What Bluegrass Means to me

I am from Hazard, Kentucky: The Queen City of the Mountains. I love where I’m from and am very proud of it. When I think of home, I think of Bluegrass. I’ve heard it my entire life. Walking downtown by WKIC and hearing Tony Rice’s version of “Nine Pound Hammer,” always brings a smile to my face. It really is “A long way to Hazard.” There is something very comforting about hearing people talk that sound like me in a world where I’ve been trained to hide my accent to not be made a fool. For years I tried to live in an alternate reality where I wasn’t from Appalachia; I always wanted to be from California, so I would be considered cool. In turn, this ultimately led me to resent Bluegrass and home. As much as I heard Bluegrass growing up, I hated it. When I made the journey from Hazard onward to Cleveland, I changed. When I left for college I was thrown into a whole new world full of unfamiliar truths that I thought I would be more accustomed to. Being in the headstate of forgetting home really affected me over the years.

Now when I hear Bluegrass, I am transported back home to the place and people that I love. When I hear a banjo break I return back to that childlike, innocent view of my current life. Hearing music that MY people made motivates me daily and gives me the drive to keep pushing onward. To this day when “Sally Goodin’” comes on, I almost tap a damn hole through the floor, I get torn up. When I hear “Wayfaring Stranger” it feels like I’m back driving Highway 15 back from from a long night in Lexington.

In Appalachia, we are all family whether it be by blood or community. We all impact each others’ lives one way or another. People like: Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, J.D. Crowe, Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley, Larry Sparks, Earl Scruggs, Sam Bush, Doc Watson, Loretta Lynn, Keith Whitley, Bobby & Sonny Osborne, Tyler Childers, Chris Stapelton, Sturgill Simpson, and Nick Jamerson, just to name a few, have affected my life like no other and the vast majority of them don’t/didn’t know that at all. Some things will never change. I am a proud Kentuckian, I’m Appalachian, and I flatpick a damn guitar. May generations of Appalachians be impacted by OUR music and let it hold a special place in their hearts as it does in mine. Music, to me, is like cornbread, it’s always better in the holler.