in 1989. Violinist Vassar Clements is on this album replacing Bobby Hicks, and bass duties are taken over by Mark Schatz (instead of Todd Philips, who otherwise plays on all Bluegrass Album Band albums.
John Ray Sechler, known as Curly Seckler, was an American bluegrass musician. He played with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs in their band the Foggy Mountain Boys from 1949 to 1962, among other bluegrass acts during his career in music.
Benny Sims was a bluegrass and country musician who played with Flatt and Scruggs, Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe.
Foggy Mountain Jamboree is an album by Flatt & Scruggs, released by Columbia Records in 1957.
The Earls of Leicester is an American bluegrass group, assembled by Jerry Douglas in 2013 to present the music of Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and their band the Foggy Mountain Boys to a contemporary audience. Their eponymous debut album earned a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in 2015.
