If you were around twenty years old in the late 1940’s you may have been a witness to the original bluegrass experience. If you were in the right place at the right time. The ultimate bluegrass experience, that is. You got to see and hear Bill Monroe’s band, which was the birth of what we now call bluegrass music. That bluegrass experience was mostly not known to the United States and the world at large. You were lucky, in the select few. If you were born and raised in California, and if you heard the word “bluegrass,” you may have thought to yourself, “Is that a new kind of grass I can grow on my front lawn?” That first configuration of Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys was, to most folks, a secret.
On the heels of Monroe in the 1940’s was the Stanley Brothers Band, Ralph and Carter, creating their own brand of bluegrass, which some describe as more of a “Mountain Music” flavor. And around this same time Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs said, “Adios” to Bill Monroe, and started their own band, “The Foggy Mountain Boys.”
One of the guitarists for the “Foggy Mountain Boys” was Mac Wiseman (who were the other two Wisemen?). Oh yeah, Mac also was with Bill Monroe, and the Osborne Brothers before his own great career in bluegrass music, with over 65 album recordings.
During this time period Jimmy Martin came into focus. He started with Monroe, and then left in 1945 to form the “Sunny Mountain Boys,” and get his name in the headlines.
Speaking again about Bill Monroe, Del McCoury was also in Bill’s band, and Del left the Bluegrass Boys to form his own band. The rest is history, and current history because Del will be at this June’s CBA Father’s Day Festival in Grass Valley (OH BOY!). Many think Del is the reigning King of real Bluegrass Music. You be the judge.
The long and short of all the aforementioned is that unless you were right there in the heartland of the early roots of bluegrass music it was a secret. Some folks got to list to WSM radio to get an early bluegrass education, but for the rest of us westerners in California it was Elvis, Jerry Lee, and Bill Haley and the Comets, and others. It was then, for those near the birth of bluegrass, their secret.
And then, and then the early 1970’s came around. And what do you know, three earthly bluegrass male angels decided to start a bluegrass festival in Grass Valley California. If you want to get specifics regarding that you’ll have to become a history detective. But for quick insight into that you can ask Carl Pagter, JD Rhynes, Rick Cornish, and some other CBA member who is in the know.
But even back then, bluegrass music was relatively obscure to we bluegrass rookies in California. KPFA Radio in Berkeley started a bluegrass show, but many of us in the general masses didn’t know about that. If we were lucky we stumbled onto that broadcast, or somebody had to tell us about it. Actually somebody I worked with told me about the CBA Fathers Day Festival, and I was lucky enough to attend the 2nd Annual festival at Grass Valley.
Back then the Nevada County Fairgrounds (CBA FDF site) was pretty much wide open. 80 acres of tents, a few RVs, but not many, and a small stage for the bands. Minor bands, no big names at first. Even so, the bluegrass bands were great. Early on it was common for some of the bands to make mistakes, but nobody in the audience cared. And I have to say from a personal viewpoint, being there immersed in all things-bluegrass-on-a-small scale was like being let in on a secret. No internet, no e-mails, no websites back then. And no major TV or radio stations broadcast bluegrass music in California.
But as with many a good thing, evolution grabs it by the throat and says, “Come on, let’s get bigger, let’s change the original, let’s put the word out, let’s go boys! Take you time, but do it.” So we eventually had movies like “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Deliverance”, and “Oh Brother Where Am I?” (I may be off a little on the last one). These vehicles let the world in on the sounds of bluegrass music, and then it took off like a blue-tick hound chasing a raccoon.
So fast forward to the present. Bluegrass music is everywhere. Many, many festivals. TV shows like, “Song of the Mountains,” and “Bluegrass Underground,” and whatever. IMHO it still is good, really really good. But it is no longer a secret unless you have been in a monastery for all your life. But back then, back in the 1960’s and 1970’s and early 1980’s in California it was, relative to now, a secret. A bluegrass secret. For some of us, our secret. Admittedly it is a secret worth sharing. After all, someone shared it with you and me.
And just like our youth, the secret was there, but now it’s not, but we are glad it was. It was OUR secret. Wasn’t it?
