Top 44 Bluegrass Quotes

The local music community here was dying for a place to record, so we started doing acoustic, folk and bluegrass and then did rock projects for other bands, as well as for my son Tal and my own work.

Coming from bluegrass background, I totally understand family harmonies.

I don’t know that my voice ever makes sense anywhere, necessarily. I would sing bluegrass music, and I don’t fit in there; I would sing rock music, and I’m probably a little too hillbilly for that. And country, I’m too much rock n’ roll for there sometimes.

I like big shows, a lot of volume and a lot of energy. I love electric instruments. But I do love mixing those with bluegrass instruments and cranking those up, too, with a little bit of that rock energy.

In bluegrass, there’s a lot of joke-telling and a lot of banter between bandmates. It’s like improv or watching the ‘Carol Burnett Show.’

I’ve always wanted to make a bluegrass album.

There’s a roots nature to Appalachia – the origins of folk and bluegrass. I know guys there who are some of the best players I’ve ever heard but are playing on their porch tonight because they’ve never chased success. There’s simplicity to how they live and what they care about.

Bluegrass is wonderful music. I’m glad I originated it.

When I hear bluegrass today, I hear so many new sounds in it. It’s almost like country music in a way.

I was never into the Bluegrass, Bill Monroe and stuff like that.

I don’t really have a favorite bass player. I listen to a lot of bluegrass. But then again, I’m not a typical bluegrass bass player. I was really into the Grateful Dead, and I still am – I don’t listen to them too much, but for me they are a big influence.

I certainly love the bluegrass ensemble, I think it’s a powerful tool, but I don’t think it’s more than a tool.

Some musicians play blues, others classical jazz or bluegrass. I like to play political roles because I can merge my political interests with my creative interests.

All of the plants that we do not consider food that are safe for the human body to digest, we don’t eat because they’re sour and bitter. The reason why you don’t eat Kentucky bluegrass or crabgrass is because it tastes sour and bitter.

Bluegrass is really a big part of my background.

Growing up in a bluegrass or acoustic-oriented world, the musicians become so focused on performance, as far as playing. We tend to overanalyze the notes, so you’re always trying to sharpen everything up.

The guitar is such an incredible instrument; it plays classical, flamenco, jazz, country, bluegrass, rock, acid, blues. You’ll never see a clarinet playing Black Sabbath. But you will see a guitar in a clarinet band playing rhythm. It is the most popular instrument in the world; it is the one everybody loves.

I love bluegrass music, I love acoustic music, and I try at the right times to push that a little bit.

After spending my pre-teen years as the singer in a bluegrass band, I convinced my parents to let me drop out of high school and start homeschool, so I could take a job singing in the country show at Dolly Parton’s theme park, Dollywood.

I knew I loved playing bluegrass, so I’d end up down there on Sunday nights at the bluegrass jam.

I had some good teachers. One of the greatest teachers I’ve had is bluegrass music: going back and listening to Bill Monroe’s music, the Stanley Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs. When I was with Ralph Stanley I learned a lot from him.

That’s what I love about Nashville and the music community – seeing kids around acoustic music and bluegrass picking parties is the best.

If you looked at my iPod, you would get a trip out of all the different music, from the real heavy metal to bluegrass to classical.

Black people created rock music, it’s a fact. Black people created bluegrass and rock and roll way before Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

It seems like bluegrass people have more great stories to tell than other musicians.

I used to listen to country and western and blues, John Lee Hooker, spirituals, the Bluegrass Boys, and Eddie Arnold. There was a radio station that come on everyday with country, spirituals, and the blues.

I think the great country songs mixed with some of that bluegrass instrumentation – and surrounding all that with a little bit of a rock vibe and energy – is the kind of music I make.

The music scene in Michigan is really folky and bluegrass, but my parents played a lot of disco. They really liked to dance.

Bluegrass has brought more people together and made more friends than any music in the world. You meet people at festivals and renew acquaintances year after year.

It was so much fun playing simple American bluegrass. I got to meet Doc Watson.

I was always into bluegrass as a kid. Basically, I like music that has a basic simple structure and that has a lot of emotion and feel. Bluegrass and other old time music fits the bill, as well as what became punk – they both kind of have a similar framework.

I loved all kinds of Bluegrass music. Sonya Isaacs was a big influence; she’s a Bluegrass Gospel singer, but she’s also done a lot in the Country world just from backup and songwriter and as an artist. Also, the Dixie Chicks were a big influence. Just all of those 90s and early 2000s Country voices.

A lot of great bluegrass comes out of Kentucky. There’s a lot of great music, like the Judds, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ricky Skaggs, and Keith Whitley. There’s a lot of bluegrass intertwined with country music.

It is a really interesting to hear yourself on the radio. I’ve gotten to hear myself in different capacities. I’ve heard myself on Sirius XM on the bluegrass channels, and on WSM and other places.

Every demo I do has a mandolin or resonator on it – some element of the bluegrass or classic country world that I grew up listening to and that first drew me in. And then I always try to find somewhere for a bluesy guitar sound, because that’s also what I love. Musically, I’m always finding my way home.

I was in a bluegrass band. I made two records with a band called the SteelDrivers. They were nominated for two Grammys. I then I was in a rock band called the Junction Brothers; we made kind of ’70s hard rock music.

Ireland and America, music-wise, are very closely related. The Irish came over with their fiddles in hand, and you can hear it in the bluegrass and rockabilly. I love it when music from different countries combine.

I always loved country gospel from back when I was a teenager in high school and started listening to bluegrass quite a lot.

All along, I did what I was comfortable doing, which was to play the music I enjoyed and try to stretch the parameters a bit. Country and bluegrass and folk were my foundation.

No I don’t play bluegrass harmonica or anything like that. I don’t listen to country or bluegrass records.

I went on tour with Ricky Skaggs and his wife, Sharon White, and the White Family in 2015. It was fantastic. They’re all the greatest singers of that country stuff, traditional country up into bluegrass.

In my 30s, I became more open to music other than country or bluegrass.

I went out on the road when I was 12 years old, playing with the Sullivan Family Gospel Singers. That was the summer of 1972. We played Pentecostal churches, camp meetings, George Wallace campaign rallies and bluegrass festivals. As a kid, I had grown up watching quartets that were very entertaining.

What music I listen to day to day changes very, very much. I can go from bluegrass to heavy metal, to blues, to classical and big band and then go to pop and rap.