If country music is a specialised musical genre, then bluegrass must be nothing less than a niche. Played by acoustic instruments and brought to America by European immigrants, it shares the tradition with jazz of allowing instruments to alternate with the melody while the rest of the group back them up. Banjo, fiddleand upright bass all feature.

• 1. Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs - Foggy Mountain Breakdown
• 2. Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys - Blue Moon of Kentucky
• 3. The Delmore Brothers - You Can't Do Wrong and Get By
• 4. Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper - Sunny Side of the Mountain
• 5. The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers - Lonesome Pine Breakdown
• 6. Mac Wiseman - Dreaming of a Little Cabin
• 7. The Stanley Brothers - Wake Up Sweetheart
• 8. Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee - Pick a Bale of Cotton
• 9. Reno & Smiley - I'm Gone, Long Gone
• 10. Carl Story - He Will Set Your Fields On Fire
• 11. The Stanley Brothers - I'm a Man of Constant Sorrow
• 12. Reno & Smiley - Tennessee Cut Up Breakdown
• 13. Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys - Orange Blossom Special
• 14. Mac Wiseman - Goin' Like a Wildfire
• 15. Jimmy Martin & Osborne Brothers - She's Just a Cute Thing
• 16. The Lonesome Pine Fiddlers - Pain In My Heart
• 17. Flatt & Scruggs - Get In Line Brother
• 18. Jim Eanes & the Shenandoah Valley Boys - Blue Yodel No. 1
• 19. Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper - Big Midnight Special
• 20. The Brown's Ferry Four - Will the Circle Be Unbroken