Young David Kinton , now a member of the bluegrass band GrassStreet , told his father he wanted to grow up and be a musician.

“Son, I’m sorry,” Wayne Kinton, David’s father and now colleague, said at the time. “You can’t do both.”

Jokes like this one at GrassStreet’s June 10 concert at the N.C. Museum of History embody the culture of bluegrass music.

With the recent passing of the legendary North Carolinian bluegrass musician Doc Watson, and with word that the World of Bluegrass conference will bring the international bluegrass community to Raleigh next year, it’s about time to look at the State’s dynamic bluegrass scene that dates back to its twangy beginnings.

Future bluegrass founder Bill Monroe launched his career live on Raleigh’s 680 AM WPTF in 1938 with his brother Charlie, playing mainly gospel-like music with mandolin and guitar, William Lewis, Executive Director of the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music (PineCone), said.  A spat in Raleigh between the brothers led Bill Monroe to form his own band.

According to Lewis, Monroe drew inspiration from everything from jazz to the high harmony singing of his church choir.

“He kind of blended all of that into this new form of music, which they didn’t call bluegrass for a long time because they didn’t know what it was,” Lewis said.

 ”The Bluegrass Boys,” as they were called, included Earl Scruggs from Shelby, N.C.  Scruggs, who later formed his own band, Foggy Mountain Boys, perfected the three-finger roll on the banjo, turning it from a strummed rhythm keeper into a front instrument that could tackle all kinds of melodies.

The new genre’s dance roots transitioned into an emphasis on performance and virtuosity.

“It’s a jazz element, where that person takes that moment to kind of show off a little bit.”

Since it began, the dynamic music form has been constantly changing with new trends arising all the time.

 ”There are bands influenced by what we call the Holy Trinity in Flat and Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, and Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, and then everything in between,” Nancy Cardwell, executive director of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), said.

There were the “newgrass” and now “jamgrass” movements, where bands take songs and inspiration from places like rock and use bluegrass instrumentation. The North Carolina-based Kruger Brothers, originally from Switzerland, have a classical emphasis.

“They’ve created their whole unique sound,” Cardwell said. “They’re playing with symphony orchestras as well as a trio.”

The instrumentation, however, usually stays the same: guitar, fiddle, stand-up bass, mandolin and banjo.

“You think of someone like Ricky Skaggs who sees himself as kind of a tradition bearer….Then you have someone like Bela Fleck who’s going out into jazz and dabbling in all kinds of different genres and pushing the boundaries and expectations of what banjo’s supposed to sound like,” Lewis said.

Bands and artists continue coming out of North Carolina and Raleigh specifically, including Whiskeytown, Tift Merritt and Ryan Adams.

Even those who aren’t bluegrass-literate may recognize a song from North Carolina-based based Grammy winners, the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Their song “Daughter’s Lament” is featured on The Hunger Games soundtrack.

 ”[Music] can’t just get stagnant and everybody play the same type of music,” Tim Woodall, banjoist and co-host of the PineCone Bluegrass Show on 94.7 FM WQDR, said. “It’s great that these younger musicians are getting in there and are doing their own thing.”

The next step in North Carolina’s bluegrass legacy will be hosting IBMA’s international conference. 

In mid May, IBMA announced it will move its World of Bluegrass conference and festival to Raleigh from Nashville for 2013-2015. It is estimated to draw more 16,000 with an impact of $9.9 million. 

The week-long event will include the International Bluegrass Music Awards and a three-day music festival. Lewis said Pinecone and the city are looking to expand the festival into a Hopscotch-like event throughout the greater downtown area from coordinating museum exhibits to encouraging live music at restaurants by many of the thousands of artists present. 

“In Nashville there is so much going on they’re just another convention,” Lewis said. “But here, it’s going to be the convention for that week, and we want the community to be able to embrace that and build programs around it.”

Raleigh’s rich history, downtown layout and six years of persistence helped too, according to Cardwell.

“I think it is a pretty wise move on IBMA’s part to take the chance with moving to Raleigh. I think it is going to be great,” Woodall said.

Lewis said it is a tremendous opportunity to showcase Raleigh’s vibrant bluegrass scene. “You would be surprised how many people play bluegrass music in this area,” he said.

Even Mayor Nancy McFarland’s husband picks bluegrass guitar, Lewis said.

PineCone plays a big part in the local scene. The GrassStreet concert brought an end to the 15th year of the Music of the Carolinas series with the Museum of History. Busy Bee Café hosts a PineCone jam session that draws people from across the state on the second and fourth Mondays of each month.

“[Bluegrass is] just growing by leaps and bounds,” said Woodall, in his 23rd year of hosting the PineCone Bluegrass Show.

Vibrant bluegrass communities like Raleigh’s are aided by simple instruments and chord structure, according to Lewis and Cardwell. “Picking parties” and post-concert, impromptu jams are common.

“Bluegrass is unique to most genres in that most of the people who listen to it also play a little bit,” Cardwell said. “We all kind of know the patterns and know the standards, and we can all stand in a circle and play music together and not know each other at all but still have common ground with the music.”

So, in short, the bluegrass community is truly a community.

“That’s what this is about: making music together,” Lewis said.