Fate Flukes And Fame In Bluegrass Music

Download or read book Fate, Flukes and Fame in Bluegrass Music written by Dennis Goodwin and published by . This book was released on 2015-12-16 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bluegrass music legends, like the rugged back-country farmers they often sang about, knew the value of tedious hard work and perseverance. Instead of crop-killing droughts and devastating dustbowls, they often faced years of playing their songs to rowdy drunks in smoke-filled dives. Year by year, they patiently tended their bluegrass "field of dreams" with loving hands and blistered fingers. As they practiced their instruments and perfected their high-lonesome harmonies, even the city slickers among them seem to rhythmically drift back to an earlier time. They settled into an age when news of the world didn't flash by on non-stop news channels. It was tossed on the porch by a young man on a bicycle, to peruse with morning coffee and a pipe-full of Prince Albert. Although that slower pace could be comforting, it sometimes felt like time was standing still. Now and then, though, life could suddenly pick up speed, and their musical fields would flower and turn to solid gold. Jimmy Martin's crop flourished, for example, when he was fired from his job for singing too much. Carter and Ralph Stanley's golden harvest sprang from a singing mailman. And young Earl Scruggs' musical seeds began to spout after a childhood argument. Join the legends of bluegrass as they follow the furrows of fate, flukes and fame.