Bluegrass Traditions

Comment

Comment by Allan Midgley on June 26, 2012 at 4:43am

Hey James, how is it going with your song suggestions, it's been at least two years? At my church, it is not encouraged , so I gave up my banjo and mandolin, but still play bass. Shame, but banjo is not welcome at all lol, but maybe I will get back into it some time.

Comment by James Sisco on May 15, 2010 at 11:59pm

In the use of bluegrass styles for church worship, so much depends on the musical preferences of the church leaders and general musical tastes of the worship leader, team members and congregation. I believe most churches tend to gravitate towards the modern/contemporary styles of music and quite frankly, I wish my church would make the effort to adopt more up to date songs. That said, if you play a certain instrument that tends to incorporate a certain style of music like the dobro, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, etc - for bluegrass, I find that the best way to introduce virtually any style of music to the church leaders/worship leaders/team members, is to find exceptional songs that feature that particular instrument and introduce it to everyone.
As an example, I recently found a great song called "Faithful Love of Jesus" by Don Poythress featuring Ricky Skaggs on mandolin and introduced it along with the song "Today is the Day" by Lincoln Brewster. Out church team has yet to do them but with my time, prayer and gentle encouragement, we made one day, present them to the congregation.