From Bluegrass to Country (and Back!)
These fantastic artists show blurry lines between country and bluegrass.
While bluegrass and country share so much ancestral history, a contentious spirit divides many modern fans as the two genres have settled into their distinctive qualities over time. However, their roots beg an alternate reality, as they are undeniably more than kin. With both hailing many of the same influences – European migrants, enslaved Africans kidnapped to this continent, Indigenous traditions and sounds already existing here, and more – country and bluegrass have had similar upbringings in the American South and across North America.
With recordings dating back to the early 1920s, country (or “hillbilly music,” as it was then called) arrived first. At the same time, bluegrass was emerging as another endemic hillbilly music and as an offshoot of country with old-time and ragtime infusions. It was, in the words of Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass himself, more angled towards that “high lonesome sound.”
Named after Monroe’s now iconic band, the Blue Grass Boys, bluegrass earned distinctions from country-at-large for its prioritization of virtuosic soloing, tight vocal harmonies, ravenous tempo, and fealty to its traditional five acoustic instruments – banjo, fiddle, mandolin, upright bass, and guitar. While, of course, bluegrass has included many departures from those standards since its 1940s coalescence, it maintains a far more traditional practice than mainstream country, which often collides with rock and pop influences in its modern iteration.
Despite these differences – or perhaps because of them – a sprawling number of artists have toed the line between both genres, illustrating the vast overlap between the two styles. And not just because they used to be regarded under the same sonic umbrella, demonstrating the expressive range genre code-switching has to offer artists and musicians.
Chris Stapleton, for instance, spearheaded one of the most prolific bluegrass bands in modernity (The SteelDrivers), departing only to forge further widespread success as a solo country artist. Similarly, Zach Top, currently rocketing to the top of the country charts, got his start in a homegrown bluegrass band alongside his siblings. Patty Loveless, too, wove her influential Appalachian upbringing into her champion country career. These modern examples come from a long lineage of genre flexibility, following in the footsteps of forebears like the Osborne Brothers, Jim & Jesse, Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper, and many more.
We’ve compiled this gargantuan list as an homage to bluegrass/country fluidity in all its forms, honing in on artists that have gone from bluegrass to country or country to bluegrass – and then back again. Because bluegrass is country, doggonit!
One of the best-selling country artists of all time, Alan Jackson is a tried and true country hero – his career of nearly four decades can be summed up by the philosophy and moniker of his 25th Anniversary Tour, “Keepin’ it Country.” However, for his 19th studio album, Jackson veered slightly off the beaten path to record The Bluegrass Album (2013), an alphabetized amalgamation of originals and covers that pays tribute to the bluegrass tradition.
Fifth on the list for the most GRAMMY Awards of all time (she has 27!), Alison Krauss is a bluegrass icon through and through. Krauss’s first bluegrass performance dates back to the age of twelve, when she first began playing in a band called Silver Rail, which would later be renamed Union Station. Throughout her career, Krauss has had many departures from bluegrass, exploring more electric textures and collaborations with country legends like Brad Paisley, Shania Twain, Lyle Lovett, and beyond. Her album Windy City (2017) pays a heartfelt tribute to country, including covers from Brenda Lee, Roger Miller, and Willie Nelson while employing an orchestrally rich array of backing instrumentation.
Comprised of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, this pair holds the record for most albums sold of all time for any duo. Widely regarded as a household name in mainstream country, the pair has often made use of traditional bluegrass instrumentation, employing the fiddle, mandolin, and tight harmonies on many tracks. The two also have also recently recorded with the Earls of Leicester, a bluegrass group formed to bring the music of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to modern audiences.
If you’re reading this, you’ve unquestionably reaped the benefits of the Carter Family’s influence. Often considered “The First Family of Country Music,” the bulk of the Carter Family’s career spanned from 1927 to 1941, during which time their harmonies and arrangements etched the blueprint for much of the mountain music that would follow. Many of the songs they popularized would go on to become bluegrass standards, such as “Bury Me Beneath the Willow” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”
A singer, songwriter, and one of the most sought after multi-instrumentalists in Nashville, Charlie Worsham is an industry powerhouse. Entrenched in southern music throughout his Mississippi upbringing, Worsham grew up playing Scruggs-style banjo and made his Grand Ole Opry debut at the age of twelve. He went on to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with luminaries from both bluegrass and country backgrounds, including touring with Dierks Bentley, playing for a time with Old Crow Medicine Show, and recording for other greats such as Eric Church and Carrie Underwood.
