As promised, a thread celebrating Bluegrass and Old Time Music in all its forms. On another thread a discussion emerged about acoustic guitar playing, flatpicking as it is known among Bluegrass musicians. Here's a few clips, some veterans and some young players carrying on the flatpicking tradition.
Dan Crary
https://www.youtube.com/v/XOuXBAfi_qY
Molly Tuttle
https://www.youtube.com/v/Xvo-4x3y9aU
Norman Blake
https://www.youtube.com/v/UEkVkJax2Co
Bryan Sutton
https://www.youtube.com/v/dy_F6V_aADc
Billy Strings
https://www.youtube.com/v/mW8Yq7iPoJk
Any other Bluegrass fans out there?
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I've very much enjoyed Bela Fleck's Tales From the Acoustic Planet CDs
Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on April 28, 2020, 06:32:50 AM
I've very much enjoyed Bela Fleck's Tales From the Acoustic Planet CDs
Bela Fleck has also done some really good things with Abigail Washburn, another banjoist who stretches out on the instrument. Then there's Chris Thile with The Punch Brothers and The Goat Rodeo Sessions with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bassist Edgar Meyer and fiddle player Stuart Duncan.
There's a whole new generation of bluegrass and old time players who honor the tradition while bringing in the taste of other genres. Now is a great time for this music.
Count me in among bluegrass fans. As for flatpicking, I'm big on Doc Watson. I have a couple of youtubes saved out that I'll post later, he can really get down with it. :)
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on April 28, 2020, 07:15:02 AM
Count me in among bluegrass fans. As for flatpicking, I'm big on Doc Watson. I have a couple of youtubes saved out that I'll post later, he can really get down with it. :)
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I was hoping someone would post some Doc Watson. A master on both guitar and banjo.
Peter Rowan and Tony Rice performed with a quartet throughout the 2000s and 2010s. They were usually joined on string bass by Bryn Davies and mandolinist Sharon Gilchrist.
Dust Bowl Children
https://www.youtube.com/v/wZ07N-m2TFw
My general listening tends to run more blues than bluegrass, but I've liked most of what I've heard. My best friend growing up is now in a bluegrass band that sometimes plays in these parts, so I've heard a decent amount of it live, not as much from recordings other than Alison Kraus & Union Station and a few other things. I'll be watching for recommendations... :)
Quote from: Old San Antone on April 28, 2020, 07:28:27 AM
I was hoping someone would post some Doc Watson. A master on both guitar and banjo.
Yes!
This is a Smithsonian video he made, I started it at 3:30 where he actually gets into playing it, but before then he talks about how he learned it and such, which is interesting too if you crank it back. I used to play that style of guitar: I warn't no Doc Watson though! :D
https://youtu.be/cE2swkx9WXE?t=210
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on April 28, 2020, 08:21:56 AM
This is a Smithsonian video he made, I started it at 3:30 where he actually gets into playing it, but before then he talks about how he learned it and such, which is interesting too if you crank it back. I used to play that style of guitar: I warn't no Doc Watson though! :D
https://youtu.be/cE2swkx9WXE?t=210
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I can't play your video clip but found it on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/v/cE2swkx9WXE
The URL you used is not how I usually see for a YT clip. ??
Nice playing! This other one came up when I found the doc clip - Tommy Emmanuel and Jason Isbell singing Deep River Blues
https://www.youtube.com/v/YcbxsG3OWfA
Really nice singing and playing in great sound.
Quote from: Old San Antone on April 28, 2020, 09:17:08 AM
I can't play your video clip but found it on YouTube here:
https://www.youtube.com/v/cE2swkx9WXE
The URL you used is not how I usually see for a YT clip. ??
Nice playing!
It might fit better with your 'Acoustic Blues' thread, although that started after. I don't see youtube videos here, so I don't know whether mine posted right or not. Chrome & Flash are not friendly! :'(
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This is a very well produced recreation of the songs recorded in what Johnny Cash called the "Big Bang of Country Music", i.e. the 1927 Bristol Sessions conducted by Ralph Peer.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81AwxwnnRcL._SL1500_.jpg)
Orthophonic Joy: The 1927 Bristol Sessions Revisited is a double-CD produced by Grammy Award-winner Carl Jackson, a Bluegrass and country music artist, as a benefit for the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, Tennessee. The project was conceived by executive producer Rusty Morrell, a Bristol native who was well acquainted with the story of the historic 1927 Bristol Sessions and imagined a modern tribute to the sessions that have been dubbed the 'big bang' of country music. The project includes 37 tracks - 18 songs and 19 spoken word tracks that provide context. WSM disc jockey and country music historian Eddie Stubbs narrates the project, and a who's who of country artists recorded the new versions of the old classics. Jackson recorded the album between 2013 and 2015. It was released by Sony Legacy Recordings on May 12, 2015.
The purpose of the 1927 sessions was to record new talent for a public that was buying the new Orthophonic Victrola in record numbers. It launched the recording careers of Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family. Ernest Stoneman, already a popular recording artist, convinced Victor executive Ralph Peer to set up a temporary recording studio in Bristol. In a similar vein, the producers sponsored a talent contest for the Orthophonic Joy project. Corbin Hayslett, a 20-year-old banjo player, won the competition with his rendition of "Darling Cora," which he ultimately recorded for the project. [Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthophonic_Joy)]
American Epic: The Collection is a 100-track, 5-CD box set of American roots music performances from the 1920s and 1930s. It was compiled by film director Bernard MacMahon to accompany the release of his American Epic documentary film series. The box features 100 songs by 100 different artists and has been acclaimed by many critics as a worthy successor to the Anthology of American Folk Music and one of the best box sets to ever be released. The box set won particular acclaim for the song selection and the sound quality of the transfers of vintage 78rpm records.
(https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/yAYAAOSwEHpZLcDW/s-l400.jpg)
Excellent collection.
The Stanley Brothers (with the varying personnel of their three-or four-piece backing group, the Clinch Mountain Boys), were still-young bluegrass veterans when they arrived at Mercury in 1953, guitarist Carter about to turn 28, and banjoist Ralph 26. Recording was not the primary element in their career; they managed only 46 tracks in 12 sessions in four-and-a-half years (the last two selections come from an undated session for Smash, a label acquired by Mercury). But that gave them time to come up with excellent original material; 37 of the songs here were written by one or both of the brothers. [Allmusic (https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-complete-mercury-recordings-mw0000321902)]
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81S1D8%2BKKgL._SL1400_.jpg)
Bluegrass hardly gets any better than this.
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Quote from: Old San Antone on April 29, 2020, 05:33:36 PM
The Stanley Brothers (with the varying personnel of their three-or four-piece backing group, the Clinch Mountain Boys), were still-young bluegrass veterans when they arrived at Mercury in 1953, guitarist Carter about to turn 28, and banjoist Ralph 26. Recording was not the primary element in their career; they managed only 46 tracks in 12 sessions in four-and-a-half years (the last two selections come from an undated session for Smash, a label acquired by Mercury). But that gave them time to come up with excellent original material; 37 of the songs here were written by one or both of the brothers. [Allmusic (https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-complete-mercury-recordings-mw0000321902)]
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81S1D8%2BKKgL._SL1400_.jpg)
Bluegrass hardly gets any better than this.
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I loved Ralph on the soundtrack of 'Oh Brother, where art thou?', singing 'Man of Constant Sorrow' and also the 'Soggy Bottom Boys'. That was one of the best movie soundtracks ever. Every time some one here on the forum brings up movie soundtracks, I always want to post that one just to show them what they
could be! :D
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Just wanted to take a minute and thank you, SA, for starting this thread up. My bluegrass listening has been spread over 50 years (starting with Flatt & Scruggs), but has not been in any way methodical. So all I really go by is "I've heard some stuff by this guy or that group that I really like" but it isn't like I've ever collected records, like I have with Classical. So suggestions from anyone that come up are much appreciated!
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on April 29, 2020, 05:43:18 PM
I loved Ralph on the soundtrack of 'Oh Brother, where art thou?', singing 'Man of Constant Sorrow' and also the 'Soggy Bottom Boys'. That was one of the best movie soundtracks ever. Every time some one here on the forum brings up movie soundtracks, I always want to post that one just to show them what they could be! :D
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I agree 100% on the soundtrack. That recording kicked started a new wave of bluegrass and old time recording and formation of bands by a new generation of musicians which has resulted in some really great music. I have called it New Old Time - honoring the tradition but also bringing some new blood into it.
Some names:
Grascals
Steel Drivers
Anna & Elizabeth
Balsam Ridge
Chatham County Line
Crooked Still
Earls of Leicester (started out as a tribute band to Flatt &Scruggs by some of the best Nashville players)
Flatt Lonesome
Hammertowne
Sierra Hull
Molly Tuttle
Crooked Jade
Rayna Gellert (also with Kieran Kane)
Lonesome Sisters
So many, too many to name.
Also, there have been some great tribute albums, just a couple:
Bill Monroe Centennial Celebration
The Unbroken Circle: The Musical Heritage of the Carter Family
Quote from: Old San Antone on April 30, 2020, 03:24:43 AM
I agree 100% on the soundtrack. That recording kicked started a new wave of bluegrass and old time recording and formation of bands by a new generation of musicians which has resulted in some really great music. I have called it New Old Time - honoring the tradition but also bringing some new blood into it.
Some names:
Grascals
Steel Drivers
Anna & Elizabeth
Balsam Ridge
Chatham County Line
Crooked Still
Earls of Leicester (started out as a tribute band to Flatt &Scruggs by some of the best Nashville players)
Flatt Lonesome
Hammertowne
Sierra Hull
Molly Tuttle
Crooked Jade
Rayna Gellert (also with Kieran Kane)
Lonesome Sisters
So many, too many to name.
Also, there have been some great tribute albums, just a couple:
Bill Monroe Centennial Celebration
The Unbroken Circle: The Musical Heritage of the Carter Family
Some of those names are familiar, I have heard them on the NPR Bluegrass show with Dave Higgs, or else seen them on the PBS show 'Bluegrass Underground', which sometimes even has bluegrass! Mostly I cruise through Youtube and run across concerts, or jamborees with maybe 2 hours of top name players, like Ricky Skaggs or Alison Krause. That Bill Monroe Centennial looks tempting. I saw an old video just recently of his band with Stringbean playing banjo (before Earl Scruggs joined up) that was fantastic. I'd like a DVD full of those old timey vids. :)
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We were taling about Doc Watson the other day, and I ran across this 45 minute concert this evening, it's soooo good! Hope y'all enjoy it as much as I am doing. :)
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https://www.youtube.com/v/6mh_PuYjBjc
Doc Watson is a classic, nice link. Last year I read this biography:
[asin]B0089YLKVW[/asin]
Well written and enjoyable to read.
The Doc Watson Family has released two recordings of old time music, featuring Doc with his extended clan. Very good mountain folk music, not exactly bluegrass. I actually prefer old time to bluegrass, if only slightly, since old time music is less about the virtuosic technique of the players and more about presenting the old songs in an authentic style. Also, I prefer clawhammer, open-back, style banjo to the Scruggs (fast) three-finger technique on a closed (resonator) back banjo.
Someone told me that the real difference between old time and bluegrass is (of course this is an over generalization, but offers a simple distinction) bluegrass is performed by professionals on a stage for a paying audience whereas old time is played by amateurs on a porch for their friends and family, for free.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51vq0QaqUwL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/611Vi9fzdBL._SY355_.jpg)
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 01, 2020, 03:25:15 AM
The Doc Watson Family has released two recordings of old time music, featuring Doc with his extended clan. Very good mountain folk music, not exactly bluegrass. I actually prefer old time to bluegrass, if only slightly, since old time music is less about the virtuosic technique of the players and more about presenting the old songs in an authentic style. Also, I prefer clawhammer, open-back, style banjo to the Scruggs (fast) three-finger technique on a closed (resonator) back banjo.
Someone told me that the real difference between old time and bluegrass is (of course this is an over generalization, but offers a simple distinction) bluegrass is performed by professionals on a stage for a paying audience whereas old time is played by amateurs on a porch for their friends and family, for free.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51vq0QaqUwL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/611Vi9fzdBL._SY355_.jpg)
I don't know much about traditional style, although I can well imagine that I would enjoy it. That distinction is not lost on me! I also prefer clawhammer banjo, although there is nothing bad I would ever say about the Scruggs style, for certain. I've seen some frailing style banjoists that were phenomenally good, even if they weren't playing 'Foggy Mountain Breakdown'. :)
Quote from: Old San Antone on April 30, 2020, 06:31:35 PM
Doc Watson is a classic, nice link. Last year I read this biography:
[asin]B0089YLKVW[/asin]
Well written and enjoyable to read.
I put this on my wish list. Looks interesting.
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There is a great series, which originated as a televised documentary from the UK. Subsequently six volumes each with multiple CDs were released: The Transatlantic Sessions.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JabqkJnEL._SX342_QL70_ML2_.jpg)
The productions comprise collaborative live performances by various leading folk, bluegrass and country musicians from both sides of the North Atlantic, playing music from Scotland, Ireland, England and North America, who congregate under the musical direction of Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas to record and film a set of half-hour TV episodes.
This series celebrates the process of transplanting Scots-Irish music in America, mainly the Appalachian mountains, and the quality of the musicians could not have been better. It is a treasure trove of fantastic music played by the best interpreters in the world.
Mary Black with Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas
https://www.youtube.com/v/apOFrP3XbFM
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 01, 2020, 01:26:21 PM
There is a great series, which originated as a televised documentary from the UK. Subsequently six volumes each with multiple CDs were released: The Transatlantic Sessions.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JabqkJnEL._SX342_QL70_ML2_.jpg)
The productions comprise collaborative live performances by various leading folk, bluegrass and country musicians from both sides of the North Atlantic, playing music from Scotland, Ireland, England and North America, who congregate under the musical direction of Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas to record and film a set of half-hour TV episodes.
This series celebrates the process of transplanting Scots-Irish music in America, mainly the Appalachian mountains, and the quality of the musicians could not have been better. It is a treasure trove of fantastic music played by the best interpreters in the world.
Mary Black with Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas
https://www.youtube.com/v/apOFrP3XbFM
I can see me picking up a couple of the DVD's of that. I've always known that bluegrass and traditional music have their roots in Celtic/Gaelic folk music, in fact I have seen the Chieftains playing bluegrass(!), but this looks like a systematic effort to bring all that forward and show it. Thanks for this.
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High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes from Virginia and North Carolina is a 1975 compilation album released by Rounder Records. The album is composed of Appalachian folk music recordings gathered by musicologist John Cohen in North Carolina and Virginia in 1965.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81VKIjLypDL._SS500_.jpg)
Some really great stuff on this compilation:
Wade Ward,
Roscoe Holcomb,
Frank Proffitt,
Clarence Ashley,
Doc Watson,
Dock Boggs, and many more old time musicians.
https://www.youtube.com/v/ojKV3V378ZA
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 01, 2020, 05:30:18 PM
I can see me picking up a couple of the DVD's of that. I've always known that bluegrass and traditional music have their roots in Celtic/Gaelic folk music, in fact I have seen the Chieftains playing bluegrass(!), but this looks like a systematic effort to bring all that forward and show it. Thanks for this.
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I don't own any of the videos, but many of them are on YouTube. I've only listened to the CDs - over 250 songs, really nice collection. Brings to mind the Haydn and Beethoven Scottish folk song arrangements. It would be kind of cool to see if any of the songs date back and overlap.
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Quote from: Old San Antone on May 01, 2020, 06:37:24 PM
High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes from Virginia and North Carolina is a 1975 compilation album released by Rounder Records. The album is composed of Appalachian folk music recordings gathered by musicologist John Cohen in North Carolina and Virginia in 1965.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81VKIjLypDL._SS500_.jpg)
Some really great stuff on this compilation: Wade Ward, Roscoe Holcomb, Frank Proffitt, Clarence Ashley, Doc Watson, Dock Boggs, and many more old time musicians.
https://www.youtube.com/v/ojKV3V378ZA
I don't own any of the videos, but many of them are on YouTube. I've only listened to the CDs - over 250 songs, really nice collection. Brings to mind the Haydn and Beethoven Scottish folk song arrangements. It would be kind of cool to see if any of the songs date back and overlap.
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Here are a couple of disks I got to supplement my research on Burns, they have arrangements by Haydn and a variety of others. But they also have fiddle music by Neil Gow, one of the greats of the time (1790's), and a variety of other songs (mainly by Burns) nicely played. Anyway, I haven't had either the time nor the data to do any serious comparative research, beyond saying 'these sound like...' traditional mountain music and bluegrass, plus the limited general knowledge I have about Scots/Irish immigration into the hills (I am Scots/Irish myself, so it is somewhat personal). Anyway, these could be useful to aid to that research. I actually got both of these at BRO... :)
(https://i.imgur.com/9fvFWYc.jpg)(https://i.imgur.com/2t0xwDZ.jpg)
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 02, 2020, 08:22:16 AM
Here are a couple of disks I got to supplement my research on Burns, they have arrangements by Haydn and a variety of others. But they also have fiddle music by Neil Gow, one of the greats of the time (1790's), and a variety of other songs (mainly by Burns) nicely played. Anyway, I haven't had either the time nor the data to do any serious comparative research, beyond saying 'these sound like...' traditional mountain music and bluegrass, plus the limited general knowledge I have about Scots/Irish immigration into the hills (I am Scots/Irish myself, so it is somewhat personal). Anyway, these could be useful to aid to that research. I actually got both of these at BRO... :)
(https://i.imgur.com/9fvFWYc.jpg)(https://i.imgur.com/2t0xwDZ.jpg)
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Nice. Something to keep on my back burner. Since 2017 I've been developing a project that indirectly touches on the colonial settlement of the US, but my focus is the deep South. Of course, all those folks initially touched land on the Atlantic seacoast, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Virginia and then crossed the Appalachians into Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and then westward. Louisiana, where I'm from, has a bit of a different history.
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 02, 2020, 08:41:33 AM
Nice. Something to keep on my back burner. Since 2017 I've been developing a project that indirectly touches on the colonial settlement of the US, but my focus is the deep South. Of course, all those folks initially touched land on the Atlantic seacoast, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Virginia and then crossed the Appalachians into Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and then westward. Louisiana, where I'm from, has a bit of a different history.
My kin, the Sinclair's, McCaffrey's and a few others, actually came in through Quebec and into upper New York state. Probably why they ended up staying in New England. While the other side of the family, the Giroux's, Cadieux's etc, were French Canadian (Breton when they were still in France), and some of their kin split off to Louisiana (Acadia) and became part of that melting pot. When I first moved to Texas and met some Cajuns, I was stunned to hear the fiddling: it was identical to what I used to hear on Saturday nights on the front porch, and shows that those musical roots go back at least to 1800. So there is so much similarity between them all, and that's why the music is so 'homey' if your roots are there. :)
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 02, 2020, 05:07:33 PM
My kin, the Sinclair's, McCaffrey's and a few others, actually came in through Quebec and into upper New York state. Probably why they ended up staying in New England. While the other side of the family, the Giroux's, Cadieux's etc, were French Canadian (Breton when they were still in France), and some of their kin split off to Louisiana (Acadia) and became part of that melting pot. When I first moved to Texas and met some Cajuns, I was stunned to hear the fiddling: it was identical to what I used to hear on Saturday nights on the front porch, and shows that those musical roots go back at least to 1800. So there is so much similarity between them all, and that's why the music is so 'homey' if your roots are there. :)
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Thanks for this - I was not aware that any Scots-Irish came through Canada, but it makes sense since Canada was part of the Commonwealth. I have listened to plenty of Cajun fiddling, and really enjoy that music, and have relatives in Lake Charles and Lafayette - we're Sicilian, not Cajuns - but everybody down there parties the same.
TD
Dewey Balfa & Friends(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51G5B8R17PL.jpg)
One of my favorite fiddle recordings from Louisiana.
I don't know if there is a better Bluegrass band still playing (they are, aren't they?) than the Del McCoury Band. This is a perfect example of what I was talking about earlier, just trolling around on Youtube until I run across something to love.
On another tack, more technical, IMO this 5 man setup is the perfect balance in a Bluegrass group. Guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and Bass. The jams are spread out evenly, and the sound is just about perfect. Opinions on that?
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https://www.youtube.com/v/UxjUk8jrwVI&t
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 04, 2020, 05:35:17 PM
I don't know if there is a better Bluegrass band still playing (they are, aren't they?) than the Del McCoury Band. This is a perfect example of what I was talking about earlier, just trolling around on Youtube until I run across something to love.
On another tack, more technical, IMO this 5 man setup is the perfect balance in a Bluegrass group. Guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle and Bass. The jams are spread out evenly, and the sound is just about perfect. Opinions on that?
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https://www.youtube.com/v/UxjUk8jrwVI&t
This very afternoon I was thinking of posting about the McCoury band. A while back Ronnie and other members would play every Monday at a Nashville club, the Station Inn and it was a real treat. I agree that their line-up is classic, and they have specialized in the "one mic" approach, where they perform with a single microphone, and as the solos progress they do a complicated choreography moving back and forth in front of the mic.
The
Streets of Baltimore is one of their best, IMO, albums.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81i51uTiJlL._SL1500_.jpg)
They also collaborated with
Steve Earle on one of his records.
Great stuff!
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Does Man of Constant Sorrow from the film, "Brother, Where Art Though" by the fictitious Soggy Bottom Boys count?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDEqgmGIVg
Quote from: Baron Scarpia on May 04, 2020, 06:04:42 PM
Does Man of Constant Sorrow from the film, "Brother, Where Art Though" by the fictitious Soggy Bottom Boys count?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDEqgmGIVg
Yep! This thread is for Bluegrass AND
Old Time music, which "A Man of Constant Sorrow" falls into.
Dan Tyminski is super fantastic, was a member of Allison Krauss's band for a while and sang it for the movie soundtrack. I just wish he would record more on his own. He is a fantastic singer and guitar player.
Ralph Stanley also made the song somewhat of a regular thing he performed throughout his career.
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 04, 2020, 06:02:14 PM
This very afternoon I was thinking of posting about the McCoury band. A while back Ronnie and other members would play every Monday at a Nashville club, the Station Inn and it was a real treat. I agree that their line-up is classic, and they have specialized in the "one mic" approach, where they perform with a single microphone, and as the solos progress they do a complicated choreography moving back and forth in front of the mic.
The Streets of Baltimore is one of their best, IMO, albums.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81i51uTiJlL._SL1500_.jpg)
They also collaborated with Steve Earle on one of his records.
Great stuff!
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Thanks, I've been wanting to get an album but didn't know which. This looks like a start. Yeah, it's interesting to watch them shuffle back and forth to take their turn at the mic. They are really pros at it, I could easily see some bands giving up and saying 'shit, we need us another mic or two!' :D :D
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Bruce Molsky
He's a self-described "street kid" from the Bronx who bailed on college and big city life for a cold-water cabin in Virginia in the 1970s. His mission? To soak up the passion that was dramatically upending his parent's life plan for him – authentic Appalachian mountain music – at the feet of its legendary pioneers, old masters who are now long gone.
