I bet it was Ralph Stanley, he's been all over with the O Brother tour and stuff. I had never heard anything by him till that big soundtrack. And he's haunting when he sings. It was cool he got a grammy.
What I think is interesting is how similar bluegrass form is to jazz quartet- there's the instrumentation, the improvisation, and the turns going around. Just kinda interesting. That music can be made at all is sort of magical to me.
I tried to play instruments as a kid, but sucked in a big way, thankfully I had a kind music teacher who took pity, gave me all the wierd instruments to try- bass clarinet, baritone, bassoon, maybe one would click. He basically allowed me to sit in the midst of the real players, surrounded by the music if I promised to play very softly. It was great. I still remember going to Lebanon Valley College with the high school orchestra. We were playing Dvorak's New World Symphony and the acoustics were new and perfect. We did the first two notes and it echoed like mad. Everyone stoped and just went, whoa. Pretty primal stuff. Like laying on the floor with your head between two big speakers. Rock on.
