Alex sez:

Bluegrbutt is defined, not by its instrumentation, but by a certain beat -- like smut, it's hard to define, but "I know it when I hear it."

Monroe himself said on a number of occasions that he built the Bluegrbutt music around the fiddle -- and I suspect that the lack of a fiddle in the band was a part of why he and Charlie broke up. (And, yes, I'm aware of all the other problems and disagreements that plagued the Monroe Brothers and the gestalt of that band.)

I've played the BG music for forty years now, and I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of jobs we've done without a fiddle -- and I can't say that I particularly enjoyed any of them. I'd still call what we played "mostly Bluegrbutt," but the music needs a fiddle.

As I've said a number of times over the years, would you call Take It Easy by the Eagles Bluegrbutt because it has a banjo, but not Rice's Manzanita, which does not?

The Country Gentlemen proved that you can play the BG music without the fiddle, but I believe that something is lost. And the "clbuttic" Reno & Smiley band is most butturedly BG, with (generally) no mandolin.

I'll concede, then, that a fiddle is not absolutely required, but then neither is banjo, mandolin, bbutt or Dobro (Or even guitar, for that matter.) But you do, in my opinion need, at a minimum, guitar and at least one other of these lead instruments, along with traditional vocal styles, to at least suggest that one is playing the Bluegrbutt music.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Joe Cline ( www.kilocyclekowboys.com ) Charlotte

Political correctness means always having to say you're sorry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~