Today, Bruce Molsky is one of the most revered "multi-hyphenated career" ambassadors for America's old-time mountain music. For decades, he's been a globetrotting performer and educator, a recording artist with an expansive discography including seven solo albums, well over a dozen collaborations and two Grammy-nominations. He's also the classic "musician's musician" – a man who's received high praise from diverse fans and collaborators like Linda Ronstadt, Mark Knopfler, Celtic giants Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine, jazzer Bill Frisell and dobro master Jerry Douglas, a true country gentleman by way of the Big Apple aptly dubbed "the Rembrandt of Appalachian fiddlers" by virtuoso violinist and sometimes bandmate Darol Anger.
Can't Stay Here This a-Way
Bruce Molsky Live at the Tiki Parlour ( DVD & CD set )
(https://imagery.zoogletools.com/u/179978/e391ef6ee75034fb8ce6912cf2985cc6edc0dbf0/large/molsky-cover-for-web-4-1.jpg)
https://www.youtube.com/v/BbP1yFdnW4I&feature=emb_title
It is good to have this thread to enjoy. The old time music was around the area I grew up in, especially the church music variety. I have always felt I 'understood it.' Every year I visit the Ozark Folk Center in Mtn. View, AR for a Sacred Harp singing session. Super 'old time' music groups and soloist are always around there!
The Earls of Leicester (pronounced "Lester", as in Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs of course)
The Earls of Leicester is an American bluegrass group, assembled by Jerry Douglas to present the music of Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and their band the Foggy Mountain Boys to a contemporary audience.
Jerry Douglas - Dobro
Shawn Camp - lead vocals and guitar
Charlie Cushman - banjo and guitars
Johnny Warren - vocals and fiddle
Daniel Kimbro - vocals and bass
Jeff White - mandolin and vocals
Their latest, a live album focuses on songs from 1954-1965
(https://earlsofleicester.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/earlscma600-1.jpg)
Recorded over two nights at Nashville's CMA Theater, The Earls of Leicester Live at The CMA Theater in The Country Music Hall of Fame bears a boundless vitality that makes songs from over a half-century ago feel irresistibly fresh. Despite the band's painstaking precision in recreating the catalog of Flatt and Scruggs's Foggy Mountain Boys, the album unfolds with an easy warmth that honors the essence of traditional bluegrass, which Douglas describes as "music that was meant to be played on back porches." Earls of Leicester Live is also accompanied by a DVD that shows the complete splendor of their live set: the throwback attire, the off-the-cuff but illuminating between-song banter, the relentless hotfooting required of their stage setup. "Our goal is to go out and reacquaint everybody with the music of Flatt and Scruggs just the way they did it, which means fewer microphones and a good amount of choreography," says Douglas. "We're trying to put as much as we can into the music before it even reaches the speakers."
Made up entirely of songs from 1954 to 1965, Earls of Leicester Live combines classic tunes with more obscure numbers unearthed thanks to the band's encyclopedic familiarity with Flatt and Scruggs's body of work. To that end, the setlist includes notorious crowd-pleasers like "Martha White Theme Song" (originally penned as a jingle for Martha White Self-Rising Flour) and "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" (a breakneck-paced, banjo-driven instrumental popularized thanks to its use in Bonnie and Clyde), as well as the harmony-laced "You Can Feel It in Your Soul" and the sweetly crooning "All I Want Is You." Earls of Leicester Live also serves up several tracks integral to Flatt and Scruggs legend—including "I'm Gonna Sleep with One Eye Open," a song famously banned from the Grand Ole Opry—along with more oddball offerings like the gracefully sprawling two-part instrumental "Steel Guitar Blues/Spanish Two Step." And in one of the album's most poignant moments, the Earls of Leicester deliver the wistfully lilting "Reunion in Heaven"—a song the band performed at Foggy Mountain Boys mandolin player/vocalist Curly Seckler's gravesite earlier this year, as per Seckler's personal request.
https://www.youtube.com/v/7c2dmpMUwSY
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Quote from: Old San Antone on May 06, 2020, 04:58:53 AM
The Earls of Leicester (pronounced "Lester", as in Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs of course)
The Earls of Leicester is an American bluegrass group, assembled by Jerry Douglas to present the music of Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs and their band the Foggy Mountain Boys to a contemporary audience.
Jerry Douglas - Dobro
Shawn Camp - lead vocals and guitar
Charlie Cushman - banjo and guitars
Johnny Warren - vocals and fiddle
Daniel Kimbro - vocals and bass
Jeff White - mandolin and vocals
Their latest, a live album focuses on songs from 1954-1965
Recorded over two nights at Nashville's CMA Theater, The Earls of Leicester Live at The CMA Theater in The Country Music Hall of Fame bears a boundless vitality that makes songs from over a half-century ago feel irresistibly fresh. Despite the band's painstaking precision in recreating the catalog of Flatt and Scruggs's Foggy Mountain Boys, the album unfolds with an easy warmth that honors the essence of traditional bluegrass, which Douglas describes as "music that was meant to be played on back porches." Earls of Leicester Live is also accompanied by a DVD that shows the complete splendor of their live set: the throwback attire, the off-the-cuff but illuminating between-song banter, the relentless hotfooting required of their stage setup. "Our goal is to go out and reacquaint everybody with the music of Flatt and Scruggs just the way they did it, which means fewer microphones and a good amount of choreography," says Douglas. "We're trying to put as much as we can into the music before it even reaches the speakers."
Made up entirely of songs from 1954 to 1965, Earls of Leicester Live combines classic tunes with more obscure numbers unearthed thanks to the band's encyclopedic familiarity with Flatt and Scruggs's body of work. To that end, the setlist includes notorious crowd-pleasers like "Martha White Theme Song" (originally penned as a jingle for Martha White Self-Rising Flour) and "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" (a breakneck-paced, banjo-driven instrumental popularized thanks to its use in Bonnie and Clyde), as well as the harmony-laced "You Can Feel It in Your Soul" and the sweetly crooning "All I Want Is You." Earls of Leicester Live also serves up several tracks integral to Flatt and Scruggs legend—including "I'm Gonna Sleep with One Eye Open," a song famously banned from the Grand Ole Opry—along with more oddball offerings like the gracefully sprawling two-part instrumental "Steel Guitar Blues/Spanish Two Step." And in one of the album's most poignant moments, the Earls of Leicester deliver the wistfully lilting "Reunion in Heaven"—a song the band performed at Foggy Mountain Boys mandolin player/vocalist Curly Seckler's gravesite earlier this year, as per Seckler's personal request.
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I went ahead and pulled the trigger on this one, thanks. Flatt & Scruggs were my formal intro to Bluegrass (yep,
Theme from the Beverly Hillbillies) followed by,
Foggy Mountain Breakdown when
Bonnie & Clyde was released. from then on, I never turned down anything with a banjo in it! :)
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 06, 2020, 08:09:35 AM
I went ahead and pulled the trigger on this one, thanks. Flatt & Scruggs were my formal intro to Bluegrass (yep, Theme from the Beverly Hillbillies) followed by, Foggy Mountain Breakdown when Bonnie & Clyde was released. from then on, I never turned down anything with a banjo in it! :)
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I know you won't be disappointed, first of all they are among the best bluegrass players around and know this music backwards. Plus, the acoustics of the venue are excellent and the recorded live sound is fantastic. This is their third album the other two are studio recordings but this one really captures them at their best.
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 06, 2020, 09:11:02 AM
I know you won't be disappointed, first of all they are among the best bluegrass players around and know this music backwards. Plus, the acoustics of the venue are excellent and the recorded live sound is fantastic. This is their third album the other two are studio recordings but this one really captures them at their best.
Thanks, I'm looking forward to it. The online reviews were universally positive (of course, there is always the guy who gives it 3 stars because he 'hates live music' ::) ). It will be interesting to see when Amazon finally gets around to shipping it. I have some stuff I ordered last week that hasn't shipped yet! :o
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Charlie Poole (March 22, 1892 – May 21, 1931) was an American musician, singer and banjo player, as well as the leader of the North Carolina Ramblers, a string band that recorded many popular songs between 1925 and 1930.
(https://files.nc.gov/ncarts/charlie_poole_0.jpg)
Poole was born near the mill town of Franklinville in Randolph County, North Carolina. He was the son of John Philip Poole and Elizabeth Johnson. In 1918, he moved to the town of Spray, now part of Eden. He learned banjo as a youth. He played baseball, and his three-fingered technique was the result of an accident. He bet that he could catch a baseball without a glove. He closed his hand too soon, the ball broke his thumb, and resulted in a permanent arch in his right hand.
Poole bought his first banjo, an Orpheum No. 3 Special, with profits from making moonshine. Later, he appeared in the 1929 catalog of the Gibson Company, promoting their banjo.
He spent much of his adult life working in textile mills.
https://www.youtube.com/v/HgpyFRwEWa4
The best compilation of his recordings is this one:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81wS%2BMwFupL._SL1500_.jpg)
Eck Robertson & Family
(https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IwelLgbbQJM/W-m2sR90zuI/AAAAAAAAlsQ/51m5qbpTBKc13yvHemksLIGrA7xCRsriwCLcBGAs/s1600/ECK.png)
Alexander Campbell "Eck" Robertson (born November 20, 1887 in Delaney, Arkansas, died February 15, 1975 in Borger, Texas) was an American fiddle player, mostly known for commercially recording the first country music songs in 1922 with Henry Gilliland.
Robertson's first record, with his solo "Sallie Gooden" on one side and duet "Arkansaw Traveler" on the other, was released on September 1, 1922, but was not widely circulated until the spring of 1923. Sales figures are not known, but Victor did not promote the record strongly. His next two records were released in 1923 and 1924, but only after the summer of 1923, when Fiddlin' John Carson's recordings on Okeh Records kicked off a boom in old-time country music record sales. In 1925, Victor started using a new electrical recording process, but Robertson's 1922 acoustically made recordings continued to be made available for several years, being listed in "The Catalog of Victor Records 1930".
Robertson approached Victor about recording again, and in 1929 arranged to meet a Victor field recording engineer in Dallas, Texas. This time he included his wife Nettie on guitar, his daughter Daphne on tenor guitar and his son Dueron on tenor banjo. On August 12, 1929 the group recorded four fiddle tunes - "Texas Wagoner", "There's a Brown Skin Gal Down the Road", "Amarillo Waltz" and "Brown Kelly Waltz". On October 10, the Robertson family band returned to Dallas and recorded two fiddle duets with Texas fiddler J. B. Cranfill, "Great Big Taters" and "Run Boy Run". Two additional tunes were recorded that evening, "Apple Blossom" and "My Frog Ain't Got No Blues", but were not issued. The next day, October 11, the band recorded "Brilliancy Medley", released in September 1930, and the ballad "The Island Unknown", released in December 1929. That day the band also recorded three additional sides that were not released - "My Experience on the Ranch" and remakes of "Arkansaw Traveler" and "Sallie Gooden".
(https://img.discogs.com/Dg7HvyjzX4QrhljWt1nNP2eqU1k=/fit-in/600x597/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-6207656-1413737947-2100.jpeg.jpg)
A.C. (Eck) Robertson Sallie Gooden VICTOR 18956-A (1922)
https://www.youtube.com/v/O-lYijDB0tU
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61yRu8a2oxL._SL1195_.jpg)
QuoteThe bluegrass bandwagon continues to roll in 2001. This collection attempts to capitalize on the breakthrough success of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. Drawn from Rounder's rich catalog, the 19-cut sampler of female singing, fiddling, and picking extends from an era when women were a novelty in this male-dominated music category through the popular crossover ascendance of such contemporary artists (and O Brother favorites) as Alison Krauss and the Cox Family. Harmonies from the likes of Rhonda Vincent and the Stevens sisters soar toward the heavens, while the earthier strains of Hazel Dickens and Ginny Hawker are more reflective of the music's hardscrabble roots. Though Wilma Lee Cooper's "You Tried to Ruin My Name" has all the subtlety of a hog-calling contest, such rawness is about as real as this music gets. --Don McLeese
QuoteOpportunistic as the packaging may be, there's no arguing with the quality of the content. Generously packed with outstanding performances by women as stylistically disparate as Hazel Dickens, Claire Lynch, and Kathy Kallick, O Sister is a delightful celebration of several generations of criminally unheralded female bluegrass artists. The highlights are many, but particular standout tracks include Rhonda Vincent's rocking "Lonesome Wind Blues," the hard-edged mountain sound of Phyllis Boyens (backed up by Hazel Dickens and the Johnson Mountain Boys), and the clawhammer banjo-powered "Comin' Down From God" by the relatively unknown Carol Elizabeth Jones. [AllMusic Review by Rick Anderson]
Hazel Dickens was probably the first female singer/musician to break through in the bluegrass world. Since then, there have been many women who have made great music in the genre. This recording (there's also a second volume) brings together a number of them in a well-out-together program.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41swf8GjowL.jpg)
A rare concert recording featuring Ralph Stanley performing at New York's famed Bottom Line club, Ralph Stanley: Live At The Bottom Line, has been released and is in stores and available online now. The live set was recorded at the legendary Big Apple nightclub in 2002, and features many of Stanley's best-known songs, including "Man of Constant Sorrow," and "O Death." He is backed by a host of prestigious musicians on the recording, with Stuart Duncan (violin), James Shelton (guitar), Dennis Crouch (bass), and Mike Compton (mandolin) performing with the bluegrass legend for the special evening.
(https://musicrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/a91c8de7-d04d-46db-b034-1f8445c63b40.jpg)
Live At The Bottom Line Track Listing:
1. O Death
2. Band Introductions
3. Girl from the Greenbriar Shore
4. False-Hearted
5. Henry Lee
6. I'll Remember You Love, In My Prayers
7. Lift Him Up
8. Wild Bill Jones
9. Hemlocks & Primroses
10. Look On and Cry
11. Calling You
12. Pretty Polly
13. Great High Mountain
14. Man of Constant Sorrow
15. Amazing Grace
Really nice live concert with warm sound and featuring Ralph in fine form with a band of great musicians.
Bunch of good'uns there, OSA. I find myself getting rather keen to get to some of those old timey ones, like the Eck Robertson releases. IMHO, it isn't Bluegrass before Bill Monroe, but even he had to start with something. Kinda like the idea I've seen floated around that Beethoven invented Classical music.... :D
This one just showed up today:
[asin]B0000002CS[/asin]
Hadn't had time to listen yet, but looking forward to it. Life is short, art is long... :)
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 09, 2020, 07:13:11 PM
Bunch of good'uns there, OSA. I find myself getting rather keen to get to some of those old timey ones, like the Eck Robertson releases. IMHO, it isn't Bluegrass before Bill Monroe, but even he had to start with something. Kinda like the idea I've seen floated around that Beethoven invented Classical music.... :D
This one just showed up today:
[asin]B0000002CS[/asin]
Hadn't had time to listen yet, but looking forward to it. Life is short, art is long... :)
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I have that
High Almosphere and have enjoyed it a lot; hope you do too. Yep, Bluegrass was Bill Monroe's style of playing old time music and the instrumentation of his band with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs (the "Blue Grass" Boys) 1945-1948, was the template that started the ball rolling.
The Bluegrass Album Band
Bluegrass Album Band was a bluegrass supergroup, founded by Tony Rice and J.D. Crowe in 1980.[1] Originally, there was no intention to build a permanent group and the main reason for the collaboration was to record a solo album for Tony Rice. They found that this cooperation could work and the result was an album called The Bluegrass Album, released in 1981, with 5 more volumes of music to follow. On September 5, 2012, they announced a reunion show that was held at Bluegrass First Class in Asheville, NC on February 16, 2013.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NMOtHwgCL._SY355_.jpg)
Past members
Tony Rice – guitar, vocals
J.D. Crowe – banjo, vocals
Doyle Lawson – mandolin, vocals
Bobby Hicks – fiddle
Jerry Douglas – Dobro, vocals
Vassar Clements – fiddle
Todd Philips – bass
Mark Schatz – bass
Discography
The Bluegrass Album (1981)
Bluegrass Album, Vol. 2 (1982)
Bluegrass Album, Vol. 3 - California Connection (1983)
Bluegrass Album, Vol. 4 (1984)
Bluegrass Album, Vol. 5 - Sweet Sunny South (1989)
Bluegrass Album, Vol. 6 - Bluegrass Instrumentals (1996)
Down the Road: Songs of Flatt and Scruggs (2002; compilation)
I wish these guys would put out another record ...
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 10, 2020, 07:08:58 AM
The Bluegrass Album Band
Bluegrass Album Band was a bluegrass supergroup, founded by Tony Rice and J.D. Crowe in 1980.[1] Originally, there was no intention to build a permanent group and the main reason for the collaboration was to record a solo album for Tony Rice. They found that this cooperation could work and the result was an album called The Bluegrass Album, released in 1981, with 5 more volumes of music to follow. On September 5, 2012, they announced a reunion show that was held at Bluegrass First Class in Asheville, NC on February 16, 2013.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51NMOtHwgCL._SY355_.jpg)
Past members
Tony Rice – guitar, vocals
J.D. Crowe – banjo, vocals
Doyle Lawson – mandolin, vocals
Bobby Hicks – fiddle
Jerry Douglas – Dobro, vocals
Vassar Clements – fiddle
Todd Philips – bass
Mark Schatz – bass
Discography
The Bluegrass Album (1981)
Bluegrass Album, Vol. 2 (1982)
Bluegrass Album, Vol. 3 - California Connection (1983)
Bluegrass Album, Vol. 4 (1984)
Bluegrass Album, Vol. 5 - Sweet Sunny South (1989)
Bluegrass Album, Vol. 6 - Bluegrass Instrumentals (1996)
Down the Road: Songs of Flatt and Scruggs (2002; compilation)
I wish these guys would put out another record ...
Sweet. That would make a great boxed set... just sayin'. :D Vassar Clements. Wow! I've seen videos of him playing, he was in a class of his own! :o
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 10, 2020, 08:37:37 AM
Sweet. That would make a great boxed set... just sayin'. :D Vassar Clements. Wow! I've seen videos of him playing, he was in a class of his own! :o
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Tony Rice has a real respect for the tradition and history of Bluegrass and surrounds himself with the best players. Of course they wouldn't show up if Rice wasn't also an accomplisted singer and guitar player. ;) Tony Rice has made several records of pure Bluegrass, in a variety of group settings, including one honoring
Bill Monroe. Some of my favorites were two records he made with
Norman Blake. He also did an entire record in bluegrass style of songs by
Gordon Lightfoot. Rice and
Peter Rowan have been performing together now for about two-three years and put out one record.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41oActD5zIL._SX466_.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71zW3oh0--L._SL1050_.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71fvWWd35NL._SL1065_.jpg)(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71sThPMN-EL._SS500_.jpg)
Thanks for this great and informative thread.
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 01, 2020, 01:26:21 PM
There is a great series, which originated as a televised documentary from the UK. Subsequently six volumes each with multiple CDs were released: The Transatlantic Sessions.
I'm interested in this, as I like to explore folk music from both sides of the ocean. Which volume(s) of this series do you most highly recommend? BTW I'm only interested in CDs, not DVDs.
Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on May 10, 2020, 09:46:59 AM
Thanks for this great and informative thread.
I'm interested in this, as I like to explore folk music from both sides of the ocean. Which volume(s) of this series do you most highly recommend? BTW I'm only interested in CDs, not DVDs.
Oh, I can't say which I'd recommend since each CD set includes such a variety of guests most of which I find interesting - but the Wikipedia page lists them all and you could find the one(s) you think most interesting. It just depends if you like James Taylor more than Emmylou Harris, etc.
Transatlantic Sessions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Sessions)
I listen to them on Spotify and don't know if the CDs are hard to find, but they are a real treat.
The Bristol Sessions are a series of recording sessions held in 1927 in Bristol, Tennessee, considered by some as the "Big Bang" of modern country music. The recordings were made by Victor Talking Machine Company producer
Ralph Peer. Bristol was one of the stops on a two-month, $60,000 trip that took Peer through several major southern cities and yielded important recordings of blues, ragtime, gospel, ballads, topical songs, and string bands. The Bristol Sessions marked the commercial debuts of
Jimmie Rodgers and the
Carter Family.
QuoteWikipedia:
Between 25 July and 5 August 1927, Peer held recording sessions on the third floor of the Taylor-Christian Hat and Glove Company on State Street, which is the state line in Bristol.[9] He placed advertisements in the local newspapers, which did not receive much response aside from artists who had already traveled to New York (such as the Powers Family) or were already known by Stoneman.
Stoneman was the first to record with Peer, on 25 July 1927. He recorded with his wife Hattie, Eck Dunford and Mooney Brewer. Other acts, including the Johnson Brothers vaudeville duo (best known for their Crime of The D'Autremont Brothers) and a church choir, filled out the rest of July. However, these artists were only enough to fill the first week of recordings and Peer needed to fill out his second week.
A newspaper article about one of Stoneman's recordings (Skip To Ma Lou, My Darling), which stressed the $3,600 in royalties that Stoneman had received in 1926 and the $100/day that he was receiving for recording in Bristol, generated much more interest. Dozens of artists went to Bristol, many of whom had never been to Bristol. He scheduled night sessions to accommodate the extra talent, which included Jimmie Rodgers. Rodgers had a disagreement with the band in which he was a member over what name to record under, and so Rodgers recorded solo and the band recorded as the Tenneva Ramblers. Rodgers and the band found out about the sessions only when they stayed at the boarding house run by the mother of one band member.
The arrival of the Carter Family was more expected. Ralph Peer had corresponded with the family earlier in the summer, but later wrote that "he was still surprised to see them," primarily due to their appearance. "They wander in," Peer told Lillian Borgeson during a series of interviews in 1959. "He's dressed in overalls and the women are country women from way back there. They looked like hillbillies. But as soon as I heard Sara's voice, that was it. I knew it was going to be wonderful." The Carters recorded four songs on the second Monday of the sessions and two the next day. On 1 August, Sara sang lead while playing autoharp, A.P. sang bass, and 18-year-old Maybelle played guitar with an unusual and subsequently influential style that allowed her to provide both melody and rhythm. The Victor Company released the first Carter Family record, "Poor Orphan Child" and "The Wandering Boy," on 4 November 1927.
The 1927 sessions recorded 76 songs, recorded by 19 performers or performing groups.
The Bear Family has released an important 5CD compilation of these sessions:
(https://www.bear-family.com/media/image/d1/g0/e1/bcd16094_600x600@2x.jpg)
They have also released a remarkable box of all of the
Carter Family recordings:
(https://www.bear-family.com/media/image/08/e7/f7/4000127158659_600x600@2x.jpg)
Unfortunately the
Jimmie Rodgers box has been deleted and is no longer available, unless from a third party seller:
(https://www.bear-family.com/media/image/e0/09/8f/bcd15540a_600x600@2x.jpg)
The Bear Family boxes are produced with 100+ page books documenting the music and history of the musicians and sessions and the production values are high, hence they can be expensive. But for people interested in these musicians and recordings they were well worth the investment.
