Bluegrass & Old Time Music

[FelixSkodi]

That festival they were playing at looks like it would have been a great time. I really like the classic tunes, and that guy (Doodle) could play the harmonica for sure!   

For sure. I have dreams of going up into the mountains. 

[Old San Antone]

I've been listening to McCoury too, this album finally arrived today:



Very nice playing. Some adapted tunes, not originally Bluegrass but they converted well. Nice!

This one arrived too, and I finally got to play it. This is really good. I hadn't heard Ralph singing from that long ago, his voice was really interesting.  I liked the instrumental tunes on here especially, there are a couple of breakdown (who don't love a good breakdown, I ask you!?). Also, the most original sounding version of Orange Blossom Special I ever heard. They really kick it! 


Which made me go take a look at other versions, where I found this little gem from Rhonda Vincent et al. Tell you what, that's some fine fiddlers there, but that chunky guy who leads off is something special! Any thoughts on a Rhonda Vincent CD?

Those Mercury recordings by the Stanley Brothers are fantastic, but their Columbia sessions are also good. 

As for Rhonda Vincent, it is hard to recommend a CD of hers since she has two (maybe three) sides to her performance style: straight bluegrass, country and even some pop, and will mix them up on most of her records.  But her latest, which came out in 2018, is a live concert at the Ryman from 2016 called "Legends" featuring old masters: Mac Wiseman, Jim & Jesse McReynolds and the Osborne Brothers.   She and her band, The Rage, are excellent and these old guys still can put a song across.  But like I said, I am torn because she refuses to just do a straight bluegrass recording without throwing in something else.

[Old San Antone]

Doodle Thrower and Golden River Grass playing Mountain Dew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZUoPualHW0 (recorded live by Alan Lomax)

Lead Belly playing Take this Hammer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=280ZECc773g

Interesting, nice to hear some musicians not well known.    Leadbelly is from my home town of Shreveport, La. - always a pleasure to hear him.

Bill Monroe refused to wear "hillbilly" clothes and never appeared on stage without a suit and tie.  For one reason, he did not want to pander to the stereotypes and he also thought of it as showing respect for his audience.   

Initially, Louise Scruggs refused the request for her husband and Lester Flatt to be associated with the show The Beverly Hillbillies since she thought it was making fun of their people.  But after they watched the pilot they realized that the Clampetts end up getting the best of the "city slickers".  Hence one of Flatt & Scruggs biggest songs came out of it, and tey made regular guest appearances.  But they always wore suits.   

[FelixSkodi]

Interesting, nice to hear some musicians not well known.    Leadbelly is from my home town of Shreveport, La. - always a pleasure to hear him.

Bill Monroe refused to wear "hillbilly" clothes and never appeared on stage without a suit and tie.  For one reason, he did not want to pander to the stereotypes and he also thought of it as showing respect for his audience.   

Initially, Louise Scruggs refused the request for her husband and Lester Flatt to be associated with the show The Beverly Hillbillies since she thought it was making fun of their people.  But after they watched the pilot they realized that the Clampetts end up getting the best of the "city slickers".  Hence one of Flatt & Scruggs biggest songs came out of it, and tey made regular guest appearances.  But they always wore suits.   

Thanks for all this great info. 

[Old San Antone]

I watched the PBS film on Bluegrass last night, and what struck me was the vibrancy of the music and how widespread is the style, all across the world there are people playing it.  But also, it became clear that the only feature that remains constant is the instrumentation: mandolin, fiddle, banjo, guitar and upright bass, sometimes dobro.

It is widely thought that in the 1970s the music began to change, "Newgrass" - but really before that the Osbornes added electric instruments in order to be heard in large festival settings.  But in reality, from the very start Bluegrass was innovative.  Bill Monroe took the music he inherited, old time mountain music, and played it faster, with a furious jazz-like soloistic style unlike anything that had been done before. 

He also codified the 5-piece instrumentation and the roles of the parts: the bass and guitar functioned as the rhythm section, along with the mandolin when not soloing playing the back-beat, the guitar also carried the harmony, with the fiddle and banjo filling in behind the vocal and along with the mandolin, playing solos. 

So Bluegrass continues to produce new musicians like Alison Krauss, Alison Brown, Bela Fleck, Chris Thile who grew up with the music, but brought in other styles and elements.  As Chris Thile said in the film the quickest way to be unlike Bill Monroe would be to try to play just like him.

The latest crop include Sierra Hull (mandolin), Molly Tuttle (guitar) and a generation in their 20s who are carrying the music into the 21st century.

[Gurn Blanston]

For sure. I have dreams of going up into the mountains. 

