Playing bluegrass in Australia across country and folk scenes

Authors

  • Miriam Amy Jones Independant Researcher

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.33079

Keywords:

Australian country music, Australian folk music, bluegrass, country music, cultural nationalism, folk music, folk revival, hillbilly, Tamworth

Abstract

Bluegrass music has attracted Australian musicians and audiences since the 1960s. The popularity of hillbilly music in Australia from the 1930s onwards meant that Australian musicians were primed to engage with and appropriate the aesthetically related sounds of bluegrass. Because of its niche status, bluegrass has found musical homes across larger Australian folk and country scenes. In turn, the internal logics, ideologies and institutional structures of these two scenes have shaped Australian bluegrass musicians’ musical practices. Oral histories of key figures in the history and institutionalization of bluegrass in Australia illuminate the ways in which musicians have engaged with bluegrass across folk and country scenes.

Author Biography

  • Miriam Amy Jones, Independant Researcher

    Miriam Amy Jones was the 2015 National Folk Fellow at the National Library of Australia. She has an Honours degree from the University of Sydney and a Master of Research from Macquarie University.

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Published

2017-10-03

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Jones, M. (2017). Playing bluegrass in Australia across country and folk scenes. Perfect Beat, 18(2), 131-153. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.33079