BLUEGRASS HIGH LONESOME Sound Postage Scott

Once viewed as a type of country music, bluegrass — which musicologist Alan Lomax famously described as “folk music with overdrive” — emerged as its own distinct genre in the 1950s. Soon the music could be found just about everywhere, from college campuses and large urban areas to television shows and movies. Outdoor festivals became a mainstay of bluegrass in the 1970s, a period when the music took off in new directions as bands eagerly incorporated influences from rock and pop.

Today, although bluegrass enjoys relatively little radio exposure, the music continues to thrive. The nonprofit International Bluegrass Music Association was founded in 1985, a bluegrass category was added to the Grammy Awards in 1989, and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame was founded in Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1991. Billboard launched its bluegrass albums chart in 2002, two years after the wildly popular soundtrack to the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? introduced bluegrass to yet another generation of fans. Today, bluegrass festivals held around the world, like the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in Colorado and Bluegrass Live! in North Carolina, draw thousands of fans every year.

Art director Antonio Alcalá worked with designer and illustrator Heather Moulder to produce the stamp art.

The Bluegrass stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp. This Forever stamp is always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.