One of the biggest names in the country scene, The Chicks come from strong traditional roots. Prior to Natalie Maines’s entry into the band, The Chicks spent years of their early career playing acoustic sets within the bluegrass festival circuit (even winning the Telluride band competition in 1991) before attracting the attention of major labels. As they gained more traction, they began to experiment with more contemporary country sounds, eventually becoming a household name. Nevertheless, much of their later music still retained certain bluegrass constitutions, including their vibrant instrumentation and stunning three-part harmonies.
Though he initially moved to Nashville to study biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University, Chris Stapleton’s fortuitous new home locale led him to become one of the most prolific bluegrass-to-country connoisseurs to date. His driven songwriting skills and smoky vocals became one of the impetuses behind the SteelDrivers, the lauded bluegrass group Stapleton fronted beginning in 2007. Stapleton remained with the band until 2010, when he left to form a Southern rock group called The Jompson Brothers. He would eventually launch his own successful solo career as a country artist. To date, Stapleton packs out arenas and has earned troves of awards for both his singing and songwriting, which he has leant via co-writing credits to country giants such as Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryant, Josh Turner, and George Strait. But bluegrass fans will be quick to remind you they “knew him when.”
An acclaimed multi-instrumentalist and visionary songwriter, Darrell Scott’s contributions to both the canons of bluegrass and country cannot be emphasized enough. While his own records often lean in the bluegrass direction – especially his most recent bespoke studio album, Old Cane Back Rocker – Scott has written a slew of mainstream country hits, including The Chicks’ “Long Time Gone,” Travis Tritt’s “It’s a Great Day to be Alive,” and, of course, the oft-covered “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive.” That to this day Scott is also a regular feature at bluegrass festivals and camps speaks further to his deep roots as a picker and grinner.
A household name in the country landscape, at the same time Dierks Bentley has made his interest in bluegrass clear throughout the decades. 2010 saw the release of his 5th studio album, Up on the Ridge, a compilation of bluegrass numbers featuring mega-talents such as Del McCoury and The Punch Brothers. His deep respect for the genre is also evidenced by his frequent stops at Nashville’s Station Inn – a regular haunt of his since his earliest days in Music City – and collaboration with other world-renowned grassers. In 2023, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway joined Bentley as openers during his Gravel & Gold Tour and in 2024 he was joined by Tuttle, Sierra Hull, and Bronwyn Keith-Hynes for his on-stage performance of “American Girl” at the televised CMA Awards.
Undeniably, Dolly Parton is one of the greatest luminaries in all of country. Her reputation precedes her, filled with accolades and collaborations and philanthropy to boot. Growing up in the Smoky Mountains of deep East Tennessee, Parton has always credited adolescence in Appalachia as one of her greatest musical influences. Throughout her career, Parton released several bluegrass-leaning albums, including The Grass is Blue (1999) which earned that year’s GRAMMY for Best Bluegrass Album and won Album of the Year from the International Bluegrass Music Association, as well.
Both tremendous country singer-songwriters in their own right, George Jones and Melba Montgomery recorded a series of albums and singles together across the span of three decades. Jones’ honky-tonk vocals proved to be a healthy match for Montgomery’s apt Appalachian harmonies. Their 1964 album, Bluegrass Hootenanny, embraced their mutual reverence for bluegrass.
Eric and Leigh Gibson offer one of bluegrass’s most sought-after traditions – sibling harmony. This brother duo has been performing with accompaniment since the ‘80s, though their first album, Underneath a Harvest Moon (produced by Ricky Skaggs), was released in 1994. The brothers continue to make a name for themselves in bluegrass, theirs is a ubiquitous name in the festival scene and beyond. Their 2019 album, Mockingbird, engages a more prominent country sensibility, hearkening back to much earlier country and Americana forays in their discography. But Mockingbird is certainly their most prominent release to date, guided by visionary producers David Ferguson (Johnny Cash’s American Recording series) and Dan Auerbach (the Black Keys) and released on Auerbach’s buzzworthy label, Easy Eye Sound.
