Progressive Bluegrass

When younger players started playing Bluegrass music in the late 1950s and '60s, they introduced new elements. These included drums and electric instruments, (Bluegrass was traditionally all acoustic) as well as songs composed by newer writers like Bob Dylan. The Country Gentlemen were the first major group to update the Classic Bluegrass sound in this way. The Osborne Brothers and Jim and Jesse also turned to more contemporary styles and songs in order to broaden their audience. By the end of the '60s, folk fans and even long-haired rock 'n' rollers were playing an even more far-fetched and newfangled variation of Bluegrass -- dubbed "newgrass" after a band called the New Grass Revival -- and bringing it to a whole new generation. The Country Gentlemen were one thing, but much of this New/Grass made traditionalists cringe.