Two Alisons... No kidding

[lovakus]

I've just picked up a book on Bluegrass and it has some really old pix of Alison with another Alison. Alison Anderson who was asked by Alison Krauss to be a part of the band. I think she plays a banjo in the pic.
Anyway I also states that bluegrass music didn't make it big until O' Brother Showed up. ::)WELL I BEG TO DIFFER.
I think some will agree with me, the fans of singers like Alison and Ricky, Nickle Creek and hundreds of other mountain people who love to play there hearts out every tine they pick up an instrument did in fact enjoy greatly the wonderful movie but Bluegrass doesn't need a big motion pic to make it big it is big was big and will be big because it is at the roots of music it is the essence of the mountains and the rivers it ls a part of life.
Anyway maybe I took that part a little too seriously??
Yea You can think I'm crazy that just makes me more like Alison.
Kate

[BonnevilleMariner]

Actually I do agree with that statement. I guess it all comes down to how you define the word “big.” If by big you mean important to bluegrass artists and their respective fans, musically innovative and culturally significant- ok. In that sense it was already ‘big.’ It was big to me. But I think that article meant it in another sense – that bluegrass has expanded its fan base and is now more important to society. Not so much how important it is musically and culturally- but how important society deems it to be.

Coming a relative outsider from Utah, a decidedly non-bluegrass state (if you can classify it state to state), I can see what they mean. Bluegrass was big only in the American South. Sure, there were fans all over the place. But it was largely a regional genre. Then two things happened. First, O Brother. Had the movie not been produced and the soundtrack just released as a bluegrass compilation- it would not have seen such a revival. But thanks in large part to AKUS, that movie brought bluegrass out of the woodwork and re-introduced it to America in a pure and appealing way—in a way America could relate to it—combined with beautiful imagery and a comedic and earthy look at our heritage.

Then came 9-11. Those events rocked not only lives, but culture, priority, and mindset as well. Americana music (in which I include country, western, and bluegrass), in my opinion, is the musical heart and soul of American culture. After 9-11, it seems America was desperately searching for its roots. It found them, in part, in Americana- most specifically in pop-country (it being the most familiar Americana sub-genre). But that soul searching eventually led many back to bluegrass—specifically to the O Brother soundtrack. This post-9-11 introspection, combined with a leaning toward country and O Brother’s presentation of American heritage, resonated with thousands of people who weren’t bluegrass fans already. I bet if you were to take a poll, most Americans’ first bluegrass album was O Brother. America realized the importance of bluegrass and started experimenting with the genre, and it became what it is today.

It’s no more significant today than it was before O Brother and 9-11, it’s just more prominent. That’s what I think they meant by ‘big.’

[houseghost]

Probably is Alison Brown, who did play banjo for a while in the band a long time ago. Also she and Alison Krauss wrote the song "THIS SAD SONG" on the LRBW album

[lovakus]

Thanks for clearing that up
i read too much

[eyesoflove]

I was thinking that may be Alison Brown, too.

Stacy