Music Day included a primer about bluegrass music from one of the best bands around with ties to Bright School.
The New Dismembered Tennesseans performed for students thanks to the Aldridge/Patten Fund for Visiting Artists, started by Henry Aldridge and Fontaine Patten Moore, both from the class of 1955.
The band members introduced themselves and their instruments. Tom Morely plays the fiddle, Laura Walker on the bass, Bobby Burns on guitar and Don Cassell on mandolin. These instruments were brought to North America by immigrants from English, Scotland and Ireland. The banjo, played by Ed Cullis and Eleanor Bright, was invented in Africa and brought to North America. Dr. Cullis plays with picks on three fingers while Ms. Bright plays with a clawhammer technique with her hand.
Mr. Morely explained how Bill Monroe is credited with inventing bluegrass or what he called "high lonesome sound." The name bluegrass stuck because Monroe's band was called the Blue Grass Boys because they were from Kentucky.
The band has many connections to Bright, including the band founders Fletcher Bright '43, Ansley Moses '42, and Ed Cullis '48, who played today. Another current member and clawhammer banjo player, Eleanor Bright, is the great-great niece of school founder Mary G. Bright.
