occupation david long 
Nashville is the capital of the U . S . state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County . It is located on the Cumberland River in the north central part of the state . The city is a center for the music , healthcare , publishing , banking and transportation industries , and home to numerous colleges and universities . Reflecting the city ' s position in state government , Nashville is home to the Tennessee Supreme Court ' s courthouse for Middle Tennessee . It is known as a center of the country music industry , earning it the nickname " Music City U . S . A ." Don Wesley Reno ( February 21 , 1926  October 16 , 1984 ) was an American bluegrass and country ___MASK88___ best known as a banjo player in partnership with Red Smiley , and later with guitarist Bill Harrell . A ___MASK14___ is an individual who writes the lyrics , melodies and chord progressions for songs , typically for a popular music genre such as rock or country music . A ___MASK14___ can also be called a ___MASK70___ , although the latter term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre . The pressure from the music industry to produce popular hits means that songwriting is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people . For example , a ___MASK14___ who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a ___MASK14___ with a gift for creating original melodies . Pop songs may be written by group members from the ___MASK64___ or by staff writers  songwriters directly employed by music publishers . Some songwriters serve as their own music publishers , while others have outside publishers . Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound and silence , which exist in time . The common elements of music are pitch ( which governs melody and harmony ), rhythm ( and its associated concepts tempo , meter , and articulation ), dynamics ( loudness and softness ), and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture ( which are sometimes termed the " color " of a musical sound ). Different styles or types of music may emphasize , de - emphasize or omit some of these elements . Music is performed with a vast range of instruments and vocal techniques ranging from singing to ___MASK61___ ; there are solely instrumental pieces , solely vocal pieces ( such as songs without instrumental accompaniment ) and pieces that combine singing and instruments . The word derives from Greek  (" mousike "; " art of the Muses "). In its most ___MASK37___ form , the activities describing music as an art form include the production of works of music ( songs , tunes , symphonies , and so on ), the criticism of music , the study of the history of music , and the aesthetic examination of music . Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies . Common sayings such as " the harmony of the spheres " and " it is music to my ears " point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to . However , 20th - century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music , saying , for example , " There is no noise , only sound ." William Smith Monroe ( September 13 , 1911  September 9 , 1996 ) was an American ___MASK53___ , singer , and songwriter who created the style of music known as bluegrass . The genre takes its name from his band , the Blue Grass Boys , named for Monroe ' s home state of Kentucky . Monroe ' s performing career spanned 69 years as a singer , instrumentalist , composer and bandleader . He is often referred to as the Father of Bluegrass . The Tennessee Supreme Court is the ultimate judicial tribunal of the state of Tennessee . Jeffrey S . Bivins is the Chief ___MASK91___ . Franklin Delano Roosevelt Wakefield ( born June 26 , 1934 ) is an innovative American mandolin player in the bluegrass music style . Wakefield is known for his collaborations with a number of important and well - known bands , including Red Allen , Don Reno , Jerry Garcia , David Grisman , The Stanley Brothers , and the Greenbriar Boys . Country music is a genre of United States popular music that originated in the southern United States in the 1920s . It takes its roots from the southeastern genre of United States , such as folk music ( especially Appalachian folk music ), and blues music . Blues modes have been used extensively throughout its recorded history . Country music often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms and harmonies accompanied by mostly string instruments such as banjos , electric and acoustic guitars , dobros and fiddles as well as harmonicas . According to Lindsey Starnes , the term " country music " gained popularity in the 1940s in preference to the earlier term " hillbilly music "; it came to encompass Western music , which evolved parallel to hillbilly music from similar roots , in the mid - 20th century . The term " country music " is used today to describe many styles and subgenres . The origins of country music are the folk music of working - class Americans , who blended popular songs , Irish and Celtic fiddle tunes , traditional English ballads , and ___MASK79___ songs , and various