I'd like to meet:
Well first off i was born in a small uk town 50 miles from london my mother is irish and my dad is of irish/italian decent raised a stone throw away from liverpool uk, ok so how was it i was born other end of the uk, well my grandfather "mothers dad" was in the Royal Irish Fusiliers Regiment and was based in that lil ole town where i was born which is where they settled after my grandad left the army. My dad served in the Kings Own Royal Border Regiment and was based in that same ole lil town blah blah blah my parents got together then i and my 7 bros n sis was born. Well I now live in Central Florida with my American born wife and 2 American born children/toddlers from hell, naa jus kiddin, them two lil scally wags are the light of my life and so too is my wife, without them id be sad, drunk and prolly a country singer who's dog jus left lol j/k anyhoo before coming to the states i never really listened to much country music and never heard of bluegrass so when i stepped of the plane and heard stuff from the likes of the charley daniels band, alabama, ralph stanley and his bro along with the Del McCoury Band and many many others i was blown away by the various and utterly awesome music which then got me started on my lil obsession with the greatest music ive ever had the pleasure of hearing "Bluegrass". Ok so a few years ago i dreamed that i played the fiddle and i kept havin this same dream for weeks, so i told my wife about these weird night time occurrences, so she said why don't ya try and learn to play it "fiddle" so i went out a got me a very cheep 1 coz man they cost a lot and have since found out the older the fiddle better the sound oh and higher the price :( Now the wife got a guitar at this time and we planned on jammin together in the evenings, well that lasted for a day coz the wife didn't like the pain it caused her fingers, so like a sin the guitar sat unplayed for a whole year. So anyway I then started huntin around online for some FREE tuts on playin the fiddle and found a website run by a lady that goes by the name of Beverley Conrad, she hosted these free tuts on her website Acres of Clams | Amazing Grace | Back Up and Push | Boil That Cabbage Down | Camptown Races | Devil's Dream | Faded Love | Greensleaves | Irish Washerwoman | Liberty Two-Step | Red River Valley | Shepherds Waltz | Soldier's Joy | Turkey In The Straw | Waltz Across Texas | Westphalia Waltz | When Johnny Comes Marching Home | Major Chords for the Fiddle All of which i can now play. So anyway that kept me busy for a yr. Then one morning i looked over at the guitar and see it jus sittin there collectin dust, i thought sod it, ima try and learn to play this thing. So i picked it up wiped it down and opened a beginners book and started on a new musical journey and after 2 weeks i then went out and got me a bluegrass book for beginners, well that was it for me ive not done much on the fiddle since and the guitar has defo taken the place of my fiddle, i do pick up the fiddle every now and then but most of my spare time is used playin the guitar. Its been 3yrs since my strange dreams and ive now been playin the guitar for almost 2yrs not long i no and i hope that in time i will get better which im sure i will. The "CMT a movie created by me" below is me, jus hope i don't get sued for usin the CMT bit lol, I done the movie usin a cheap digy cam then i edited the video image usin Flash 8 and Adobe After Effects by the way Flash work is another of my passions. Ok i hope everyone readin this has a great and safe day...
