HOMEGROWN MUSIC ...AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Image Gallery Down-home musician Marc Bristol sings and strums a tune at a local music festival.

MARC BRISTOL:

Even homesteaders need to relax and enjoy themselves from time to time, right? And almost everybody these days wants to cut his or her cost of living. So how about a little do-it-yourself entertainment?

And that's what this column is all about. Down-home music that you can make ...and the instruments (which, in some cases, you can also make!) to play that music on.

The important thing is that this is your column. If you like it, write to me and- let me know. If you have some ideas for this feature, let me know that. I'm open to any suggestions or information you care to contribute. I'll even try to answer your questions about downhome music ...but-both for the benefit of all MOTHER's readers and to ease my correspondence load-I'll deal with those questions, whenever possible, here in this column ...rather than in personal letters.

Address your correspondence for this column and this column only-to Marc Bristol, 18520 312th Ave. N.E., Duvall, Wash. 98019.

Bluegrass-The Bright Experiment

Back in the 60's I became really excited by the theme music for the (otherwise somewhat moronic) television program The Beverly Hillbillies. The bright, new sound that caught my ear came from the banjo of bluegrasser Earl Scruggs. His picking style impressed many other people, too, and by the time Earl had done the theme music for the movie Bonnie and Clyde (in 196?), nearly everyone had heard of bluegrass and knew that it was uptempo, acoustic country music featuring a lot of sparkling banjo and fiddle work.

The roots of this invigorating style go all the way back to old-time string band music. However, it was Kentuckian Bill Monroe (born in 1911) who developed and defined the special sound of bluegrass, and gave the music its name.

Bill started his career by playing backup guitar-at local dances-with his uncle, fiddler Pen Vandever (later to be immortalized in some of Bill's best-known songs), who exerted a strong influence on the young man's style. Then, in the 30's, when Bill and his brother Charlie landed a radio job as a singing duo (with Charlie on guitar and Bill on mandolin), they evolved the vocal style that's the soul of bluegrass.

After the brothers drifted apart, Monroe put together a group he called the Bluegrass Boys, and began to fine-tune his distinctive sound. It wasn't until the late 40's, however, when he hired Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, that the banjo assumed its position of importance in the genre. Earl's driving, three-finger picking technique was new and exciting, and his banjo style soon became the instrumental trademark of bluegrass music.