i have been a fairly enthusiastic fan of the bluegrass genre for decades, and i have seen it go through ebbs and flows of overall popularity over the years. just when it seems that the interest seems stagnant, something comes along to introduce it to a new audience. examples include the newgrass revival band – which brought a more eclectic vision to the genre – to the jerry garcia led band old and in the way that introduced fans of the grateful dead to bluegrass. the movie ‘o brother where art thou’ had the same effect in 2000. the soundtrack for the film reached #35 on the billboard country charts that year.

i bring all this up because i have been seeing a similar phenomenon over the last year or so, and this time i believe it is because of a significant emergence of younger musicians embracing the tradition of the past, but then taking it to another level. i want to focus on three of them right now, but if you look around there are many more. it is quite refreshing.

molly tuttle

i have written about her before, but she is well worth revisiting. hailing from california, she broke on the scene in her early twenties and in 2017 became the first woman to win the international bluegrass music association’s guitarist of the year. she won again in 2018. her and her band golden highway have put out two great albums recently and have been touring hard for a number of years now, and the audiences and venues are definitely getting bigger.

sierra ferrel

sierra’s meteoric rise to fame has been much more dramatic – really just the last few years. brought up in west virginia, she escaped a rough life and made a name for herself busking in the streets. of the three here, her material is the most eclectic, mixing bluegrass with folk, gypsy jazz and others. this year’s release of ‘trail of flowers’ is a great example of this.

billy strings

again, i have written about him before, but i bring up him here because he is widely considered to be at the forefront of the youth movement i am referring to here. he just released his first live album, and it is pretty damn good. i have reviewed his studio albums in the past, but his live act is really what deserves attention. his excellent band can keep up with any acoustic bluegrass outfit in the country, but they can also add some electricity to their instruments and add a significant rock element to their shows. some purists might not like that, but i do. to each his own.

all three are interested in studying the past and doing their own interpretations for the future. all write their own material but also do interesting covers. all have great bands and tour relentlessly. i have seen all three at least once, and they are all worth getting out there to check them out.