Jamie Male Orlando Florida Unted States Layout Design By Me About Me Add Comment Bluegrass Country Southern Rock Folk Bluegrass Music: The Roots
The various types of music brought with the people who began migrating to America in the early 1600s are considered to be the roots of bluegrass music--including dance music and ballads from Ireland, Scotland and England, as well as African American gospel music and blues. In fact, slaves from Africa brought the design idea for the banjo--an instrument now integral to the bluegrass sound.As the early Jamestown settlers began to spread out into the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky and the Virginias, they composed new songs about day-to-day life experiences in the new land. Since most of these people lived in rural areas, the songs reflected life on the farm or in the hills and this type of music was called "mountain music" or "country music." The invention of the phonograph and the onset of the radio in the early 1900s brought this old-time music out of the rural Southern mountains to people all over the United States.Good singing became a more important part of country music. Singing stars like Jimmie Rodgers, family bands like the Carter family from Virginia and duet teams like the Monroe Brothers from Kentucky contributed greatly to the advancement of traditional country music.The Monroe Brothers were one of the most popular duet teams of the 1920s and into the 1930s. Charlie played the guitar, Bill played the mandolin and they sang duets in harmony. When the brothers split up as a team in 1938, both went on to form their own bands. Since Bill was a native of Kentucky, the Bluegrass State, he decided to call his band "Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys," and this band sound birthed a new form of country music."Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys" first appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in 1939 and soon became one of the most popular touring bands out of Nashville's WSM studios. Bill's new band was different from other traditional country music bands of the time because of its hard driving and powerful sound, utilizing traditional acoustic instruments and featuring highly distinctive vocal harmonies. This music incorporated songs and rhythms from string band, gospel black and white, work songs and "shouts" of black laborers, country and blues music repertoires. Vocal selections included duet, trio and quartet harmony singing in addition to Bill's powerful "high lonesome" solo lead singing. After experimenting with various instrumental combinations, Bill settled on mandolin, banjo, fiddle, guitar and bass as the format for his band. The guitar originally came from Spain. The mandolin, as well as the fiddle and acoustic bass (both from the violin family), originally came from Italy.While many fans of bluegrass music date the genre back to 1939, when Monroe formed his first Blue Grass Boys band, most believe that the classic bluegrass sound jelled in 1945, shortly after Earl Scruggs, a 21 year old banjo player from North Carolina, joined the band. Scruggs played an innovative three-finger picking style on the banjo that energized enthusiastic audiences, and has since come to be called simply, "Scruggs style" banjo. Equally influential in the classic 1945 line-up of the Blue Grass Boys were Lester Flatt, from Sparta, Tenn. on guitar and lead vocals against Monroe's tenor; Chubby Wise, from Florida, on fiddle; and Howard Watts, also known by his comedian name, "Cedric Rainwater," on acoustic bass.When first Earl Scruggs, and then Lester Flatt left Monroe's band and eventually formed their own group, The Foggy Mountain Boys, they decided to include the resophonic guitar, or Dobro into their band format. The Dobro is often included in bluegrass band formats today as a result. Burkett H. "Uncle Josh" Graves, from Tellico Plains, Tenn., heard Scruggs' three-finger style of picking in 1949 and adapted it to the then, almost obscure slide bar instrument. With Flatt & Scruggs from 1955-1969, Graves introduced his widely emulated, driving, bluesy style on the Dobro. The Dobro was invented in the United States by the Dopyera Brothers, immigrant musicians/inventors originally from the Slovak Republic. The brand name, "Dobro," comes from Do-pyera Bro-thers.From 1948-1969, Flatt & Scruggs were a major force in introducing bluegrass music to America through national television, at major universities and coliseums, and at schoolhouse appearances in numerous towns. Scruggs wrote and recorded one of bluegrass music's most famous instrumentals, "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," which was used in the soundtrack for the film, Bonnie & Clyde. In 1969 he established an innovative solo career with his three sons as "The Earl Scruggs Revue." Scruggs still records and performs selected dates in groups that usually include his sons, Randy on guitar and Gary on bass.After parting with Scruggs in 1969, Lester Flatt continued successfully with his own group, "The Nashville Grass," performing steadily until shortly before his death in 1979.By the 1950s, people began referring to this style of music as "bluegrass music." Bluegrass bands began forming all over the country and Bill Monroe became the acknowledged "Father of Bluegrass Music.In the 1960s, the concept of the "bluegrass festival" was first introuced, featuring bands that had seemed to be in competition with each other for a relatively limited audience on the same bill at weekend festivals across the country. Carlton Haney, from Reidsville, N.C., is credited with envisioning and producing the first weekend-long bluegrass music festival, held at Fincastle, Va. in 1965.The increased availability of traditional music recordings, nationwide indoor and outdoor bluegrass festivals and movie, television and commercial soundtracks featuring bluegrass music have aided in bringing this music out of modern day obscurity. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs & the Foggy Mountain Boys achieved national prominence with tour sponsorship by Martha White Flour and for playing the soundtrack for the previously mentioned film, Bonnie and Clyde, as well as on a television show called The Beverly Hillbillies. The Deliverance movie soundtrack also featured bluegrass music-in particular, "Dueling Banjos," performed by Eric Weissberg on banjo and Steve Mandel on guitar. In 2001, the triple platinum selling soundtrack for the Coen Brothers movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? attracted wider audiences for bluegrass and traditional country music.Bill Monroe passed away on September 9, 1996, four days before his 85th birthday. In May 1997, Bill Monroe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of the profound influence of his music on the popular music of this country. He is also a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor.