[1][2][3] Many Czech bluegrass "old-timers" date their involvement with something specifically bluegrass-like to the post-war years, a lean time for the music, but one that contains important developments.
When Czechs tuned into Armed Forces Network radio programs from US military installations in Munich, they were flooded with a wealth of American music that they were able to freely use for their own ends.
This first generation of players (which also includes Rangers and Taxmeni) inspired many Czechs to take up distinctly bluegrass-like music, necessitating cottage industries and then actual businesses to support this community with written materials, recordings, and of course, instruments.
When recordings by the band New Grass Revival starting spreading through the Czech bluegrass community in the 1970s-80s, interest was sparked in the progressive possibilities of this music.
The bluegrass boom in the years following the 1989 velvet revolution was an expansion that attempted to fill the realm of possibilities Czechs enjoyed after being freed from the constrictions of state socialism.
Groups like Reliéf, Bluegrass Cwrkot, Petr Brandejs Band, Roll's Boys, Dessert, and many more fit into this category.
They all perform aspects of bluegrass drawn from work by American musicians of the early days of the genre, including Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, and all the usual suspects.
Czech bluegrass bands of the more traditionalist variety tour to some degree in the U.S., but find it more practical to limit their travel to Europe, where they are known for their masterful instrumental and vocal performance.
Makers such as Jiři Lebeda, Ondra Holoubek, and Eduard Kristůfek produce guitars, mandolins, and dobros that are known and purchased worldwide.
Most significantly, perhaps, are the metal parts produced by banjo-makers Jaroslav Průcha, Láďa Ptáček, and Pavel Krištůfek, which are used throughout the world, most notably by Gibson and other established U.S. makers.