The beginnings of bluegrass music in this country originate from several other countries represented through the people who first settled in Jamestown. Ireland, West Africa, Scotland, Wales and England have had and still have their versions of this type of music.
The African representation is still clearly heard in the perpetual popularity of jazz and blues. As in various jazz pieces, several instruments take their turn in playing the melody line and improvisation. The other instruments accompany the instrumental soloists until they take their own turn at soloing.
Mountain music and country music reflect the rural lives lived on farms or spending time in the hills and nature. Tennessee, Kentucky and the Carolinas and Virginias play a great deal of bluegrass as did their ancestors who spread out from Jamestown.
At first, the instruments were the main focus of bluegrass but over the years good vocalists were needed and are now an integral part of the music. In the 1920s and 1930s, one duet which paved the way toward the new country sound were the Monroe Brothers. Eventually the pair split up and Bill Monroe went back to his home state of Kentucky and formed a band, which he called Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. This musical style was still thought of as mountain hillbilly music, however, until after WWll.
Monroe experimented with a variety of sounds but after listening to music from Spain and Italy, settling finally on the use of the bass, acoustic guitar, fiddle, banjo and mandolin. His vocals included duets, trios and quartets. He used layered stacked harmony with the baritone at the bottom and the lead singing melody in the middle. The tenor was at the top. That arrangement could be altered if a female was singing.
Finally, as the postwar golden era emerged in the 1940s, so did the official launch of the bluegrass genre of bluegrass music.
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