One of the most interesting points about bluegrass music is that it continues to evolve without losing sight of its roots. Just consider the annual DelFest, founded by bluegrass great Del McCoury.
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McCoury made his name in the bluegrass world with traditional virtuoso playing and singing, including his work with the Father of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe, as part of the Blue Grass Boys. Other members included Lester Flatt on guitar and Earl Scruggs on banjo, amongst other luminaries. Some past performers of DelFest include Valerie June, The Infamous Stringdusters, Steve Earle, Old Crow Medicine Show, Jason Isbell, and Shovels & Rope.
And that’s just one example that suggests bluegrass music will remain relevant; that fact is also evidenced by the continuing popularity of these enduring performers.
1. Old Crow Medicine Show, “Wagon Wheel”
Anyone who has attended a concert by Old Crow Medicine Show knows that from start to finish, it’s a high-energy, joyous event. And perhaps that’s never clearer than when the band performs “Wagon Wheel,” co-written by the band’s co-founder Ketch Secor and Bob Dylan. Many artists, including Darius Rucker, have covered the song, which was certified Platinum in 2013.
The song tells the story of hitchhiking from New England to Roanoke, Virginia, with stopovers in Johnson City, Tennessee and the Appalachian Mountains.
American Songwriter interviewed Secor about “Wagon Wheel” in 2021; it’s one of the most frequent, and joyous, bluegrass songs performed today.
[RELATED: Behind the Song Lyrics: “Wagon Wheel,” Old Crow Medicine Show]
2. Del McCoury, “Beauty of My Dreams”
If the title of this upbeat bluegrass tune sounds familiar to non-bluegrass fans, that may be thanks to Phish and Del McCoury. Jon Fishman, co-founder of Phish, said he learned about McCoury from an interview with the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia.
One day, driving in his car, Fishman heard a McCoury song on the radio. “It was the most amazing sound I’d ever heard come out of a human,” Fishman says. “It was so beautiful, I had to pull the car over. Then I started becoming a huge fan.”
Phish put the song, a bluegrass classic, into its regular rotation until one of the band’s hiatuses.
3. Tom T. Hall, “That’s How I Got to Memphis”
The song “That’s How I Got to Memphis,” written by country great Tom T. Hall, tells the story of a man going to the Tennessee city to search for a former love. Bobby Bare’s version of the song went to No. 3 on the 1970 Billboard country charts.
No, this song will not make people hold up lighters or cell phones and jump out of their seats to dance. But there’s universal feeling expressed in his lyrics—they build the joy of camaraderie.
In an interview with American Songwriter, Hall talked about songwriting: “Songwriters aren’t good songwriters,” he said. “People are good songwriters. So, all of my career, I fought against sitting down as a ‘songwriter.’ I would sit with that sneaker on my head until I found humility and became a person.
“You sit down as a person and write a song. You’re a songwriter if you’ve written a song by the time you stand back up. But the person comes first. You can’t look at the thing from somewhere above or some place of supposed knowledge. Anyway, if you look at the state of the world, mankind has a lot to be humble about.”
4. Flatt & Scruggs, “Home Sweet Home”
It’s difficult to listen to the banjo rolls playing on “Home Sweet Home” and not feel immediately joyous. The song is a classic, inhabiting a place at the top of the American songbook. While it’s been covered by many, Flatt & Scruggs captured its most exuberant incarnation.
5. The Country Gentlemen, “Fox on the Run”
This all-American bluegrass song was written as a rock song by Englishman Tony Hazzard. Cliff Waldren and the New Shades of Grass were the ones who first played it as a bluegrass tune, and it quickly became one of their most requested tunes. The problem was that the lead singer didn’t enunciate one lyric. It sounded as though he were saying, “I fillustrate a girl.” “Of course, nobody had a clue what Cliff was singing about,” wrote Erbsen.
That’s one reason we chose to highlight the version by The Country Gentlemen. Sure, the version by the New Shades of Grass is spunky and fun, but Charlie Waller, the lead singer of The Country Gentlemen, clearly sings, “I see a string of girls.”
6. Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith and Don Reno, “Dueling Banjos”
Yes, you may know “Dueling Banjos” from the 1972 movie Deliverance. But the peppy, jaunty song was initially called “Feuding Banjos” and was recorded in 1955 with Smith playing a four-string plectrum banjo and Reno a classic five-string bluegrass banjo. The song was introduced to a national audience in 1963 on the “Briscoe Declares for Aunt Bee” episode of The Andy Griffith Show.
7. Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown”
This classic was first recorded in 1949 by Earl Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. Scruggs played five-string banjo on the original, for which he won a Grammy Award. Those who watch the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde will hear the Grammy Award-winning song in car chase scenes.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
