At today’s 77th annual Pioneer Day, musicians will cover the whole spectrum of music that includes everyone from Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys and Gene Autry to Merle Haggard and Ray Price.
Below is a brief history explaining the origins and connections of these types of music.
Country and western music
Country music is rooted in the folk traditions of the British Isles. In the new world, those roots became entangled with the ethnic musics of other immigrants and African slaves. In the Southwestern United States a different mix of ethnic groups created the music that became the Western music of the term country and western.
In the 19th century, several immigrant groups from Europe, most notably from Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Italy moved to Texas.
These groups interacted with the Spanish, Mexican and Native American communities that were already established in Texas. As a result of this cohabitation and extended contact, Texas has developed cultural traits that are rooted in the culture of all of its founding communities. The settlers from the areas established large dance halls where farmers and townspeople from neighboring communities could gather, dance and spend a night enjoying each other’s company.
Information provided by the Country Music Hall of Fame’s official Web site www.countrymusichalloffame.com.
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass can trace its early roots to the various types of music brought with the people who began migrating to America in the early 1600s, including dance music and ballads from Ireland, Scotland and England, as well as African American gospel music and blues. Slaves from Africa brought the design idea for the banjo - an instrument now integral to the bluegrass sound.
The term bluegrass originated in the 1930s with musician Bill Monroe, a native of Kentucky, the Bluegrass State, when he decided to call his band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, and the band birthed a new form of country music.
Bluegrass relies mostly on acoustic stringed instruments including the fiddle, five string banjo, guitar, mandolin and upright bass, and is often joined by the resonator guitar.
Information provided by the International Bluegrass Music Association’s official Web site www.ibma.org.
Dances
Partner dances include those that are mostly lead and follow, and include: two step, waltz and polka.
Group dances include the line dance and square dance. Some better known dances are the Horseshoe Shuffle, Traveling Cha Cha, Sweetheart Stroll And Cotton Eyed Joe.
Information provided by the Country Music Hall of Fame’s official Web site www.countrymusichalloffame.com.
Performing at Pioneer Day will be local entertainers Madlyon Oppermann and Shorty Grisham with the Texas Rose Band, Fred Fuller and the BellJam Band, Cody Culp, Bruce Mercer, Tommy Ross and Still Country, and Jesse Hamilton and the SPJST District II Youth Beseda dancers.
A concession stand will be open serving sandwiches, chips, coffee and soft drinks. The Telegram will be providing free bottled water to attendees and, please, no outside food or drink.
