Citygrass

"Citygrass" is a term coined by Montreal musician Lee Mellor to describe a popular underground style of music proliferating across Canada. Typically it consists of bluegrass instrumentation such as mandolins, banjos or fiddles played in an atypical manner and with a rock and roll edge. The term has been embraced by the mainstream media appearing in Now magazine, The Globe and Mail and on CBC radio.

According to Mellor's online blog, Citygrass "does not come from the Kentucky mountains. It is not overtly Christian, and it has no sun-basked natural paradise like Rocky Top or the Shenandoah Valley. This is a movement born in the cold, desperate north: on subdivision dirt hills, in auto-industry feeder plants, seagull swooped plazas, truck stop diners, teen-aged bush parties."

In a 2007 Radio Free Montreal interview, Mellor noted that his music had moved away from a citygrass approach towards a more traditional alt-country sound. At present, the band most associated with Citygrass is The United Steel Workers of Montreal who the CBC have dubbed the "Kings of Citygrass."
 
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