“I don’t know that I agree with that. Blues derive from African music. Bluegrass and country have Celtic roots.”
Sure, bluegrass and country have roots in scots/irish folk music, but they were definitely influenced by the blues musicians (who were living right down the road or across the river from the bluegrass/country musicians). For example, Bill Monroe, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams Sr, were all influenced by blues musicians and made no secret of it.
Segregation or no, the whites of that day didn’t grow up not hearing the blacks’ music, or vice versa, and anything good a musician hears, they are probably going to try to work into their music one way or another.
“Segregation or no, the whites of that day didn’t grow up not hearing the blacks’ music, or vice versa, and anything good a musician hears, they are probably going to try to work into their music one way or another.”
My 94 yr old father can vouch for that. He grew up in the same Mississippi city as Jimmie Rodgers, about 25 years later, and was a pretty fair musician himself. He put himself through college by playing Dixieland. There was a black auditorium in town that would get some very prominent musicians coming through and my dad and his friends would go there to hear them. They would have to sit in the balcony because segregation worked both ways, but they could hear the music just fine. I’ll have to see if he remembers any of the names that he saw. His memory for younger times is still good. And he can still play his clarinet.
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One song done by Hank Williams Sr ("My Bucket's Got A Hole In It") was written by Clarence Williams.
Here is that same American song being done by foreigners....
"My Bucket's Got A Hole In It"
And (just as a side note) here's a foreign song done by one of those same foreigners, but done in the USA at a charity concert...