Date of Award

Spring 2026

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

School of Music

Director of Thesis

Dr. David Kirkland Garner

Second Reader

Dr. Emily Ruth Allen

Abstract

This creative thesis argues that bluegrass music, through its multicultural origins and its central "Rambler" archetype, articulates a distinctly American negotiation between freedom and rootedness — one that extends far beyond the genre's narrow popular image. Drawing on musicological scholarship and cultural history, the paper first recovers bluegrass's suppressed origins in the convergence of West African, Anglo- Celtic, and broader European traditions, complicating narratives that position the genre as exclusively white and Appalachian. It then introduces the Rambler — the restless, longing figure who haunts bluegrass lyrically and structurally — as both a product of that history and a metaphorical lens through which the genre's broader human resonance can be understood. Through close analysis of four songs ("Man of Constant Sorrow," "Blue Ridge Cabin Home," "Freeborn Man," and "Wagon Wheel"), organized around the keywords Fate, Longing, Freedom, and Return, the project traces how bluegrass encodes the Rambler's condition in both lyrical narrative and musical form. The analysis is accompanied by original recordings made in collaboration with the Podunk Ramblers. Ultimately, this thesis proposes two complementary paths toward a more inclusive bluegrass: the recovery of its multicultural history, and the foregrounding of its metaphorical resonance. I posit that the Rambler's tension between movement and belonging is not a regional or racial property, but a human one, and it is among the most honest portraits American music has ever produced of the American self.

Comments

Recordings Available at: 

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxTGMYXABn80WAgH7U4_w5OF5hZCBNleh&si=0hvBWfSRZTvXCXFn

First Page

1

Last Page

39

Rights

Songs written by: Dick Burnett, Louise Certain and Gladys Stacey, Keith Allison and Mark Lindsey, Bob Dylan and Ketch Secor. Fiddle Solos Learned From: Alison Krauss, Bobby Hicks, Mark O'Connor, Ketch Secor © 2026, Greyson M. Sherman

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