musical traditions from European immigrant communities . In 2009 country music was the most listened to rush hour ___MASK86___ genre during the evening commute , and second most popular in the morning commute in the United States . David Long is a mandolin player from Nashville , Tennessee . He was born in the winter of 1975 . Long has been described as a next generation ___MASK88___ with traditional sounds of bluegrass . Long ' s music career started in 1996 . He plays Rural Country Blues , Old Time Bluegrass , and Early Black String Band . David ' s style of playing was influenced by Bill Monroe , Frank Wakefield , and Mike Compton . David has played with the Wildwood Valley Boys for about two years , and with Karl Shiflett and his Big Show . A county seat is an administrative center , seat of government , or capital city of a county or civil parish . The term is used in the United States , ___MASK63___ , Romania , China and Taiwan . In the United Kingdom and Ireland , county towns have a similar function . The Stanley Brothers were an American bluegrass duo made up of brothers Carter Stanley ( 1925 - 1966 ) and Ralph Stanley ( 1927 - 2016 ). Ralph and Carter performed as The Stanley Brothers with their ___MASK64___ , The Clinch ___MASK97___ Boys , from 1946 to 1966 . Ralph kept the ___MASK64___ name when he continued as a solo after Carter ' s death , from 1967 until his own death in 2016 . Henry James " Red " Allen ( January 7 , 1908  April 17 , 1967 ) was a jazz ___MASK75___ and vocalist whose style has been claimed to be the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armstrong . The octave mandolin is a fretted string instrument with four pairs of strings tuned in fifths , G , D , A , E ( low to high ), an octave below a mandolin . It has a 20 to 23 - inch scale length and its ___MASK39___ is similar to other instruments in the mandolin family . Usually the courses are all unison pairs but the lower two may sometimes be strung as octave pairs with the higher - pitched octave string on top so that it is hit before the thicker lower - pitched string . Alternate tunings of G , D , A , D and A , D , A , D are often employed by Celtic musicians . A mandolin (; literally " small mandola ") is a musical instrument in the lute family and is usually plucked with a plectrum or " pick ". It commonly has four courses of doubled metal strings tuned in unison ( 8 strings ), although five ( 10 strings ) and six ( 12 strings ) course versions also exist . The courses are normally tuned in a succession of perfect fifths . It is the soprano ___MASK5___ of a family that includes the mandola , octave mandolin , mandocello and mandobass . The mandola ( US and ___MASK63___ ) or tenor mandola ( Ireland and UK ) is a fretted , stringed musical instrument . It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin : the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ( C - G - D - A low - to - high ), a fifth lower than a mandolin . The mandola , although now rarer , is the ancestor of the mandolin , the name of which means simply " little mandola ". The cello (; plural cellos or celli ) or violoncello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths . The strings from low to high are generally tuned to C , G , D and A , an octave lower than the viola . It is a ___MASK5___ of the violin family of musical instruments , which also includes the violin and viola . Mandobass is the largest ( and least common ) ___MASK5___ of the mandolin family , sometimes used as the bass instrument in mandolin orchestras . It is so large that it usually isn ' t held in the lap , but supported on a spike which rests on the floor . The neck - scale length on a full - size mando - bass is similar to that of a standard orchestral double bass viol : about 43 " ( 110 cm ). The instrument is otherwise similar to the smaller , higher - pitched members of the mandolin family , having a fretted neck , a headstock with geared tuning machines , and a large resonating body often  but not always  shaped like that of other mandolins . The Cumberland River is a ___MASK38___ waterway of the Southern United States . The river drains almost of southern Kentucky and north - central Tennessee . The river flows generally west from a source in the Appalachian Mountains to its confluence with the Ohio River near Paducah , Kentucky , and the mouth of the Tennessee River . ___MASK38___ tributaries include the Obey , Caney Fork , Stones , and Red rivers . David Grisman ( born March 23 , 1945 , in Hackensack , New Jersey ) is an American bluegrass / newgrass ___MASK53___ and composer of acoustic music . In the early 1990s , he started the Acoustic Disc record label to help spread acoustic and instrumental music . Jerome John " Jerry " Garcia ( August 1 , 1942  August 9 , 1995 ) was an American ___MASK27___ - songwriter and multi - ___MASK20___ , best known for his work with the ___MASK64___ the Grateful Dead , which came to prominence during the counterculture era in the 1960s . Though he disavowed the role , Garcia was viewed by many as the ___MASK25___ or " spokesman " of the group .