Hey, Philo!  Well, the mountains (and hill country in general) are great places to visit, anyway. I was brought up in the Green Mountains of Vermont. I miss a lot about them, but overall, glad to be only 25 minutes from civilization now! 

[Old San Antone]

Speaking of Rhonda Vincent, I was trying to think of other female Bluegrass artists and came up with a few, Dale Ann Bradley, Alecia Nugent, of course Alison Krauss, Alison Brown, and Hazel Dickens.  But I also came across this list of 50 recordings put together by The Bluegrass Situation website.

The 50 Greatest Bluegrass Albums Made by Women

My ten favorites off the list are:

Rayna Gellert — Ways of the World
Kathy Kallick — My Mother's Voice
Hazel Dickens — Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People
Emmylou Harris — Roses in the Snow
Dale Ann Bradley — Catch Tomorrow
Claire Lynch — Moonlighter
Alecia Nugent — Alecia Nugent
Alison Brown — Fair Weather
Blue Rose — Blue Rose
Dolly Parton — The Grass Is Blue

[Old San Antone]

Hey, Philo!  Well, the mountains (and hill country in general) are great places to visit, anyway. I was brought up in the Green Mountains of Vermont. I miss a lot about them, but overall, glad to be only 25 minutes from civilization now! 

My wife and I moved from Nashville a year ago to the hills (not mountains) of middle Tennessee.  Lots of local talent around.  We love it out here, but are still getting the kinks out of our cabin that sits up top a fairly tall hill over looking the Cumberland River.   

[Gurn Blanston]

Those Mercury recordings by the Stanley Brothers are fantastic, but their Columbia sessions are also good. 

As for Rhonda Vincent, it is hard to recommend a CD of hers since she has two (maybe three) sides to her performance style: straight bluegrass, country and even some pop, and will mix them up on most of her records.  But her latest, which came out in 2018, is a live concert at the Ryman from 2016 called "Legends" featuring old masters: Mac Wiseman, Jim & Jesse McReynolds and the Osborne Brothers.   She and her band, The Rage, are excellent and these old guys still can put a song across.  But like I said, I am torn because she refuses to just do a straight bluegrass recording without throwing in something else.

Gotcha, and thanks for the warning. I am not a fan of 'New Country' at all. It is nothing more than pop music with a twang. I've only ever seen her on videos of singles, like the one I posted. Also on a big thing with 100 fiddlers on stage and the like. So it's hard to know what she would do in other venues. That said, this album looks good. I reckon I can pick that up and see.

[Gurn Blanston]

My wife and I moved from Nashville a year ago to the hills (not mountains) of middle Tennessee.  Lots of local talent around.  We love it out here, but are still getting the kinks out of our cabin that sits up top a fairly tall hill over looking the Cumberland River.   

Beauty! Well, we are about as rural as you can get in modern East Texas. We have 42 acres, mostly woodland and a big natural pond, and OUR house is on a hilltop too, but our hills are no comparison to central Tennessee! There are plenty of musicians around here too, it's Texas after all. I've been seriously considering pulling my old 12 string out of storage and learning how to play again so I can meet some folks. I've been working virtually every day of the 35 years I've lived here, and now realize I hardly know anyone around here unless we worked together. Gotta fix that.

[Gurn Blanston]

Speaking of Rhonda Vincent, I was trying to think of other female Bluegrass artists and came up with a few, Dale Ann Bradley, Alecia Nugent, of course Alison Krauss, Alison Brown, and Hazel Dickens.  But I also came across this list of 50 recordings put together by The Bluegrass Situation website.

The 50 Greatest Bluegrass Albums Made by Women

My ten favorites off the list are:

Rayna Gellert — Ways of the World
Kathy Kallick — My Mother's Voice
Hazel Dickens — Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People
Emmylou Harris — Roses in the Snow
Dale Ann Bradley — Catch Tomorrow
Claire Lynch — Moonlighter
Alecia Nugent — Alecia Nugent
Alison Brown — Fair Weather
Blue Rose — Blue Rose
Dolly Parton — The Grass Is Blue

Ooh, those look good! I've heard that Emmylou Harris album, very nice!  Real hard not to like Alison Krauss too. I have a lengthy concert film of her with Union Station, it's really fine.

[FelixSkodi]

Not directly related to music, but directly related to Appalachia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHIJfbYhQFg

A brilliant documentary that delves into the language and linguistics of the mountains. Truly fascinating material. 

