Bourbon Whiskey & Bluegrass Music

Me picking my 1977 Guild with our band in Nashville, TN

There are several things that folks associate with Kentucky, and Bourbon and Bluegrass Music are certainly at the head of the list along with the Kentucky Derby! I’ve been a fan or Bluegrass Music since I first started playing guitar back in college and listened to The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band albums which highlighted all the great Bluegrass legends that got it all started.

Bourbon and Bluegrass have something in common more than being from Kentucky.After Prohibition was struck down by the 21st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution on December 5, 1934, it took distilleries several months to retool their facilities and start producing whiskey.They first had to decide in which category of whiskey to compete in.Those two categories that had been created by the Taft Decision of 1909 which are; “Blended Whiskey”, and “Straight Whiskey”. With Blended whiskey, you can distill to higher proofs, use any type of oak, and you may add colors, flavors, and sugars.Seagrams was the dominant player for Blended Whiskies here in the U.S. with VO Canadian, Seagrams 5 Blend, Seagrams 7 Blend, and then there were other companies brands like Kessler, Black Velvet, Calvert, Fleishmans, and Four Roses Blended; not to mention other giants like Canadian Club, Johnny Walker, Dewer’s, and Cutty Sark.

So when distilleries like Heaven Hill, Jim Beam, and others decided to get back to the business of distilling, they continued distilling “straight whiskey” which they not only had more pride in, but they could compete in this much smaller category of Whiskey.“Straight Whiskey” must be aged in the appropriate type of charred barrels for a minimum of 2 years, and after aging, nothing but water can be added to it to get it down to the bottling strength.Bottled in Bond whiskey had even more restrictions on it by a 4 year minimum, bottled at exactly 100 proof, distilled in one season, and distilled by only 1 distillery.Bottled in Bond whiskies were considered “the good stuff” and that was what they were all shooting for when they started back distilling.

So the earliest anyone distilled and barreled anything then was 1935.Two years later in 1937 Heaven Hill came out with a product called “Bourbon Falls” which was a two year old Straight Bourbon. Two years after that, they introduced Old Heaven Hill Bottled In Bond four year old 100 proof in 1939.The coveted Bottled In Bond was finally out, and then now here’s the tie in with Bluegrass Music.

It was in October of 1939 when a talented mandolin player from Rosine, Kentucky named Bill Monroe auditioned for, and received a regular spot to perform on the Grand Ole Opry on WSM Radio in Nashville.Before that, the mandolin was a background instrument, but Monroe brought it out to the front and had a hard driving sound that was different than the old timey country music of the day.He used what he called the “high lonesome” sound with three and four part harmonies with his energetic version of Jimmy Rodgers “Mule Skinner Blues” captivated the Grand Ole Opry crowd.He also highlighted the high level of talent and proficiency with the band members taking musical solo’s they called “breaks” on guitars, fiddle, banjo, which also electrified audiences.