String Band Quotes

I love the string band. I love the sound of it, the possibilities of it, I love the physical sensation of creating and performing in it. It's my voice.

I don't really have a favorite bass player. I listen to a lot of bluegrass. But then again, I'm not a typical bluegrass bass player. I was really into the Grateful Dead, and I still am - I don't listen to them too much, but for me they are a big influence.

Bluegrass is really a big part of my background.

Bluegrass is wonderful music. I'm glad I originated it.

Skiffle was a name that was attached to what was, in essence, American folk music with a beat.

I'm pretty sure in my older years, I'll be doing old-time flavored folk-mountain music.

We were copying lots of bands, like Avett Brothers and Old Crow Medicine Show.

I've always wanted to make a bluegrass album.

I love a band that has a banjo, that does group harmonies and yells out the word 'Hey' or 'Woo.' I live for it.

My son, Walker, has a band called The Dust Busters. You know, he plays banjo, fiddle, guitar, and mandolin, so a lot of my interest in that kind of music comes from him constantly listening to this stuff. He's taught me the history of it. It's remarkable how these young kids are now turned on to more traditional old-time music.

I think Alison Krauss and her band are the best today. The same goes for Rick Skaggs and his band.

I remember so vividly the first time I saw one of Marshall Wyatt's superb compilations called 'Folks He Sure Do Pull Some Bow' and seeing a picture of a black fiddler and freaking out. I had stumbled upon the hidden legacy of the black string band and I wanted to know more.

One of the most quotable guys ever in country music was Grandpa Jones.

From the first time I played with Lester Flatt, I sensed an extreme amount of history around me.

I certainly love the bluegrass ensemble, I think it's a powerful tool, but I don't think it's more than a tool.

Bluegrass has a very, very strict musical form. Once you start to dilute it, it disappears.

That was the special thing about the Carolina Chocolate Drops. We didn't want to do music full-time. We weren't looking to get rich, which is good, because we didn't. But we went further than we thought we would go. We started that band to celebrate Joe Thompson and the black string band music. That's not really a recipe for commercial success.

I was like, 'Man, bluegrass - that's like Roy Clark playing banjo on 'Hee Haw.' I'm a huge 'Hee Haw' fan. But I didn't know about bluegrass. It seemed like old people's music.

The music that I listen to is very minimalistic. I listen to a lot of old blues that is just guitar and vocals.

It was so much fun playing simple American bluegrass. I got to meet Doc Watson.

I don't think of myself as a folk singer per se, but I really like blues and string-band music. When I started listening to records when I was a teenager, the folk boom was going on.

I wasn't really an old-time breakdown fiddler.

The bottom line is, between Sonny Osborne and Earl Scruggs, I better know how to play banjo. I had the greatest teachers in the world.

It seems like bluegrass people have more great stories to tell than other musicians.

Bluegrass is in my blood and in my ears.