But, here's Stringbean performing Hillbilly Fever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-hnfLRpimw

[Old San Antone]

Balsam Range is; Buddy Melton (fiddle, lead and tenor vocals), Darren Nicholson (mandolin, octave mandolin, lead vocals, baritone and low tenor vocals), Dr. Marc Pruett (banjo), Tim Surrett (bass, dobro, baritone and lead vocals), and Caleb Smith (guitar, lead & baritone vocals). The five original members are all acoustic musicians and singers from western North Carolina. They thoughtfully and respectfully adopted the name of a majestic range of mountains that surround part of their home county of Haywood, NC where the Great Smoky Mountains meet the Blue Ridge, the Great Balsam Range.

BR has been around for 13 years and have stuck to a pretty traditional sound with the same members.  I think they have an excellent lead singer in Buddy Melton, but they all sing lead and harmony.

Their latest CD is The Gospel Collection.   On each of their 9 albums - released over a little more than a decade - they have reliably featured gospel songs, making them an integral part of their sound and a reflection of their personal faith.  The Gospel Collection collects them all on this CD.

https://www.youtube.com/v/svrUFwYidK8

Also in 2019 they released another record, Aeonic.  Rolling Stone described it as "just old-timey enough and just modern enough to make bluegrass feel like it's still got plenty of life left."

Here's what they have to say about it:

"The best way to promote traditional bluegrass is to try and be original and do your own thing," says mandolinist Darren Nicholson. "Some traditionalists almost killed it by always wanting to revert back to the old. But if all you're doing is homage to the old and nobody's doing anything new, then it dies. When Bill Monroe created bluegrass, he was cutting-edge and different. We're trying to do the same thing. It's hard to get too far away from the roots in bluegrass, but you have to put your own stamp on it."

https://www.youtube.com/v/_x47_cGLbgE

But some of their earlier albums stand out i my mind, Papertown is my favorite; Trains I Missed and their first one, Marching Home, features six Bill Monroe songs.  But all of their records have some great songs and playing.  For Mountain Overture they took some of their previously recorded songs and had them orchestrated for the Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble.  Not my cup of tea but it is well done and not as bad as you might think.

[Old San Antone]

Not directly related to music, but directly related to Appalachia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHIJfbYhQFg

A brilliant documentary that delves into the language and linguistics of the mountains. Truly fascinating material. 

But, here's Stringbean performing Hillbilly Fever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-hnfLRpimw

Nice looking video, thanks.  Popcorn Sutton made a movie of his last batch of moonshine, and then committed suicide instead of going to prison.  There is another great YouTube about Appalachia, Appalachian Journey", Alan Lomax (1991), which focuses more on the music. 

And for a historical perspective, there's this one, The History of the Appalachian People.

That clip of Stringbean is great!

[FelixSkodi]

Nice looking video, thanks.  Popcorn Sutton made a movie of his last batch of moonshine, and then committed suicide instead of going to prison.  There is another great YouTube about Appalachia, Appalachian Journey", Alan Lomax (1991), which focuses more on the music. 

And for a historical perspective, there's this one, The History of the Appalachian People.

That clip of Stringbean is great!

Holy sweet Moses!

I think my weekend has been dictated for me. All those videos look amazing!

[Old San Antone]

Dubbed by Tom T. Hall the "Bluegrass Storyteller," James King (September 9, 1958 – May 19, 2016) was raised in Cana, Virginia in Carroll County. His father Jim King had appeared on Roanoke television with Don Reno and Red Smiley as tenor vocalist and guitarist for the Country Cousins. His father and his uncle Joe Edd King had played with Ted Lundy of the Southern Mountain Boys.

In 1974, King heard the Stanley Brothers and fell in love with their bluegrass music. King began his career at age 16 playing gospel music at his Pentecostal Holiness church. He left Cana at age 19.

He performed as a solo and with a band Longview.

Formed in 1997, Longview brought together King, Dudley Connell, Don Rigsby, Marshall Willborn, Glen Duncan, and Joe Mullins. For later recordings, Connell, Mullins, and Duncan were replaced by J. D. Crowe, Ron Stewart, and Lou Reid. Longview recorded four albums. Their self-titled 1997 debut was named Recorded Event of the Year by the IBMA. This was followed by High Lonesome in 1999, Lessons in Stone in 2002, and Deep in the Mountains in 2008.

King released The Bluegrass Storyteller in 2005 with Kevin Prayer (mandolin), Bernie Green (banjo), Jerry McNeely (bass), and Adam Haynes (fiddle).

https://www.youtube.com/v/fyUXUWSlzO4

James King was a GREAT singer and always picked good songs.  Straight Bluegrass done right.

https://www.youtube.com/v/AMxKN0oiH2Q

[Old San Antone]

One of the most cited albums by the third generation of Bluegrass musicians is J. D. Crowe & The New South. It is an album by American banjo player J. D. Crowe and The New South, released in 1975 .



