Famous Old Time Stringed Instrument Museum  - Coming in 2009

... is dedicated to Bluegrass music, a uniquely American blend of styles, instruments, and rhythms. Bluegrass as an independent musical genre differentiated itself from old style country music in 1945 the moment Earl Scruggs stepped onto the stage of the Grand Ole Opry with Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys. Historically, bluegrass has been viewed as the ‘poor cousin’ of country music and was considered ‘hillbilly’. While the Nashville country sound was mass marketed with smooth orchestral arrangements and choral background harmonies, bluegrass retained it’s rugged, heartfelt sound with a small but avid following. Devotees were stereotyped as old guys in bib overalls with no education or culture.

Bluegrass received a brief span of national attention in the 1960s and 1970s as a consequence of various movies and TV shows featuring the style. The long running TV show, The Beverly Hillbillies featured the bluegrass sound of the band Flatt & Scruggs. The blockbuster movie, Bonnie and Clyde, featured Scruggs’ instrumental Foggy Mountain Breakdown. The movie Deliverance popularized the tune Dueling Banjos. Most recently, the hit movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou has brought the bluegrass sound into the national spotlight and popularized the sound so that professed devotees now include college students and professors, doctors, lawyers, and other well-educated professionals.

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