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Have you ever wondered what type of music the theme song to The Beverly Hillbillies was? Well, wounder no more. It was bluegrass. During the 40’s and 50’s bluegrass music was a big influence in society. It combined traditional folk ballads, gospel songs, and string band music to “create a style characterized by instrumental virtuosity, high-pitched vocals, and fats tempos” (Pendergrass pp. 3). It’s history; instruments and influences are what make bluegrass one of the most distinctive American forms of music. Bluegrass music is the old time country music, which has been influenced by Scottish-Irish, British, the blues, Negro spirituals and gospel music as well. It had its start on the rural south and came about in the 1940’s after World War two. It was “basically a fusion of “hillbilly”, ”folk” and various types of “country” that were popular with the farm families and blue collar workers” (Pendergrass pp. 4). In the beginning it was called by var