Sony has released two volumes in 2019 of the Carter Family containing about 160 tracks (might only be available as downloads).
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71Ub5Ps2KAL._SS500_.jpg)(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71ogHDn4BPL._SS500_.jpg)
Jimmie Rodgers recordings are also available Sony (might only be available as downloads).
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/711kMI7BAAL._SS500_.jpg)
It is generally thought that the music recorded by these two acts directly led to the development of Bluegrass, Southern Gospel and Country music. The Carter Family led to string band music which led to Bluegrass and because many of theri songs were religious in nature, it led to the Southern Gospel tradition. Jimmie Rodgers led to honky-tonk singers which were an early manifestation of Country music and Jimmie Rodgers created the template for county song-writing, influencing
Ernest Tubb,
Merle Haggard, and many others.
The concept: Recast a big bunch of bluegrass and rock 'n' roll favorites in a variety of old-time country styles, using an array of vintage instruments. In the hands of the wrong musicians, that could be disastrous, but David Grisman, John Hartford and Mike Seeger — all masters of traditional music — get the job done nicely. Their love for (and knowledge of) both the material and the styles lifts the effort well clear of novelty-only status.
Retrograss is a bluegrass album by David Grisman, John Hartford and Mike Seeger. It was released on the Acoustic Disc record label in 1999. Retrograss received a Grammy nomination in the Traditional Folk Album category in 2000.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61dFe3kkIWL._SX425_.jpg)
John Hartford was a one-of-a-kind American musician. I think of him as the Mark Twain of vernacular music. Here he is joined by David Grisman and Mike Seeger, two more unique musicians. What a wonderful record they left us! They managed to take songs like Maggie's Farm, When I'm Sixty-Four and Hound Dog and turn them into traditional sounding Bluegrass tunes.
Track listing
"My Walking Shoes" (Jimmy Martin) – 2:49
"Hound Dawg" (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) – 2:39
"Maggie's Farm" (Bob Dylan) – 2:48
"Memphis" (Chuck Berry) – 2:44
"Flint Hill Special" (Earl Scruggs) – 2:32
"The Old Home Place" (Mitch Jayne, Dean Webb) – 3:02
"Uncle Pen" (Bill Monroe) – 3:02
"Air Mail Special on the Fly" (Godson, Rusk) – 2:14
"Rocky Top" (Boudleaux Bryant, Felice Bryant) – 3:30
"Room at the Stop of the Stair" (Randall Hylton) – 2:14
"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" (Steve Cropper, Otis Redding) – 2:38
"Jerusalem Ridge" (Monroe) – 3:39
"Windy Mountain" (Curley Ray Cline) – 3:07
"Maybellene" (Berry) – 2:40
"Blue Ridge Cabin Home" (Louise Certain, Gladys Stacey) – 3:16
"Rocky Road Blues" (Monroe) – 3:42
"When I'm Sixty-Four" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 7:51
Personnel
David Grisman – banjo, bass, guitar, mandolin, vocals, tenor ukulele
John Hartford – banjo, fiddle, guitar, autoharp, vocals, 5-string banjo
Mike Seeger – banjo, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, mandolin, autoharp, Jew's harp, vocals
Sam Grisman – double bass
Hartford used to be pretty commercially well-known, I used to see him on television back in the late '60's/early '70's, playing with (IIRC) Glen Campbell, for whom he wrote 'Gentle on my Mind'. I had kinda lost track of him for 40 years or so, it's nice to see he has been hanging in there and doing some pretty great things musically.
I can see that building up any sort of decent collection is going to be time & $$$ intensive, but I think if I go the FLAC/PDF route, I can maybe do OK. Man, there is a lot out there!! :o
8)
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 10, 2020, 05:41:07 PM
Hartford used to be pretty commercially well-known, I used to see him on television back in the late '60's/early '70's, playing with (IIRC) Glen Campbell, for whom he wrote 'Gentle on my Mind'. I had kinda lost track of him for 40 years or so, it's nice to see he has been hanging in there and doing some pretty great things musically.
I can see that building up any sort of decent collection is going to be time & $$$ intensive, but I think if I go the FLAC/PDF route, I can maybe do OK. Man, there is a lot out there!! :o
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Far be it from me to instigate another buying spree and take funds away from Haydn ! ;D But, there is a rich history of this music and plenty of great recordings documenting it. Speaking of which, I thought I'd mention a few books.
This is the primary historical text by
Neil Rosenberg[asin]0252072456[/asin]
And a few biographies.
[asin]B009PQ8QG0[/asin]
[asin]B00AK78QMC[/asin]
[asin]B002SAUCCQ[/asin]
[asin]B00B08XD1E[/asin]
We lost John in 2001. He was a well-respected banjo and fiddle player, as well as raconteur, who knew this music backwards - and the composer of "Gentle on My Mind", a really good song.
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"Angel Band" is an American gospel music song. The lyrics – a poem written in common metre – were originally titled "My Latest Sun Is Sinking Fast," and were written by Jefferson Hascall (sometimes found as Haskell in hymnals). The lyric was first set in J. W. Dadmun's tunebook The Melodeon in 1860, to a tune by Dadmun. These words, being in common metre, could be sung to many hymn tunes, but the tune now universally associated them is by William Batchelder Bradbury, and was published in Bradbury's Golden Shower of S.S. Melodies in 1862. Bradbury's song was originally titled "The Land of Beulah." "Angel Band" became widely known in the 19th century, both in folk traditions and in published form, e.g. William Walker's Christian Harmony of 1866, and has been recorded by many artists, probably most famously by the Stanley Brothers, and Emmylou Harris. The Stanley Brothers version is included on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack album (2000). [Wikipedia]
https://www.youtube.com/v/WIHFxIQfSxc
Emmylou Harris devoted one of her albums to an acoustic collection of gospel songs, which she called Angel Band, one of her records that I enjoy more than others.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/EmmylouHarrisAngelBand.jpg)
Emmylou Harris – acoustic guitar, arranger, lead vocals
Mike Auldridge – dobro
Jerry Douglas – dobro
Vince Gill – acoustic guitar, mandolin, tenor vocals
Emory Gordy Jr. – acoustic guitar, arranger, bass vocals, bass guitar
Carl Jackson – acoustic guitar, baritone vocals
Mark O'Connor – fiddle, viola, mandola
https://www.youtube.com/v/L8ONNmapmDw
I've been listening to Del McCoury today.
Delano Floyd McCoury (born February 1, 1939) is an American bluegrass musician. As leader of the Del McCoury Band, he plays guitar and sings lead vocals along with his two sons, Ronnie McCoury and Rob McCoury, who play mandolin and banjo respectively. McCoury has had a long career in bluegrass. Although originally hired as banjo player, he sang lead vocals and played rhythm guitar for Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in 1963, with whom he first appeared on the Grand Ole Opry. [Wikipedia]
In 2009 he released a multi-CD collection of 32 newly recorded songs he had previously recorded as well as 18 from his recent releases: 50 songs, covering 50 years in the business.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91Fm7HD5FpL._SL1500_.jpg)
Other notable recordings include:
(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/56a692ee9cadb64d2301efd6/1522960090181-UDZZBORLNPBQK83WY1SL/image-asset.jpeg?content-type=image%2Fjpeg)(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91k2Q-T6VnL._SS500_.jpg)(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56a692ee9cadb64d2301efd6/1490202509271-LXL7X2BIYJK0ZB8N68FH/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kOyctPanBqSdf7WQMpY1FsRZw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWQUxwkmyExglNqGp0IvTJZUJFbgE-7XRK3dMEBRBhUpwwQIrqN0bcqL_6-iJCOAA0qwytzcs0JTq1XS2aqVbyK6GtMIM7F0DGeOwCXa63_4k/097e75f8dadb45a4a86fa112acad919c.jpg)
And two collaborative recordings of which he was an important part:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81inHlHcP9L._SL1500_.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91FhEKJSnAL._SX355_.jpg)
David Grisman once said that Bluegrass had been perfected long ago by Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs and the Stanley Brothers. I'd say that Del McCoury has done a masterful job in preserving the music as well making a unique contribution while not compromising the tradition.
8)
I've been listening to McCoury too, this album finally arrived today:
(https://i.imgur.com/jMoEsTc.jpg)
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! :)
(https://i.imgur.com/KtoIhH1.jpg)
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?
https://www.youtube.com/v/ztmg6lZayrE
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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
Quote from: FelixSkodi on May 12, 2020, 06:35:17 PM
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
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! :)
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 12, 2020, 07:09:29 PM
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! :)
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For sure. I have dreams of going up into the mountains. 8)
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 12, 2020, 06:29:26 PM
I've been listening to McCoury too, this album finally arrived today:
(https://i.imgur.com/jMoEsTc.jpg)
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! :)
(https://i.imgur.com/KtoIhH1.jpg)
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?
8)
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.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61M8tUVAFeL.jpg)
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 12, 2020, 06:35:17 PM
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. ;)
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 13, 2020, 05:22:20 AM
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. :)
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.
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 12, 2020, 07:15:45 PM
For sure. I have dreams of going up into the mountains. 8)
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! :D
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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 (https://thebluegrasssituation.com/read/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
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 13, 2020, 08:44:11 AM
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! :D
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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.
;D
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 13, 2020, 05:08:49 AM
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.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61M8tUVAFeL.jpg)
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. :)
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Quote from: Old San Antone on May 13, 2020, 08:49:46 AM
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.
;D
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! :D 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. :)
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Quote from: Old San Antone on May 13, 2020, 08:46:25 AM
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 (https://thebluegrasssituation.com/read/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.
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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
Balsam Range (https://www.balsamrange.com/) 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:
Quote"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.
(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/5c6db0b75239580c0421b38e/1551389871223-2D6ES7A3FJH9E292HO8M/image-asset.png?content-type=image%2Fpng)(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/5c6db0b75239580c0421b38e/1551390029379-SMD93393O2P9UYEYJONT/image-asset.png?content-type=image%2Fpng)(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/5c6db0b75239580c0421b38e/1551390628794-L7OFHJT3QPLLZ2NSP6HJ/image-asset.jpeg?content-type=image%2Fjpeg)
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 13, 2020, 05:49:52 PM
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 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQjCKAI4gA), and then committed suicide instead of going to prison. There is another great YouTube about Appalachia,
Appalachian Journey", Alan Lomax (1991) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXh8SDp0H-E&t=1435s), which focuses more on the music.
And for a historical perspective, there's this one,
The History of the Appalachian People (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87ugtsqVGzU).
That clip of
Stringbean is great!
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 13, 2020, 06:30:47 PM
Nice looking video, thanks. Popcorn Sutton made a movie of his last batch of moonshine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glQjCKAI4gA), and then committed suicide instead of going to prison. There is another great YouTube about Appalachia, Appalachian Journey", Alan Lomax (1991) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXh8SDp0H-E&t=1435s), which focuses more on the music.
And for a historical perspective, there's this one, The History of the Appalachian People (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87ugtsqVGzU).
That clip of Stringbean is great!
Holy sweet Moses!
I think my weekend has been dictated for me. All those videos look amazing!
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
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 .
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91L5ABKDsnL._SL1500_.jpg)
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
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 14, 2020, 09:54:41 AM
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 .
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91L5ABKDsnL._SL1500_.jpg)
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... :)
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The Coon Creek Girls: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YABQQXFohC4
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.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ufLBfpoIL._SX466_.jpg)
"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
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 14, 2020, 01:53:23 PM
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... :)
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Yep. I was reminded of it recently when a fiddle/mandolin player friend of mine posted it on Facebook.
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 14, 2020, 02:17:05 PM
The Coon Creek Girls: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YABQQXFohC4
Nice. You keep finding music I've never heard or heard of! Keep 'em comin'.
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Quote from: Old San Antone on May 14, 2020, 03:59:17 PM
Nice. You keep finding music I've never heard or heard of! Keep 'em comin'.
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Same to you. I'm loving this thread.
Jerry Mckinley Holland singing Mark 16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QmkgYmqelw
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 14, 2020, 03:56:31 PM
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.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ufLBfpoIL._SX466_.jpg)
"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
Nice lineup (songs & players both). I've been looking for an album where he was the 'leader' so to speak. I've got a friend who is always talking about what a great guitar player he is, but you know, the music has to be right for me too. I'm also a Lightfoot fan, BTW. Back when I was a player, I mostly played folk music, and he was one of my idols. Plus, I'm always encouraged by any album that has songs written by 'Traditional'. I know you know what I mean... ;)
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Otha Turner - Complete Original Recordings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAxmtRLOePk
Quote from: Philoctetes on May 14, 2020, 06:12:09 PM
Otha Turner - Complete Original Recordings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAxmtRLOePk
That is very cool, the fife and drum playing from Mississippi is a link to Africa. This might be better for the Acoustic Blues thread, since it is part of the African American musical tradition of Mississippi. I read that
Othar Turner was the last person who knew this music and was able to pass it on to his granddaughter and protégé Shardé Thomas, before Turner died. So maybe it will live on for another generation.
Martin Scorsese produced a ten part documentary of the Blues and used some of Turner's drum/fife music in his movie
The Gangs of New York. Scorsese is a serious Blues fan.
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 14, 2020, 07:35:26 PM
That is very cool, the fife and drum playing from Mississippi is a link to Africa. This might be better for the Acoustic Blues thread, since it is part of the African American musical tradition of Mississippi. I read that Othar Turner was the last person who knew this music and was able to pass it on to his granddaughter and protégé Shardé Thomas, before Turner died. So maybe it will live on for another generation.
Martin Scorsese produced a ten part documentary of the Blues and used some of Turner's drum/fife music in his movie The Gangs of New York. Scorsese is a serious Blues fan.
Whoops. I'll pay better attention next time, but, yes, he passed on the tradition, and his granddaughter is just as good, I feel.
I'll have a look at the doc. Thanks.
Norman Blake (born March 10, 1938) is a traditional American stringed instrument artist and songwriter.
I've been a fan of Norman Blake for years, love his playing and his choice of material. The following is from his Wikipedia article.
After being discharged from the Army, Blake moved to Nashville and became a studio musician. For ten years, he toured and recorded with country singer Johnny Cash and continued to play with Cash intermittently over the next thirty. He met his wife, Nancy Short, a cellist with a classical music background who was playing in a folk group. hey have released a number of records together, sometimes calling themselves the Rising Fawn Ensemble, often with a third member.
He was asked by Bob Dylan to play on the country-folk album Nashville Skyline, then became a member of the house band on Johnny Cash's TV show. Kris Kristofferson, one of the guests, hired Blake to tour with him. Blake recorded with folk singer Joan Baez and appeared on her hit song "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". In 1971, he became a member of the bluegrass group Aero-plain, led by multi-instrumentalist John Hartford with fiddler Vassar Clements, but the band didn't last long.
Blake also played dobro on the 1972 album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Most of the music that Norman Blake plays could be described as neo-traditionalist Americana folk and roots music (folk, bluegrass, country, blues), and many of the songs he plays are traditional, but he plays this acoustic type of music with a style, speed, and quality that has evolved and progressed in the modern age. Though probably best known for his fluid renditions of classic fiddle tunes transcribed for the guitar ("Fiddler's Dram/Whiskey Before Breakfast"), Blake has also written songs that have become bluegrass and folk standards, such as "Ginseng Sullivan", "Slow Train through Georgia", "Billy Gray", and "Church Street Blues".
Although known as one of the most prominent steel-string guitar flat-pickers, Blake is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. Other instruments he plays include the mandolin, 6-string banjo, fiddle, dobro, banjo and viola. He is known for his loose, right-hand guitar technique, which arose out of his mandolin technique. Also well known is his devotion to 12-fret guitars, including Martin 00s, 000s, D18s, D28s, and Gibsons, like his 1929 12-fret Nick Lucas special.
The Fields of November
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fb/The_Fields_of_November_reissue.jpg)
Norman Blake – guitar, fiddle, dobro, mandolin, vocals
Charlie Collins – guitar, fiddle
Robert Arthur "Tut" Taylor - dobro
Nancy Short – cello
In his Allmusic review, critic Jim Smith called the album " a thoroughly relaxed affair that did much to establish the sound he would follow throughout the rest of his career, mixing wistful ballads with controlled instrumental material. He demonstrates his musical prowess by playing fiddle, mandolin, and dobro, as well as composing all of the album's songs.
Rising Fawn String Ensemble
https://www.youtube.com/v/5QSZ2oemthw
Bluegrass is such a powerful style representing authenticity and rural/country roots that inevitably artists who have made their careers in more commercial music will choose to unplug and make a "Bluegrass Sessions" recording. To me, these are often their best work. Merle Haggard did it, so did Steve Earle, EmmyLou Harris, Alan Jackson, and Jim Lauderdale has made several records, most impressively with Ralph Stanley, of Bluegrass inspired music.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71HcbPD0q5L._SL1500_.jpg)(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/Steve_Earle_The_Mountain_Album_Cover.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81v1LcstoYL._SL1425_.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/718C9IICKYL._SY355_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51235euqagL._SX466_.jpg)(https://img.discogs.com/iAr1qeeIvHlMkl7abUftwm8IbzI=/fit-in/500x491/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3828414-1346006549-5006.jpeg.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61YWWniz7YL._SY355_.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81vrzGMZScL._SL1500_.jpg)
Although these are not straight Bluegrass, two favorites of mine just because I'm such a Leon Russell fan were some he did with New Grass Revival (one of the most successful progressive Bluegrass bands). And Dolly Parton went back to her roots in her late career albums The Grass is Blue and Little Sparrow, both excellent.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/22/WilsonVol4RhythmBluegrass.jpg/220px-WilsonVol4RhythmBluegrass.jpg)(https://img.discogs.com/mE13VPY7wN02uPPVFGZRvQZe3eI=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-1776481-1244748443.jpeg.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61IQfVB2W8L._SL1200_.jpg)(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Little_Sparrow_cover.jpg)
Crooked Still is an American band consisting of vocalist Aoife O'Donovan, banjo player Gregory Liszt, bassist Corey DiMario, cellist Tristan Clarridge and fiddler Brittany Haas. They are known for their high energy, technical skill, unusual instrumentation, and innovative acoustic style. The string band's style has been described as progressive bluegrass, folk-country, and Americana. O'Donovan states that the band is playing its "own sort of continuation" on the bluegrass tradition that began in the U.S. with Bill Monroe and Jimmy Martin. (Wikipedia)
Their music is definitely coming out the old tradition but they are bringing in other influences and stylistic elements which give it a very unique sound. Aoife O'Donovan is an very talented singer with a distinctive voice and style, and their choice of instruments is unusual but still within a "string band" acoustic. I enjoy them a lot. The only down side is their sporadic activity. Tthey only seem come together every few years for a Crooked Still recording, but will surface semi-regularly in one-off singles. I think they are overdue for a full-fledged new recording of their own music.
Their latest recording is Friends of Fall
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71wnoa4WJUL._SL1200_.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81IV8Y8k53L._SL1200_.jpg)
But I think their most successful album is Shaken by a Low Sound, their second release. With repertoire mostly consisting of traditional music the group sounded original with the combination of Aoife O'Donovan's vocals and the unusual banjo-cello-double bass line up.
Little Sadie
https://www.youtube.com/v/4Fk4uBgPSPc
Some great music from two of the best younger Bluegrass players carrying the tradition forward.
Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings: "Sittin On Top Of The World" (Grey Fox 2019)
https://www.youtube.com/v/LJzz-Nuo-QQ
Extremely interesting take on The Hammons Family:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtX8AHK_RUA
The Roan Mountain Hilltoppers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZjLU-iJRnA
Gid Tanner And His Skillet Lickers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQYswNgQtFo
That Roan Mountain Hilltoppers clip is great.
BOY - I completely missed this new thread on 'Bluegrass & Old Time Music' - a big fan myself since moving from Michigan to Winston Salem, NC in 1971; we've been in the state ever since and have 'soaked up' a lot of the traditional and historic music of the region - my 'bluegrass' collection probably numbers about a 150 CDs (many shown in the previous posts) (and not to mention a lot of overlap in my 'country collection') - wife and I do a LOT of regional travel in North Carolina and adjacent states - visited Bristol TN/VA a few years back - the Peer recording building is no longer standing but there is a huge mural and a performing stage on or near the site (pic below - also an excellent book on Peer for those interested).
Wife is not a BIG fan of bluegrass so we often do not see live shows, but our last one was in Greensboro w/ Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers (have several of their CDs and also a couple of Steve Martin) - could go 'on & on' about the last 40+ years here, but let me peruse my recordings - did a re-listen a few years back but not much lately. Dave :)
(http://www.ipadforums.net/attachments/bristo_sign-png.67481/) (http://www.ipadforums.net/attachments/ralphpeer-jpg.67482/)
(https://bluegrasstoday-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/bristol_mural_th.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61mpG1EYkXL.jpg)
Quote from: SonicMan46 on May 23, 2020, 11:10:10 AM
BOY - I completely missed this new thread on 'Bluegrass & Old Time Music' - a big fan myself since moving from Michigan to Winston Salem, NC in 1971; we've been in the state ever since and have 'soaked up' a lot of the traditional and historic music of the region - my 'bluegrass' collection probably numbers about a 150 CDs (many shown in the previous posts) (and not to mention a lot of overlap in my 'country collection') - wife and I do a LOT of regional travel in North Carolina and adjacent states - visited Bristol TN/VA a few years back - the Peer recording building is no longer standing but there is a huge mural and a performing stage on or near the site (pic below - also an excellent book on Peer for those interested).
Wife is not a BIG fan of bluegrass so we often do not see live shows, but our last one was in Greensboro w/ Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers (have several of their CDs and also a couple of Steve Martin) - could go 'on & on' about the last 40+ years here, but let me peruse my recordings - did a re-listen a few years back but not much lately. Dave :)
(http://www.ipadforums.net/attachments/bristo_sign-png.67481/) (http://www.ipadforums.net/attachments/ralphpeer-jpg.67482/)
(https://bluegrasstoday-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/bristol_mural_th.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61mpG1EYkXL.jpg)
Great post, Dave! I think pretty early in this thread I wrote about the Bristol Sessions box and The Carter Family - that's the real music. My entry point was back in the late '60s when I listened to the Harry Smith Anthology of Folk Music - blew my mind.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/88/AnthAmerFolkMusic.jpg/220px-AnthAmerFolkMusic.jpg)
Thanks for checking in, and please keep coming back and let us know what you hear in North Carolina - one of the great places for this music. So many fantastic players came from your neck of the woods - must be something in the water.
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QuoteThe original concept of the Grascals occurred when the four core members, Terry Eldredge, Jamie Johnson, Jimmy Mattingly, and Dave Talbot, asked Terry Smith and Danny Roberts to join a new group they were wanting to start. They played one of their first shows at the Station Inn in February 2004 with special guest Bobby Osborne. An interesting fact to mention is that the band believed that this wouldn't really go anywhere, almost as a side job to add a little money for their families.
