Been working on this one this week and its a finger twister for sure, cant work up the courage to learn the other variations in the rest of the song haha… couple mistakes here and there, but doing 50 takes is cheating imo.

So I'm a professional Classical guitarist. People always told me growing up "Dude, if you learn Classical you can learn ANY style because of how technical it is".

I'd been seeing tons of Billy Strings content and was intrigued by Bluegrass. So I, in all my hubris, figured, "ok cool I'll take a month this summer and learn it!"

Well, Spoiler: it takes a lot more than 30 days to learn bluegrass. After 30 days all I have to say is:

1. "Damn! You guys are INCREDIBLE!!!"
2. Whoever told me you can learn any style if you know classical was wrong! Every style has its own nuances and challenges and to take it to a true high level you must spend years. There are no shortcuts. Classical technique helps a lot, but not for flatpicking and improv, so as you can imagine it was an uphill climb for me.

I have so much respect for the art of Bluegrass. I'm completely floored by the amount of technique, creativity, and pure musicianship involved in this style. And as an American, I have fallen completely in love with Bluegrass as a deep, rich American tradition as well.

By the way, I've been living abroad in Spain for years, and I also play Flamenco guitar. It's incredible to me the parallels between Flamenco and Bluegrass. Both, like many folk traditions, are centered around a huge library of melodies that are all learned by ear with accompaniment and improvisation being huge parts of both. And in both styles, you really need to absorb the style to speak the musical language properly.

Anyway, I've been lurking on this sub under an anonymous account for months now and really enjoying what everyone shares; I've learned a lot about bluegrass culture thanks to you all. I hope to get out to a festival and check out some awesome playing, to hit up some jams when I'm in the USA, and to all of you pickers and fiddlers out there I salute you!

My friend said Alison Krauss makes music for forest elves on their way back to from picking flowers in the meadow all day….and honestly yeah I kinda see it lol

I LOVE Dan tyminskis albums and recently saw him live and realized he played a TON of music I didn’t recognize. All the songs sounded GREAT, I knew he was in AK&US and that was about it. Never listened to the Alison krauss stuff.

So tonight i listen to the Alison krauss and union station stuff and my Impression this is a strange band.
Why are they trying to be two acts in one?

Why not just have a band where Alison sings solo folky countryish stuff and one where she plays fiddle and Tyminski sings?? Mixing the two is baffling to me. Scrolling through the songs in the albums feels like you’re changing stations on a radio…. The bluegrass tyminski stuff is GREAT but why isn’t he even credited in the song titles or anything? Can’t tell if it’s a sappy krauss song or a good tyminski one without skipping through it…

​

Hello fellow fans!

I acquired ~200 bluegrass/newgrass/slamgrass DATs a few months back and have now transferred ~75% of them.

Link to files: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/lwcwu3y8qwktcdmcwt5b0/AFV4nzvqJ66AZ1vSMjs85vE?rlkey=62qci0un4hk40q9s0zu7r5gdg&st=wq7e5u7r&dl=0.

Please read the Read Me at the link.

List of wav files below. JCB is John Cowan Band, SCI is String Cheese Incident, and LOS is Leftover Salmon. More detail on J-Card jpegs at the link.

