This is music based on the songs and melodies brought to America by early settlers from Scotland, Ireland and England. The basic "string band" instrumentation developed from interactions between those immigrants and musicians within the slave population- who brought the banjo with them from Africa.

Bill Monroe is credited with developing the style now known as bluegrass- named after his band, the Bluegrass Boys.Monroe combined elements of old time country, blues and other influences to produce a hard driving sound based on instrumental skill combined with Bill’s “high lonesome” vocal harmonies.

A good place to start your exploration of bluegrass might be the book Can’t You Hear Me Callin’: The Life of Bill Monroe- Father of Bluegrass by Richard D. Smith. In it, Mr. Smith compiles and extends the scholarly research on Monroe’s life. The New York Times Book Review hailed it as "...carefully researched... appropriately frank...I cannot imagine it being bettered for a long time to come..."

 Bluegrass magazines include Bluegrass Unlimited and Bluegrass Now. One of the oldest websites is CyberGrass . Another good website is iBluegrass. You can find many more links to bluegrass resources at Barb Deiderich's Handy Bluegrass Links, or at the Bluegrass/Acoustic Music Webring . If you enjoy the discussions on Internet mailing lists, sign up for the bgrass-l.