Irene Kelley’s singing and songwriting bluegrass career began when she packed up all her belongings in 1981 and moved to West Virginia to front the band Redwing. In 1984, she landed in Nashville, where she signed a deal with MCA’s country division. Despite the genre designation and planned audience for her music, she insisted on employing bluegrass instrumentation, including Sam Bush and Mark O’Connor in her backing band. “The record was country, but the heart and soul was bluegrass,” she said. Her country career – as an artist and frontwoman, at least – may have faded, but she continues to have success showcasing her bluegrass roots now as she has throughout her career.
This ‘90s honky-tonk powerhouse never shirked away his love of bluegrass, even while topping the country charts. Before hitting the big time, Diffie played in a string of bluegrass groups and cited his relationship with the genre throughout his career. His eleventh studio album, Homecoming: The Bluegrass Album (2010), centered that bluegrass reverence and featured collaborators like Rhonda Vincent, Bryan Sutton, Alecia Nugent, Carl Jackson, and many more. It would ultimately become the final solo album released during his lifetime.
Despite ending far too soon, Keith Whitley’s life was absolutely jam-packed with music in his 34 years. At the age of 16, Whitley and Ricky Skaggs went to a Ralph Stanley show, for which Stanley fatefully was running late due to a flat tire. The teens were asked to entertain the crowd while the band was in transit; when the great Dr. Ralph finally arrived, he at first mistook their airtight harmonies for a jukebox playing The Stanley Brothers. Upon discovering their true identities, both Whitley and Skaggs joined Stanley’s band, the Clinch Mountain Boys. Whitley went on to play for J.D. Crowe & the New South as well, becoming one of the most lauded voices in bluegrass before launching his more mainstream and hit-laden solo country career. His influence is still felt in bluegrass and country today.
Despite being primarily known as the “Queen of Country-Rock,” Linda Ronstadt has always fluttered virtuosically between genres. In addition to dabbling in light opera, rock, country, folk, and Latin music, Ronstadt has also always displayed a clear connection to the bluegrass world. In fact, her very first single with the Stone Poneys, “Different Drum,” was pulled from the catalog of a bluegrass band, the Greenbriar Boys. From collaborating with and recording alongside the likes of the Seldom Scene to the beloved three-part harmonies achieved alongside Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris on Trio (1987) and Trio II (1999), her entire discography repeatedly affirms her affinity for these two genres.
For dual Country Music and Bluegrass Music Hall of Famer Ricky Skaggs, the aforementioned fortuitous run in with Keith Whitely and Ralph Stanley marked the start of a lifelong professional career in bluegrass. In addition to playing alongside the likes of multiple bluegrass supergroups (such as J.D. Crowe & the New South, Boone Creek, duo and session work with Tony Rice, and recording for the Seldom Scene), Skaggs also joined Emmylou Harris’s Hot Band, lending some bluegrass flavorings to her country undertones. Skaggs went on to explore more traditional country in his solo work, gaining commercial and chart successes aplenty, though he fully returned to his bluegrass roots in the ‘90s.
Fellow Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Patty Loveless grew up in the hills of Kentucky surrounded by Appalachian musical folkways. Though most prominently known for her country singing and ample radio hits, Loveless has sewn bluegrass undertones into much of her music for decades. In addition to her 12th studio album, Bluegrass & White Snow – A Mountain Christmas (2002), Loveless’s albums Mountain Soul (2001) and Mountain Soul II (2009) bring those lifelong bluegrass sensibilities to the forefront. She was also a close friend of Ralph Stanley until his passing, making appearances at his home festival in Southwest Virginia.
Pitney Meyer is a budding collaboration between Mo Pitney and John Meyer. Though Pitney’s previous releases are colored by more of a country twang – his 2016 and 2020 albums with Curb Records included major mainstream country and radio promo from the label – this team-up committed their debut album, Cherokee Pioneer, to honoring bluegrass, a collection set for release in April. Both Pitney and Meyer group up in family bands and picking from young ages and both have impressively long resumes – in bluegrass and country, both.
Almost universally accepted as the “Queen of Bluegrass,” Rhonda Vincent’s musical prowess is backed by five generations of ancestry. Her renowned bluegrass career has not held her back from dabbling in country many times. Her high energy and impeccable vocals flourish in every field and the Grand Ole Opry member’s country collabs include Faith Hill, Dolly Parton, Joe Diffie, Gene Watson, Alan Jackson, among many other notables.