The Grascals began recording their first album in 2004, which would simply be a self-titled album on Rounder Records. This album featured such songs as "Me and John and Paul" written by Harley Allen, "Where Corn Don't Grow" and another popular cover song, "Viva Las Vegas," which featured Dolly Parton. During the recording, Dolly Parton showed interest in wanting to play with the Grascals. The band soon became Dolly's opening act, as well as her bluegrass band. Performing at Dollywood and the Grand Ole Opry, the band and Dolly played a cover version of Elvis's song, "Viva Las Vegas." The first album made it on to the Billboard charts, as well as many country and bluegrass charts. Also on the album cover, Dolly is quoted saying, "One of the greatest albums I've ever heard." (Wikipedia)
The band is still together, albeit with only two of the original members, but their last recording in 2019 remains squarely in the straight Bluegrass camp. I must have heard several members of this band since for more than a decade most of the founding members were the regular band, The Sidemen, who played every Monday night at the
Station Inn. I would go often; Ronnie McCoury also played with them. Good days.
Their first -
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9d/TheGrascalsAlbum.jpg)
Their latest -
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91xaFrHdMML._SS500_.jpg)
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Bob Carlin (born March 17, 1953 in New York City) is an American old-time banjo player and singer.
Carlin performs primarily in the clawhammer style of banjo. He has toured the United States, Canada, and Europe performing on various historical banjos (including gourd banjos), and has explored the African roots of the banjo by working with the Malian musician Cheick Hamala Diabate and the elder African American fiddler Joe Thompson. He is also one of the few musicians skilled in the performance of minstrel-style banjo songs of the mid-19th century. He also occasionally plays guitar. (Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Carlin))
Bob Carlin is probably the best known clawhammer style banjoist performing today. He has taken the distinctive southern banjo style to appreciative audiences all over the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan. Carlin is a three-time winner of the Frets Magazine readers poll, and has four Rounder albums and several instruction manuals and videos for the banjo.
Bob is not only highly sought after for his musical talent, but also as a traditional music researcher. He authored numerous magazine articles and books on vernacular American music.
Fiddle Tunes For Clawhammer Banjo
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71aAUbR5clL._SS500_.jpg)
https://www.youtube.com/v/BN6iD9dHtqM
Bluegrass
I've been thinking that there are really only three great Bluegrass bands: Bill Monroe's 1945-1948 Blue Grass Boys, the Stanley Brothers while Carter was still alive, and then Flatt & Scruggs. For sure later groups played the music and some came close to matching the level of this Golden Age, but none ever surpassed these three bands. And Flatt & Scruggs became less and less compelling over time, you really have to catch them in their earliest recordings - or - the Carnegie Hall Concert is probably the best retrospective collection, done live and capturing the band at its peak. It was what broke them up, i.e. Scruggs's wish to play the music differently and play other genres, mainly because of his desire to perform with his sons. Lester Flatt never had a desire to alter his style from the traditional way of playing the music and played straight Bluegrass until his death with various versions of his classic quintet. But Earl Scruggs went off in many directions often with disappointing results, at least, IMO.
These are the records I'd say cover this Golden Age, and there would be no real reason to ever buy anything else for someone wishing to have Bluegrass well-represented in their personal collection:
The Essential Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys: 1945-1949
The Stanley Brothers and The Clinch Mountain Boys: The Complete Mercury Recordings
The Complete Columbia Stanley Brothers
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs – At Carnegie Hall!
(https://assets.catawiki.nl/assets/2020/3/24/5/f/d/5fd3eb42-a749-4d76-ab9b-e0cb9fe7e06e.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81S1D8%2BKKgL._SL1400_.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71hE7mLVltL._SL1500_.jpg)(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81L+vUsPckL._SS500_.jpg)
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 26, 2020, 05:39:05 AM
Bluegrass
I've been thinking that there are really only three great Bluegrass bands: Bill Monroe's 1945-1948 Blue Grass Boys, the Stanley Brothers while Charlie was still alive, and then Flatt & Scruggs. For sure later groups played the music and some came close to matching the level of this Golden Age, but none ever surpassed these three bands. And Flatt & Scruggs became less and less compelling over time, you really have to catch them in their earliest recordings - or - the Carnegie Hall Concert is probably the best retrospective collection, done live and capturing the band at its peak. It was what broke them up, i.e. Scruggs's wish to play the music differently and play other genres, mainly because of his desire to perform with his sons. Lester Flatt never had a desire to alter his style from the traditional way of playing the music and played straight Bluegrass until his death with various versions of his classic quintet. But Earl Scruggs went off in many directions often with disappointing results, at least, IMO.
These are the records I'd say cover this Golden Age, and there would be no real reason to ever buy anything else for someone wishing to have Bluegrass well-represented in their personal collection:
The Essential Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys: 1945-1949
The Stanley Brothers and The Clinch Mountain Boys: The Complete Mercury Recordings
The Complete Columbia Stanley Brothers
Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs – At Carnegie Hall!
(https://assets.catawiki.nl/assets/2020/3/24/5/f/d/5fd3eb42-a749-4d76-ab9b-e0cb9fe7e06e.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81S1D8%2BKKgL._SL1400_.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71hE7mLVltL._SL1500_.jpg)(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81L+vUsPckL._SS500_.jpg)
Thanks for your take on this, OSA. I was semi-shopping for a Bill Monroe album just the other day, but the collections that are out there are just confusing. I will give this one a try, for sure.
Kinda the same thing with Earl & Lester. That looks like a reasonable choice too, so in it goes.
I already have the Stanley/Mercury album, so getting the Columbia was already on my to-do list. I know it will be great.
I am open to others, Skaggs, Krause, McCoury, Rice, Crow etc. as long as they are acoustic basically. But a solid, basic collection is a good idea to start with. Just like one would do with Classical. :)
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Does this count?
https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,29687.msg1275577.html#msg1275577 (https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,29687.msg1275577.html#msg1275577)
If not, please excuse me.
Hi Guys - thanks for posting - allows me to check my BG collection to see what I have or am missing - :( ;D
Bill Monroe - have quite a bit including the 3 below. Stanley Brothers - have just the one disc (but a good one from the Bear Family), but own about 3 CDs of Ralph in later years (and the soundtrack from the '....Brother...' movie). As to Flatt & Scruggs, the two below (second is a 2-CD set).
Over the decades, I probably saw Bill Monroe live a half dozen times (he used to come to a yearly downtown festival sponsored by our corporate 'giants' at the time, now gone!), and at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Of course, Earl Scruggs was born in NC near Shelby, about 90 mins from us. And have seen Doc Watson a half dozen times, and his son Merle on several events w/ his father - he as from Deep Gap near Boone, an exit we pass each time we get on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Blowing Rock. Dave :)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71ll5soSWCL._SL1500_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31u3ZIjzfFL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71NmGVe9gnL._SL1200_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/419zoxw1tzL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513C5MJ3YAL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71mhq0cVzrL._SL1500_.jpg)
Hey, Dave!
I have very little by Lester & Earl, mostly this, which is a different release of the same disk you have, I believe:
(https://i.imgur.com/RXWO9RL.jpg)
I have the Stanley Brothers Mercury set, and just got this Columbia set:
(https://i.imgur.com/fU0Rrap.jpg)
I don't have any Bill Monroe though, which is a travesty. The one you and OSA have featured is OOP, so decent copies are expensive, but I'll just shop around for it and I know a copy will show up. Anyway, I don't want to just buy a whole library all at once, so gradually picking up what is available is the way to go. BTW, if you don't already have this one, you might really like it. Some great players on here...
(https://i.imgur.com/bcgxEJu.jpg)
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Quote from: SonicMan46 on May 26, 2020, 09:13:56 AM
Hi Guys - thanks for posting - allows me to check my BG collection to see what I have or am missing - :( ;D
Bill Monroe - have quite a bit including the 3 below. Stanley Brothers - have just the one disc (but a good one from the Bear Family), but own about 3 CDs of Ralph in later years (and the soundtrack from the '....Brother...' movie). As to Flatt & Scruggs, the two below (second is a 2-CD set).
Over the decades, I probably saw Bill Monroe live a half dozen times (he used to come to a yearly downtown festival sponsored by our corporate 'giants' at the time, now gone!), and at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Of course, Earl Scruggs was born in NC near Shelby, about 90 mins from us. And have seen Doc Watson a half dozen times, and his son Merle on several events w/ his father - he as from Deep Gap near Boone, an exit we pass each time we get on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Blowing Rock. Dave :)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71ll5soSWCL._SL1500_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31u3ZIjzfFL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71NmGVe9gnL._SL1200_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/419zoxw1tzL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513C5MJ3YAL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71mhq0cVzrL._SL1500_.jpg)
Hi Dave - great stuff. I've those three Monroe CDs you pictured, and the Flatt & Scruggs compilations look really good, but I discovered that I have them covered in a nice 4CD set, which I actually forgot I owned until you posted the others. I have spent so much time streaming and hardly ever go look at my shelves, I kind of feel like I'm missing out on some stuff that I ought to listen to that I have in hard copy. ???
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/412C6%2BYlNPL.jpg)
I've been reading a book on the North Carolina music scene, and just finished the chapter on Earl Scruggs, what a story. If you don't already know about it, this book might be something you'd enjoy.
[asin]1540207773[/asin]
I am going to post this here, but it could also go in the Acoustic Blues thread (and I will cross-post it there) since this generous compilation from Columbia contains many old time selections as well as erly blues. These vernacular styles both developed during the period the box set covers, but I think without doing a numerical count, that there are more old time songs than blues.
Roots 'n' Blues: Retrospective 1925-1950
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71FIIdgekSL._SX522_.jpg)
This might be seen as an expansion of the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music that came out in 1952 and influenced an entire generation that went on to create the folk/blues revival during the '50s and '60s.
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 26, 2020, 10:08:14 AM
Hey, Dave!
I have very little by Lester & Earl, mostly this, which is a different release of the same disk you have, I believe:
(https://i.imgur.com/RXWO9RL.jpg)
I have the Stanley Brothers Mercury set, and just got this Columbia set:
(https://i.imgur.com/fU0Rrap.jpg)
I don't have any Bill Monroe though, which is a travesty. The one you and OSA have featured is OOP, so decent copies are expensive, but I'll just shop around for it and I know a copy will show up. Anyway, I don't want to just buy a whole library all at once, so gradually picking up what is available is the way to go. BTW, if you don't already have this one, you might really like it. Some great players on here...
(https://i.imgur.com/bcgxEJu.jpg)
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Hi
Gurn - yep, you certainly need some recordings of Monroe w/ Flatt & Scruggs in his band in the late '40s - just seminal bluegrass at its start w/ Earl astonishing on the banjo - the J.D. Crowe album w/ a young Skaggs & Rice (and Jerry Douglas - love the Dobro!) was an early addition to my BG collection years ago - Crowe continued on - I added the 2 CDs below but just looking on Amazon, he has others. Dave :)
(https://i.imgur.com/bcgxEJu.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71R1rUh312L._SS500_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51R6WY0XvBL.jpg)
Rayna Gellert - old time fiddler
QuoteRayna Gellert (born December 15, 1975) is an American violinist and singer specializing in old-time music. She grew up in Elkhart, in northern Indiana. Her father is the traditional fiddler and banjo player Dan Gellert. Originally a classically trained violinist, she took up the old-time fiddle in 1994, when she moved to North Carolina to attend Warren Wilson College. She received a bachelor's degree from Warren Wilson College. Gellert is a former member of the Freight Hoppers. From 2003 to 2009 she performed and recorded with the all-female old-time band Uncle Earl. In 2003, she was a featured performer at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
Rayna has been touring and recording with Kieran Kane, a songwriter, who had a successful run in Nashville back in the '80s. He was a memeber of the popular due The O'Kanes with fellow Nashville songwriter Jamie O'Hara. Active between 1986 and 1990, the duo recorded three albums for Columbia Records and charted seven singles on the Billboard Hot Country Singles (now Hot Country Songs) charts, including the Number One "Can't Stop My Heart from Loving You". Kane charted seven singles of his own in the early 1980s, and O'Hara won a Grammy Award for co-writing "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Ol' Days)", a Number One hit for The Judds. After they disbanded in 1990, both members pursued solo careers, and Kane founded a record label called Dead Reckoning Records. (Wikipedia)
I am willing to bet that Kane became turned off with the Country music environment, what with its just about outlawing steel guitars, fiddles and banjos from the records they churned out.
However the music he makes with Rayna Gellert is pretty fantastic.
Rayna Gellert has put out several albums herself of old time fiddling, as well as two with Kieran Kane.
(http://storysoundrecords.com/sites/default/files/covers/rayna_gellert_hi_res_cover1400x1400.jpg)
Workin's Too Hard, her latest collection of original and traditional songs, carries that promise forward, along a tradition now of her own devising, and demonstrates how deep immersion in our musical past can point the way toward the future of American music. She developed the album in collaboration with co-producer Kieran Kane, multi-instrumentalist Kai Welch (Abigail Washburn, Bobby Bare Jr.), and drummer Jamie Dick (Rhiannon Giddens, Joan Shelley). Recorded old school live in one room by Grammy-winning engineer Charles Yingling (Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard), the sound of
Workin's Too Hard is as warm, intimate, and deep as the songs themselves.
(http://storysoundrecords.com/sites/default/files/covers/OldLight.jpg)
Rayna Gellert's deep roots in American traditional music have informed her work with artists such as Robyn Hitchcock, Tyler Ramsey, Sara Watkins, and John Paul Jones, as well as her tenure as a member of the stringband Uncle Earl. On
Old Light: Songs from My Childhood & Other Gone Worlds, she delves into new territory, applying her unique musical background to original songs and fresh arrangements of traditional songs. With beautiful accompaniment from guitarist Nathan Salsburg and other contributors (including Abigail Washburn, Kai Welch, Scott Miller, and Alice Gerrard), Rayna explores memory — its fragility and its power — with restraint and originality.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51-1-6F1i%2BL.jpg)
Old Time fiddle record - just excellent playing of some old tunes.
These two are with Kieran Kane:
(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58fd6e6a414fb5f448af285e/1582868558223-NNE9219G87QHTZP5L8AA/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kBDbXSUOx93cWcwEtoMpzs9Zw-zPPgdn4jUwVcJE1ZvWQUxwkmyExglNqGp0IvTJZamWLI2zvYWH8K3-s_4yszcp2ryTI0HqTOaaUohrI8PIsbD7L6lyjJ-LXhfChdu-yqjXFs_YC4ROELkShOLhScg/WTSGD+cover+smaller.png?format=2500w)
When the Sun Goes Down is the follow-up to Kieran Kane and Rayna Gellert's acclaimed debut,
The Ledges. Recorded live at home,
When the Sun Goes Down captures the duo's grounded, restrained playing and singing with a shimmering intimacy.
With themes ranging from the achingly personal to the pointedly political, these new songs from Kane and Gellert illustrate their movement toward a more thorough synthesis of their musical backgrounds. Guitar, fiddle, banjo, and octave mandolin — in combination with their deeply affecting vocal blend — are employed in ways both evocative and modern.
(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/58fd6e6a414fb5f448af285e/1582868282891-92YY9SXH33KQRFIM1Y82/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kF5mipb9yUDqFGiC7FREpW57gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z5QPOohDIaIeljMHgDF5CVlOqpeNLcJ80NK65_fV7S1Ubi-XzyKO6AYLc89hPBWTkeVnrKWN-Q1pQ6s342-b9HREObttv2dstUvyPf07O3izQ/ledges_cover_smaller.jpg?format=1500w)
QuoteThis is the sound of fortunate confluence.
A new school master of old time music, Rayna Gellert, partners with Americana godfather Kieran Kane.
They gather in an upstate New York bunkhouse, with fiddles, banjos, guitars, Kieran's famed octave mandolin, five microphones, and vague directives, and they emerge with songs that edify and fascinate.
The certainty of decades melds with discovery's first blush, in a whirl of tune, tone, touch, and timing. All of this happens along the banks of the Great Sacandaga Lake, in an area known as "the Ledges," where rocks meet deep water.
And it's all a marvel of rhythm, melody and harmony, at once unsuspected and ordained, containing a level of assured simplicity that can only be attained by those capable of roaring complexity.
Anyway, this thing is at once gorgeous and funky, easy and pulsating, luminous and flannel.
As we said, fortunate confluence.
Anyway, check her out - here's
her website (https://www.raynagellert.com/).
Also on another note, I just watched an excellent movie,
The Mountain Minor, that features her father
Dan Gellert playing old fiddle tunes and is well worth watching. It's on Amazon Prime.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/715YMPlklkL._RI_.jpg)
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 26, 2020, 10:25:53 AM
Hi Dave - great stuff. I've those three Monroe CDs you pictured, and the Flatt & Scruggs compilations look really good, but I discovered that I have them covered in a nice 4CD set, which I actually forgot I owned until you posted the others. I have spent so much time streaming and hardly ever go look at my shelves, I kind of feel like I'm missing out on some stuff that I ought to listen to that I have in hard copy. ???
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/412C6%2BYlNPL.jpg)
I've been reading a book on the North Carolina music scene, and just finished the chapter on Earl Scruggs, what a story. If you don't already know about it, this book might be something you'd enjoy.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51WTTfPT5ML._SX312_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517FhCEBbdL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51X7oZIBt7L._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Hi
San Antone - thanks for the comments and mention of the book by Elizabeth Carlson - cannot believe I don't own it! She lives in my home town of Winston Salem! But remedied and coming from Amazon in a few days - OH, so many books to mention, but just a few added above - I have the 2nd ed of the
Blue Ridge Music Trails published in 2013 so dated, but there is a 2018 edition that I'll likely order - excellent guide to BG/OT Music festivals in the region for those who may be visiting the area and have an interest. Also,
Linthead Stomp, an outstanding narration on the origins of 'country music' in the Piedmont - a LOT of Charlie Poole. NOW my 'blood's boiling' to get back into listening to this music - unfortunately, my wife is not a big fan so we've not attended most of these venues, like 'Merlefest' in Wilkesboro (just a 40 min drive). Dave :)
Quote from: SonicMan46 on May 26, 2020, 01:44:05 PM
Hi Gurn - yep, you certainly need some recordings of Monroe w/ Flatt & Scruggs in his band in the late '40s - just seminal bluegrass at its start w/ Earl astonishing on the banjo - the J.D. Crowe album w/ a young Skaggs & Rice (and Jerry Douglas - love the Dobro!) was an early addition to my BG collection years ago - Crowe continued on - I added the 2 CDs below but just looking on Amazon, he has others. Dave :)
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71R1rUh312L._SS500_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51R6WY0XvBL.jpg)
I'll no doubt expand on my Crowe albums, although I chose that one to start because of the players, which I understand are quite fluid. Skaggs, Rice & Douglas are a hard outfit to beat!
I also have a question for whichever one of you fellers is up for answering it: Scruggs came to the Bluegrass Boys as a replacement because the regular banjo was sick and couldn't make the tour. The regular banjo was David "Stringbean" Akeman, a damned fine player in his own right. What I'm curious about is if there is a recording featuring Stringbean instead of Scruggs. Anyone knows?
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 26, 2020, 02:23:53 PM
I'll no doubt expand on my Crowe albums, although I chose that one to start because of the players, which I understand are quite fluid. Skaggs, Rice & Douglas are a hard outfit to beat!
I also have a question for whichever one of you fellers is up for answering it: Scruggs came to the Bluegrass Boys as a replacement because the regular banjo was sick and couldn't make the tour. The regular banjo was David "Stringbean" Akeman, a damned fine player in his own right. What I'm curious about is if there is a recording featuring Stringbean instead of Scruggs. Anyone knows?
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Akeman played on one session, 2/13/1945, eight songs, which is the fist disc in the 1945*1949 box set.
The First Columbia Session: Chicago, Illinois February 13, 1945
1-01 Rocky Road Blues
1-02 Kentucky Waltz
1-03 True Life Blues
1-04 Nobody Loves Me
1-05 Goodbye Old Pal
1-06 Footprints In The Snow
1-07 Blue Grass Special
1-08 Come Back To Me In My Dreams
Story about when Lester Flatt and Bill Monroe were auditioning banjo players, Lester Flatt didn't even think they needed one, and he didn't like Akeman's clawhammer style since he couldn't keep up with the fast tempos. They had camped out in a hotel room listening to banjoist after banjoist, becoming progressively convinced they wouldn't find anyone. Then Earl Scruggs, a wiry 22-year old youngster came in and blew their heads off. Flatt told Monroe to hire him whatever it took.
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Quote from: Old San Antone on May 26, 2020, 02:53:21 PM
Akeman played on one session, 2/13/1945, eight songs, which is the fist disc in the 1945*1949 box set.
The First Columbia Session: Chicago, Illinois February 13, 1945
1-01 Rocky Road Blues
1-02 Kentucky Waltz
1-03 True Life Blues
1-04 Nobody Loves Me
1-05 Goodbye Old Pal
1-06 Footprints In The Snow
1-07 Blue Grass Special
1-08 Come Back To Me In My Dreams
Story about when Lester Flatt and Bill Monroe were auditioning banjo players, Lester Flatt didn't even think they needed one, and he didn't like Akeman's clawhammer style since he couldn't keep up with the fast tempos. They had camped out in a hotel room listening to banjoist after banjoist, becoming progressively convinced they wouldn't find anyone. Then Earl Scruggs, a wiry 22-year old youngster came in and blew their heads off. Flatt told Monroe to hire him whatever it took.
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Excellent, thanks for that info. I love listening to String play! There are lots of videos of him on YT, which I especially like because you can SEE just how good he is. As you say, he played tempos that people could barely keep up with, and yet you watch him and he seems just effortless. Anyway, he's kinda funny too, FWIW. :D
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 26, 2020, 03:15:22 PM
Excellent, thanks for that info. I love listening to String play! There are lots of videos of him on YT, which I especially like because you can SEE just how good he is. As you say, he played tempos that people could barely keep up with, and yet you watch him and he seems just effortless. Anyway, he's kinda funny too, FWIW. :D
Thanks
San Antone for the details on
Stringbeam Akeman, a great Grand Ole Opry performer - for those not familiar w/ the performer or the tragic death of him and his wife, then see quote below - Dave :)
QuoteAkeman was modest and unassuming, and he enjoyed hunting and fishing. Accustomed to the hard times of the Great Depression, Akeman and his wife Estell lived frugally in a small cabin at 2308 Baker Road, near Ridgetop, Tennessee. Their only indulgences were a Cadillac and a color TV. Depression-era bank failures caused Akeman not to trust banks with his money. Gossip around Nashville was that Akeman kept large amounts of cash on hand, though he was by no means wealthy by entertainment industry standards.
On Saturday night, November 10, 1973, Akeman and his wife returned home after he performed at the Grand Ole Opry. Both were shot dead shortly after their arrival. The killers had waited for hours. Their corpses were discovered the following morning by their neighbor, Grandpa Jones.
