The BLUEGRASS thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Jerry, Feb 9, 2017.

  1. MonkeyMan

    MonkeyMan A man who dreams he is a butterfly?

    Bella Betts is playing in Boulder this weekend! :goodie:
     
    Dennis0675 likes this.
  2. Dennis0675

    Dennis0675 Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Ohio
  3. Jerry

    Jerry Grateful Gort Staff Thread Starter

    Location:
    New England
    Ricky in particular is extremely jocular and loquacious. Does a great Bill Monroe impression.
     
    RDriftwood and Dennis0675 like this.
  4. Craig

    Craig (unspecified) Staff

    Location:
    North of Seattle
    Hey, I was there.

    Alison Krauss + Union Station with Tony Rice doing a tribute to Tony's recording career.

    [​IMG]
     
    cedarbrew, RDriftwood, Jerry and 3 others like this.
  5. nancybrooke

    nancybrooke Not quite Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle, WA, USA
    Got this today, looks right up my alley (Gene Clark cover!).

    [​IMG]
     
  6. bmoregnr

    bmoregnr Forum Rezident

    Location:
    1060 W. Addison
    I came looking to make sure that Bear Doc & Merle box was mentioned here as I have to think everyone on this thread would like it. Beautifully recorded then transferred/mastered just right.
     
  7. Wes_in_va

    Wes_in_va Trying to live up to my dog’s expectations

    Location:
    Southwest VA
    I just got this record today, finally.
    This is a fantastic recording and fantastic music.
    Thanks for posting this one! Stoked to have found it
     
    budwhite and Dennis0675 like this.
  8. Dennis0675

    Dennis0675 Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Ohio


    I think it's time we mention Jerry Douglas
     
    RDriftwood likes this.
  9. ianuaditis

    ianuaditis Matthew 21:17

    Location:
    Long River Place
    So for all Connecticutensians and bluegrass enthusiasts from neighboring states, the Podunk Bluegrass Festival is this coming weekend.

    It was originally an urban bluegrass fest, held in the city of East Hartford, but is now in Hebron, a far more bucolic setting about 20 minutes down the road

    (incidentally Hebron was Mohegan and not Podunk territory. But they'd probably have to put up some serious $ to call it the Mohegan Bluegrass Festival.)

    I never attended, but it seems to have made something of itself.

    I won't be there, my mother's town in VT holds their annual town festival and we always go, but maybe one day I will check it out.
     
    budwhite likes this.
  10. Highwoods String Band - Fire On The Mountain
    (1973, Rounder)

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  11. Dennis0675

    Dennis0675 Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Ohio
    Very cool. Anyone recognizable playing on that?
     
    SpeakerLabFan and RDriftwood like this.
  12. No one familiar to me - Allmusic's bio says they came together after doing street music/busking in various bands in the SF bay area in the late 60s.

    Among the bands that eked out a living busking on the streets were All-Skate, a band that performed on stilts and that included fiddler Bob Potts; Dr. Humbead's New Tranquility String Band, whose banjo player was New Jersey native Benford; and the Busted Toe Mudthumpers, featuring fiddle and banjo ace Walt Koken, a New York native. When their respective bands dissolved at about the same time, the three of them came together as Fat City, specializing in driving fiddle-and-banjo tunes from the repertoires of such early country recording artists as the Skillet Lickers and the Georgia Yellow Hammers. Having two fiddles in the band was unusual enough, but the ability of Potts and Koken to play differing yet complementary styles made Fat City one of the more distinctive outfits in the Bay Area, and all three of them had wry, wisecracking stage personas that added much to the entertainment quotient.

    Their profile outside California began to grow when they appeared at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival in Washington, D.C., in 1971. When Koken returned to his Ithaca, NY, stomping grounds in 1972, Potts and Benford followed a short time later. The metamorphosis from Fat City to Highwoods String Band took place when they added a driving rhythm section to the band in the persons of guitarist Doug Dorschug and bassist Jenny Cleland.
     
