Kukuruza

Kukuruza is a Russian band who progressed from a student startup to become an international touring act in the early 1990s.

In 1994, the Chicago Tribune said they were "among the top country groups of Eastern Europe and Russia".^[2] That same year, they performed their bluegrass-influenced music before the genre's founder, Bill Monroe, at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.^[2] As of 2013, they were the only Eastern European group to play at the Opry.

Their repertoire includes a mix of music, from Russian folk to American bluegrass, to country-rock, rock-and-roll and blues.^[3][4] The band toured the United States six times from 1991 to 1994.^[5] They have performed country and bluegrass-influenced music longer than any other Russian group, with a total of 15 albums over 30 years, 3 in the United States and 12 more in Russia.^[3] The band is still active, but with a different lineup of performers than they had in the mid-1980s and 1990s when they rose to international prominence. In 2010 they played at the Montreux Jazz Festival.^[6]

The band's name КукурузА is the Russian word for corn.^[7] Years after the founding, the story of taking the name has been lost, as different members remember different things. The name wasn't meant to imply corny or funny, however.^[2] It was a serious name that implied that the band had many flavors, just as corn has many flavors, depending upon where it is grown.^[2]