Owensboro, KY

We had orginally planned to go straight from LBL to Bardstown, but for reasons I don't remember, we decided to follow the Ohio River and ended up in Owensboro.  That is the location of The International Bluegrass Music Museum. 

 They had lots of information on some of the early performers, like Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatts.

Lots of displays of different instruments

But most of the information was on Bill Monroe as the founder of bluegrass.  They say he took the music he had grown up with and remade it into something people had never heard before.  Of course, Bill Monroe was from a small community not far from Owensboro.  

Some interesting facts from 1995.  Most people associate bluegrass and the people involved as being "hicks".  In other words, lower blue class and uneducated.  But some 1995 information below says quite a different story.

Pete Seeger's banjo.  The banjo pictured belonged to Pete Seeger, who played it from the 1950s to the 1970s.  I always assocaited Pete Seeger with folk music, not bluegrass.

We arrived on a Friday, just in time for their Fridays at 5 celebration.  Venders, bands and lots of fun.

Held along the waterfront, where there are greenbelt areas, parks with children's play areas, fountains and two convention halls.  There were at least three different bands, playing totally different types of music, so you could wander until you found something you likes.

This young group caught our fancy.  They plays a type of modern folk.  You can't see it, but the keyboard player was barefoot.  None of the group looked over 20 years old and I believe one of the guitar players was underage and because they were playing in a location which sold alcohol, he had to have a parent present.  They were very good.

Every city has to have its claim to fame, even it other towns also claim the same.  For Owensboro, it is the Bar-B-Que Capital of the World.  He did have lunch at one of their noted BBQ places and it was good, but I don't think they deserved the Capital of the World.  Maybe I should have eaten at one of the other establishments, too.