This is my first entry to the blog and I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t do this correctly. My wife and I just returned from the IBMA’s and had a wonderful time as usual. This year was particularly gratifying because she recieved an award for her lesson plan’s ‘Bluegrass our musical roots’. The IBMA produced a video a few years ago titled ‘Discover Bluegrass’. Both my wifes curriculum and the video discuss the 6 instruments used for making bluegrass music. Drums are not featured because drums are not a part of bluegrass music. We were not happy to see two bands use drums at the awards show and two bands use them at fanfest. They would be perfectly appropriate at a music festival but not (IMHO) at a BLUEGRASS festival.

I’m curious as to what others think on this matter before I write a letter to the board asking them to ask next years artists to please respect the musical artform that I/we love so much and are working so very hard to preserve.

Respectfully,

Mark Stuart