WELL THE RAIN IS A POURIN DOWN IN A FURY AND THE ROAD IS A LOOKIN LONG
And the only thing that comes to mind is the tune of this sad soonnngg!!!
TUUUNNE OF THIS SAD SOOOOONGGG!!
OHH Lord!
The Spiral Discussion. STATUS: Attention Homeschooled - A poll/survey for you!
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Pop actually kinda does the same thing, it just goes into more graphic detail… 
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At least bluegrass is accurate🤷🏻♂️
If you get a Barbie doll figure pretty girl with “golden” hair, she’s gonna leave you.
Sorry that’s just how it is🤣
Then she’ll be “walking though my memory” (Doyle Lawson song)
Which is exactly why you…
Always marry an ugly girl,
That’s the only kind.
She’ll never ever leave you
And if she does you won’t mind
Practical songs🤦🏻♂️
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You’re not the only one that feels like that. No reason for all the songs to be about broken relationships in my opinion. I’d rather at least listen to/play positive songs even if they aren’t specifically gospel songs.
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@Mason_Crone you’ve got a very good point there and that’s one of the main reasons I don’t constantly listen to a lot of classic vocal bluegrass songs … Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, etc. Music has a message and those lyrics aren’t neutral, whether it’s bluegrass or any other genre. As a family we’ve made the choice to only play uplifting, wholesome bluegrass. There’s a lot of it if you’re willing to be selective, and it doesn’t all have to be strictly gospel. We can’t avoid everything other people sing in jams but we most certainly don’t stand for trashy bluegrass. I don’t think it’s right to sing about a man and woman leaving each other, even if you can’t totally avoid hearing that sometimes in the bluegrass world.
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I hope y’all know I was joking.
I used to listen to as much bluegrass as I could find but I came to realize that those songs were affecting the way I was thinking! Which is really dangerous because
“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
James 1:8 KJV And “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:” -Psalms 66:18
I don’t want to talk the talk of a Christian and then inside have a desire to live out the life of an ungodly man.
Sorry if I caused any confusion.
If it came down to Bluegrass or a good fellowship with my Heavenly Father, I’m picking fellowship…. I don’t even have to think about it. But thankfully there is some great wholesome bluegrass out there that will not hinder my walk with God!
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Good thoughts @CalebEllis. Something I often think to myself is, Never let what you do change who you are. I’m first a Christian and then a bluegrass musician, not the other way around.
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My thoughts exactly!
I head a preacher put it this way once,
“Sometimes you can’t help what you see but you CAN help what you look at. Sometimes you can’t help what you hear but you CAN help what you listen to. And you can certainly help what you dwell on!”.
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I believe that a lot of songs which don’t promote sin but don’t preach the gospel either have an extraordinarily subjective effect on different people. I wouldn’t throw a song out the window because it makes you sad or because it’s about heartbreak or problems in relationships with other people. While some of these songs are stupid or unbiblical, I personally have found that there are a good number of songs with excellent, thoughtful lyrics regarding many different topics, including a breakup, missing someone, etc. Even negative songs can encourage right actions or provoke good thought. There are a lot of sad/heartbreak/grieving/leaving/going-across-the-blue-ridge-mountains songs that make you go “that’s SO true.” There are a lot of songs I never understood or paid attention to, but after even just another year or two of experiencing life as a human, they hit like a .45 automatic. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when I’m on my deathbed.
Negativity is another factor which is sometimes blanket condemned… I strongly disagree with that. Simply reading through the Bible will show you that extremely negative situations, grief, murder, betrayal, and heartbreak are not to be avoided in thought. People are sinful by nature. Earth is a depressing place to live. Much evil befalls the righteous and the unrighteous every day. Your worst enemy is often your flesh. David did not neglect to write about this and as a result, many Psalms contain extremely negative material.
So in conclusion,
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I wouldn’t sing about the glory of alcohol or cheating, etc. I wouldn’t sing about anything that promotes sin or contradicts Scripture, etc.
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I by FAR prefer an extremely sad, thoughtful song over a “goin on to Canaan’s land O yes Lord glory glory glory Lord in the sky Lord in the sky” Gospel song any day. Just my partially subjective take on these things. I want my music to provoke thought and emotion. Personally Balsam Range is my favorite in this department– I find that a LOT of their songs strike pretty much exactly where I like in this department.
"A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity."
–Ecclesiastes 7:1-6
I will leave you with this
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I 100% agree. Which is the problem with 75% of country and bluegrass music.
