| bluegrass |
Down in the Holler
South Georgia ’ s Blue Holler carries on bluegrass tradition by Allen Edwards | photos submitted
Ketch Secor , lead singer and banjo player for Old Crow Medicine Show , once said that bluegrass music is a “ virtuostic form ” that is “ older , rawer , and purer ” than other types of music . It ’ s a high lonesome sound , mysterious , haunting , crossing the ridges and valleys of the Appalachian Mountains . It ’ s in the rasp of Ralph Stanley ’ s voice , the speed of Earl Scruggs ’ s fingers , and the breathy beauty of Alison Krauss ’ s lilting voice .
And it ’ s in Blue Holler , south Georgia ’ s premier bluegrass band , which was recently inducted into the Georgia Country Music Hall of Fame .
Bluegrass ’ s origins lie in the fiddle jigs of 18th-century Scottish immigrants , who brought their ballads across the Atlantic and settled in the Appalachians , only to hear the music come down from those mountains in the 1940s with Bill Monroe .
Since those early days , bluegrass has evolved into a varied musical genre that runs the gamut from indie folk
The members of Blue Holler from left are Marshall Roberts on mandolin , Brandon Gandy on banjo , Brandon Taylor on guitar , Skylar Gandy on fiddle and Seabie Ewer on bass .
24 MoultrieScene MAY 2023