Modern Bluegrass: The Standards

These are the songs you’ll hear at a modern bluegrass jam, the ones everyone is expected to know. Most came up after the second generation, written by songwriters like Pete Goble, Leroy Drumm, Randall Hylton, and Harley Allen, then carried into the mash era by bands like Lonesome River Band, IIIrd Tyme Out, Blue Highway, and Mountain Heart. A few are outsiders that bluegrass adopted and made its own. Pancho and Lefty came from Townes Van Zandt. 1952 Vincent Black Lightning came from Richard Thompson. Wagon Wheel started as a Bob Dylan sketch and got finished by Ketch Secor. Hard Times reaches all the way back to Stephen Foster. Together they make up the working repertoire of contemporary bluegrass.

Use this list to fill out what you can call at a jam. Each song’s page on Picker’s Guide has chord charts, lyrics, recordings, and song history. Start with a few you already half-know and learn them cold.