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Music of Kentucky
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The Music of Kentucky is heavily centered on Appalachian folk music and its descendants, especially in eastern Kentucky. Bluegrass music is of particular regional importance; Bill Monroe, "the father of bluegrass music", was born in the Ohio County community of Rosine, and he named his band, the Blue Grass Boys, after the bluegrass state, i.e., Kentucky. Merle Travis, originator of the influential guitar style known as Travis picking, was born and raised in Muhlenburg County, Kentucky.
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The Music of Kentucky is heavily centered on Appalachian folk music and its descendants, especially in eastern Kentucky. Bluegrass music is of particular regional importance; Bill Monroe, "the father of bluegrass music", was born in the Ohio County community of Rosine, and he named his band, the Blue Grass Boys, after the bluegrass state, i.e., Kentucky. Merle Travis, originator of the influential guitar style known as Travis picking, was born and raised in Muhlenburg County, Kentucky. Kentucky is home to the Country Music Highway (Highway 23), which extends from Portsmouth, Ohio to the Virginia border in Pike County .
Other musicians from Kentucky include:
- Audio Adrenaline, a Christian rock band formed at Kentucky Christian University in Grayson
- Kenny Bishop, born and raised in Richmond
- Steven Curtis Chapman, born and raised in Paducah
- Rosemary Clooney, born and raised in Maysville
- John Conlee, born in Versailles and raised in rural Woodford County
- J. D. Crowe, born in Lexington
- Billy Ray Cyrus, now better known as an actor, born in Flatwoods
- Jackie DeShannon, born in Hazel in Calloway County
- The Everly Brothers, with family roots in Muhlenberg County (older brother Don was born there)
- Exile (American band), with the band roots and formation in Richmond, Kentucky
- Tom T. Hall, born and raised in Olive Hill
- Lionel Hampton, born in Louisville
- Richard Hell, born in Lexington
- Roscoe Holcomb, from Daisy, old-time banjo, guitar and harmonica player and singer, who inspired the phrase "high, lonesome sound" for mountain music
- The Judds, from Ashland
- The Kentucky Headhunters, formed in Metcalfe County, where most of the original members grew up
- Brian Littrell of the Backstreet Boys, born and raised in Lexington
- Loretta Lynn and her younger sister Crystal Gayle, both from Van Lear in Johnson County
- John Michael Montgomery, born and raised in Danville
- Montgomery Gentry, consisting of John Michael Montgomery's older brother Eddie Montgomery and Lexington native Troy Gentry
- Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys, born in Lexington and raised near Irvine in Estill County
- Ricky Skaggs, born and raised in Lawrence County
- Slint, a rock band formed in Louisville
- Dwight Yoakam, born in Pikeville
- Patty Loveless, born in Elkhorn City, Kentucky and raised in Louisville
- Keith Whitley, born and raised in Sandy Hook, Kentucky
- Black Stone Cherry, formed in Edmonton, Kentucky
- Nappy Roots, formed in Bowling Green, Kentucky
- Will Oldham, folk & indie musician, born in Louisville
- Halfway to Hazard, Country outfit out of Hazard, Kentucky
- The Infected, Punk rock group formed in Lexington. Founders of Eugene Records punk label.
- The Muckrakers Rock band from Louisville
- My Morning Jacket Louisville based band with an extremely unique sound
- Villebillies formed in Louisville
- Steve Gorman drummer for The Black Crowes born and raised in Hopkinsville
Music venues and institutions
Renfro Valley, Kentucky is home to Renfro Valley Entertainment Center and the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and is known as "Kentucky's Country Music Capital," a designation given it by the Kentucky State Legislature in the late 1980s. The Renfro Valley Barn Dance was where Renfro Valley's musical heritage began, in 1939, and influential country music luminaries like Red Foley, Homer & Jethro, Lily May Ledford & the Original Coon Creek Girls, Martha Carson, and many others have performed as regular members of the shows there over the years. The Renfro Valley Gatherin' is today America's second oldest continually broadcast radio program of any kind. It is broadcast on local radio station WRVK and a syndicated network of nearly 200 other stations across the United States and Canada every week.
Major music venues in Kentucky include the Paramount Arts Center in Ashland. There is also Sturgill's Music Center in Tom T. Hall's hometown of Olive Hill. Just south of Olive Hill is Sandy Hook, the boyhood home of Keith Whitley, whose house is now a museum, exhibited in conjunction with the annual Tobacco Festival. The Kentucky Opry in Prestonsburg is a major institution, using the Mountain Arts Center. Louisville is home to the West Point Country Opry, while the city of Owensboro is a major bluegrass center, and is home to the International Bluegrass Music Association .
Festivals
Singers gather annually at Benton on the fourth Sunday in May to sing from a shape note hymn and tune book called The Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion. This event, first organized in 1884 and called The Big Singing or Big Singing Day, is considered by many to be the oldest indigenous musical tradition in the United States. It was organized by James Roberts Lemon, a newspaper owner and publisher in western Kentucky.
Ashland is also home to the Summer Motion festival and Poage Landing Days, while Olive Hill also hosts the International Strange Music Weekend and the Shriner's Bluegrass Festival. The Renfro Valley Barn Dance has been held in Renfro Valley since 1939. Owensboro has the last part of June every year. Other festivals include the Forkland Heritage Festival and Revue in Gravel Switch .
Lexington is host to the oldest bluegrass music festival in the state. The Festival of the Bluegrass is held every June at the Kentucky Horse Park and considered one of the premier traditional bluegrass festivals in the country.
Wilmore is home to the Ichthus Music Festival. Ichthus is a christian music festival held each year on the Ichthus Farm. Notable bands such as Switchfoot, Relient K, Pillar, and P.O.D. have all played at past Ichthus festivals.
Mount Sterling is home to the Gateway Music Festival.
History
In the 1830s, a Great Awakening of fervent Christianity began, leading to popular spiritual song traditions. During this period, the country was undergoing a religious revival that was centered on itinerant preachers called circuit riders, and outdoor worship gatherings (camp meetings) where hymns (camp songs) were sung. Earlier in the century, the first camp meeting was held in July 1800 in Logan County. In 1801, a meeting in Cane Ridge in Bourbon County lasted for six days and attracted ten to twenty thousand people .
In 1916, Loraine Wyman and Howard Brockway collected Kentucky folk music which they published in two folios:
- Lonesome Tunes: Folk Songs from the Kentucky Mountains (1917, New York)
- Twenty Kentucky Mountain Songs (1920, Boston).
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