Kentucky Bluegrass

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There's something about the rolling green hills of Kentucky that are almost magical. I've never been to the UK, but I have a feeling if those folks were to come to the middle of America, they might feel really at home in Kentucky. My sister and her family lived just a little bit outside of Lexington when I was a young adult. In fact, for a time I considered moving down to that area myself. I can only imagine how differently my life may have turned out if I had done that.

Obviously, I didn't given my excessive content about the state of Michigan, but for the few years that they lived down there I tried to visit as much as I could. They would take me on rides on these narrow winding country roads, over hills and through hollars. It was almost like a rollercoaster at times and it is a miracle that you never saw more wrecks.

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I remember many years ago my parents, my sister, and myself were traveling through Kentucky. We stopped one night to camp at some campground in the middle of nowhere on our way to somewhere else. Unbeknownst to us, they were scheduled to have a square dance at the campground that night. Well into the early hours of the morning all we could hear was the sound of bluegrass music coming from the small stage in the middle of the campground.

My parents were pissed. My dad had another long stretch of driving to do the next day after a long day of driving that day. I think our ultimate goal was Disney in Florida, so Kentucky put us about a third of the way there.

As young children, it was hard enough to get us to sleep anyway, so my mom was beside herself along with us about the ruckus happening just a short distance from our fabric walled pop up trailer.

It's funny because these days I would probably love to be at a campground where something like that was happening. I'm a big fan of music in general and although I know bluegrass music is a bit of an acquired taste, I find there is something about it that just reaches into my body an touches my soul.

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the theme of this weeks #threetunetuesday sponsored by @ablaze is bluegrass music.

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This isn't the first time I have shared a song from Old Crow Medicine Show on my HIVE blog. I'm pretty sure in the past I have probably shared "Take Em Away", and I know for a fact I have shared "Wagon Wheel". Like a lot of people I think Wagon Wheel is what really introduced me to OCMS. Probably not for the same reason as those other people though. They probably heard the Darius Rucker version first and then found the OCMS version. I knew the OCMS version long before the Darius Rucker version came out and I also knew that OCMS got the song from a working project that was started by Bob Dylan. Admittedly Dylan didn't have much, but OCMS took what he did have and turned it into the song that everyone knows and loves today.

"Sweet Amarillo" is probably one of my top three OCMS songs and I think if you give it a listen you will figure out why. It's upbeat and just has a good feel to it. I can appreciate the fact that the banjo and kind of whiny vocals might be a turn off for a lot of people, but I think if you give it a chance, you will realize just how impressive the lyric work and musicianship is.

OCMS is one of the few artists who are still on my bucket list. I'd love to see them live one day. Ideally somewhere like Red Rocks in Colorado, but honestly, I will take anything!

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Before he became the household name that we know and love today, Chris Stapleton was in a bluegrass band called the Steeldrivers. This song "Blue Side Of The Mountain" is a good example of the kind of music they used to play. It's also a really good example of how bluegrass doesn't always have to be "whiny" as I mentioned above.

I will admit, it's more likely you are going to come across a slow bluegrass song versus a fast bluegrass song, and a lot of them are pretty sad when you come to think about it. I actually wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't some kind of link between bluegrass music and the blues, but I haven't really dug into it too much myself.

If you are interested with what you hear above, I think the Steeldrivers is a good way to dip your toes into the bluegrass genre. I would suggest you look for their earlier stuff if you do. I think they have continued to make music, but obviously without Stapleton as he has chosen to focus on his solo career to much success!

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Finally, if you still aren't quite sure if bluegrass music is something you might enjoy, I am going to throw you this gem from a band I discovered back in the early 2010's called Gangstagrass. If you like what you hear above, I highly recommend you start out with the album Lightning on the Strings. I know this song isn't from that album, but it was the first video I found on YouTube of theirs, so I just took the easy route. You will have to forgive me.

The thing you have to remember is this music was coming out in 2010 back before Old Town Road, Tipsy, and those other songs by rap artists were part of the crossover game. If anything, I would argue that Gangstagrass was one of the original artists to crossover genres like this.

I remember I bought the Lightning on the Strings album and I had it loaded on my iPod (Dock Connector) as they call it these days. Back then it was just considered a second generation iPod or something like that. I was so freaking cool!

I hope you enjoyed this little venture into the world of bluegrass music

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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or @mrsbozz unless otherwise sourced