    Dennis0675 and RDriftwood like this.
  13. snepts

    snepts Forum Resident

    Location:
    Eugene, OR
    When I was a little kid I really disliked anything I thought was country, including the pedal steel accompanying "Teach Your Children," (although maybe I do recall liking Mike Nesmith's contributions to the Monkees, like "Sunny Girlfriend.")
    Boy, did that change !! Maybe it was the Eagles doing "Midnight Flyer," maybe I finally made the connection where the Beatles covered Buck Owens, I'm sure Old and In The Way had a lot to do with it, but nowadays, bluegrass is a huge part of my musical landscape, and new grass is a welcome offshoot.
    One of my absolute favorite albums is a live one called Bluegrass Spectacular with the Osborne Brothers and guests. It's very happy and unpretentious, sort of like a Prairie Home Companion presentation, and not ironically, opens with "Midnight Flyer." I think it's the first album I owned that wasn't jazz that had no relationship with rock music. And Tony Rice's Cold On The Shoulder is another just perfect recording. Glad I got to see him with Peter Rowan, although Tony wasn't singing at the time.
     
    keyse1 and Dennis0675 like this.
  14. cedarbrew

    cedarbrew Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I always liked this one. Got it on vinyl back when it came out, either the late 70s or early 80s, can't remember. Stringsong is especially catchy and melodic.

    Another sleeper from this era is Jon Scholle's Catfish for Supper. Not really bluegrass, but sort of swamp/swing with a bluegrass element. Very enjoyable and unique. Tony Rice, David Grisman, Rob Wasserman, Bela Fleck, Tony Trischka, Darol Anger and David Bromberg all played as guests on this album too.
     
    SpeakerLabFan and Dennis0675 like this.
  15. cedarbrew

    cedarbrew Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Hi folks. New to this forum, and thought I'd start with bluegrass. Bluegrass and jazz were two of my early faves once I started discovering serious music, later to be followed with classical. I've read through the pages of this bluegrass thread, and have a few comments to add.

    My first real obsession came from discovering Grisman and Rice around 1976, about the time I started getting into the Dead too. Rounder Records was putting out all kiinds of great vinyl then, and I snapped up as much as I could afford. Still have that collection, with the likes of Rice, Grisman, Kentucky Colonels, Bill Keith, Tony Trishka, Mark O'Connor, Richard Greene, etc. etc.

    Primarily am a fan of newgrass and hot instrumentals, as opposed to more old timey bluegrass, though I do have my share of Jimmy Martin, Merle Travis, Lester and Earl, Doc Watson, et al., and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with a bunch of them on Will the Circle be Unbroken. Listened to the New South and the New Grass Experience a lot in my early years of fandom too.

    My big thing was usually the guitar players. Favorites have been Tony Rice, Clarence White, Mark O'Connor, and Doc Watson. Have many albums by all of them and have seen all of them live multiple times except Clarence who checked out before I discovered his music. Also listen to Norman Blake, Dan Crary, David Grier, Bryan Sutton, Jon Carlini, and Eric Thompson among other bluegrass standouts, as well as the various jazzier greats that have cycled through the DGQ like Martin Taylor and Dmitri Vandellos. Used to also see groups with Ricky Skaggs, Roland White, and others who'd come through town and play small clubs back in the 1970s.

    Seeing the David Grisman Quintet live in their heyday is still one of my favorite musical highlights. Saw the lineup with Grisman, Rice, Todd Phillips, Darol Anger and Mike Marshall right after Hot Dawg came out, then the lineup with Stephane Grapelli on violin and Mark O'Connor on guitar not long after that. O'Connor has at times become my favorite acoustic guitarist in the bluegrass/newgrass style, even above Rice and White. Unfortunately he gave up the guitar quite awhile ago to focus on fiddle (hard to argue with that), but his fluidity on guitar is quite astounding. There are a couple of youtube videos of him playing on TV with Chet Atkins, doing Pickin' in the Wind and Gallopin' Guitar that showcase his effortless guitar prowess. Another time I saw him on fiddle with Jerry Douglas on Dobro in a small venue, and the place just melted in awe when they did a few duets to a mesmerized crowd.

