On Saturday, April 25, 2015, bluegrass trio Amber Collins and Branch House Pavilion performed at the Floyd Country Store, one of the major venues on the Crooked Road. I was familiar with the group because the guitarist, Scott Patrick, spoke to our class the month before, but had never been to the famous venue. […]
Author: harvs
Event: Rising Appalachia
On Thursday, April 23, 2015, sister-duo Rising Appalachia performed at Radford University. I purposefully didn’t listen to their music before the show, so I would be surprised by whatever I heard when the concert started. Oddly enough, the music was the least surprising part of the whole experience. Chloe and Leah Smith performed songs […]
Event: T-Pain vs. Old Crow Medicine Show
On Wednesday, April 22, 2015, Florida hip-hop artist and rapper T-Pain came to Burruss Hall to perform seventy-minutes of his greatest hits. The event almost filled the 3,000-seat Burruss, which spoke to T-Pain’s relevance despite his not releasing an album since 2011. He was the fifth rapper to come to Virginia Tech this school […]
The Grasscutters
Cecil Creasey Sr. and Mary Creasey, January 1958
First vinyl album cover, “Mowin’ on Down the Line”
Band members:
Cecil Creasey (fiddle and vocals)
Bill Parrish (guitar and vocals)
Mel Hughes (mandolin and vocals)
Warren Rodgers (bass and vocals)
Eugene Roberts (banjo and vocals)
[CLIPS]
“I’m […]
Generation 3 Artist Bio: Jerry Douglas
One of the best-known Bluegrass musicians, and possibly the best-known Dobro/lap steel guitar player, Jerry Douglas has had an incredible career. With 13 Grammys and 3 “Musician of the Year” Country Music Awards under his belt, Douglas has set a remarkably high bar for Bluegrass musicians. He’s worked on more than 2,000 albums, recording with the likes of …read more
Rodney Dillard: A Brief Biography
Rodney Dillard, acclaimed Missourian guitar and dobro player, fell in love with Bluegrass on his family’s farm. Music was all he knew. He and his brother Doug (banjo), friend Dean (mandolin), and friend Mitch (bass) started playing together in the late 50’s as “The Dillards.” They went to Hollywood, and within two weeks, landed a recording …read more
Cantwell’s “Hillbilly Music”
The piece of Cantwell’s chapter on “Hillbilly Music” that struck me the most was his (Cantwell’s) description of Monroe’s sound. Cantwell says he “scrapes” (p.50) the strings of his mandolin as opposed to, I assume, strumming them. Monroe is portrayed as a very aggressive and overbearing artist, demanding the attention of the audience. His rough and grainy …read more
Bluegrass: A Definition
Bluegrass is so much more than just a genre of music. As outlined in the Introductions and in “High Lonesome,” Bluegrass music is the voice of an entire region. Unlike today, when music preferences vary greatly between generations and genders and religions and races, Bluegrass in the 40’s and 50’s was the music. Parents, children, grandparents, …read more
Hello world!
Welcome to Blogs@VT Sites. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!