Owensboro (Ky.) — When Dan Hays, executive director of the International Bluegrass Music Assn., looks at the country music charts these days, he sees something different.
Bluegrass artists. Lots of them.
"There are six albums by bluegrass artists on the country charts today," Hays said. "I doubt that we've ever had that many at one time."
The "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack, which features several bluegrass musicians, has been certified as a gold album, topped the country music charts and reached the Top 20 on Billboard's pop charts. Dolly Parton has two bluegrass albums on the charts. Ricky Skaggs has one. So does Nickel Creek and Alison Krauss.
"The 'O Brother' album has a lot of people in the industry scratching their heads," Hays said. "How does an album get to No. 1 without any radio airplay? This isn't Britney Spears, 'N Sync and George Strait doing the soundtrack. It's bluegrass artists."
The soundtrack has opened a lot of doors for bluegrass this year, Hays said. And it comes at a good time.
A study by the National Endowment for the Arts has found that the number of people who say they listen to bluegrass music increased by 27 million between 1992 and 1997 from 55 million to 82 million people.
Hays said there are now 838 radio stations that play bluegrass an average of 5.53 hours a week.
That may not sound like much. But it's up from 831 stations and 2.5 hours in 1995.
Hays' records show that there are 1,184 professional bluegrass bands today. Of that number, 266 are recording for 73 labels.
There are 4,157 bluegrass albums on the market today 112 of them released last year.
IBMA records list more than 500 bluegrass festivals 61 of which draw an average of more than 2,000 fans per day.
Tennessee has the most bluegrass bands 141. North Carolina ranks second with 99 followed by Virginia, 83; California, 63; and Kentucky, 62.
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