Reddit reviews Bluegrass: A HISTORY 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Music in American Life)
We found 2 Reddit comments about Bluegrass: A HISTORY 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Music in American Life). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
We found 2 Reddit comments about Bluegrass: A HISTORY 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Music in American Life). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
From a purely technical standpoint, no. It would be old-time music, for two significant reasons.
One is that the instruments are essentially playing in unison throughout the piece. There is no turn taking, nor is there the concept of each instrument backing the other, or backing the vocals. This concept of playing the melody in unison for the entire (or majority) of the song was quite common in old-time music for a number of different reasons.
Two, the emphasis isn't a strong backbeat, which is the other aspect that separated bluegrass music from old-time and country music.
This song predates bluegrass (bluegrass, arguably, started in 1945).
Hope that helps. But honestly, this stuff only matters to a small bunch of nerds, and what exactly defines bluegrass is argued quite extensively.
If you're interested in the history, Neil Rosenberg's book Bluegrass: A History.
http://www.amazon.com/Bluegrass-HISTORY-ANNIVERSARY-Music-American/dp/0252072456
By Neil Rosenburg, a professor of music wrote a history of Bluegrass.
He's also a hell of a fine banjo player!