Stream Free Bluegrass A'Plenty With Three NPR Performances

Bluegrass music is part of the fabric of country music, tightly woven into its history. And while it's not heard on mainstream radio, it still has great influence on the musicians that play its music there. It has its own roots in Irish, Scottish and English traditional music. Bluegrass was inspired by the music of immigrants from the United Kingdom and Ireland (particularly the Scots-Irish immigrants in Appalachia), as well as jazz and blues- today it's all about the hills and mountains in and around Kentucky & Tennessee.

National Public Radio has three great recent performances by three fantastic bluegrass artists in the last week- all three are well worth the listen.

Originally from California and now based out of Nashville, Tenn., the award-winning bluegrass group Cherryholmes (pictured) epitomizes the term "family band." Led by bass-playing father Jere Cherryholmes with his wife Sandy Lee on mandolin — and featuring their children Cia Leigh on banjo, B.J. and Molly on fiddle, and Skip on guitar — the group was named the International Bluegrass Music Association's Entertainer of the Year in 2005. They joined Mountain Stage for this set just before heading to California for the 2008 Grammy Awards celebration, for which they were nominated for multiple awards. This year, the band has earned another two Grammy nominations, including Best Bluegrass Album for its latest CD, Cherryholmes III: Don't Believe.
Banjo player Cia Leigh Cherryholmes is the group's core songwriter, penning three of the songs included here ("How Long," "You Don't Know What Love Is" and "Don't Give Your Heart to a Knoxville Girl"). Mother Sandy Lee takes the lead for Hazel Dickens' "Workin' Girl Blues" and B.J. wrote the speedy instrumental "The Nine Yards." Listen to their performance HERE.

Steeped in the Piedmont blues of the North Carolina hill country, the Carolina Chocolate Drops members breathe new life into the African-American string-band tradition. The group's three members — Rhiannon Giddens, Dom Flemons and Justin Robinson — share vocal duties and trade instruments throughout this set, recorded in February 2008. Featuring claw-hammer banjo, plenty of fiddle, snare drum, bone percussion and even a little kazoo, the Carolina Chocolate Drops' members perform a set of mostly traditional tunes here. The band learned its repertoire under the tutelage of North Carolina fiddler Joe Thompson, who mentored the group in the traditions and tunes of Piedmont string-band music. The lone exception is the group's beat-box-driven cover of "Hit 'Em Up Style," an R&B and pop hit for singer Blu Cantrell. Listen to their performance HERE.

Originally from New York, Claire Lynch moved to Alabama at the age of 12. In the 1970s, she sang and wrote for the group Hickory Wind, which later achieved recognition as the Front Porch String Band. The group disbanded in 1981, but Lynch found great success as a songwriter, having her songs recorded by country stars Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea and The Whites. Now, Lynch fronts her own band, which contains some of the most highly decorated players in bluegrass — multiple award-winning flat-picker Jim Hurst, mandolinist and fiddler Jason Thomas and bassist Mark Schatz. Of that group, Schatz and Hurst are both veterans of Mountain Stage, having appeared several times with various performers. Listen to Claire Lynch's performance HERE.