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@Michael_Mark this is a great thought provoking discussion, and of course opinions will vary. That’s why I said this is a personal choice our family has made. I’m all for serious songs and there are sad ones that really hit home in a striking way. I love those miss the mountains songs, the lonesome train songs, and so on. I just think marriage is between a man and a woman for life and we Christians should be singing about that! I don’t see a good way that “she left me” can ever come across. Therefore I personally think those songs are unwholesome no matter how prevalent they are in bluegrass. If you just heard some of those words set to rock or pop music and had never heard them before, what would you think of them?
Also, David was mourning over his sin and his calamities, and Solomon had a distorted negative picture of life because of his vain pursuits. Neither was celebrating something wrong. Music is for joy and for comfort and for praising God. What if instead of just hitting home and making us cry because it’s so true, the power of a song could build our lives up and show us hope and a better direction?
“There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.” 1 Corinthians 14:10
And p.s. I don’t much care for shallow, repetitive bluegrass gospel either, that only talks about heaven. You have to realize that a lot of the guys who wrote these songs were living such lifestyles as would completely match the sensual lyrics and keep the gospel songs surface level/noncommittal. But there’s more than just those two types of songs!
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I feel the same way, I was afraid to say that yesterday, I thought it might offend someone haha. Nothing wrong with singing about heaven, but a lot of bluegrass gospel focuses on that and only that, never talking about how we can help others, do good here, live godly lives etc.
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I actually think Barbie is pretty ugly…
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Actually, songs which say that it was wrong for the other party to leave are literally promoting that. E.g. Everything that Glitters, Never Meant to Be.
I never said we should be celebrating the negative things. And, I certainly haven’t found a bluegrass song where a man is celebrating the fact that he’s heartbroken.
About the same I would think of them in bluegrass.
Instrumentation is not the moral thing. Lyrics are. I don’t like 99% of rock/pop/country music because a) a lot of the lyrics are sinful b) I just don’t like the musical style c) rock has a strong association with sinful deeds which could make the instrumentation a stumbling block for a lot of people. It’s not a sin in itself to use rock instrumentation, but it’s very easy to be a stumbling block/give the wrong idea to someone because of rock’s association. Even bluegrass can be the same way (though on a much lesser scale, probably because no one’s ever heard of bluegrass).
Are you using “good” interchangeably with “positive”?
It’s very possible to discuss heartbreak in a real, articulate way and share excellent thoughts. I wouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater here.
With this I must eloquently and vehemently disagree
This I eloquently and vehemently applaud
I didn’t say this is the only possible good effect of a song. My entire point is that you should not blanket condemn negativity in songs. Can we agree that something doesn’t have to be positive to be wholesome?
I’d like to take a moment to address your application of this verse.
1 Corinthians 14:1-13
1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
2 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
4 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.
5 I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.
6 Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine?
7 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped?
8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.
10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.
11 Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.
12 Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.
13 Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.
This verse is part of the guidelines for speaking in tounges Here, we see that you can’t just babble in a fake language– when God gave this gift, it was always in a known language and there had to be an interpreter.
While I actually agree with the point you are making (that is, stuff means stuff), I would suggest you find a different passage to support it.
Actually I stand firmly behind my application of that verse. Everything in the world has a voice, especially music - it’s even talking about music as it says in the verses before.
While perhaps that Balsam Range song only halfway uplifts a broken relationship, you know there are a million other classic bluegrass songs that are totally centered around it. Whether such a theme is emotional and relatable or not, it’s not the message I want to spread to others during my short time on this earth. Hot, blazing bluegrass guitar licks go beautifully in a clean, solid, wholesome bluegrass song! 
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Please explain how it at all uplifts a broken relationship.
No, I’m not going to argue about a specific song. Personally I’d write a story song about a family that loves and lives together. Maybe that’s just me. I’m not here to condemn others’ choices - just the ones I make by what I play and listen to.
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For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, though I guess you probably don’t believe that I doubt it’s possible to convince you of like literally anything so I will leave it at saying that a song doesn’t have to be at all positive to be wholesome.
not suprising
I never debated that. I agree. Just as long as it’s about godly morals instead of wrong ones. This song is about love, not breakup. It’s enough to make you cry, it’s so touching, yet it’s not about wrong.
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Sorry, i disagree. Music has morals. It is proven by science. Rock music was created specifically to promote devilish things. I can’t really explain it here but i’ll post a link that explains why i believe what i do.
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