A police investigation resulted in the convictions of cousins John A. Brown and Marvin Douglas Brown, both 23 years old. They had ransacked the cabin, and killed Stringbean when he arrived. His wife shrieked when she saw her husband murdered. She begged for her life, but was shot, as well. According to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, "Upon their return, Mr. Akeman spotted the intruders in his home and evidently offered some resistance. One of the Brown cousins fatally shot Mr. Akeman, then pursued, shot, and killed Mrs. Akeman. At their trial (where Akeman's fellow cast member and friend Grandpa Jones testified, as he recognized one of the stolen firearms in the defendants' possession as a gift he had given Akeman), each defendant blamed the other for the homicides." The killers took only a chainsaw and some firearms. (Source (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_%22Stringbean%22_Akeman))
That story is so gruesome and tragic. Such a sad loss.
Quote from: SonicMan46 on May 26, 2020, 04:27:42 PM
Thanks San Antone for the details on Stringbean Akeman, a great Grand Ole Opry performer - for those not familiar w/ the performer or the tragic death of him and his wife, then see quote below - Dave :)
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 26, 2020, 06:09:00 PM
That story is so gruesome and tragic. Such a sad loss.
I know, right? There is simply no upside to it. The lowest elements of human nature on full display. :(
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A Juno–nominated and Grammy–award winning artist, John Reischman is known today for his work with his band the Jaybirds and his acclaimed solo albums, but he got his start as an original member of the Tony Rice Unit in the late 1970s. With the Tony Rice Unit, Reischman helped define the "new acoustic music" movement in bluegrass thanks to their high profile albums on Rounder Records. Building this sound, Reischman was of course influenced early on by Monroe's mandolin playing, but also by the playing of early bluegrass mandolinists like Sam Bush, David Grisman, and jazz mandolinist Jethro Burns. Living in the Bay Area in the 80s, Reischman toured and performed with seminal bluegrass band The Good Ol' Persons, cementing his reputation as a powerful mandolinist with an original vision for the instrument. He moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in the 1990s and formed The Jaybirds, but Reischman never stopped his musical explorations. In 1996, he won a Grammy as part of Todd Phillips' all-star tribute album to Bill Monroe. Over the years, he's overseen collaborations with a remarkably wide range of artists, like bluegrass singer Kathy Kallick, to guitarist Scott Nygaard, banjo wiz Tony Furtado, Chinese Music ensemble Red Chamber, Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Celso Machado, singer songwriter Susan Crowe, and more. (Artist website) (http://www.johnreischman.com/biography)
I guess I first became aware of John Reischman through Tony Rice. At that time I was more interested in just appreciating the Rice Unit and the songs, singing, and overall enjoyment of the band's musicianship. But once Reischman went solo, and then with the Jaybirds, I came to appreciate his mastery of the mandolin and his searching intelligence. Admittedly, I prefer his bluegrass records, but have listened to his other ventures and one thing is for certain - he is a phenomenal musician and makes great music with equally talented sidemen, often stars in their own right.
Some recordings:
On That Other Green Shore
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/516g6X9Qe6L.jpg)
On That Other Green Shore showcases an accomplished, experienced band at the peak of their powers, with musicianship of the very highest order.
The Jaybirds put their own particular stamp on bluegrass, old time and acoustic roots music, with a satisfying blend of traditional and modern styles, and they also give the impression that they really enjoy playing together. There's plenty here to please both bluegrass traditionalists and lovers of modern American folk music, especially for those with an appreciation of great harmony singing as well as masterful instrumental playing.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+1SaGpHQL._SS500_.jpg)
Another polished gem showcasing the band's trademark blend of old-time influences with a bluegrass twist, The Jaybirds offer their most wide-ranging effort to date, exploring a musical universe that glows throughout with bright, intelligent songs and instrumentals.
The multi-genre repertoire highlights the best of traditional and contemporary acoustic music, with all five band members again contributing new material — eight of the album's 14 numbers are certifiably fresh originals.
"Vintage & Unique has everything one could ask for in a great bluegrass recording; Exciting new originals, a couple of great traditional numbers, razor sharp picking, and strong, distinctive singing. And of course any opportunity to hear the best bluegrass mandolin player in the business is just icing on the cake." — Scott Tichenor, Mandolin Cafe
(http://www.johnreischman.com/wp-content/uploads/WalkAlongJohn600.jpg)
Walk Along John is John Reischman's first solo instrumental album in thirteen years, and it's a triumphant return to form. "It's also a celebration of his seminal influence in the world of bluegrass and "new acoustic music," a movement he contributed to with Tony Rice in the 1980s. A new generation of musicians has now grown up playing his tunes at jams and obsessing over his recordings. Chris Thile of The Punch Brothers joins John on the opening tune "Itzbin Reel," an early composition of John's that Chris has been playing since the age of 8. Eli West, from Cahalen Morrison & Eli West, listened endlessly to John's recordings while studying in college and guests on the album as well. Other next gen star players on the album include Sam Grisman and Mike Barnett from the young grasscore band The Deadly Gentlemen, and Canadian clawhammer banjo king Chris Coole.
Old friends return as well, from renowned old-time fiddler Bruce Molsky to innovative banjo genius Tony Trischka and star bluegrass guitarist Kenny Smith, not to mention members of John's band The Jaybirds. But the real focus of the album is John's musicianship, both as an artist and as a composer. His compositions, many of which have become jamming standards, run the gamut from the old-timey "Little Pine Siskin" to the bluesy (in the Dock Boggs sense) "Gold Mountain Blues," the eerily modal "Ice on the Dogwater," the blazing Bill Monroe tribute tune "Joe Ahr's Dream," and the softly gentle waltzes "Anisa's Lullaby" and "A Prairie Jewel." John's compositions shine here because he has the subtle ability to draw out the true heart of the melody.
(http://www.johnreischman.com/wp-content/uploads/UpInTheWoods600.jpg)
"I hadn't written anything in a while" Reischman says of his latest CD. What sparked him was a pair of shows that he did in tribute to the music of Bill Monroe. "It was all written after Monroe passed away. I think all the musicians enjoyed playing it." And what a supporting cast of players he has assembled – Todd Phillips (bass), Gabe Witcher (fiddle), Jim Nunally (guitar), Dennis Caplinger (fiddle), Scott Nygaard (guitar), Nick Hornbuckle (banjo), Rob Ickes (Dobro), Kathy Kallick (guitar) and John Miller (guitar).
Here's one beauty of an album. John Reischman makes it strong, pretty, clean and rich, no matter the mood or tempo. And, as a bonus he's given us a blast of high pedigree, spanking new original tunes that pretty well cover the entire rooted landscape of Bill Monroe's music.
So if I'm going to start with just one album of his, which is it? :)
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 27, 2020, 10:34:01 AM
So if I'm going to start with just one album of his, which is it? :)
8)
Great post
San Antone on
Reischman - knew the name and reputation and he plays on several of my
Tony Rice CDs shown below (have Rice w/ others also, such as
Norman Blake) - boy, have been 'out of' this music genre for a while! We saw Rice in Boone a few years ago w/ a local BG band - he was still great on the guitar but had suffered from 'dystonia' and could not sing at all (missed his voice). BTW, for those visiting downtown Boone, don't miss the bench w/ Doc's statue - took a pic w/ my wife sitting next to him but cannot locate at the moment.
BUT - as
Gurn stated, I would also be curious in one or several Reischman recommendations - thanks. Dave :)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31fOZa%2BXEdL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61CJ2yYLeAL._SL1000_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ufLBfpoIL.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61VOJ4FNP-L._SL1000_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71zW3oh0--L._SX425_.jpg) (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wglRwb8sl4g/U7BRso17WWI/AAAAAAAASOA/DMMQ1M6c5Bo/s1600/IMG_0456.JPG)
I'll let you decide, I like them all (except his more jazzier stuff which is not what I am looking for). Here's some clips from a few of his "bluegrassy" records, and you can listen to most of his recordings on YouTube, plus his website (http://www.johnreischman.com/) is pretty informative.
The Harmonic Tone Revealers (2016)
"Lttle Sadie" - John Reischman, Scott Nygaard & Sharon Gilchrist
https://www.youtube.com/v/cYXLXGTUiPQ&list=OLAK5uy_nFJWCbHxkixePzox-SiqcpISpwAPA9Bjs&index=7
On That Other Green Shore (2017)
"Daylighting the Creek" - John Reischman & the Jaybirds
https://www.youtube.com/v/TcGsD7wbEEg&list=OLAK5uy_nfkR3AIcsVjJZjaEjR3Y79HAewZoUDyeU
Walk Along John (2013)
"Walk Along John to Kansas" - John Reischman
https://www.youtube.com/v/jOuW9SoKcvw
Up in the Woods (1999)
"Up in the Woods" - John Reischman
https://www.youtube.com/v/m45Oo-7YxBQ
I've been listening a lot to the Tone Revealers record, since it is new to me. Nice sounds from the two mandolins, I was impressed with Sharon Gilchrist from a Peter Rowan Quartet record, with Tony Rice. Also, all of these musicians teach on the Peghead Nation (https://pegheadnation.com/) website, which is an excellent place to learn if you are wishing to do something like that.
Quote from: SonicMan46 on May 27, 2020, 11:20:31 AM
Great post San Antone on Reischman - knew the name and reputation and he plays on several of my Tony Rice CDs shown below (have Rice w/ others also, such as Norman Blake) - boy, have been 'out of' this music genre for a while! We saw Rice in Boone a few years ago w/ a local BG band - he was still great on the guitar but had suffered from 'dystonia' and could not sing at all (missed his voice). BTW, for those visiting downtown Boone, don't miss the bench w/ Doc's statue - took a pic w/ my wife sitting next to him but cannot locate at the moment.
BUT - as Gurn stated, I would also be curious in one or several Reischman recommendations - thanks. Dave :)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ufLBfpoIL.jpg)
I have this CD, but for the rest, I have him playing with others, like Crowe. He's also on a lot of places on Youtube, hell of a guitar player!
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 27, 2020, 11:23:09 AM
I'll let you decide, I like them all (except his more jazzier stuff which is not what I am looking for). Here's some clips from a few of his "bluegrassy" records, and you can listen to most of his recordings on YouTube, plus his website (http://www.johnreischman.com/) is pretty informative.
The Harmonic Tone Revealers (2016)
"Lttle Sadie" - John Reischman, Scott Nygaard & Sharon Gilchrist
https://www.youtube.com/v/cYXLXGTUiPQ&list=OLAK5uy_nFJWCbHxkixePzox-SiqcpISpwAPA9Bjs&index=7
On That Other Green Shore (2017)
"Daylighting the Creek" - John Reischman & the Jaybirds
https://www.youtube.com/v/TcGsD7wbEEg&list=OLAK5uy_nfkR3AIcsVjJZjaEjR3Y79HAewZoUDyeU
Walk Along John (2013)
"Walk Along John to Kansas" - John Reischman
https://www.youtube.com/v/jOuW9SoKcvw
Up in the Woods (1999)
"Up in the Woods" - John Reischman
https://www.youtube.com/v/m45Oo-7YxBQ
I've been listening a lot to the Tone Revealers record, since it is new to me. Nice sounds from the two mandolins, I was impressed with Sharon Gilchrist from a Peter Rowan Quartet record, with Tony Rice. Also, all of these musicians teach on the Peghead Nation (https://pegheadnation.com/) website, which is an excellent place to learn if you are wishing to do something like that.
Reckon I'll just have to play around with these. I tend to look at albums that have the most cuts by 'Traditional'. :D
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Swimmin' Pools, Movie Stars...Dwight YoakamSeptember 23, 2016
I've been a Dwight Yoakam fan since his first album (although, at first, I was unsure if he was for real or not). He was, and is, the real thing. He grew up like so many bluegrass musicians in Kentucky, Pikeville in his case, and while he's paid the bills by playing a style of country laced with a good bit of the Bakersfield sound his bluegrass instincts are self-evident.
Rolling Stone (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/dwight-yoakam-on-new-bluegrass-album-prince-and-musical-rebellion-109347/) interviewed him about the record in a lengthy article upon its release:
QuoteFor 1992's Saturday Night & Sunday Morning, the banjo player Ralph Stanley, then 65 years old, worked with artists like George Jones, Vince Gill and Alison Krauss to create a concept double-album that was half-secular and half-gospel, with traditional sounds played by contem-porary artists. Dwight Yoakam took two tracks, and at the end of their session together, Stanley paid the younger artist the ultimate compliment. "We did 'Miner's Prayer' and 'Down Where the River Bends,' which was a Stanley Brothers song," Yoakam recalls. "And as we finished that night he said to me, 'Why... I believe you might be a bluegrass singer!'"
Yoakam's new album Swimmin' Pools, Movie Stars . . . might prove Stanley right, rearranging songs like "Guitars, Cadillacs" and "Please, Please Baby" with less electric guitar but plenty of fiddle, resonator and dobro. The combination produces a restless energy, and you can tell Yoakam was in a good mood when he recorded it – of the 12 tracks that made the final cut, he's only heartsick on 11.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/818-sRaZQpL._SS500_.jpg)
Dwight Yoakam - What I Don't Knowhttps://www.youtube.com/v/oTlQ4LpItUA
On a side note, he had a co-starring role in one of my favorite movies,
Slingblade, which is well worth seeing. Mainly because of Billy Bob Thornton, but Yoakam and the young boy are also very good.
Curious: are any of Alison Krause/Union Station's albums purely BG? Or are all of them a blend of BG & Country? No matter how well performed, I just don't really care a lot for modern country music. But I have seen various videos of them playing acoustic BG and was very impressed. Thoughts?
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 28, 2020, 09:56:28 AM
Curious: are any of Alison Krause/Union Station's albums purely BG? Or are all of them a blend of BG & Country? No matter how well performed, I just don't really care a lot for modern country music. But I have seen various videos of them playing acoustic BG and was very impressed. Thoughts?
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It is frustrating, I know, I feel the same way, i.e. wanting straight bluegrass without mixing in songs or styles not traditional. It is something almost all bands from the 1990s forward all do. But generally the earlier the better. I've been posting about country singers doing bluegrass records, and I like them since they are good singers singing great songs in a bluegrass setting. But when it comes to a bluegrass band, I just want the old sound.
Too Late to Cry (1987) was her debut record (she was 16 I think) with Union Station and is pretty much all bluegrass (although there's still the sense it's not completely pure), and her Rounder Records contract required her to alternate a solo record for every band recording, and I think they also wanted her to do more cross-over material. Her first solo record was
Two Highways (1989), and is less bluegrassy, there's a couple of country songs and a bluegrass version of "Midnight Rambler", the Allman Brother's song - but also two or three traditional songs. 1990 she released another solo record,
I've Got That Old Feeling, and by now she's moving more away from straight bluegrass, less than 50% BG.
By 1992 she was getting Grammy awards, and then she was on the path to crossing over more and more, e.g. using drums. That said, Alison Krauss at least offers cross over done with pretty good taste.
It's an old story. The Osborne Brothers started adding electric instruments in the '60s. They say so they could be heard at the big festivals - but of all the older groups, they are my least favorite because they always seemed to be drawn away from the straight traditional sound. But in their defense, once Rock & Roll hit in the mid '50s most bluergrass bands had a hard time getting gigs and many had to choose between changing their sound or leaving music altogether.
Which is why I was happy to see the bluegrass revival get a surge of energy after
O Brother was a hit.
Quote from: Old San Antone on May 28, 2020, 10:31:16 AM
It is frustrating, I know, I feel the same way, i.e. wanting straight bluegrass without mixing in songs or styles not traditional. It is something almost all bands from the 1990s forward all do. But generally the earlier the better. I've been posting about country singers doing bluegrass records, and I like them since they are good singers singing great songs in a bluegrass setting. But when it comes to a bluegrass band, I just want the old sound.
Too Late to Cry (1987) was her debut record (she was 16 I think) with Union Station and is pretty much all bluegrass (although there's still the sense it's not completely pure), and her Rounder Records contract required her to alternate a solo record for every band recording, and I think they also wanted her to do more cross-over material. Her first solo record was Two Highways (1989), and is less bluegrassy, there's a couple of country songs and a bluegrass version of "Midnight Rambler", the Allman Brother's song - but also two or three traditional songs. 1990 she released another solo record, I've Got That Old Feeling, and by now she's moving more away from straight bluegrass, less than 50% BG.
By 1992 she was getting Grammy awards, and then she was on the path to crossing over more and more, e.g. using drums. That said, Alison Krauss at least offers cross over done with pretty good taste.
It's an old story. The Osborne Brothers started adding electric instruments in the '60s. They say so they could be heard at the big festivals - but of all the older groups, they are my least favorite because they always seemed to be drawn away from the straight traditional sound. But in their defense, once Rock & Roll hit in the mid '50s most bluergrass bands had a hard time getting gigs and many had to choose between changing their sound or leaving music altogether.
Which is why I was happy to see the bluegrass revival get a surge of energy after O Brother was a hit.
Thanks. Interesting monologue. I was afraid this is what you were going to say anyway, but I was hoping for maybe having missed something while I was shopping around. :-\ But I'll shop for that first album and take it from there. Maybe she will get a wild hair one day and do "The Bluegrass Album", like others have done. :)
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on May 28, 2020, 10:46:23 AM
Thanks. Interesting monologue. I was afraid this is what you were going to say anyway, but I was hoping for maybe having missed something while I was shopping around. :-\ But I'll shop for that first album and take it from there. Maybe she will get a wild hair one day and do "The Bluegrass Album", like others have done. :)
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I forgot to mention her
Live record, came out in 2002 thereabouts. She mixes it up with a god dose of bluegrass, and what's interesting is the crowd seems to react stronger to those songs. It was recorded at a concert in Kentucky and I guess the audience also wanted her to play more bluegrass. It capture probably her best band with
Ron Block, guitar, banjo, vocals;
Dan Tyminski, guitar, mandolin, vocals;
Jerry Douglas, dobro.
Listening to this Bear Family box of
Flatt & Scruggs: 1948-1959(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/412C6%2BYlNPL.jpg)
For anyone wishing to collect Bluegrass, Old Time, Blues and Country the Bear Family editions are the best. They are produced using the highest standards and come with well researched and comprehensive booklets (sometimes hardcover 100+ page books) as well as pristine reproductions of the original recordings.
Quote(4-CD LP-sized box set with 36-page book) The 5-star reviews for this set showed that Flatt & Scruggs are far from forgotten since they split up in 1969. Here we have their complete Mercury recordings as well as the Columbia recordings from 1950-1959. Of course, this set includes the original version of Foggy Mountain Breakdown, but it's no exaggeration to say that every one of the 112 tracks is a gem. Titles include Roll In My Sweet Baby's Arms, Jimmie Brown The Newsboy, Tis Sweet To Be Remembered, Earl's Breakdown, Flint Hill Special, Dim Lights Thick Smoke, Foggy Mountain Chimes, and 'Six White Horses'. Bluegrass music comes no purer or finer. (Amazon editorial comment (https://www.amazon.com/1948-1959-Lester-Flatt-Earl-Scruggs/dp/B00000AS0N))
Doc Watson on Stage, featuring Merle Watson, 1971
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81NaeIcwvgL._SL1099_.jpg)
Watson had many fine accompanists over the years, but none better than his son Merle, who was always on Doc's wavelength. Ever modest, Doc always claimed that Merle was the better player. He was, of course, wrong about that, but Merle was a great picker in his own right. Recorded live at Cornell University, this is an excellent version of the old spiritual that also appeared on Circle. "I Am a Pilgrim" would remain an evolving onstage set piece for Doc over the years. After Merle's tragic death in 1985, Doc would customize the lyrics in performance: "I've got a mother, a sister and a brother and a son, they done gone on to that other shore."
https://www.youtube.com/v/wTaftQjvb3E
Writing for Allmusic, music critic Matthew Greenwald called the album "One of Doc Watson's finest later records" and wrote "His feel and command of the instrument is truly incredible... A timeless slice from one of the fathers of modern country music."
"Brown's Ferry Blues" (Traditional) – 2:43
"The Wreck of the 1262" (Traditional) – 3:13
"Spikedriver Blues" (Mississippi John Hurt) – 3:02
"Deep River Blues" (Traditional) – 3:39
"Life Gits Teejus Don't It" (Carson Robison) – 4:36
"Lost John" (Traditional) – 3:32
"Hold the Woodpile Down" (Bob Johnson) – 2:58
"Billy in the Low Ground" (Instrumental) – 1:46
"I Am a Pilgrim" (Traditional) – 2:42
"The Clouds Are Gwine to Roll Away" (Carson Robison) – 2:51
"Movin' On" (melody by Hank Snow, parody lyrics written by Homer & Jethro) - 2:15 (not on the CD)
"Windy and Warm" (John D. Loudermilk) (Instrumental) – 2:32
"Doc's Guitar" (Doc Watson) (Instrumental) – 1:35
"Open Up Them Pearly Gates for Me" (Traditional) – 3:11
"The Preacher and the Bicycle" (Traditional Folk Tale) – 1:28
"Jimmy's Texas Blues" (Jimmy Rodgers) – 3:47
"Banks of the Ohio" (Traditional) – 3:45
"Roll On Buddy" (Traditional) – 3:04
"Southbound" (by Merle & Doc Watson) – 3:16
"Wabash Cannonball" (Traditional) – 3:07
"When the Work's All Done This Fall" (Traditional) – 3:42
"Little Sadie" (Traditional) – 2:37
"The Quaker's Cow" (Traditional Folk Tale) – 1:38
"Salt River/Bill Cheatham" (Instrumental) – 2:38
"Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" (Traditional) – 4:08
Doc Watson – guitar, harmonica, vocals, banjo
Merle Watson – guitar
The one pictured above got me started on a Doc Jag. We've talked about Doc Watson before, but sometimes I can't get enough of his singing and playing. Last night I jumbled some of my favorites of his records:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71E3nJUALEL._SL1050_.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91PVUu87pvL._SL1500_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71TKRPmX6aL._SL1200_.jpg)(https://bluegrasstoday-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/portrait.jpg)
(https://img.discogs.com/XsLbnk9xryPgiTNsTsYl4JZ2_K8=/fit-in/600x597/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-7952193-1552149622-7485.jpeg.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81Ei-aQgFHL._SL1089_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91tfYWPkQ-L._SL1500_.jpg)(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81NaeIcwvgL._SL1099_.jpg)
Doc Watson (1st) - Live at Club 47
Live at Gerdes Folk City - Portrait
Old Timey Concert - Southbound
Doc and Gaither Carlton - On Stage
Continuing today, playing on random - all day.
8)
Quote from: Old San Antone on June 06, 2020, 10:22:26 AM
The one pictured above got me started on a Doc Jag. We've talked about Doc Watson before, but sometimes I can't get enough of his singing and playing. Last night I jumbled some of my favorites of his records:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91tfYWPkQ-L._SL1500_.jpg)
Doc Watson (1st) - Live at Club 47
Live at Gerdes Folk City - Portrait
Old Timey Concert - Southbound
Doc and Gaither Carlton - On Stage
Continuing today, playing on random - all day.
