We started something new at the Fort last night. Before we lay our heads down to sleep, Michele and I are going to pick a new channel on DIRECTV to listen to before we fall into slumber.
There is such a wide variety to choose from and I think it will be cool to wind down to some genres that we aren’t used to listening to.
Our first choice was Channel 812: Bluegrass
I grew up with Bluegrass living in West Virigina when I was very young and my grandparents lived in the Ohio River Valley of Ashland, Kentucky.
For those of you who don’t know, Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish and English traditional music. Bluegrass was inspired by the music of Appalachia, and was influenced by the music of African-Americans through incorporation of jazz elements.
In bluegrass, as in some forms of jazz, one or more instruments each takes its turn playing the melody and improvising around it, while the others perform accompaniment; this is especially typified in tunes called breakdowns.
I love the steel slide guitar that is often used in Bluegrass as well as the banjo.
I don’t know if this was a wise choice for Night 1. I was toe-tappin’ and rocking’ out while Michele was groaning “make it stop, please!”
Stay tuned!
Bluegrass is inspiring music – but when you are trying to wind down and slumber, I don’t think its the best choice. Especially for a toe-tappin’ musician who does know how to play the slide guitar! 🙂 Whew! it’s my choice tonite – I’m thinking Coffeehouse – that’ll drive Robert nuts!