Bluegrass ... Heart and Soul of Country Music

NATURAL TUNNEL, VA - - Its lyrics and sounds reverberate and haunt the minds of the folks who make their homes mostly in rural America. Those of us who grew up in East Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia, claim it was borne in our backyard where the common folks, many lacking any semblance of formal or musical education, let those sounds escape through a variety of voices and instruments, nurtured it, and gave it to the world as Bluegrass. It's a sound like no other. It was the genesis. The Adam and Eve. The absolute beginning. 

And it is the heart and soul of country music. 

Throughout the mountain ranges of our southern states, not just Virginia and Tennessee, the hills are alive with the sounds of music - Bluegrass music. At its best it is not commercial. Most venues are free.  Some may cost a buck or two, but that keeps it in the affordable range  of everyman in the south, affordable and sought out.  From the front porch of some home up the hollow to the concrete floor of a produce stand, to some used car lot, the magicians of the strings congregate to play Bluegrass on weekend nights to entertain themselves and anybody else who stops by.

Whether its the sad lament of some tragedy wailed out in song,  the joy of finding Jesus Christ or a humorous ditty about 'butter beans', it always attracts an audience.

VNS occasionally visits Bluegrass (always capitalized) venues and will review, report, and tell you where, when traveling where we've been, you can find America's purest music performed by some of its best  talent (and undiscovered, thank God) saved for those who abandon the interstates and take to the back roads where real, honest Americans live and play Bluegrass.

Your comments, tips of other venues, performers, and hidden talent are always welcomed and will be shared with VNS's public. 

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