Famously the Queen of Pop Country, of course Shania Twain is no stranger to crossover culture. Twain’s most prominent bluegrass venture comes in the form of Up Close and Personal, a filmed concert special from 2003. In order to achieve, in her own words, “something stripped-down and rootsy,” Twain commissioned Allison Krauss and Union Station to provide backup vocals and instrumentation. This is an undersung must-watch concert video for country and bluegrass diehards.
Shawn Camp has straddled both the country and bluegrass worlds with astounding finesse. Performing with a multitude of groups and penning songs for legends in both fields (i.e. Loretta Lynn, Ralph Stanley, Del McCoury, Garth Brooks, and many more), Camp has made indelible impressions with both his singing and songwriting. As a teenager in Arkansas he was an in-demand fiddler and sideman for bluegrass bands and to this day he performs with one of the most renowned groups in the modern bluegrass circuit, the Earls of Leicester. (He does a mighty job inhabiting the voice and persona of Lester Flatt.)
Known for his narrative songwriting, honeyed voice, and multi-instrumental prowess, Tim O’Brien is a true bluegrass troubadour. His potent pen has earned him respect across genres– in fact, various country superstars such as Garth Brooks and The Chicks have recorded O’Brien’s originals throughout the decades. 1978 marked the year he formed Hot Rize, a now legendary bluegrass group also known for their unique and entertaining approach to setlists. The band would often split their sets, returning to stage after performing as Hot Rize as their alter ego group, the honky-tonkin’ country & western outfit, Red Knuckles & the Trail Blazers. Complete with a costume change and elaborate fictitious backstories, Red Knuckles & the Trail Blazers would perform a more western, country-leaning and hilarious catalogue.
Vince Gill is a multi-hyphenate talent who has made waves in the bluegrass and country scenes alike. Known for his crystalline singing, poetic songwriting, and mastery of the guitar, mandolin, banjo, and Dobro. The ‘70s saw Gill playing alongside a handful of local bluegrass bands before he rose to mainstream prominence when he joined Pure Prairie League as their lead singer. He remained with PPL til 1982 and began his solo country career two years later. Collaborations with other country stars also speckle his career, including Reba McEntire, Patty Loveless, and Marren Morris. In 1996, at the height of his mainstream success, he released a bluegrass album, High Lonesome Sound, featuring Alison Krauss & Union Station (among others) as his backing band. We spoke to Gill about bluegrass and High Lonesome Sound on BGS in 2019.
Outlaw country pioneer Willie Nelson will set off on his next tour and celebrate his 92nd birthday this April. He remains one of the most vibrant and enduring musical artists of all time. Having been alive during the gestation of bluegrass as a genre, this prolific songwriter has a unique understanding of the ways in which country and bluegrass overlap. Throughout the years, he has made his respect for the genre known through its clear influence in his songwriting, release of quite a few bluegrass-y singles and tracks, and collaborations with the genre’s greats. In 2023, for his 74th (!!!) studio album, Nelson released his first full collection of bluegrass tunes, aptly named Bluegrass, many of which are older Nelson hits reimagined in the mountain- and old-time-influenced style.
Regular Grand Ole Opry performers for more than two decades, Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper are perched at the forefront of mountain music’s iconic husband/wife duos. Their career together came to prominence in the 1940s and throughout their many years together by their own design they managed to avoid definition as purely a bluegrass or country number. Straddling each in stride, the duo revered that high lonesome sound – even while Wilma Lee preferred to record with electric bass – embracing all iterations of their Appalachian roots. They enjoyed several hits on Top 40 country radio in their era with songs that sound decidedly bluegrass, perfectly illustrating the incredibly porous boundaries between these genres.
Currently in the midst of his headline Cold Beer & Country Music tour, Zach Top is a rapidly skyrocketing talent in country – he’s just about everywhere these days, from TikTok to the Houston Rodeo. However, he wasn’t always so country-coded; Top’s roots reach back to a Sunnyside, Washington family farm where he grew up playing bluegrass alongside his siblings in their band, Top String. With his own bluegrass band, Modern Tradition, Top won the SPBGMA (Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America) band competition in 2017. After moving to Nashville and recording his self-titled bluegrass EP in 2019, Top leapt into mainstream country thereafter and quickly has made a name for himself and then some.
Lead Image: Keith Whitley courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
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