    J. D. Crowe – banjo, guitar on "Rock, Salt & Nails", baritone vocals
    Jerry Douglas – dobro, guitar
    Tony Rice – guitar, lead vocals
    Ricky Skaggs – tenor vocals, fiddle, mandolin, violin, viola
    Bobby Slone – bass, fiddle

After Bluegrass Evolution, Ricky Skaggs replaced Larry Rice and Jerry Douglas joined the group for this eponymously titled album, more commonly known by its Rounder Records catalogue number ("Rounder 0044").  Stylistically, this album marked a sharp turn from Bluegrass Evolution as the majority of the album uses traditional bluegrass instrumentation on songs by up-and-coming singer-songwriters such as Gordon Lightfoot, Utah Phillips and Rodney Crowell, as well as incorporating traditional songs.

https://www.youtube.com/v/UChaXhy26Fc

J.D. Crowe was a banjo virtuoso and performed with many bands and recordings, he is credited with taking the Scruggs stye to a new level.  The players who passed through his band make up a Who's Who in Bluegrass many of whom went on to lead bands of their own.

https://www.youtube.com/v/U-WhF6tQMEY

[Gurn Blanston]

One of the most cited albums by the third generation of Bluegrass musicians is J. D. Crowe & The New South. It is an album by American banjo player J. D. Crowe and The New South, released in 1975 .



    J. D. Crowe – banjo, guitar on "Rock, Salt & Nails", baritone vocals
    Jerry Douglas – dobro, guitar
    Tony Rice – guitar, lead vocals
    Ricky Skaggs – tenor vocals, fiddle, mandolin, violin, viola
    Bobby Slone – bass, fiddle

After Bluegrass Evolution, Ricky Skaggs replaced Larry Rice and Jerry Douglas joined the group for this eponymously titled album, more commonly known by its Rounder Records catalogue number ("Rounder 0044").  Stylistically, this album marked a sharp turn from Bluegrass Evolution as the majority of the album uses traditional bluegrass instrumentation on songs by up-and-coming singer-songwriters such as Gordon Lightfoot, Utah Phillips and Rodney Crowell, as well as incorporating traditional songs.

J.D. Crowe was a banjo virtuoso and performed with many bands and recordings, he is credited with taking the Scruggs stye to a new level.  The players who passed through his band make up a Who's Who in Bluegrass many of whom went on to lead bands of their own.

In fact, I'm listening to this album right now. It really deserves all the praise I've read about it. Not only are the tunes fine, but the playing is outstanding. It's the kind of album that is a solid addition to a collection of Bluegrass; another brick in the wall...

[FelixSkodi]

The Coon Creek Girls: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YABQQXFohC4

[Old San Antone]

I've always liked Tony Rice, not only because he sings and plays guitar about as good as can be done in Bluegrass.  But he has also chosen to perform songs outside the genre but when adapted by his bands sound like great Bluegrass songs.  He also happens to like a songwriter that has been one of my own favorites, Gordon Lightfoot.  He even devoted an entire album to Lightfoot material.  But the record Cold on the Shoulder includes two Lightfoot originals, as well as "I Think It is Going to Rain", a fantastic song by Randy Newman, and there's traditional Bluegrass songs as well as a Lester Flatt song, just a really nice group of songs done by some of the best musicians around.



    "Cold on the Shoulder" (Gordon Lightfoot) – 2:33
    "Wayfaring Stranger" (Traditional) – 5:21
    "John Hardy" (Traditional) – 3:27
    "Fare Thee Well" (Traditional) – 3:19
    "Bitter Green" (Gordon Lightfoot) – 2:43
    "Mule Skinner Blues" (Jimmie Rodgers) – 4:20
    "Song for Life" (Rodney Crowell) – 2:58
    "Why Don't You Tell Me So" (Lester Flatt) – 3:09
    "If You Only Knew" (Larry Rice) – 2:14
    "Likes of Me" (Jerry Reed) – 2:58
    "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" (Randy Newman) – 2:39

    Tony Rice – guitar, vocals
    Sam Bush – mandolin
    Vassar Clements – fiddle
    J. D. Crowe – banjo, background vocals
    Jerry Douglas – dobro
    Béla Fleck – banjo
    Bobby Hicks – fiddle
    Larry Rice – mandolin, background vocals
    Kate Wolf – background vocals
    Todd Phillips – bass