Deep Cut sits down with Amy Reitnouer Jacobs, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Bluegrass Situation (BGS) to talk about bluegrass: what it is, what it isn’t, what to look for on wax, and the new BGS podcast Toy Heart , with Tom Power.

One of the joys of record collecting is diving into a dusty bin and finding an unknown record for $5 that then becomes a favorite. You stand a better chance of having this experience in some genres because they are overrepresented in used record bins and underappreciated by buyers. We’ve talked about Jazz and Country music. This time, we sat down with Amy Reitnouer Jacobs, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Bluegrass Situation, to learn about bluegrass. With the recent launch of the podcast Toy Heart with Tom Power, it has never been a better time to find a way in.

So what is Bluegrass?

If you aren’t that familiar, a quick orientation: think banjos. Think of the O Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack.  Still nothing? Ok, if country music is a river, bluegrass is a fork, one that runs over in the direction of folk in parts. Bill Monroe, the inventor of bluegrass toured as a country act. The genre got its name from his band, the Blue Grass Boys, as more musicians started to imitate Monroe’s sound. 

What makes it different from Country? 

There are a few things. “To get technical,” says Jacobs, “it’s a combination of six main instruments [banjo, guitar, fiddle, mandolin, upright bass, dobro], with certain song structures, and a lot of times you have a vocal tone called the ‘high-lonesome’ sound.” Traditional bluegrass is also distinctive in its lightning-fast, picked-out instrumentation. You will hear banjo, mandolin, fiddle and guitar players race up and down their fret-boards, dancing out arpeggios all at the same time. 

What’s so special about this Bluegrass anyway?

You could marvel at the technical chops. Or the beautiful cacophony of it. With so many melodies and countermelodies all going on at once, it should sound like a room of toddlers bashing toy pianos. Instead it sounds like the London Philharmonic, if you replaced their instruments with plywood and chicken wire. And maybe it’s us, but we think there are few genres that evoke a sense of place more strongly than bluegrass (we’d say a crisp blue fall day in wooded mountains, with fire smoke the air).

Not convinced? The barriers to entry here are low, so we think you should give it a shot. “You can find some really good vintage records for pretty cheap, because people just don’t know what they're looking for,” says Jacobs.

Ok, what should I be looking for?

We’re so glad you asked. 

Traditional Bluegrass: For the original sounds that defined the genre, seek out records by the first generation of Bluegrass artists like Bill Monroe himself, Flatt and Scruggs, Jim and Jesse, the Osborne Brothers, or the Stanley Brothers. 

Folk -Tinged Bluegrass: The second generation of bluegrass players In the 1970s incorporated more folk into the sound. Artists like Tony Rice borrowed songs and styles from contemporary music, while Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard adopted a stripped-down sound a la the Anthology of American Folk Music. Look for records by JD Crowe, Doc Watson, Ricky Skaggs and Alison Krauss. (Krauss actually came up later -1989- than the others mentioned here. Skaggs can be confusing for those unfamiliar with bluegrass because, while he’s a bluegrass legend, he also spent the 1980s as a chart-topping mainstream country artist.)  

Modern Bluegrass: Bluegrass is still a thriving genre with artists that are celebrating its traditions and expanding its boundaries. “You are seeing a lot of folks in the genre who are not falling into a stereotype and are exploring its true history,” says Jacobs. “Rhiannon Giddens is a great example. She started in the Carolina Chocolate Drops but has gone on to have her own career that has not been defined by genres, and can still do a record that pulls as much from Irish tradition or Middle Eastern tradition as it does from Appalachian banjo playing. It’s rewarding and innovative and it looks at an un-white-washed version of the history of this music.”

Che Apalache is another artist Jabobs points to as exemplifying the expansion and experimentation in Bluegrass. “[Fiddler/vocalist Joe Troop] writes stuff with an Appalachian bluegrass backbone that is put through the filter of Argintinian musicians, and then he will sing in Japanese. It is just incredible stuff.”

Other artists to look out for: Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Amethyst Kiah, and the many projects of virtuoso mandolinist Christ Thile, including Nickel Creek, the Punch Brothers, and many others. 

What if I want to dig deeper?

There you have it.

Bluegrass: another rich vein for vinyl enthusiasts to mine. Happy digging.

Nine Essential Bluegrass Albums

Want to show up to all of this prepared? Bluegrass Situation Co-Founder Amy Jacobs’s offers nine albums that define the genre for her.