Kentucky is known as the birthplace of bluegrass music and home to the man known as the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe.
The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum, right where we're standing here in Owensboro, is preserving and honoring the legacy of bluegrass music.
And a new exhibit highlighting the career of music icon Jerry Garcia shows the wide influence of the music born in the Bluegrass State.
So buckle up.
As Kentucky edition goes on the road.
Bluegrass music is Kentucky's gift to the world, so it can all be traced back to Bill Monroe, who's from right here in western Kentucky near Owensboro.
And it's interesting when you think about a genre of American music, no one debates that fact that bluegrass music came from Bill Monroe and from Kentucky.
We're trying to acquaint people with really the the cultural roots of bluegrass music.
So there's a lot that that that happens here at the Hall of Fame all focused on educating and encouraging people to engage and go deeper with the story.
The idea of, I think a museum in general is an educational pursuit.
So with the Jerry Garcia exhibit, I kind of envisioned we had two different camps that we were going to be having visit the museum and the Exhibit one being our traditional bluegrass fans that normally come to see the museum, but then also the Grateful Dead fan base, the Deadheads we're going to be visiting as well.
And I felt like we were going to navigate a path between both worlds that hopefully the bluegrass fans, well, they're going to learn.
He was very dedicated to the banjo and playing bluegrass and was very committed to it.
And then on the other side, the Deadheads are going to learn a little bit more.
Maybe they'll walk away learning about Bill Monroe and Scruggs.
I think every culture has its folk music to some degree, but there's something about bluegrass music that's just very compelling.
I think it feels authentic.
I think where bluegrass music really shines is it's all about the human connection around the song, around the music, either as a listener or as a direct participant.
Jerry Garcia I mean, we didn't really have to search too far in his background to find that bluegrass connection.
That was his first genre of music that he was playing bluegrass and folk music in the early sixties.
And then the Grateful Dead started in 1965.
But beyond that, he continued to play the banjo and also do side projects, produce albums, notably Old and In the Way was a kind of a bluegrass supergroup with David Grisman, Peter Rowan and John Connor, Ambassador Clements and three of those guys are in our Hall of Fame already, so it just made perfect sense to do an exhibit on his bluegrass roots and how much there's such a connection there.
We wanted to tell a chronological story and really kind of explain how much he started in bluegrass, but he never stopped, you know?
So he kept going in bluegrass all the way up until the end of his career and when he passed.
The great thing about having these temporary gallery spaces is that we can have a little fun with it and maybe tell a story that's outside of the exhibit in your history of bluegrass.
I felt like one of the branches, and so that's what I feel like we've done with this exhibit.
So it's really kind of like a set of path that we were trying to go down between both worlds and hopefully everybody has something to learn from it.
It's astounding to me how many people really connect with bluegrass music, and it's just a joy to do that and to host people from all over the world because they want to come here to experience it firsthand.
Right at the headwaters, right at Ground Zero.