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Been thinking about this one since you posted it the other day. Much like with Classical music, I lean hard towards fiddle. Other instruments are all tied for second. :)
Like this came yesterday, although I haven't had time to listen yet. I have high hopes:
(https://i.imgur.com/FaS4jtL.jpg)
8)
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on June 06, 2020, 04:29:42 PM
Been thinking about this one since you posted it the other day. Much like with Classical music, I lean hard towards fiddle. Other instruments are all tied for second. :)
Like this came yesterday, although I haven't had time to listen yet. I have high hopes:
(https://i.imgur.com/FaS4jtL.jpg)
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Wow, she's pretty obscure. I knew of her from the band
High Fidelity and didn't know she had a solo record. Good fiddler. If you like fiddling, and if you haven't already heard him
Michael Cleveland is simply phenomenal.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71zp-U8sj1L._SL1200_.jpg)
https://www.youtube.com/v/5VorB7OQLUI
Quote from: Old San Antone on June 06, 2020, 05:26:57 PM
Wow, she's pretty obscure. I knew of her from the band High Fidelity and didn't know she had a solo record. Good fiddler. If you like fiddling, and if you haven't already heard him Michael Cleveland is simply phenomenal.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71zp-U8sj1L._SL1200_.jpg)
https://www.youtube.com/v/5VorB7OQLUI
Actually, found it on that website you pointed me to the other night. I read a few reviews which were all highly favorable. Listening to it right now, in fact, and have to say she is pretty damned good!
Thanks for the Cleveland tip, I'll check that out. :)
8)
Erynn Marshall
It hardly gets better than this: Erynn Marshall and her husband Carl Jones, and sometimes with other excellent old time musicians like Chris Coole, make music that I can listen to over and over. Half of the songs are traditional and half originals, but written as if they were as old as the hills.
(https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1346344408_10.jpg) (https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0240559467_5.jpg)
(https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1787504632_10.jpg) (https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2204769392_10.jpg)
Check 'em out (http://dittyville.com/).
8)
Would Gillian Welch and David Rawlings be considered suitable for this thread ?
There something about the clarity of her voice and of his guitar playing that hits me every time i am in the mood for one of the few albums I have (although i confess i loved them most in the darker tracks like "Revelator" and "I Dream a Highway").
"Red Clay Halo" at 16'18 or "Caleb Mayer" at 45'04 on this one would fit here i believe ?
https://www.youtube.com/v/9eF7gywHMxw
"Revelator" starts at 27'23 for a different mood 8)
Quote from: Papy Oli on June 07, 2020, 06:25:06 AM
Would Gillian Welch and David Rawlings be considered suitable for this thread ?
There something about the clarity of her voice and of his guitar playing that hits me every time i am in the mood for one of the few albums I have (although i confess i loved them most in the darker tracks like "Revelator" and "I Dream a Highway").
"Red Clay Halo" at 16'18 or "Caleb Mayer" at 45'04 on this one would fit here i believe ?
https://www.youtube.com/v/9eF7gywHMxw
"Revelator" starts at 27'23 for a different mood 8)
Absolutely! They are more Old Time than Bluegrass, but no matter what label they make some really fine music. A favorite of mine, too. Gillian Welch is notorious for releasing music slowly, kind of like that old Robert Mondavi wine commercial, "only when it's ready."
Quote from: Old San Antone on June 07, 2020, 06:51:55 AM
Absolutely! They are more Old Time than Bluegrass, but no matter what label they make some really fine music. A favorite of mine, too. Gillian Welch is notorious for releasing music slowly, kind of like that old Robert Mondavi wine commercial, "only when it's ready."
Phew :laugh:
I lost track after Soul Journey (2003) as I got properly into classical music around '05-'06. It turns out she only released one more album since (The Harrow and the Harvest in 2011). I have earmarked this and Dave Rawlings' own album on Qobuz, will have to listen to them soon.
Thank you for the various recommendations in this thread. I did enjoy the Doc Watson's "Pilgrim" track and the Molly Tuttle/Billy Strings video.
Dan GellertI first stumbled onto Dan Gellert because he is the father of
Rayna Gellert, a fiddler that I have followed for a few years. Dan plays fiddle and banjo both in the old Appalachian style, one of the best.
https://www.youtube.com/v/EgdSxNqm_V0
This rough style is what I really like about mountain fiddle playing. e starred in a pretty good movie,
The Mountain Minor, and it has a lot of music in it as well as a good story.
I only know of one recording he's released, which is a DVD/CD of a live performance at the Old Time Tiki Parlour (https://oldtimetikiparlour.com/):
QuoteThe Old-Time Tiki Parlour is the online musical headquarters of Tiki Parlour Recordings. It is an atomic-era destination complete with wooden tikis, strange folk art, weird curios, palm trees and a variety of old-time string instruments. Since 2009, it has served as the concert, workshop, jam, film, internet and instructional epicenter for old-time music around Los Angeles and beyond. Past artists have included Bruce Molsky, Dan Gellert, Kirk Sutphin, Paul Brown, Rafe & Clelia Stefanini, Joe Newberry, Val Mindel, David Greely, Suzy & Eric Thompson, Joel Savoy, Jesse Lege, Nadine Landry, Sammy Lind, Scott Prouty, Tom & Patrick Sauber, Bob Carlin, Sausage Grinder, Bertram Levy, Howard Rains & Tricia Spencer, Emily Miller & Jesse Milnes, Ben Townsend and Craig Ventresco & Meredith Axelrod. And many more to come...
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/919u0Tu1S4L._SL1500_.jpg)
This arrived today:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41OasyH2PRL._SX385_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
The Music of Bill Monroe (Music in American Life)
by Neil V. Rosenberg and Charles K. Wolfe
Each chapter contains an well-researched and documented history of a span of years, and then concluding with a complete discography of all the sessions during that period:
1936-38
1939-41
1942-45
1946-49
1950-56
And so on ...
Neil V.Rosenberg wrote the standard history of Bluegrass and compiled the Monroe discography. Author of 19 books, Prof.
Charles K. Wolfe wrote exhaustively about Country music and related genres. Upon his death in 2006 Wolfe was lauded (https://www.nashvillescene.com/music/article/13012930/charles-k-wolfe-1943-2006) as being a highly regarded musicologist working in a field that is normally not rewarded with much respect.
QuoteThough country music itself is old, the serious study of country music is not, and it is no exaggeration to say that Wolfe, together with a handful of colleagues, was instrumental in the construction of country music history as a worthy and viable subject. Yet while his research was as thorough as possible, his work was aimed not so much at other scholars as at those who were involved or interested in the music, or who could be persuaded by a blend of passion and knowledge to become so.
More a reference book than a straight-through read, but I am very much looking forward to enjoyable hours poring over the text.
8)
Rachel Baiman is an American singer-songwriter and fiddler based in Nashville, Tennessee.
QuoteBaiman grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She has described her father as a "radical economist" and her mother is a social worker. When she was young, her parents took her to meetings at the Ethical Humanist Society of Greater Chicago. She moved to Nashville at age 18 and held a number of odd jobs over the years including "serving lunch to the tech elite, and reading turn of the century novels involving the labor moment (a research gig for a sociologist)." She became an Illinois State Fiddle champion at age 17.
Baiman is the co-founder of Folk Fights Back, a musician-led national organization that puts together benefit concerts and awareness events in response to the Trump administration. She also performs in the fiddle duo 10 String Symphony with Christian Sedelmyer.
Her 2017 album Shame was produced by Mandolin Orange's Andrew Marlin. (Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Baiman))
I could do without the political stuff - but Baiman is an excellent musician playing traditional roots music, with more than a little old time/bluegrass running through. Actually her work with
10 String Symphony is how I first came to hear her work, and that remains my favorite stuff she's recorded.
QuoteNamed for their unique instrumentation of two five string fiddles alternated with a five string banjo, 10 String Symphony is the collaboration between GRAMMY nominated fiddle player Christian Sedelmyer (The Jerry Douglas Band), and acclaimed songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rachel Baiman. Since their inception in 2012, the duo has gained the attention of NPR's Jewly Hight, who listed them among "The Newest and Best Voices in Americana" for their unique and compelling vocal and string arrangements, which are at once traditionally informed yet completely avant garde. Their new album, "Generation Frustration", produced by Scotland's Kris Drever, digs even deeper into the potential for experimentation with stringed instruments while highlighting new depths in the pair's original songwriting. Unafraid of pushing boundaries, the resulting songs are as challenging as they are beautiful. ([urlhttp://10stringsymphony.com/about/]Website[/url])
https://www.youtube.com/v/L3paZqnNuw0
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91MUKploRCL._SL1500_.jpg) (https://s3.amazonaws.com/webassets.ticketmob.com/TS/images/comedians/261552437339589664843279443662n.jpg) (https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3200228247_10.jpg)
Bluegrass has always been about instrumental virtuosity, along with playing the old tunes or originals written in the mountain style - all the best known players were exceptionally gifted instrumentalists. What I am leading up to is a post about some of the more "progressive" groups who are categorized as bluegrass but who only fit that distinction because of the instruments they play. I am thinking mainly about
Chris Thile and his various groups. The
Punch Brothers are a good example.
QuotePunch Brothers is an American band consisting of Chris Thile (mandolin), Gabe Witcher (fiddle/violin), Noam Pikelny (banjo), Chris Eldridge (guitar), and Paul Kowert (bass). Their style has been described as "bluegrass instrumentation and spontaneity in the structures of modern classical" as well as "American country-classical chamber music."
The band's most recent album, 2018's All Ashore was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album at the 61st Grammy Awards on February 10, 2019. (Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_Brothers))
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71cRGjoVJ8L._SL1200_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81l3Q6rGpCL._SL1425_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71ZgmZX2xUL._SL1425_.jpg)
https://www.youtube.com/v/nzzBBU3D094
I am posting about this recording since it presents Appalachian music in a rather unique manner.
Folk Songs - Kronos Quartet with Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens and Natalie Merchant (2017)
(https://kronosquartet.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2017_06_FolksSongs.jpg)
Oh Where (feat. Sam Amidon) - Traditional, arr. Nico Muhly
Rambling Boys of Pleasure (feat. Olivia Chaney) - Traditional, arr. Donnacha Dennehy
The Butcher's Boy (feat. Natalie Merchant) - Traditional, arr. Jacob Garchik
Factory Girl (feat. Rhiannon Giddens) - Traditional/Rhiannon Giddens, arr. Gabriel Witcher
Last Kind Words - Geeshie Wiley, arr. Jacob Garchik
I See the Sign (feat. Sam Amidon) - Traditional, arr. Nico Muhly
Montagne, que tu es haute (feat. Olivia Chaney) - Traditional, arr. Jacob Garchik
Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier (feat. Natalie Merchant) - Traditional, arr. Jacob Garchik
Lullaby (feat. Rhiannon Giddens) - Rhiannon Giddens, arr. Gabriel Witcher
Kronos QuartetDavid Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Sunny Yang, cello
Sam Amidon, vocals, guitar
Olivia Chaney, vocals, harmonium, percussion
Rhiannon Giddens, vocals
Natalie Merchant, vocals
QuoteWhen Nonesuch Records celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2014 with festivals at London's Barbican Centre and New York's Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Kronos Quartet joined forces with four label-mates Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney, Rhiannon Giddens, and Natalie Merchant to perform a concert of traditional folk songs. This album collects recordings of many of these songs.
https://www.youtube.com/v/FhDpnZ5x8tk
I listened to the whole thing this morning on Spotify and was pleasantly surprised, since I am usually skeptical of these kinds of smash-up recordings. But I knew all the artists involved, I have especially enjoyed the work of
Olivia Chaney, whose traditional Celtic singing is fantastic, and her tracks are the best, IMO.
Rhiannon Giddens is a somewhat problematic artist, her work with the
Carolina Chocolate Drops was where I first heard her and was immediately intrigued with her banjo playing and their song choices and entire orientation. However, since she went solo, her operatic vocal style has grown tiresome for me and she has often ventured far afield from the Old Timey place where she began.
Sam Amidon's solo recordings are altogether too "artsy-Pop" for my tastes. However, his parents were bonefide folkies and provided him with a solid traditional grounding, and on this recording he is bound by the Kronos's theme hence he is unusually restrained - which is good. I was least interested in
Natalie Merchant because of her straight Pop artist history, but she has done some pretty good stuff in the broad Americana style since leaving 10,000 Maniacs and acquits herself nicely on this disc.
The arrangements are well done, with the Kronos Quartet assuming a rather conservative approach to transcribing a mountain string style to the classical quartet. For me this is one their best recordings, but others may not love it as much as I do.
8)
I'm With Her is a "super group" made up of Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O'Donovan, all with successful solo careers and for two of the three former members of some very successful roots groups: Nickle Creek (Sara Watkins) and Crooked Still (Aiofe O'Donovan). Their music is very much informed by traditional Appalachian music but there is also a strong folk aspect - plus they are all wonderful singers and their vocal blend is near perfect.
They've only made one record which came out in 2018 -
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91ycg7qCdYL._SL1400_.jpg)
- but here's a mini-concert recorded at a venue with great acoustics, showing off their excellent sounding instruments and voices.
https://www.youtube.com/v/Av5h1GDwmSU
All of their solo recordings are in a similar style and worth checking out. Sara Watkins often performs and records with her brother Sean.
Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves
These two young women partnered up in 2019 to release a record of fiddle & banjo music, some traditional, some newly composed.
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Z-5I34HzL._SS500_.jpg)
https://www.youtube.com/v/QiJuc20cUgY
"Allison de Groot combines love for old-time music, technical skill and a creative approach to the banjo forming her own sound – unique and full of personality. Her collaborations with Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves, Bruce Molsky's trio Molsky's Mountain Drifters, The Goodbye Girls and Nic Gariess provide spaces to explore the role and depth of clawhammer banjo (artist website (https://www.allisondegroot.com/))."
"Over the past eight years, Tatiana Hargreaves has been on the forefront of an up and coming generation of old time, bluegrass and new acoustic musicians. Since releasing her first solo album "Started Out To Ramble" in 2009, Tatiana has toured with musicians such as Dave Rawlings, Gillian Welch, Laurie Lewis, Darol Anger, and Bruce Molsky. From placing first at the Clifftop Appalachian Fiddle Contest, to her bluegrass fiddling on Laurie Lewis' GRAMMY-nominated album The Hazel And Alice Sessions, Hargreaves shows a musical fluency that flows between old time and bluegrass worlds with ease. She currently tours with banjo extraordinaire Allison de Groot and teaches bluegrass fiddle at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (artist website (https://www.tatianahargreaves.com/about))."
Good stuff.
Laurel Premo and Michael Beauchamp of Red Tail Ring create lush, intricate arrangements of original folk music and traditional ballads with banjo, fiddle, guitar, and close harmonies.
They have out out four albums, sadly the most recent was several years ago, but they are still performing and had twenty of so shows cancelled this year.
Anyway ... here's their recordings to date (all information comes from the artist's website (https://redtailring.com/)):
FALL AWAY BLUES (2016)
(https://redtailring.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/209-fallawayblues.jpg)
'Fall Away Blues,' the fourth full-length studio album from Red Tail Ring, is the culmination of years of writing, arranging, rewriting, and recording by Beauchamp-Cohen and Premo. Tracked by Ian Gorman of Kalamazoo's beloved La Luna Studio, the album features eight original songs, three traditional interpretations, and one blistering tune. Woven together by RTR's signature instrumental variety (with guitar, fiddle, and both open-back and gourd banjos) and close harmony singing, the album spins tales of hard times, changing love, and the challenge of finding a place in the world. 'Fall Away Blues,' the title track, exemplifies the artistic thrust of the album by functioning both as a declarative command and as a hopeful prayer for better days ahead.
THE HEART'S SWIFT FOOT (2013)
(https://redtailring.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/209-HSF.jpg)
'The Heart's Swift Foot' is full of new songs from two years of the band's creative work, spanning 2011-2013. Mournful heart ballads, upbeat bluegrass-influenced riffs, and fierce old-timey fiddle instrumentals tie this new project together in Red Tail Ring fashion.
As Jasmine Zweifler, of iSpy, puts it, "it was Beauchamp-Cohen and Premo's intent to create a record that sounded as close to their live performances as possible, with simplicity and intuition playing central roles. And they succeed mightily. 'The Heart's Swift Foot' is an album that is remarkable for what it isn't just as much as what it is. It isn't flashy, it isn't self-conscious. . . for that reason it feels like a life-giving breath into the stale and stagnant lungs of radio approved ubiquity."
I. MIDDLEWEST CHANT (2011) & II. MOUNTAIN SHOUT (2011)
(https://redtailring.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/209-MC.jpg) (https://redtailring.com/new/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/209-MS.jpg)
In 2011, Red Tail Ring released two studio recordings featuring a unique two-way connection between old and new- I. Middlewest Chant showcases the duo's original songs and II. Mountain Shout features the duo's favorite traditional tunes. These projects blend the loving attention of revivalist fervor with the raw creativity of brand new sounds. Whether rendering a traditional tune or one of their many original compositions, the duo infuses each song with musical imagination, haunting harmonies and instrumental artistry. As Premo states, "The albums are companion pieces that stand alone but also complement one another. The crossover between old and new is constant in the music Michael and I write and play."
https://www.youtube.com/v/JS67q11jywk
The Music Of Kentucky: Early American Rural Classics 1927-37
(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81SXDoye9vL._SS500_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81FEy6RBTmL._SS500_.jpg)
These two volumes of rural music from Kentucky in the '20s and '30s constitute a valuable collection, containing some real classics like fiddler W.M. Stepp's great recording of "Bonaparte's Retreat".
https://www.youtube.com/v/1yeQucos9-M
You may recognize this as one of the tunes Aaron Copland adapted for Appalachian Spring the How Down movement from Rodeo.
A meeting of traditional musics from the US and China.
Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn (https://wufeiabigailwashburn.bandcamp.com/)
Quote from: stingo on June 23, 2020, 05:06:33 PM
A meeting of traditional musics from the US and China.
Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn (https://wufeiabigailwashburn.bandcamp.com/)
Yeah, I have been listening to that one, mainly because of
Abigail Washburn who've I enjoyed on previous recordings, with or without her husband
Bela Fleck.
Glad to see you here.
8)
There are a number of Civil War song collections, but this one is my current favorite:
Divided & United: The Songs of the Civil War is a compilation album of American Civil War music recorded by various artists. It was released on November 5, 2013 through ATO Records. The album was produced with the help of music supervisor Randall Poster, whose credits include work with Boardwalk Empire and Moonrise Kingdom. The album features contributions from many notable country and bluegrass musicians, including Loretta Lynn, Old Crow Medicine Show, Dolly Parton, T Bone Burnett, Del McCoury, and Karen Elson, among others.
The Loretta Lynn track is absolutely fantastic, the best thing I've heard from her in a long time if not from across her long career, mainly because it features a stripped down banjo and fiddle accompaniment and mountain singing.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81EBpP8kHYL._SL1500_.jpg)
Disc one
"Take Your Gun and Go, John" - Loretta Lynn
"Lorena" - Del McCoury
"Wildwood Flower" - Sam Amidon
"Hell's Broke Loose In Georgia" - Bryan Sutton
"Two Soldiers" - Ricky Skaggs
"Marching Through Georgia" - Old Crow Medicine Show
"Dear Old Flag" - Vince Gill
"Just Before the Battle, Mother/Farewell, Mother - Steve Earle and Dirk Powell
"The Fall of Charleston" - Shovels & Rope
"Tenting on the Old Campground" - John Doe
"Day of Liberty" - Carolina Chocolate Drops
"Richmond Is a Hard Road to Travel" - Chris Thile and Michael Daves
"Two Brothers - Chris Stapleton
"The Faded Coat of Blue" - Norman Blake, Nancy Blake, and James Bryan
"Listen to the Mockingbird" - Stuart Duncan featuring Dolly Parton
"Kingdom Come" - Pokey LaFarge
Disc two
"Rebel Soldier" - Jamey Johnson
"The Legend of the Rebel Soldier" - Lee Ann Womack
"The Mermaid Song" - Jorma Kaukonen
"Dixie" - Karen Elson with The Secret Sisters
"The Vacant Chair" - Ralph Stanley
"Hard Times Come Again No More" - Chris Hillman
"Down By the Riverside" - Taj Mahal
"Old Folks at Home/The Girl I left Behind Me" - Noam Pikelny and David Grisman
"Secash" - The Tennessee Mafia Jug Band
"The Battle of Antietam" - T Bone Burnett
"Pretty Saro" - Ashley Monroe featuring Aubrey Haynie
"Aura Lee" - Joe Henry
"Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier" - AA Bondy
"When Johnny Comes Marching Home" - Angel Snow
"Battle Cry of Freedom" - Bryan Sutton
"Beautiful Dreamer" - Cowboy Jack Clement
Bill Monroe is called the father of Bluegrass since he established the band formation, stylistic attributes, including the unique kind of harmony singing, and over his long career never wavered from the style he created and perfected. So it is fitting that after his death there have been a number recordings devoted to his music performed by some of the best performers, i.e. his musical children.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41K69RJEJDL.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81CWjpNWvyL._SS500_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81VlmzPPP0L._SS500_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/615CISzI34L.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71roPH%2BzYSL._SL1075_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/518CY71W67L._QL70_ML2_.jpg)
All of these are good, and there are some overlap of artists involved, although the songs chosen will repeat but not by the same performers. The one I seem to listen to more than the others is the "Legend Lives On", the first one pictured. Also, the third one focuses on Monroe's Gospel repertory - a big part of most Bluegrass bands' book but especially so for Bill Monroe.
The Legend Lives On: A Tribute to Bill Monroe
In April 1997 some of bluegrass music's greatest names (including Ralph Stanley, Ricky Skaggs, the Del McCoury Band) gathered at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville to remember Bill Monroe, the music he made, and the genre he all but single-handedly spawned. This double-CD set captures 28 songs performed live that evening, including such standouts as Skaggs's renditions of "Uncle Pen" and "Get Up John"; Tim O'Brien's impassioned "Workin' on a Building"; the Del McCoury Band's "John Henry," where McCoury's tenor is as tense and charged as a high-voltage wire; and Stanley's "Can't You Hear Me Callin'," featuring vocal harmony so high and piercing it'll make you shiver. The producers might have fared better paring the program down to one 14-song disc, since too many average moments dilute the impact. But the album retains a certain poignancy in two songs from the late John Hartford, one of which, "Cross-Eyed Child," traces the pain of the disfigurement that led to Monroe's mournful music, and in Marty Stuart's version of the traditional "Rabbit in the Log," a woeful reminder of the hardscrabble Southern upbringing that so many of Monroe's contemporaries endured. This is not the ultimate tribute to the Father of Bluegrass, but it's a gift anyway. --Alanna Nash
The Bill Monroe Centennial Celebration: A Classic Bluegrass Tribute
2011 two CD tribute to the king of Bluegrass. Bill Monroe was both the father of Bluegrass music and one of the genre's most prolific writers, with a legacy that remains a touchstone for instrumentalists and vocalists alike. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Monroe's birth, Rounder presents this 28-track set, with performances by an all-star roster of Rounder's top bluegrass artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice, Dailey & Vincent, and The Bluegrass Album Band.
