Talented fiddle player. For a treat check out the Anger/Higbie sessions at Montreux on Windham Hill, as well as the follow-up titled Montreux.
I haven't been terribly active on this thread since I haven't listened to a ton of bluegrass for several years (not that I don't love it but I've been on other kicks). But tonight I suddenly thought of this song, one of my all time favorites. Years ago I was the guitar player/singer for a bluegrass band in Portland, Oregon called the Russell Street Regulars (no you haven't heard of us). I had to ask Martin's mandolinist Bob Artis on the old BGRASS-L listserv what the words to the refrain are, it's "Please forgive me little darlin' if you set my conscience free/My lonely heart is broken over you my Francis Lee." Artis also confirmed that, as it says on the label, and despite the heading of this video, it's "Francis Lee," although it's about a woman (who usually spell the name "Frances"). About ten years later, in 2015, I got to see Mac Martin at a Moose Lodge outside of Pittsburgh in, I'm pretty sure, Export, PA. My erstwhile mandolin player, who tenored me on the refrain when we did it, Jack, recorded the show and I still have it somewhere....if any of you don't know Mac Martin, he was a first generation bluegrass artist from PA who, although he never had the renown as names like Flatt, Monroe, Stanley, Osborne, etc., is a vital part of the great history of bluegrass music in America, and any serious fan of the music needs to listen to his stuff some of which, like "Francis Lee," is downright classic. I highly recommend the compilation 24 Bluegrass Favorites, which has the hard stuff. His 1998 album Echoes of the Past with Buzz Matheson is a latter-day great, although I do know someone trad enough to dismiss it because it's "brother-style" music but has a bass! Who knows, that isn't disqualifying if you ask me though... ...Sorry if this reads like an advertisement, but I really love this music, and I really hate the idea that someone like Mac Martin may be doomed to obscurity which shouldn't be the case among hardcore bluegrass fans, at least.
When I saw Mac Martin he had Keith Little playing banjo. Jack and I were really excited because Keith Little played banjo on a classic album by another artist every bluegrass fan should know, Vern Williams, called Bluegrass From the Gold Country. The Deadheads here, and maybe a lot of the rest of you, will remember Herb Pedersen (who replaced Jerry Garcia in the Old and in the Way reunion band, Old and in the Gray), who got his start with Vern (Williams) and Ray (Park), and who has also played with Chris Hillman and a lot of other people folks here dig. But he wasn't the banjo player on Bluegrass From the Gold Country, Keith Little was, and Keith Little played the hell out of his banjo on one of the best albums of the bluegrass era (whatever that is, I didn't know how to end the sentence)! I am going on a bit tonight, sorry. But again I have to say, anyone serious about traditional, hardcore bluegrass needs to be cognizant of Vern Williams, who destroys entire universes with swathes of horrible devastation like this, Keith Little in tow--or anyway, hard to say who's towing whom: Anyway, we got to Export and saw Mac Martin, and Keith Little was great, but he was a different Keith Little. No complaints, but the other KL--this one above--is one of my favorite banjo players on the strength of Bluegrass From the Gold Country. And, of course, we made them play "Francis Lee"...
A few recent bluegrass finds. I think I now have every LP by Cliff Waldron and the New Shades of Grass
I just saw this post again, I meant to say 2005. On another thread here, this is sometimes called "bzfgt syndrome"...which means it wasn't ten years after my bluegrass band broke up, rather it was the same year....I must be getting senile.
Even though I've got mostly Bluegrass on CD, I recently found a few LPs from the Starday label, Bluegrass Hall of Fame and so on, and loving them! It's a great intro to some classic Bluegrass artists I haven't heard before!
BLUEGRASS REUNION | DELUXE EDITION (Acoustic Disc) CDr This music is great but unfortiunately I have just discovered this title is in circulation is on CDr/music on demand format. The information on the very thin gatefold carboard sleeve indicates it is a genuine/authentic CD. Then we have the very misleading title DELUXE EDITION claim on the front cover! This is the first CDr I have bought that was issued in a cardboard sleeve. I'm beginning to dread the fact now that a lot of sealed Acoustic Discs are turning up in this unacceptable secretly issued CDr format and every purchase from now on will be a gamble between getting either a genuine audio silver disc or a sneaky (secretly issued) CDr - with it's lack of a matrix number on the disc run off and it's tell tale signs of excessive rainbow hues on the playing side. What a bummer! *Sometimes Acoustic Disc indicated their CDr editions with the word Oasis somewhere on the sleeve - but not anymore apparently.
Staying at home today in the rain, hiding out from the badass coronavirus, which makes a good excuse to pull out some of the old bluegrass LPs from the collection. Here's my current batch:
I saw David Nelson and Eric at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley a few years back, a pretty good show. But with Peter, Darol and others joining in, this would be great fun. May be out of town then though. Saw Bireli Lagrene at the Freight last month at the Django festival. My favorite guitarist, bar none. Fourth time I've caught him in the Bay Area over 25-30 years. Not bluegrass, but he can play about any style of jazz guitar you can imagine at the highest level.