Bluegrass standards

Bluegrass standards are the bluegrass songs that form the backbone of any bluegrass picker’s repertoire. These tend to be popular older songs that many people know how to play or have at least heard before.

Introduction to bluegrass standards

Bluegrass standards are timeless classics that many players are expected to know, especially for impromptu jam sessions or “pickin’ parties.”

Bluegrass standards list

Here is a list of tunes that are generally considered bluegrass standards:

1. Foggy Mountain Breakdown
2. I’ll Fly Away
3. Long Journey Home
4. Little Cabin Home on the Hill
5. Nine Pound Hammer
6. Blue Ridge Cabin Home
7. Your Love is Like a Flower
8. Big Spike Hammer
9. Old Home Place
10. Back Up and Push
11. Big Sciota
12. Wheel Hoss
13. Jerusalem Ridge
14. Red Haired Boy
15. Cherokee Shuffle
16. Bill Cheatham
17. Sally Goodin
18. Gold Rush
19. You Are My Sunshine
20. Cripple Creek
21. Rocky Top
22. Shady Grove
23. I Saw the Light
24. Man of Constant Sorrow
25. Billy in the Lowground
26. Big Rock Candy Mountain
27. Roustabout
28. Down to the River to Pray
29. Whiskey Before Breakfast
30. Will the Circle Be Unbroken
31. Salt Creek
32. Fox on the Run
33. Blue Moon of Kentucky
34. In the Pines
35. Wildwood Flower
36. Dark Hollow
37. Hot Corn Cold Corn
38. Sitting on Top of the World
39. Keep on the Sunny Side
40. Old Dangerfield
41. Blackberry Blossom
42. Nine Pound Hammer
43. Old Joe Clark
44. Footprints in the Snow
45. Old Home Place
46. New River Train
47. Little Maggie
48. Clinch Mountain Backstep
49. Uncle Pen
50. Worried Man Blues
51. Bury Me Beneath the Willow
52. Hand Me Down My Walking Cane
53. Angeline the Baker
54. I Heard the Bluebirds Sing
55. White Freightliner Blues
56. Cluck Old Hen
57. The Blackest Crow
58. Wabash Cannonball
59. Salty Dog Blues
60. Red Haired Boy
61. Red Clay Halo
62. Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms
63. All the Good Times Are Past and Gone
64. Golden Slippers
65. Lazy John
66. Mole in the Ground
67. Big Mon
68. Wayfarin’ Stranger
69. Don’t Let Your Deal go Down
70. In the Highways
71. Who’s That Knocking at My Door
72. Say Darlin Say
73. Fall on My Knees
74. Didn’t Leave Nobody But the Baby
75. Hold Whatcha Got
76. Why You Been Gone So Long
77. Skillet Good and Greasy
78. Oh Mona
79. There’s More Pretty Girls Than One
80. Rove Riley Rove
81. Walls of Time
82. Soldier’s Joy
83. Can’t You Hear Me Calling
84. Grey Eagle
85. It’s Mighty Dark to Travel
86. Winter’s Come and Gone
87. Old Joe Clark
88. Forked Deer
89. Temperance Reel
90. Liberty
91. Wild Bill Jones
92. Leather Britches
93. Big Sandy River

This list includes traditional songs as well as songs that were composed by important bluegrass musicians and have become standards within the genre. These songs form the core repertoire of many bluegrass musicians.