Let The Light Shine Down: A Gospel Tribute To Bill Monroe
This album is one of a pair of "tribute" albums from Rebel - a label that's been issuing bluegrass on its Rebel and County Records imprints for five decades. This album contains the gospel songs associated with - or recorded by - Monroe, while another titled "With Body and Soul" contains the "secular" songs.
With Body and Soul: A Bluegrass To Bill Monroe
Seventeen songs from various artists from the Rebel Records stable, including Red Allen, Kenny Baker, Del McCoury, Seldom Scene and Ralph Stanley.
True Life Blues: The Songs Of Bill Monroe
There's no new ground broken here, just a 17-track collection of some of Bill Monroe's best known (and best loved) songs recorded by some of the biggest names in bluegrass music today. Many of these artists passed through the ranks of Monroe's Blue Grass Boys: Del McCoury, Peter Rowan, Vassar Clemments, Bobby Hicks and Roland White. Additional musicians include Tim O'Brien, John Hartford, Sam Bush, Tony Trischka, Herb Petersen and David Grisman. And a new generation of musicians are represented by Del's son Ronnie McCoury and Nickle Creek's Chris Thile. Recorded shortly before Monroe's death in September 1996, this album serves as a loving tribute to the father of bluegrass music.
Hats Off: Tribute to Bill Monroe
Hats Off! A Tribute to Bill Monroe offers mainly instrumental renditions of classics like "Muleskinner Blues," "Orange Blossom Special," and "Blue Moon of Kentucky." Although released in 1996, the same year Monroe died just days before his 85th birthday, the album notes clearly indicate this was released before his death. The album is a fitting tribute. Many of these songs are performed by former Bluegrass Boys. Lester Flatt, Benny Martin, Sonny Osborne (of The Osborne Brothers), Buddy Spicher and Mac Wiseman are all alumni of Monroe's band. Future country star Marty Stuart provides mandolin on "Roanoke," one of seven instrumentals.
I forgot one - and a real good one.
(https://bluegrasstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/bb100.jpg)
Bill Monroe 100th Year Celebration – Live at Bean Blossom
The commemorative album was recorded during the 45th Annual Bill Monroe Memorial Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival, at Bean Blossom, Indiana, June 2011, when the record label brought along two audio engineers to capture some of the label's artists paying tribute to the Father of Bluegrass Music.
Uncle Pen – Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out; Can't You Hear Me Calling – Lou Reid and Carolina; Southern Flavor – Brand New Strings; Were You There – Grasstowne; Footprints in the Snow – Lonesome River Band; Six Feet Under the Ground – Audie Blaylock & Redline; Big Mon – The Bartley Brothers; Body & Soul – Blue Moon Rising; Blue Moon of Kentucky – Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press; This World Is Not My Home – Carolina Road; Bluegrass Breakdown – Ronnie Reno & The Reno Tradition; and Molly & Tenbrooks – Wasson & McCall (featuring J. D. Crowe).
Quote from: Old San Antone on June 24, 2020, 11:42:29 AM
Bill Monroe is called the father of Bluegrass since he established the band formation, stylistic attributes, including the unique kind of harmony singing, and over his long career never wavered from the style he created and perfected. So it is fitting that after his death there have been a number recordings devoted to his music performed by some of the best performers, i.e. his musical children.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41K69RJEJDL.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81CWjpNWvyL._SS500_.jpg) (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81VlmzPPP0L._SS500_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/615CISzI34L.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71roPH%2BzYSL._SL1075_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/518CY71W67L._QL70_ML2_.jpg)
All of these are good, and there are some overlap of artists involved, although the songs chosen will repeat but not by the same performers. The one I seem to listen to more than the others is the "Legend Lives On", the first one pictured. Also, the third one focuses on Monroe's Gospel repertory - a big part of most Bluegrass bands' book but especially so for Bill Monroe.
The Legend Lives On: A Tribute to Bill Monroe
In April 1997 some of bluegrass music's greatest names (including Ralph Stanley, Ricky Skaggs, the Del McCoury Band) gathered at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville to remember Bill Monroe, the music he made, and the genre he all but single-handedly spawned. This double-CD set captures 28 songs performed live that evening, including such standouts as Skaggs's renditions of "Uncle Pen" and "Get Up John"; Tim O'Brien's impassioned "Workin' on a Building"; the Del McCoury Band's "John Henry," where McCoury's tenor is as tense and charged as a high-voltage wire; and Stanley's "Can't You Hear Me Callin'," featuring vocal harmony so high and piercing it'll make you shiver. The producers might have fared better paring the program down to one 14-song disc, since too many average moments dilute the impact. But the album retains a certain poignancy in two songs from the late John Hartford, one of which, "Cross-Eyed Child," traces the pain of the disfigurement that led to Monroe's mournful music, and in Marty Stuart's version of the traditional "Rabbit in the Log," a woeful reminder of the hardscrabble Southern upbringing that so many of Monroe's contemporaries endured. This is not the ultimate tribute to the Father of Bluegrass, but it's a gift anyway. --Alanna Nash
The Bill Monroe Centennial Celebration: A Classic Bluegrass Tribute
2011 two CD tribute to the king of Bluegrass. Bill Monroe was both the father of Bluegrass music and one of the genre's most prolific writers, with a legacy that remains a touchstone for instrumentalists and vocalists alike. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Monroe's birth, Rounder presents this 28-track set, with performances by an all-star roster of Rounder's top bluegrass artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice, Dailey & Vincent, and The Bluegrass Album Band.
Let The Light Shine Down: A Gospel Tribute To Bill Monroe
This album is one of a pair of "tribute" albums from Rebel - a label that's been issuing bluegrass on its Rebel and County Records imprints for five decades. This album contains the gospel songs associated with - or recorded by - Monroe, while another titled "With Body and Soul" contains the "secular" songs.
With Body and Soul: A Bluegrass To Bill Monroe
Seventeen songs from various artists from the Rebel Records stable, including Red Allen, Kenny Baker, Del McCoury, Seldom Scene and Ralph Stanley.
True Life Blues: The Songs Of Bill Monroe
There's no new ground broken here, just a 17-track collection of some of Bill Monroe's best known (and best loved) songs recorded by some of the biggest names in bluegrass music today. Many of these artists passed through the ranks of Monroe's Blue Grass Boys: Del McCoury, Peter Rowan, Vassar Clemments, Bobby Hicks and Roland White. Additional musicians include Tim O'Brien, John Hartford, Sam Bush, Tony Trischka, Herb Petersen and David Grisman. And a new generation of musicians are represented by Del's son Ronnie McCoury and Nickle Creek's Chris Thile. Recorded shortly before Monroe's death in September 1996, this album serves as a loving tribute to the father of bluegrass music.
Hats Off: Tribute to Bill Monroe
Hats Off! A Tribute to Bill Monroe offers mainly instrumental renditions of classics like "Muleskinner Blues," "Orange Blossom Special," and "Blue Moon of Kentucky." Although released in 1996, the same year Monroe died just days before his 85th birthday, the album notes clearly indicate this was released before his death. The album is a fitting tribute. Many of these songs are performed by former Bluegrass Boys. Lester Flatt, Benny Martin, Sonny Osborne (of The Osborne Brothers), Buddy Spicher and Mac Wiseman are all alumni of Monroe's band. Future country star Marty Stuart provides mandolin on "Roanoke," one of seven instrumentals.
I forgot one - and a real good one.
(https://bluegrasstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/bb100.jpg)
Bill Monroe 100th Year Celebration – Live at Bean Blossom
The commemorative album was recorded during the 45th Annual Bill Monroe Memorial Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival, at Bean Blossom, Indiana, June 2011, when the record label brought along two audio engineers to capture some of the label's artists paying tribute to the Father of Bluegrass Music.
Uncle Pen – Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out; Can't You Hear Me Calling – Lou Reid and Carolina; Southern Flavor – Brand New Strings; Were You There – Grasstowne; Footprints in the Snow – Lonesome River Band; Six Feet Under the Ground – Audie Blaylock & Redline; Big Mon – The Bartley Brothers; Body & Soul – Blue Moon Rising; Blue Moon of Kentucky – Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press; This World Is Not My Home – Carolina Road; Bluegrass Breakdown – Ronnie Reno & The Reno Tradition; and Molly & Tenbrooks – Wasson & McCall (featuring J. D. Crowe).
Boy, there's a big handful! 2 or 3 of those should nicely fill up some sad spaces in my little collection. I like the looks of that last one, I've come to enjoy the live festival-type performances. Thanks for this list, I need to mosey over to Amazon now... ;)
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Rhianna Gibbons is resurrecting and breathing new life into music associated with Minstrelsy, which represents the earliest examples of the fusion of African and Celtic traditions and forms the foundation of all American popular music that followed
https://youtu.be/dNe_EE7aI0c
https://youtu.be/a4Xlyi8Is98
Quote from: BWV 1080 on June 25, 2020, 09:16:05 PM
Rhianna Gibbons is resurrecting and breathing new life into music associated with Minstrelsy, which represents the earliest examples of the fusion of African and Celtic traditions and forms the foundation of all American popular music that followed
https://youtu.be/dNe_EE7aI0c
https://youtu.be/a4Xlyi8Is98
Ms. Giddens also recently collaborated with an artist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYDo0ZjXegM) I imagine would be well known around these parts.
Quote from: BWV 1080 on June 25, 2020, 09:16:05 PM
Rhianna Gibbons is resurrecting and breathing new life into music associated with Minstrelsy, which represents the earliest examples of the fusion of African and Celtic traditions and forms the foundation of all American popular music that followed
https://youtu.be/dNe_EE7aI0c
https://youtu.be/a4Xlyi8Is98
Rhiannon Giddens also performs with a group called the Carolina Chocolate Drops playing old time music. In your video she is playing a fretless banjo with nylon/gut strings, clawhammer picking style. Fabulous, I've never seen that before. That banjo sounds so much cooler than modern ones!
The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Giddens playing fiddle as well as banjo:
https://www.youtube.com/v/EmPf1CJaF5s
On a slightly different tack, she covers here one of the greatest all-time songs, Patsy Cline / Willie Nelson's "Crazy", better than anyone I've heard since Patsy died. I know it isn't old-time or bluegrass, but I just wanted to say, this gal has talent!!
https://www.youtube.com/v/9MrHeJ-n_RQ
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on June 26, 2020, 10:10:22 AM
Rhiannon Giddens also performs with a group called the Carolina Chocolate Drops playing old time music. In your video she is playing a fretless banjo with nylon/gut strings, clawhammer picking style. Fabulous, I've never seen that before. That banjo sounds so much cooler than modern ones!
yes, the gourd and gut strings was the original config and you can see the relation to African instruments like the Akonting, including the clawhammer technique
https://www.youtube.com/v/IJtI7gr4XyU
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on June 26, 2020, 10:10:22 AM
Rhiannon Giddens also performs with a group called the Carolina Chocolate Drops playing old time music. In your video she is playing a fretless banjo with nylon/gut strings, clawhammer picking style. Fabulous, I've never seen that before. That banjo sounds so much cooler than modern ones!
That's the banjo I've got, it was handmade by a North Carolina luthier, and I buy "nylgut" strings designed to be tuned a fourth lower than the standard banjo. I have been learning clawhammer style for the last couple of years, off and on, and am just now getting some of the basics of the strum down. Being primarily a guitar player, clawhammer technique is counter-intuitve. But once you've mastered the basic strum, playing tunes goes pretty quickly.
Agree on all points about
Rhiannon Giddens.
I came to post about two new tributes to J
ohn Hartford:
The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Vol. 1(https://732204.smushcdn.com/1222810/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/JHartfidtuneprojectlg-300x286.jpg?size=300x300&lossy=1&strip=1&webp=1)
QuoteWhen John Hartford died in 2001, we lost a musical voice and first-rate humorist whose songwriting carried us down the Mississippi on riverboats and whose musical genius is with us still, in his songs and in the modern-day musicians he's inspired. It's our good fortune that he left behind a treasure trove of over 2,000 hand-written fiddle tune charts. In the summer of 2018, his daughter, Katie Harford Hogue, Nashville-based fiddler Matt Combs, and musicologist and musician Greg Reish compiled and published the first project that grew out of these discoveries, John Hartford's Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes, an anthology of 176 of Hartford's original compositions. (No Depression (https://www.nodepression.com/album-reviews/two-projects-celebrate-john-hartfords-enduring-legacy/?mc_cid=3ff7955bb9&mc_eid=f90ac9ad84))
https://www.youtube.com/v/EkzqbEnbhfE
On the Road: A Tribute to John Hartford(https://732204.smushcdn.com/1222810/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Jharttributeto-300x298.jpeg?size=300x300&lossy=1&strip=1&webp=1)
QuoteAnother group of artists honors Hartford's legacy by delivering their own re-workings of songs from Hartford's albums, illustrating Hartford's humor and his songwriting genius. This collection of 15 songs features musicians including Sam Bush, Todd Snider, Leftover Salmon, Railroad Earth, The Infamous Stringdusters, The Band of Heathens, and The Travelin' McCourys.
On the Road opens with Sam Bush's jamming version of the title track, which Bush played live with Hartford as far back as 1977. The song appears on Hartford's album Morning Bugle; in Bush's version, driven by Scott Vestal's propulsive banjo, the song launches us down the road, energizing us for the journey, a paean to the life of a traveling musician. (No Depression (https://www.nodepression.com/album-reviews/two-projects-celebrate-john-hartfords-enduring-legacy/?mc_cid=3ff7955bb9&mc_eid=f90ac9ad84))
https://www.youtube.com/v/sbVjRWNmjnI
Quote from: BWV 1080 on June 26, 2020, 10:53:13 AM
yes, the gourd and gut strings was the original config and you can see the relation to African instruments like the Akonting, including the clawhammer technique
https://www.youtube.com/v/IJtI7gr4XyU
Something else I never saw: very cool! Music has an "oriental" sound to it, not what I would have expected at all. Thanks for posting this!
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Quote from: Old San Antone on June 26, 2020, 11:40:29 AM
That's the banjo I've got, it was handmade by a North Carolina luthier, and I buy "nylgut" strings designed to be tuned a fourth lower than the standard banjo. I have been learning clawhammer style for the last couple of years, off and on, and am just now getting some of the basics of the strum down. Being primarily a guitar player, clawhammer technique is counter-intuitve. But once you've mastered the basic strum, playing tunes goes pretty quickly.
Agree on all points about Rhiannon Giddens.
Nice! I was just guessing about the strings, but you seem to have confirmed that. I have a very old tenor banjo, which I would like to bring to the string shop for reworking. I wonder if I could go with those kind of strings and learn to frail it. I was pretty good on guitar back in the day, and I could chord that banjo and my mandolin really well too. Warn't much of a picker though, but not saying I couldn't learn. Just takes motivation. :)
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Quote from: Old San Antone on June 26, 2020, 11:40:29 AM
I came to post about two new tributes to John Hartford:
The John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project, Vol. 1
(https://732204.smushcdn.com/1222810/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/JHartfidtuneprojectlg-300x286.jpg?size=300x300&lossy=1&strip=1&webp=1)
https://www.youtube.com/v/EkzqbEnbhfE
On the Road: A Tribute to John Hartford
(https://732204.smushcdn.com/1222810/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Jharttributeto-300x298.jpeg?size=300x300&lossy=1&strip=1&webp=1)
https://www.youtube.com/v/sbVjRWNmjnI
Looks like I'm going to have to turn that way for a bit. I really enjoyed Hartford when he was alive and well and playing with Glen Campbell. I went elsewhere for a while, but might be time to head back...
80
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on June 26, 2020, 02:13:44 PM
Nice! I was just guessing about the strings, but you seem to have confirmed that. I have a very old tenor banjo, which I would like to bring to the string shop for reworking. I wonder if I could go with those kind of strings and learn to frail it. I was pretty good on guitar back in the day, and I could chord that banjo and my mandolin really well too. Warn't much of a picker though, but not saying I couldn't learn. Just takes motivation. :)
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I'm not sure but doesn't the tenor banjo have four strings? If I am remembering it correctly, you could play this music with it, but not in a real clawhammer style which requires a five string banjo (the style requires using the thumb to pull the high fifth string). But I could be wrong; you could definitely put nylgut strings on it (Aquila (https://www.juststrings.com/aquilabanjo.html) is the best brand) - and see where it leads.
Good Time Banjos (https://www.deeringbanjos.com/collections/goodtime-banjos) have some excellent open backed banjos, that are well made and start in the $600 range and go up from there. There is also Gold Tone (https://goldtonemusicgroup.com/goldtone/instruments/ac-1) which as a banjo that is inexpensive but has won prizes in its class, I've got one and it has a good sound and is a little over $200.
Hog-eyed Man perform "Green River" at the Old-Time Tiki Parlour (http://www.oldtimetikiparlour.com).
Hog-eyed Man is: Jason Cade & Rob McMaken
https://www.youtube.com/v/MJqngg7AVyA
The Old Time Tiki Parlour is a nice place to hear (and see) some really good Old Time/Bluegrass playing.
I was just scouting around for something new, and instead I found something old. Made in 1971, it shows what this music is really all about, as well as many of the people who you would be surprised that Earl played with in that time. It's a fast 73 minutes, and worth hanging around to the end, just to see Joan Baez doing a great Bob Dylan imitation! Glad I found it.
https://www.youtube.com/v/OlneqC0mVsk
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This is the video I was referring to above.
https://www.youtube.com/v/gYDo0ZjXegM
Quote from: stingo on July 03, 2020, 06:51:18 PM
This is the video I was referring to above.
https://www.youtube.com/v/gYDo0ZjXegM
That was really nice! If one had to define some sort of genre to put that song into, I wonder what it would be? It's rather unique. :)
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on July 04, 2020, 10:44:32 AM
That was really nice! If one had to define some sort of genre to put that song into, I wonder what it would be? It's rather unique. :)
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You might be interested in her album There Is No Other. (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kdlBpaDBySbUpIikxI8byMXEzlXhX_jWU) It strikes me as being Americana but with World instruments.
Here's the title track...
https://www.youtube.com/v/KBIQ_tjBt0M
Laurie Lewis - 2020 recording of duets with friends, "And Laurie Lewis"
(https://i2.wp.com/www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/SJM-L-LEWIS-0416-04.jpg?fit=810%2C9999px&ssl=1)
In many ways "And Laurie Lewis" embodies the vital intergenerational nature of an acoustic scene that encompasses bluegrass, old-time music, jazz and kindred traditions. On the opening track "You Are My Flower" she's joined by 27-year-old bluegrass star Molly Tuttle, a vocalist and guitarist she's known and championed since her early teens. "Molly was the perfect person for this traditional song I first heard on a Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album," Lewis says. "She's a guitar goddess and she created such a beautiful blend vocally. She can just lay her voice on mine. It sounds as if she's been listening to me her whole life," which is pretty much the case.
They also recorded "The Lonely One," a beautiful ballad written by Emily Mann, a brilliant young banjo player, fiddler and vocalist who performs in the old-time duo Paper Wings. Much like with Tuttle, Lewis took Mann under her wing after meeting her as a young teen at the Big Sur Fiddle Camp.
https://www.youtube.com/v/wjA_RSYfO1w
Laurie Lewis talks about how she got into bluegrass:
Quote"At the Berkeley Folk Festival," Laurie remembers, "you could hear all kinds of music, and it just really grabbed me. That was the first place I heard Doc Watson, the first place I heard Jean Ritchie, maybe the first bluegrass band I heard, the Greenbriar Boys. And then there was Jesse Fuller and Reverend Gary Davis and Mississippi John Hurt. It just totally busted my ears open and got me really excited about folk music."
Inspired by the music she heard at the festival, Laurie started learning guitar and then bluegrass banjo. A friend took her to Paul's Saloon in San Francisco, a bar that featured bluegrass music every night, and Laurie experienced a life-changing epiphany. "I saw fiddlers live," she remembers, "and it knocked me out. I realized I could be a fiddler.
"It was really a different deal coming at bluegrass in the San Francisco Bay Area. All you had to do to be in was love the music and show up. There weren't a lot of cutting contests; it was all about making music together, a focus on interdependency rather than individual prowess."
Good stuff.
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have released a new album of covers titled All the Good Times. It features two Bob Dylan tracks, John Prine's "Hello in There," a song by folk guitarist Elizabeth Cotten, and a version of "Jackson," which Johnny Cash and June Carter made famous. The album takes its title from the traditional tune "All The Good Times Are Past and Gone," which also appears in the collection. Check it out below.
Welch's most recent album under her own name was The Harrow and the Harvest, which came out in 2011. In 2016, she released Boots No. 1: The Official Revival Bootleg, a collection of demos and other recordings made early in her career. Welch also joined Rawlings on his 2017 LP Poor David's Almanack and the 2015 Dave Rawlings Machine album Nashville Obsolete. (Pitchfork (https://pitchfork.com/news/gillian-welch-and-david-rawlings-release-new-covers-album-all-the-good-times-listen/))
https://www.youtube.com/v/HYt4rRgx5OU
1. "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie" (Elizabeth Cotton)
2. "Señor" (Bob Dylan)
3. "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" (Trad. arr. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
4. "Hello in There" (John Prine)
5. "Poor Ellen Smith" (Trad. arr. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
6. "All the Good Times Are Past and Gone" (Trad. arr. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
7. "Ginseng Sullivan" (Norman Blake)
8. "Abandoned Love" (Bob Dylan)
9. "Jackson" (Jerry Leiber, Billy Wheeler)
10. "Y'all Come" (Arlie Duff)
Ooooh :o
Thank you very much for the heads-up, OSA !
My predilection for violin (or fiddle in this genre) is well-known, so I took a cue from OSA and got this Michael Cleveland album; his first, I believe, and also pure traditional Bluegrass, no Newgrass, no Country Music.
(https://i.imgur.com/pIODGMI.jpg)
One can see oneself being disappointed in a full price CD with only 38 minutes of music on it, but damn, this is 38 minutes of pure wonderfulness! There are a couple of Bill Monroe songs on here, but in truth, it sounds like many more than 2! And 'Lee Highway Blues' is worth the price of admission on its own. :)
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on July 13, 2020, 04:45:51 PM
My predilection for violin (or fiddle in this genre) is well-known, so I took a cue from OSA and got this Michael Cleveland album; his first, I believe, and also pure traditional Bluegrass, no Newgrass, no Country Music.
(https://i.imgur.com/pIODGMI.jpg)
One can see oneself being disappointed in a full price CD with only 38 minutes of music on it, but damn, this is 38 minutes of pure wonderfulness! There are a couple of Bill Monroe songs on here, but in truth, it sounds like many more than 2! And 'Lee Highway Blues' is worth the price of admission on its own. :)
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Glad you liked it. ;) Good fiddle playing is hard to beat.
Quote from: Old San Antone on July 13, 2020, 04:48:36 PM
Glad you liked it. ;) Good fiddle playing is hard to beat.