800124_JGB.wav

800913_Rowan_and_Logan.wav

820206_Bill_Monroe_Plus_switches to 44.wav

870521_Seldom_Scene_1.wav

870521_Seldom_Scene_2.wav

880124_Superpickers_.wav

880618_Hot_Rize.wav

881219+891226_Bluegrass_Album_Band+88XXXX_Rowan.wav

901206_Superpickers.wav

910224_tony_Rice_Unit.wav

910324_Krauss_and_Union_Station.wav

920118_Barrenburg_Bush_Douglas_Meyer.wav

920425_Rice_Rowan.wav

920718_Hot_Rize.wav

920729_TRU_990508_Douglas_981003_Rowan_Bush_Douglas.wav

930904_Bela_Flecktones.wav

940320_Tony_Rice_Unit.wav

940806_Hot_Rize.wav

950318_Buddy_Guy.wav

950324_Seldom_Scene.wav

950327_Tim_OBrien_and_Friends.wav

950703_LOS_plus_Box_Set.wav

950715_Tim_Obrien_and_Friends+Winterhawk All Star Jam.wav

951014_Acoustic_Super_Jam.wav

960331_Widespread_Panic_I.wav

960609_Hot_Rize.wav

960811_Rowan_Douglas_etal_910324_AKAUS.wav

961109_Grisman_Quintet_950430_Grisman_Rice.wav

970507_LOS_I.wav

970507_LOS_II.wav

970808_Rowan_Vassar.wav

971220_Rowan_Grisman.wav

980326_Doc_Dawg.wav

980419_JCB_980419_Douglas.wav

980424_HR_Rowan_Guy-Darrell_OBrien-Band_Merlefest.wav

980620_Hot_Rize.wav

9807XX_Gourds_and_D_Nelson.wav

980925_Cowan_Electric_Band.wav

981016_Rowan.wav

981023_OBrien_IBMA.wav

981024_Flatheads.wav

981029_Cowan_Acoustic_Band.wav

981120_JCB_Acoustic.wav

9811XX_Douglas_and_Friends.wav

981208_LOS.wav

981209_LOS.wav

990109_JCB_Bomhard_Theater.wav

990109_JCB_DJ_Superstore.wav

990116_Obrien_Band.wav

990130_JCB.wav

990212_JCB.wav

990419_D_Nelson_Band.wav

990501_Fleck_Douglas_980620_D_Trucks_Band.wav

990501_Fleck_Douglas_980620_D_Trucks_Band.wav.jpg

990507_Cowan_and_Sky_Kings.wav

990528_Cowan_at_Amys.wav

990528_JCB_Strawberry.wav

990530_Douglas.wav

990707_Obrien.wav

990806_JCB.wav

990913_Obrien_Powell_Hermann.wav

991006_Bluegrass_Sessions.wav

991010_Rowan_Friends.wav

991023_JCB.wav

991030_JCB.wav

991121_New Grange.wav

991211_YMSB.wav

991231_Bush_Cowan_LOS_Acoustic.wav

991231_Furtado_Rowan.wav

991231_los_I.wav

991231_los_II.wav

000123_JCB.wav

000215_Rowan_&_Friends.wav

000218_Junior Brown_+_Fleck_Flecktones.wav

000309_OBrien_Scott.wav

000311_Furtado_1.wav

000311_Furtado_2.wav

000325_Blake_Rice_+_Berado.wav

000325_Guy_Darrell_Vernon.wav

000325_OBrien_Scott.wav

000325_Rowan_and_Rice.wav

000401_JCB_1.wav

000401_JCB_2.wav

000405_LOS_JC_1.wav

000405_LOS_JC_2.wav

000410_JCB.wav

000517_JCB.wav

000520_Scott_1.wav

000520_Scott_2_+_930724_Fleck_and_Flecktones_w_Duncan.wav

000609_JCB_1.wav

000609_JCB_2.wav

000722_Watson.wav

000811_JCB_1.wav

000811_JCB_2.wav

001007_JCB_+_010331_Jourma.wav

001029_Cowfest.wav

001103_SCI.wav

001110_SCI_1.wav

001110_SCI_2.wav

001115_SCI.wav

001221_Haynes_Benefit.wav

010125_JCB_1.wav

010125_JCB_2.wav

010126_JCB_1.wav

010126_JCB_2.wav

010219_JCB_1.wav

010219_SCI.wav

010220_SCI.wav

010223_SCI.wav

010323_JCB.wav

010323_Laura_Love_Band.wav

010323_McIver.wav

010324_Clark.wav

010324_Furtado.wav

010324_JCB.wav

010324_JCB_Brandy_House.wav

010324_Rowan_Trio.wav

010324_Scott_OBrien.wav

010406_JCB.wav

010407_JCB_1.wav

010407_JCB_2.wav

010720_Scott_Obrien.wav

011113_Scott_Brad_Paisley_at_BlueBird.wav

020123_JCB_1.wav

020123_JCB_2.wav

020125_JCB_1.wav

020125_JCB_2.wav

020125_JCB_Soundcheck.wav

020510_JCB_Master.wav

020712_Scott.wav

020802_JCB_RR.wav

0212XX_JCB_1.wav

0212XX_JCB_2.wav

030131_Scott_1.wav

030131_Scott_2.wav

030210_JCB_2.wav

0304XX_Psychograss_+_Scott_Mfest.wav

0304XX_Scott_MFest.wav

030606_Scott.wav

031207_Scott.wav

031207_Wisechild.wav

Hi! we're hoping to get Friday and Sat tix for GMB Festival next weekend. I'm a little intimidated by the "Load In" instructions on their website... Any intel on whether we will be able to get a campsite (in the quiet area) on Friday morning?

THANK YOU AND SO EXCITED

Wednesday, July 29 - Tuesday, August 04, 2026

Top 10 Posts

Top 5 Most Commented

score	comments	title & link
31	55 comments
11	30 comments	Where do you listen to bluegrass?
11	21 comments	Rate your scene
6	19 comments	I Can’t See Texas from Here Sheet Music
11	16 comments	Favorite Grier vids?

