consulting-hobbit-ofbagend:

I don’t know if anyone realizes but the song “Solidarity Forever,” a famous union song, was written during the Harlan County War in 1931.

The Harlan County War came about when over 18,000 non union miners went on strike in 1931 to protest a wage cut and horrible living conditions and left 11 people dead.

I’m actually really into the history of Kentucky and used to have family in Harlan so if anyone is interested and wants someone to talk to about it, I’m your girl!

I feel like my childhood and my adolescence/young adulthood have just exploded into some sort of amazing chemical reaction that has a lot of protesting involved. (My grandfather was in basic training with Pete Seeger and the Seeger [vintage, ha] phone number is still scribbled down on one of my grandmother’s old memo pads among all of the stuff we have from them. Needless to say between that and all of my maternal family’s labor organizin’ skillz, this is the kind of stuff I was raised on from basically birth and learned very quickly that people my age found weird or too old.)

I have to go back and check through old Bluegrass Mondays for stuff I DON’T know but I’m super excited for this theme.

(via johnwatsons-mustache)

  • 90 Plays
  • The BachelorPatrick Wolf

Patrick Wolf- The Bachelor

‘Cause I’m not gonna marry in the fall
And I’m not gonna marry in the spring
I’ll never marry - marry at all
No one will wear my silver ring
Wear my silver ring, boy

Also, this. I love a good reworked folk song (in this case Poor Little Turtle Dove, though there are multiple songs with this theme and many of these lyrics) but it makes a pretty good metaphor, as well, when sung by a queer artist.

But I mean, the strings alone would make it fantastic.

prettylittlecurls:

Punch Brothers - Ground Speed (Earl Scruggs) acoustic

Part one of a two-part unplugged encore at Antone’s last week: “Ground Speed” in memory of Earl Scruggs. Noam said some really really nice things about him that unfortunately weren’t caught on camera, but I’m grateful this person took (and shared) video at all—because I was certainly not in any state to do anything but live in the moment here.

(via johnwatsons-mustache)

Source: prettylittlecurls

Chris Thile, “Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground” (by shrNHB)

Last one, I promise!

I love the White Stripes, and this is one of my favorite songs by them, and so it takes a lot for me to let go of it, but - the instrumentation in this, especially the mandolin, is extraordinary, and taking it from stripped down bluesy garage rock to bluegrass sounds great. I miss Jack’s voice a little but I can put that aside because this is so good.

It’d be fun to see Chris Thile play with Jack White though. I think that would be one hell of a jam session.

Source: youtube.com

Punch Brothers: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 (by Flemmonthang)

Okay, now I’m stuck on Punch Brothers covers.

This is….incredible. Totally a different direction than “Just What I Needed” - classical with a bluegrassy twist (In the comments they list who’s taking what parts) - but amazing. As someone who once played ONE PART of this concerto at a recital and thought my hand was going to fall off, I am completely blown away.

Source: youtube.com

  • 159 Plays
  • Where Rainbows Never DieThe Steeldrivers

moresongs:

The Steeldrivers - Where Rainbows Never Die

I might never have the urge to listen to anything but bluegrass music ever again.

Hyperbole?  Probably.

Appropriate?  Absolutely.

- Brady

It usually takes a bit of urging to get me to listen to bluegrass but singthestars is usually successful. The guitar and banjo on this are really good.

(via johnwatsons-mustache)

Source: moresongs