Typically a bluegrass band consists of four to seven performers who sing while accompanying themselves on acoustic string instruments such as the guitar, double bass, fiddle, five-string banjo, mandolin, steel guitar, and Dobro.

In the 1940s, Kentuckian Bill Monroe created a sound so distinct from other "country" music that it was given its own name: Bluegrass, after the name of his band "The Blue Grass Boys." Nearly 75 years later, this Kentucky product, like our horses and our Bourbon, has garnered fans around the globe.

bluegrass, in music, country and western style that emerged in the United States after World War II, a direct descendant of the old-time string-band music that had been widely played and recorded by such groups as the Carter Family from the late 1920s.

It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound." Bluegrass features acoustic stringed instruments and emphasizes the off-beat.