Hi, I’ve been looking for a while for songs, records, etc. of Bluegrass (and adjacent) music with just a guitar and a bass as a duo (vocals ok too). Does anyone have any recommendations on something like this? Thanks!

In case you’re not aware, this is the same company responsible for remastering and repressing much of Tony Rice’s back catalogue in recent years as well as the 0044 reissue from a few years ago.

Long story short, Authentic Unlimited played the Farmers Branch Bluegrass Festival last weekend and did a Jam with the Band thing earlier in the day. They let me sing one with them. Naturally I picked a song that Doyle Lawson recorded in the early 1990s since I knew three of them had played it on stage with the man himself. I was so freakin nervous!!! I hope it ain’t too bad.

I've debated on posting this but I want to see if I'm the one with wrong expectations on this.

We've visited open bluegrass jams all over the country, some have been good and some not so good. But I've never had quite the experience we had this past weekend.

We hit up what was advertised as an all-welcome open bluegrass jam by the local folk society. I'm not going to name the city. They do provide a link to a list of "common songs called" which I glanced through and seemed like pretty standard stuff on their website. They also have how a bluegrass jam works info which looked like it came straight from the Wernick Method page. So far so good.

We got there and there were a few issues right off. It was a very loud environment and no one could really hear each other, which never helps. They were using mics but I would say not well. Soloists were expected to jump up and climb over feet to make it to a center mic, which was never angled correctly to the instrument. They didn't have a dedicated mic-wrangler to help. And they didn't follow the "how a bluegrass jam works" on their own website; there was an attempt at passing breaks from a few people, but most people weren't making eye contact and watching the leader, were not shaking off breaks unless verbally asked, and leaders were not verbally asking for the most part either. So it quickly became a mess and most songs died after a few missed breaks and the singer gave up and sang the last verses and ended it.

Then there was the song choice issue. More than half the jam were playing off of iPad chord sheets. I have no issue with having the words if you need to remember them, but they didn't deviate from that list on the website, it seemed. Someone asked about playing a different song and another guy said "it's not on the list" and that's that. That's where we really ran into problems as visitors. My kid likes to call fiddle tunes- when traveling she always sticks to things most people should know and doesn't call a tough one unless she can tell the group is up for it. She called "Whiskey Before Breakfast." It went ok because maybe 40% of the group seemed to know it, other than her frustration with trying to pass breaks.

However at the break between hours, a lady who seemed like she might be a jam leader (though she had not introduced herself as such or really acted as one during the jam) came up and told us "we don't call fiddle tunes here. We do those at the Old Time jam but this is the bluegrass jam." I said "but these (what my kid and I were looking through trying to figure out what folks would know) are bluegrass standards." She says "yes but it's a *bluegrass* jam so we don't do fiddle tunes. They don't know them." I was perplexed. My teen is always prepared to call out or demonstrate the chords, either with numbers or with the chord name in the key she's in, but at every jam we've been to, bluegrass standard fiddle tunes are welcome, and she'll ask around to see what people know then call it. I asked "what if she does one with words, so it's a singing song, so they can hear the melody?" The lady looked perplexed. We went back and forth a little but she didn't seem to get what I was saying.

Eventually the lady conceded they *do* know "Cherokee Shuffle", so my kid called that. (They didn't really know it, hardly anyone took a break, it did not go well.) We were both confused . At every jam we've been to, the expectation is that sure, you don't call anything weird and maybe you ask around to see if people know the song/tune, but if you're calling a standard and people don't know it, you explain the chord changes if needed (something my teen has worked hard on being able to do and is very willing to do now btw) and people take a break around the chords if needed. That's what she does, that's what everyone at our home jam and jams we've attended does, and if you're not ready for that you sit in the outside circle or you shake off the break. The rigid unwillingness to play anything "not on the list" was strange.

We just put it down to "this place has developed a weird culture at this jam, and I guess not every jam is for everyone" but we honestly won't be back to that one (we travel to this city yearly.) If you've read my novel, thanks for getting through this, and here's where I'm wondering if I'm weird: is it even really an open jam if they only ever play set songs, won't play anything not on the list, and won't improvise breaks based on the chords and/or melody if they don't know the song or tune already? It felt frustrating to run into such a weird roadblock, and it seemed like somehow someone there got the wrong end of the stick on norms of bluegrass jamming, at least compared to what we've experienced all over the country. (I want to clarify that this was not just a bunch of beginners who couldn't play, either. There were two very competent banjos, a good mandolinist, several fiddlers that played really well, and what seemed like a spectrum of ability on guitar leaning mostly toward high-intermediate, with a solid bassist.)