Double Bass Do bluegrass bands still wear suits?

#21
There's a saying I've heard out here on the USA left coast...

What's the difference between a country band and a bluegrass band?

A country band will spend $2000 per person on clothes and shoes and $400 per person on instruments.
A bluegrass band will spend $200 per person on clothes and shoes and $4000 per person on instruments.

It's meant to be a joke, but in my experience out here, that's actually pretty accurate.
 
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#22
In Colorado none of the jamgrass-y / modern bands are wearing suits. Some of the biggest bands on the scene are rocking baseball hats and full sleeve tattoos. Lots of hipster flannel. I'm down with it. So much pop/rock/modern country has come into the music it's probably best to resperent the popular styles. The really trad bands still wear them, though.

Semi-related - When I was playing Django jazz gigs in NYC pretty much full time I had a closet full of suits and cool menswear, as did all of the folks I worked with. Not sure if it's a jazz thing or New York thing :D
 
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#23
I and the rest of my hippie-country-bluegrass band attended Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, Indiana, in 1975. It was summer, so we wore cutoff shorts and T-shirts. All of the "known" bands performing there wore suits (polyester generally, but still...). When the Bluegrass Boys were playing, we were dancing off to the side of the stage, when Mr. Bill Monroe glared at us and told us we were "ruining the waltz." We didn't take it seriously at the time - ah, youth! - but in the years to follow I took it to heart and started dressing at least a degree better than our audiences. Bluegrass music doesn't care what you wear or how you dance, but the bluegrass gestalt does.
 
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#24
Great story! Django jazz and bluegrass are music forms that have in common that they are defined by particular bands and musicians even though the music has changed (with bluegrass a great deal) over time. The Monroe/Scruggs band created bluegrass and it doesn't seem surprising that you would want to be like that band as much as possible. Lloyd Loar F5 mandolins and RB-11 banjos cost crazy money because that very specific sound, and the look and feel of the instruments, is the core of bluegrass. The suits are a cheaper way to get close!
 
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#25
dhergert said:
That's a "Bolo" tie.
Click to expand...

It's often called that, but it's 'bola,' like the weapon. It was invented (or reinvented) in Wickenburg, AZ in the '40s. I wear them often onstage, usually with a jacket.

The 'Western' string tie noted above is more a mid-South thing, I think. (cf: Colonel Sanders) Is it Western as in 'west of the Alleghenies,' maybe?
 
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#28
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#30
I did sound for a Bill Monroe show in the 80s, and the band was clean cut and sharply dressed. He invited banjo legend Bob Black to come up and play a number and made a joke about how he wouldn't have let him have such long hair back in the day. (Bob's hair wasn't even shoulder length at that time, and he was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, which is what you'd expect to see a lot of guys wearing on county fair grounds festival stages these days.)
 
#31
Just my personal feeling, but: I have more respect for performers who dress up for gigs, even if it's cheesy matching polyester suits. The Bluegrass Boys and their musical descendants wanted to project a clean and classy image - perhaps in order to distinguish themselves from the "old time" performers, or to emphasize their religiosity - and that certain look is a significant element of traditional bluegrass.
 
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