Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music. It has its own roots in Irish, Scottish and English traditional music. Bluegrass was inspired by the music of immigrants from the British Isles (particularly the Scots-Irish immigrants in Appalachia), as well as that of rural African-Americans, jazz, and blues. In bluegrass, as in jazz, each instrument takes a turn playing the melody and improvising around it, while the others revert to backing; this is in contrast to old-time music, in which all instruments play the melody together or one instrument carries the lead throughout while the others provide accompaniment. Bluegrass is distinctively acoustic, rarely using electrical instruments.

Bluegrass as a style developed during the mid 1940s. Because of war rationing, recording was limited during that time, and the best that can be said is that bluegrass was played some time after World War II, but no earlier. As with any musical genre, no one person can claim to have "invented" it. Rather, bluegrass is an amalgam of old-time music, blues, ragtime and jazz. Nevertheless, bluegrass's beginnings can be traced to one band. Today Bill Monroe is referred to as the "founding father" of bluegrass music; the bluegrass style was named for his band, the Blue Grass Boys, formed in 1939. The 1945 addition of banjo player Earl Scruggs, who played with a three-finger roll originally developed by Snuffy Jenkins but now almost universally known as "Scruggs style", is considered the key moment in the development of this genre. Monroe's 1945 to 1948 band, which featured Scruggs, singer-guitarist Lester Flatt, fiddler Chubby Wise and bassist Howard Watts, also known as "Cedric Rainwater," created the definitive sound and instrumental configuration that remains a model to this day.

By some arguments, as long as the Blue Grass Boys were the only band playing this music, it was just their unique style; it could not be considered a musical style until other bands began performing in similar fashion. In 1947 the Stanley Brothers recorded the traditional song "Molly and Tenbrooks" in the Blue Grass Boys' style, and this could also be pointed to as the beginning of bluegrass as a style.

Bluegrass is not and never was folk music under a strict definition; however, the topical and narrative themes of many bluegrass songs are highly reminiscent of "folk music". In fact, many songs that are widely considered to be bluegrass are older works legitimately classified as folk or old-time performed in a bluegrass style. From its earliest days to today, bluegrass has been recorded and performed by professional musicians. Although amateur bluegrass musicians and trends such as "parking lot picking" are too important to be ignored, it is professional musicians who have set the direction of the style. While bluegrass is not folk music in that strict sense, the interplay between bluegrass music and folk forms has been studied. Folklorist Dr. Neil Rosenberg, for example, shows that most devoted bluegrass fans and musicians are familiar with traditional folk songs and old-time music and that these songs are often played at shows and festivals.

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Albums:

SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING DIFFERENT, SOMETHING GOOD
James Monroe

MIDNIGHT BLUES
James Monroe

SATISFIED MIND
James Monroe

MY FATHER (in memory of Bill Monroe)
James Monroe

BLUEGRASS SPECIAL MEMORIES
James Monroe, Bill Monroe

I CAN LIVE FOREVER (All Gospel)
James Monroe

JAMES MONROE 30 YEARS OF RECORDING
Vol. 1
THE WAY I AM