And this is way beyond good! :)
I was reading reviews of his albums, the consensus is that this is the only one that is purely Bluegrass, the others have a mixture of Country and Folk in them too. Which is why I decided on this one, obviously. Does that jibe with your experience too?
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Quote from: Gurn Blanston on July 13, 2020, 05:11:28 PM
And this is way beyond good! :)
I was reading reviews of his albums, the consensus is that this is the only one that is purely Bluegrass, the others have a mixture of Country and Folk in them too. Which is why I decided on this one, obviously. Does that jibe with your experience too?
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It's hard these days to find a pure Bluegrass record by someone under 40 - but that's not to say that they can't play the shit out of the Bluegrass on their records. Cleveland played with Alison Krauss for a while, and might have wanted to exploit that audience for his solo work. My feeling is if they play Country with Bluegrass instruments, it's a helluva lot better than Country with Nashville production.
That said, Cleveland's latest record is pretty darn good. It features a number of big names with him. Also his working band,
Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, plays pretty much straight Bluegrass.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/xkStpJpk18vF1X4abYWG1KoOgp1wjfM1CMJk4DLJhmYejYchgeVRXMIecjf7VXbpggW_zTvK1FlFj1XQJFlq_1ZYLIdQ-D-lZ3nkw55JEFQ8wgWwAV7DxIapz06fOmEw5efCrapYcsp5g3qjmA)
Quote from: Old San Antone on July 13, 2020, 06:34:23 PM
It's hard these days to find a pure Bluegrass record by someone under 40 - but that's not to say that they can't play the shit out of the Bluegrass on their records. Cleveland played with Alison Krauss for a while, and might have wanted to exploit that audience for his solo work. My feeling is if they play Country with Bluegrass instruments, it's a helluva lot better than Country with Nashville production.
That said, Cleveland's latest record is pretty darn good. It features a number of big names with him. Also his working band, the Flame Keepers, plays pretty much straight Bluegrass.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/xkStpJpk18vF1X4abYWG1KoOgp1wjfM1CMJk4DLJhmYejYchgeVRXMIecjf7VXbpggW_zTvK1FlFj1XQJFlq_1ZYLIdQ-D-lZ3nkw55JEFQ8wgWwAV7DxIapz06fOmEw5efCrapYcsp5g3qjmA)
Well, I can't argue with that. I guess is you amass enough albums, you can put together a pretty fine playlist. I'mm just be patient and work it out, I reckon. :)
Oh, I never even got to mention them: that is a truly fine 'backup' band! The mandolin player is especially excellent on this first album. And the banjo is no slouch either! :)
8)
Cross-posted from the Non-Classical listening thread
Not Our First Goat Rodeo
Yo-Yo Ma being joined by mandolinist Chris Thile, fiddle player Stuart Duncan and bassist Edgar Meyer to create stellar sounds in the bluegrass vein.
(https://miro.medium.com/max/3000/1*Narx4PdDDr5lybzI9H2cfQ.jpeg)
Quote from: Old San Antone on July 11, 2020, 10:28:14 PM
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings have released a new album of covers titled All the Good Times. It features two Bob Dylan tracks, John Prine's "Hello in There," a song by folk guitarist Elizabeth Cotten, and a version of "Jackson," which Johnny Cash and June Carter made famous. The album takes its title from the traditional tune "All The Good Times Are Past and Gone," which also appears in the collection. Check it out below.
Welch's most recent album under her own name was The Harrow and the Harvest, which came out in 2011. In 2016, she released Boots No. 1: The Official Revival Bootleg, a collection of demos and other recordings made early in her career. Welch also joined Rawlings on his 2017 LP Poor David's Almanack and the 2015 Dave Rawlings Machine album Nashville Obsolete. (Pitchfork (https://pitchfork.com/news/gillian-welch-and-david-rawlings-release-new-covers-album-all-the-good-times-listen/))
https://www.youtube.com/v/HYt4rRgx5OU
1. "Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie" (Elizabeth Cotton)
2. "Señor" (Bob Dylan)
3. "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss" (Trad. arr. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
4. "Hello in There" (John Prine)
5. "Poor Ellen Smith" (Trad. arr. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
6. "All the Good Times Are Past and Gone" (Trad. arr. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
7. "Ginseng Sullivan" (Norman Blake)
8. "Abandoned Love" (Bob Dylan)
9. "Jackson" (Jerry Leiber, Billy Wheeler)
10. "Y'all Come" (Arlie Duff)
I'll make note of this album...sounds interesting! Wonder what their covers of Señor and Ginseng are like? Speaking of Señor, have you ever heard this album? It's by Tim O'Brien and the O'Boys: Red on Blonde (bad pun I know). It's their covers of all Dylan songs. I particularly like Señor, Farewell Angelina, Maggie's Farm, but other good ones there too.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71I3yVIn4SL._SY355_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71tzGcrM64L._SL1283_.jpg)
Best wishes,
PD
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on July 21, 2020, 02:20:09 AM
I'll make note of this album...sounds interesting! Wonder what their covers of Señor and Ginseng are like? Speaking of Señor, have you ever heard this album? It's by Tim O'Brien and the O'Boys: Red on Blonde (bad pun I know). It's their covers of all Dylan songs. I particularly like Señor, Farewell Angelina, Maggie's Farm, but other good ones there too.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71I3yVIn4SL._SY355_.jpg)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71tzGcrM64L._SL1283_.jpg)
Best wishes,
PD
I have listened to it some, but not enough to remember. I like Tim O'Brien, he's done a number of very interesting records, some with
Darrell Scott which I enjoy a lot. I will go back and listen to
Red on Blonde again, since I would like to hear him doing Dylan songs. Two of his best, IMO, were released just after
Red on Blonde,
The Crossing (1999) and
Two Journeys (2001). I like songs that are historical in subject matter.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51AHYxAVzkL._SX425_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/416X4QWPDJL._QL70_ML2_.jpg)
He also shares the name of one of my favorite writers.
8)
Quote from: Old San Antone on July 21, 2020, 04:20:33 AM
I have listened to it some, but not enough to remember. I like Tim O'Brien, he's done a number of very interesting records, some with Darrell Scott which I enjoy a lot. I will go back and listen to Red on Blonde again, since I would like to hear him doing Dylan songs. Two of his best, IMO, were released just after Red on Blonde, The Crossing (1999) and Two Journeys (2001). I like songs that are historical in subject matter.
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51AHYxAVzkL._SX425_.jpg) (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/416X4QWPDJL._QL70_ML2_.jpg)
He also shares the name of one of my favorite writers.
8)
Think that I have heard of Darrell Scott before, but don't know his work. Note: I was mistaken as the O'Boys are not on this record. Don't know the other two albums but will keep my eyes and ears open for/to them. :)
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on July 21, 2020, 05:29:34 AM
Think that I have heard of Darrell Scott before, but don't know his work. Note: I was mistaken as the O'Boys are not on this record. Don't know the other two albums but will keep my eyes and ears open for/to them. :)
Darrell Scott is a very good songwriter, who's had several hits out of Nashville, but his solo records are where you really hear him at his best. Probably his most famous song is "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive", made famous as one of the featured songs in the TV series
Justified.
https://www.youtube.com/v/cco-pCb0klU
Some great gittar and fiddle pickin'
Bryan Sutton
https://www.youtube.com/v/Itt54N2KQq8
Michael Cleveland
https://www.youtube.com/v/HE_G0OfJ-ew
Quote from: Old San Antone on July 21, 2020, 06:41:34 AM
Darrell Scott is a very good songwriter, who's had several hits out of Nashville, but his solo records are where you really hear him at his best. Probably his most famous song is "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive", made famous as one of the featured songs in the TV series Justified.
https://www.youtube.com/v/cco-pCb0klU
Thank you for that link. I enjoyed it. :)
PD
The Stanley Brothers are known primarily for their Mercury and Columbia recordings, but for most of the latter part of their career they recorded for King and Starday records. These recordings are not hi-fi but do contain some of their best performances. Generally they are split between gospel and secular records, and this one has a good sampling of this period and is well worth hearing, especially if you have limited your Stanley Brothers to the major labels.
(https://i.scdn.co/image/ab67616d0000b2735c6c52a1920f391fd4b97a91)
But these 4CD boxes contain all of their sessions for King Records and Starday, and are two I'll probably pick up.
Early Years 1958-1961
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61s1QdufU0L.jpg)
King Years 1961-1965
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61DLxY5Pl8L.jpg)
Quote from: Old San Antone on July 21, 2020, 07:31:24 PM
Some great gittar and fiddle pickin'
Bryan Sutton
https://www.youtube.com/v/Itt54N2KQq8
Michael Cleveland
https://www.youtube.com/v/HE_G0OfJ-ew
Great stuff! That version of
Lee Highway Blues was what pushed me into getting his first album. The live version is better, but even the studio one is outstanding!
8)
Quote from: Old San Antone on July 25, 2020, 12:41:48 PM
The Stanley Brothers are known primarily for their Mercury and Columbia recordings, but for most of the latter part of their career they recorded for King and Starday records. These recordings are not hi-fi but do contain some of their best performances. Generally they are split between gospel and secular records, and this one has a good sampling of this period and is well worth hearing, especially if you have limited your Stanley Brothers to the major labels.
(https://i.scdn.co/image/ab67616d0000b2735c6c52a1920f391fd4b97a91)
But these 4CD boxes contain all of their sessions for King Records and Starday, and are two I'll probably pick up.
Early Years 1958-1961
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61s1QdufU0L.jpg)
King Years 1961-1965
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61DLxY5Pl8L.jpg)
I'll definitely check these out, I have the Columbia and Mercury disks, it will be interesting to see how they evolved from there. :)
8)
You wait for years between releases and you get two in the same month from Gillian Welch with Boots No.2 - Lost Songs Vol.1, that appeared on Qobuz today.
(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/da/d0/ljccwwudud0da_600.jpg)
Tracklisting -
Johnny Dear
First Place Ribbon
Give That Man A Road
Mighty Good Book
Chinatown
Fly Down
Shotgun Song
Apalachicola
Strange Isabella
Little Luli
Valley Of Tears
Blind On The Inside
Back Turn And Swing
Roll On
Honey Baby
Here Come The News
Quote from: Papy Oli on July 31, 2020, 05:19:17 AM
You wait for years between releases and you get two in the same month from Gillian Welch with Boots No.2 - Lost Songs Vol.1, that appeared on Qobuz today.
(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/da/d0/ljccwwudud0da_600.jpg)
Tracklisting -
Johnny Dear
First Place Ribbon
Give That Man A Road
Mighty Good Book
Chinatown
Fly Down
Shotgun Song
Apalachicola
Strange Isabella
Little Luli
Valley Of Tears
Blind On The Inside
Back Turn And Swing
Roll On
Honey Baby
Here Come The News
I'll have to check that out. Good news.
For some reason the 2015 recording by
Ralph Stanley and friends:
Man of Constant Sorrow just showed up on Spotify this month:
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81FSP7AwlsL._SL1500_.jpg)
Good selection of songs with some interesting guests (including
Gillian Welch and
David Rawlings, which is how I noticed it) dueting with Dr. Stanley.
QuoteToday his most recent album, Man Of Constant Sorrow, is released through Cracker Barrel. It's a collection of Stanley songs performed with a bevy of country and bluegrass luminaries. They are supported by Ralph's Clinch Mountain Boys, as solid a traditional bluegrass band as one might imagine. The good Doctor actually takes a back seat here for the most part, allowing his guest vocalists to shine on most of the tracks.
But there's no lack of "Stanley-ness" on any of them. It's a Ralph Stanley project from start to finish, with the raw energy and unbridled emotion that we've come to expect, from the first sessions with his late, lamented brother Carter, through the classic recordings of the 1970s, and on to the many various superstar studio gatherings of more recent vintage. Bluegrass Today (https://bluegrasstoday.com/man-of-constant-sorrow-ralph-stanley-friends/)
The Appalachian ballad tradition is alive among a new generation of singers and musicians, most of whom learned their songs directly from oral tradition - either from older singers, from recordings or both.
This two-disk album, a project supporting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, brings these powerful songs to a whole new audience. Listeners will be delighted with the variety of music within, from the old world to the new.
(https://www.smokiesinformation.org/media/catalog/product/cache/63eb9794b4c9c9e350dd51f75e578520/200973.jpg)
CD #1 - Old World Ballads:
Barbry Allen (Carol Elizabeth Jones)
Thomas the Rhymer (Archie Fisher)
Tam Lin (Archie Fisher)
Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender (Sheila Kay Adams)
Mathy Groves (Donna Ray Norton)
Eggs and Marrowbone (Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin)
The Sheffield Apprentice (Martin Simpson, Andy Cutting and Nancy Kerr)
Willie Taylor (Martin Simpson, Andy Cutting and Nancy Kerr)
The Bold Lieutenant (Alice Gerrard)
Lord Bateman (Carol Elizabeth Jones)
The Farmer's Curst Wife (Donna Ray Norton)
Mr. Frog Went A-Courtin' (Bill and the Belles)
Barbara Allen (Rosanne Cash)
CD #2 - New World Ballads:
Wild Hog in the Woods (Alice Gerrard)
The Battle Song of the Great Kanawha (Trevor McKenzie)
Doleful Warning (Bruce Greene and Loy McWhirter)
Omie Wise (Hasee Ciaccio with Kalia Yeagle)
Banks of the Ohio (Doyle Lawson)
Knoxville Girl (Kristi Hedtke and Corbin Hayslett)
Pretty Polly (Amythyst Kiah with Roy Andrade)
Tom Dula (Laura Boosinger with the Kruger Brothers)
Hiram Hubbard (Corbin Hayslett)
Big Bend Killing (Alice Gerrard)
Old Joe Dawson (Bobby McMillon)
Otto Wood the Bandit (David Holt)
John Henry (Amythyst Kiah with Roy Andrade)
Wreck of the Old 97 (Corbin Hayslett)
Explosion in the Fairmount Mines (John Lilly)
West Virginia Mine Disaster (Elizabeth LaPrelle)
The Cyclone of Rye Cove (Dale Jett and Hello Stranger)
I've Always Been a Rambler (John Lilly)
The Parting Glass (Rosanne Cash)
https://www.youtube.com/v/uroBJxA4RjU
I'm glad that there are people keeping the old ballads/songs alive. Must admit, that it's been a while since I've listened to real 'old timey' music.
Best,
PD
Fiddler's Pastime (release date Sept. 4th) is the debut solo album that establishes fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes as one of the most exciting bluegrass musicians of her generation. This powerful collection of original fiddle tunes and traditional songs features world renowned guest artists Sierra Hull, Tim O'Brien, Sarah Jarosz, Chris Eldridge, Laura Orshaw and James Kee. This debut showcases Bronwyn's ability not only to effortlessly lead a band with her fiery, innovative and witty fiddling but to slip into the background in creative ways to support the other instrumentalists and guest singers who contribute to this stunning bluegrass album. Created with the help of producer and Sam Bush Band banjo player Wes Corbett, Fiddler's Pastime is a celebration of her first year of living in Nashville, TN. "I moved here in 2018 and it's been a really inspiring time in my life, being surrounded by this incredible music scene" Bronwyn says. "I felt like I had to make an album to capture some things I'm excited about right now."
(https://732204.smushcdn.com/1222810/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/bronwynKH-1024x898.jpg?lossy=1&strip=1&webp=1)
https://www.youtube.com/v/qtcjeKRCnQo&feature=emb_title
Quote from: Old San Antone on September 04, 2020, 05:40:50 PM
Fiddler's Pastime (release date Sept. 4th) is the debut solo album that establishes fiddler Bronwyn Keith-Hynes as one of the most exciting bluegrass musicians of her generation. This powerful collection of original fiddle tunes and traditional songs features world renowned guest artists Sierra Hull, Tim O'Brien, Sarah Jarosz, Chris Eldridge, Laura Orshaw and James Kee. This debut showcases Bronwyn's ability not only to effortlessly lead a band with her fiery, innovative and witty fiddling but to slip into the background in creative ways to support the other instrumentalists and guest singers who contribute to this stunning bluegrass album. Created with the help of producer and Sam Bush Band banjo player Wes Corbett, Fiddler's Pastime is a celebration of her first year of living in Nashville, TN. "I moved here in 2018 and it's been a really inspiring time in my life, being surrounded by this incredible music scene" Bronwyn says. "I felt like I had to make an album to capture some things I'm excited about right now."
(https://732204.smushcdn.com/1222810/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/bronwynKH-1024x898.jpg?lossy=1&strip=1&webp=1)
https://www.youtube.com/v/qtcjeKRCnQo&feature=emb_title
I've been seeing that album's advance adverts, knew nothing about her at all, but was intrigued. I reckon I'll have a go at it, love a good fiddler! :)
8)
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on September 05, 2020, 07:58:02 AM
I've been seeing that album's advance adverts, knew nothing about her at all, but was intrigued. I reckon I'll have a go at it, love a good fiddler! :)
8)
I have discovered a lot of new acoustic music from my subscription to
No Depression Magazine. This one came across in their latest email of new releases. It features some of the best of the new generation of BG musicians, along with Tim O'Brien, an old hand. Impressive.
Quote from: Old San Antone on September 05, 2020, 08:11:26 AM
I have discovered a lot of new acoustic music from my subscription to No Depression Magazine. This one came across in their latest email of new releases. It features some of the best of the new generation of BG musicians, along with Tim O'Brien, an old hand. Impressive.
I've been getting that 'Bluegrass Today' newsletter. It does give you info on a lot of what's going on, new releases, concerts, deaths (lot of the old guys are dropping like flies :'( ), handy to have. You are a lot deeper into it than I am, so this fits my needs nicely. :)
8)
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on September 05, 2020, 07:58:02 AM
I've been seeing that album's advance adverts, knew nothing about her at all, but was intrigued. I reckon I'll have a go at it, love a good fiddler! :)
8)
Thanks for the heads up; I hadn't heard of her before now. :)
Quote from: Gurn Blanston on September 05, 2020, 06:13:02 PM
I've been getting that 'Bluegrass Today' newsletter. It does give you info on a lot of what's going on, new releases, concerts, deaths (lot of the old guys are dropping like flies :'( ), handy to have. You are a lot deeper into it than I am, so this fits my needs nicely. :)
8)
I know. Sad to see ....and yet another reminder too that we're all getting older. :(
PD
Quote from: Old San Antone on September 05, 2020, 08:11:26 AM
I have discovered a lot of new acoustic music from my subscription to No Depression Magazine. This one came across in their latest email of new releases. It features some of the best of the new generation of BG musicians, along with Tim O'Brien, an old hand. Impressive.
I just subscribed (digitally) to No Depression (based on this post) but I don't know how to access the issues?
Quote from: stingo on September 12, 2020, 04:10:47 PM
I just subscribed (digitally) to No Depression (based on this post) but I don't know how to access the issues?
The print magazine is a quarterly; if you've subscribed to the digital-only, you probably won't get the print version (but they are themed and often I don't find them that interesting). I don't think I've ever viewed the digital issue. The emails with new releases/reviews is how I mainly use the site - and their coverage of new Roots music is excellent.
We can make it three releases in 3 months for Gillian Welch !!
Boots/Lost Songs Vol.2 has appeared on the streaming platform as well :
(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/xa/qw/s2goxr36dqwxa_600.jpg)
Wouldn't Be So Bad
Didn't I
Good Baby
Hundred Miles
Rambling Blade
I Only Cry When You Go
Lonesome Just Like You
You Only Have Your Soul
Picasso
Beautiful Boy
Happy Mother's Day
Papa Writes to Johnny
Fair September
Wella Hella
I Just Want You To Know
Quote from: Papy Oli on September 18, 2020, 05:51:06 AM
We can make it three releases in 3 months for Gillian Welch !!
Boots/Lost Songs Vol.2 has appeared on the streaming platform as well :
(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/xa/qw/s2goxr36dqwxa_600.jpg)
Wouldn't Be So Bad
Didn't I
Good Baby
Hundred Miles
Rambling Blade
I Only Cry When You Go
Lonesome Just Like You
You Only Have Your Soul
Picasso
Beautiful Boy
Happy Mother's Day
Papa Writes to Johnny
Fair September
Wella Hella
I Just Want You To Know
Great news! Thanks for the heads-up.
Quote from: Papy Oli on September 18, 2020, 05:51:06 AM
We can make it three releases in 3 months for Gillian Welch !!
Boots/Lost Songs Vol.2 has appeared on the streaming platform as well :
(https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/xa/qw/s2goxr36dqwxa_600.jpg)
Wouldn't Be So Bad
Didn't I
Good Baby
Hundred Miles
Rambling Blade
I Only Cry When You Go
Lonesome Just Like You
You Only Have Your Soul
Picasso
Beautiful Boy
Happy Mother's Day
Papa Writes to Johnny
Fair September
Wella Hella
I Just Want You To Know
Three releases in
three months! ???
Another good one just out:
QuoteNashville-based singer/songwriter/guitarist/mandolinist Brennen Leigh reminds us that roots music is about stories, not ZIP codes, on Prairie Love Letter, her reflection on growing up along the border between Minnesota and North Dakota.
Folk-oriented music like this can sound light and ethereal. Between the mandolins, the skipping rhythms, and the singers, who often work in a high register, songs can feel mystical, like watching wondrous creatures frolic in an open field when they think no one is watching. Leigh's voice is charming, but has more of a heft, reminiscent of the Indigo Girls' Amy Ray, and almost like it built itself up as protection from tough winters. Paired with music that works the space between country and folk, produced by Robbie Fulks, who's familiar with that space himself, the songs are like traveling to a different region, where the locals serve a familiar dish a little bit differently. (No Depression review (https://www.nodepression.com/album-reviews/northern-stories-inspire-brennen-leighs-prairie-love-letter/?mc_cid=c62e3298d6&mc_eid=f90ac9ad84))
(https://732204.smushcdn.com/1222810/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/brennenleigh-1024x1024.jpg?lossy=1&strip=1&webp=1)
Cross posted from the Non-Classical Listening thread.
Quote from: SonicMan46 on December 28, 2020, 08:17:19 AM
Tony Rice, famed bluegrass guitarist, singer, composer dies on Christmas day at 69 years of age! Born in Danville, VA near the North Carolina border and lived in Reidsville, NC at the time of his death, both w/i an hour's drive from me. I've been a bluegrass fan for decades and Tony was such a force in the genre (and others) - own about 8 or so of his albums, love them all but a favorite is the one mentioned below in the short NPR bio synopsis, i.e. J.D. Crowe and the New South - pics below of the young Rice w/ Ricky Skaggs - put together a Spotify playlist of 6 of his early albums - listening now. Dave :)
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Classical-Music/i-qm7XJGW/0/e83ea03a/O/TonyRice1.png)
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Classical-Music/i-HvFdwft/0/733f0c07/O/TonyRice2.png)
There is a great YouTube show hosted by Bryan Sutton called Me and his Guitar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XDwCBp52YA). Tony Rice was a major force in the Bluegrass and Americana community and his death is a huge loss. R.I.P. Tony.
Thanks!