Abstract
Appalachia has been fertile ground for the development of distinctive American music, and two of the forms of music most closely associated with the region are country and bluegrass. Promoter Carlton Haney, a member of the Bluegrass Hall of Fame, was a significant figure in each of these musical genres, playing a major role in developing the careers of such performers as Loretta Lynn, Porter Wagoner, Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, Reno and Smiley, and Bill Monroe. In 1965, Haney founded the world’s first multiday bluegrass festival in Fincastle, Virginia, and held important festivals into the 1970s, starting a movement that helped to define modern bluegrass and introduce it to a national audience. One of the most memorable features of Haney’s early bluegrass festivals was "The Story of Bluegrass," a musical narrative recounting the creation of bluegrass as a musical genre. This paper uses the rhetorical theories of Kenneth Burke to examine "The Story of Bluegrass" as a redemption drama that played an important role in shaping bluegrass music and the legacy of Bill Monroe.