...This chapter describes the years Mike Seeger spent in Washington where he got a job at Capitol Transcriptionist in 1959. Although Mike never forsake bluegrass, here he became familiar with the music of the Country Gentlemen, which was influenced by jazz, rock, popular, country, and other music...

...This chapter details the emergence of ballads about Otto Wood in the months following his death. The interaction of the ballad tradition with the recording industry behind 78 rpm records marketed under the “hillbilly” genre is explored. Wood’s emergence as a folk figure celebrated in bluegrass, old...

...A Rounder compilation played a significant role in the Coen Brothers’ 2000 movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” yielding up the opening-credits song. Rounder was key to the whole project, with many roster acts appearing on the unexpectedly successful soundtrack album, which made stars of bluegrass...

...The Rounder founders got their due from the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame in 2016, when they were inducted alongside many of their acts. Alison Krauss made the induction speech. bluegrass Bluegrass Hall of Fame folk music International Bluegrass Music Association IBMA...

...Bill Monroe led a band called the Blue Grass Boys, but bluegrass was not invented until banjo player Earl Scruggs joined in 1945, playing his three-finger “Scruggs Style” of lightning-fast banjo. Cementing his legacy, Scruggs went on to co-lead Flatt & Scruggs and create the ultimate bluegrass...

...-class hero as well as an important crossroads figure in the 1920s evolution of old-time music into what became bluegrass and country music, recording songs that remain bluegrass-festival standards to this day. And yet he has never been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Poole Charlie Poss...

...When the International Bluegrass Music Association moved its World of Bluegrass festival to Raleigh in 2013, it seemed to acknowledge North Carolina’s under-appreciated role in bluegrass history -- even though Nashville partisans didn’t see things that way and sneered that Raleigh was undeserving...

...The introduction delves the legacy of Otto Wood and how he is remembered primarily through the ballad of “Otto Wood, the Bandit,” revived by Doc Watson and performed by bluegrass musicians worldwide. The memory of Otto Wood as a folk antihero is explored and complicated by an overview of his...

...This chapter focuses on the years Mike Seeger spent in Baltimore. This proved to be a pivotal phase in his life. There, he got involved in the city's burgeoning bluegrass music scene between 1954 and 1958. It was in Baltimore where he met singer Hazel Dickens and her family and saw, for the first...

... in magazines including Bluegrass Unlimited, Crawdaddy and Sing Out! The three founders each developed primary specialties – Nowlin as businessperson, Irwin as talent scout, Leighton Levy as publicist. Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard also joined the roster, with Dickens romantically involved with Irwin for many...

... to the authentic roots music of the American southerners. Seeger termed this brand of music, “music from the true vine,” a country music genre that is now identified as “bluegrass.”...

...Legions of bluegrass fans know the name Otto Wood (1893–1930) from a ballad made popular by Doc Watson, telling the story of Wood’s crimes and violent death. However, few know the history of this Appalachian figure beyond the larger-than-life version heard in song. Trevor McKenzie reconstructs...

...” Royales Scruggs Earl Simone Nina Smith Arthur Squirrel Nut Zippers Stax of Gold Nantucket Lawrence Jack Watson Arthel “Doc ” Alice Gerrard Ben Folds Bluegrass Etta Baker Hiss Golden Messenger Kruger Brothers Old-time music Populism Musical history Before I moved to North Carolina, I knew...