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The Caverns in Grundy County is bringing a new bluegrass festival to the Payne’s Cove in Pelham Valley this July. Bluegrass is a form of American roots music and is a sub-genre of country music. Like the makeup of the population of Appalachia, bluegrass has its roots in Scottish, English, and Irish traditional music.

What distinguishes this style of music from popular music are the instruments and the topics of the songs. Bluegrass vocals frequently reference the difficult and challenging existence of living in Appalachia and other rural areas with modest financial resources.

The use of acoustic stringed instruments sets this style of music apart from others. Traditional instruments include the mandolin, guitar, fiddle, banjo, dobro and stand-up bass, though these may vary depending on availability. In bluegrass one or more instruments each takes its turn playing the melody and improvising around it, while the others perform accompaniment; this is especially typified in tunes called breakdowns.

Bill Monroe, the father of Bluegrass, and his band, the Bluegrass boys, popularized the style beginning in the 1940s. Members of Blue Grass Boys changed over time with the most notable being the classic 1945 line-up of Earl Scruggs on banjo, Lester Flatt (of Sparta) on guitar and lead vocals, Chubby Wise on fiddle, and Howard Watts, also known by his comedian name “Cedric Rainwater,” on the upright bass. Flatt and Scruggs left the band in 1948 to form the Foggy Mountain Boys.

Bluegrass remained popular until the late 1950s until the rise of rock and roll, the “Nashville Sound” and the birth of modern country music. The folk music of the 1960s brought a renewed interest in the genre and it was then that the term “bluegrass” was coined. It is believed that the first Bluegrass Festival was held in Roanoke, Va. In 1965.

Nearly a century later, Bluegrass remains an important and popular style of American music that has influenced the evolution of country, Americana, and traditional folk music.

On July 1-2, The Caverns will present the inaugural Big Mouth Bluegrass Festival. There will be a cavalcade of award-winning bluegrass artists. In addition to all the explosive pickin’ on stage, the two-day camping festival includes open cave jam sessions that any guest can participate in, All-American cookout cuisine from multiple food trucks, a special Sunday gospel brunch set, guided cave tours into the cool of The Caverns cave system, massive fireworks when the sun goes down, campground pickin’, and more.

For more information and to purchase tickets visit TheCaverns.com.