“Rough Edges” is a bluegrass song written by Randall Hylton, the songwriter behind a long string of well-regarded bluegrass numbers. It was introduced on record by the Bluegrass Patriots, a Colorado-based band, in the early 1990s.
The lyric is a wry, plainspoken confession of stubbornness. Its narrator admits that, for all the efforts of others to change and polish him, his rough edges will simply never be smoothed — he is who he is, hard and unbending as coal. That blend of self-knowledge and humor gave the song an appealing honesty.
The song was taken up by other bluegrass acts. “Rough Edges” stands among the many Hylton compositions that found a lasting home in the bluegrass repertoire.
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