CITATION — REFERENCE ENTRY
banjo-late-arrival · wolfe1982-bluegrass-picking
- Citation
- wolfe1982-bluegrass-picking
- Claim ID
- banjo-late-arrival
- Assertion
- Although bluegrass is widely associated with the five-string banjo, Monroe's prototype of the music had no banjo: the first Blue Grass Boys of 1939–1940 had none, and his first banjo player was used mainly in a rhythm role. Monroe called the banjo "about the fifth child that was born to bluegrass". In 1945 Earl Scruggs joined and added a three-finger banjo style that soon threatened to become the music's prime characteristic.
- Quote
Many people tend to associate bluegrass with the five-string banjo ... Yet Monroe's prototype of bluegrass music had no banjo in it; his first recording band, the first incarnation of the Blue Grass Boys ... in 1939-1940, had no banjo, and his first banjo player, David "Stringbean" Akeman, was used more in a back-up rhythm role than as a lead. ... A banjo was about the fifth child that was born to bluegrass, but it's helped bluegrass. ... The advances went into overdrive in 1945, when Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and Chubby Wise all joined within a few months. ... and Earl Scruggs added an electrifying three-finger banjo style that soon threatened to become the music's prime characteristic.
- Quote language
- en
- Locator
- page: 97-98, 102
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