5 Examples Demonstrating That 1968 was the Premier Year for Bluegrass Music in the Decade

efore, leading McCoury to become a singer and guitarist instead. 
In 1968, when so much of bluegrass was still about reworking traditional songs, Del McCoury released his landmark album, ‘Del McCoury Sings Bluegrass.’ “The album was different because it had all original songs on it,” McCoury said in a 2019 interview with Dan Rather. “Before that … we’d always recorded songs that we found. We recorded old songs that we knew before this. And this was the first time we recorded all new songs.” 
One of McCoury’s original songs from the album, “High on a Mountain,” became a bluegrass standard, covered by other artists, including bluegrass duo Lonesome River Band. While McCoury’s album may not have sold at the level of The Beatles or The Jimi Hendrix Experience, it was significant for keeping bluegrass progressing sixty years in. 
Is ‘Del McCoury Sings Bluegrass’ a “hippie” album? Was Del McCoury a “hippie?” “I never thought about it that way,” McCoury told Rather. “But no, I’m still not a hippie.”

The Other Side — Jim & Jesse

Jim & Jesse might’ve been the closest thing to bluegrass stars we had in the ’60s. Cousins James McReynolds (Jim) and Jesse McReynolds could harmonize as if they were born doing it. Heck, they might have been! Jesse’s mandolin high and Jim’s tenor, legendary among the duo’s fans, set them apart from other acts. 
While they’re perhaps best known for their gospel music, especially their hit single “I’ll Fly Away,” Jim & Jesse could be pretty bright themselves. The duo did not shy away from making music ideal for hippies, playing at hippie fests and on television, too. “We got crossways with all those people that said, ‘Hey, them guys are playing that hippie Music!” Jesse recalled in his 2009 autobiography. “I wrote a song called ‘A Place for the Lonesome,’ and we played it at some of the big fairs in the counterculture days.” 
In 1968, Jim & Jesse received the International Bluegrass Music Association’s “Emerging Artist of the Year” award. The group would later record 35 albums over some 36 years, working with artists like Johnny Cash and Mac Wiseman. They became Grand Ole Opry members in 1964.

White Dove — The Country Gentlemen

When talking about The Country Gentlemen, we need to figure out who we mean. Over the course of the ’60s, The Country Gentlemen saw many musicians stop on by. 
Originally featuring Charlie Waller, John Duffey, Bill Emerson, and Larry Lahey, the group imploded in 1966. The arrival of Doyle Lawson and Eddie Adcock resurrected them. With a couple of albums under their belt — like ‘Singing All Day and Dinner on the Ground’ — they tried on new sounds that set bluegrass up for the eclectic mix of sounds that folks like the ’70s New Grass Revival would bring. 
By 1968, The Country Gentlemen’s lineup had changed once more, now featuring Lawson, Charlie Waller, and James Bailey. The group’s first album with this lineup — ‘The Country Gentlemen Sing and Play Folk Songs and Bluegrass’ — showcased the band’s strengths. Their version of “White Dove,” a song that first made waves in the world of bluegrass when they spun it for the album, became a hit.

Markdown:

Though it is widely associated with the vibrant music of the late 1960s, the bluegrass music genre saw groundbreaking transformations during the era. The seemingly conservative nature of bluegrass altered significantly in 1968, marking one of the most exciting years in its history. As “flower power” bloomed across the nation, bluegrass music underwent a rejuvenation that propelled it into a new era of creativity, akin to the youthfulness and blossoming spirit of those who embraced the ’60s ethos in San Francisco. The genre, much like the young, free-spirited individuals of this period, embarked on a fresh chapter.

Rooted in the centuries-old merging of European musical traditions with American history and culture, bluegrass originated in the 1600s when migrants from Ireland, Scotland, and England settled in the Appalachian region of the United States. These settlers brought with them their traditional melodies and general musical influences that