    Also saw a reference in prior pages here to Mike Marshall's Gator Strut. I got that album along with several other similar ones over the years on Rounder from his cohorts, including Todd Phillips' Released, Darol Anger's Fiddlistics, Bela Fleck's Natural Bridge, Mark O'Connor's Markology, Tony Trishka's rounder album (forgot the name), Grisman's initial Rounder Bluegrass album, and many others. All are of similar high quality, and worth seeking out.

    Speaking of Mike Marshall, I saw him in line once waiting to see Bireli Lagrene live in the Bay Area. In the 1980s I became aware of Lagrene and gypsy music beyond Grisman and Grappelli's renditions, which later led me into the acoustic guitar music of Stochelo Rosenberg, Phillip Catherine, Jimmy Rosenberg, Sylvain Luc, and others in this style. While this diverts from the bluegrass theme here, these guys are now what I consider the top acoustic guitarists, with their jazz and Django oriented stylings. Lagrene is the best guitarist I've seen out of many greats, and anybody here who likes virtuostic flat picking bluegrass may like these guys too if you enjoy the newgrass and jazzier styles. Some of the most complex picking I've seen, a few levels beyond the bluegrass greats I'd have to say. Still, these guys play with more feeling than some of the machine gun style fast jazz guitarists out there, IMO.

    I don't listen to the newer generation of bluegrass musicians as much as I used to spin the newgrass pioneers that I mentioned above, but am always ready to be surprised with new bluegrass discoveries that live up to the standards that these groups set.
     
  16. cedarbrew

    cedarbrew Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    One more bluegrass band I haven't seen mentioned here yet - The Bluegrass Experience out of North Carolina. These guys all had day jobs, and weren't as polished as most of the professional bands, but were a fun and long lasting group. The thing that stood out most for me about them was one of their vocalists, now deceased, Charles Lee Conard. He had a high lonesome tenor voice that wasn't the smoothest in the world but there was....just something about it. It's probably one of those undiscovered voices - somehow brings out a certain mystery and feeling when I hear it. They have an album on youtube called Live at the Pier - and Charles Lee sings on several songs, including Walking the Dog, Hey Good Looking, Poor Boy, and I've Got Stripes. For anybody wanting to check out something new, this may give you yet another shade of bluegrass:

     
    lazydawg58, bzfgt and Dennis0675 like this.
  17. snepts

    snepts Forum Resident

    Location:
    Eugene, OR
    Round up the usual suspects, haha.
     
    ianuaditis and cedarbrew like this.
  18. budwhite

    budwhite Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

    Location:
    Götaland, Sverige
  19. budwhite

    budwhite Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

    Location:
    Götaland, Sverige


    I saw this band at Gränna Bluegrass festival during the weekend. Really nice show and the festival was great
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2017
    Dennis0675 likes this.
  20. Dennis0675

    Dennis0675 Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Ohio
    That's really all you can ask for right there
     
    ianuaditis and budwhite like this.
  21. Craig

    Craig (unspecified) Staff

    Location:
    North of Seattle
    :righton:

    Saw them in July. They kicked off a free summer concert series a local town has each summer.

    They were very good!

    [​IMG]

    The mandolin player and banjo player (Jeff Scroggins) are son and father. The resemblance is uncanny. ;)

    [​IMG]
     
    ianuaditis, budwhite and Dennis0675 like this.
  22. budwhite

    budwhite Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

    Location:
    Götaland, Sverige
    Jeff is a two time Banjo national champion. They were very good indeed
     
    ianuaditis likes this.
  23. cedarbrew

    cedarbrew Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Posting a few here that are part bluegrass, part folk, part storytelling. Entertaining live shows, anyway, they pulled you in whenever I saw them live.

     
    lazydawg58, ianuaditis and Dok like this.
  24. cedarbrew

    cedarbrew Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
     
    lazydawg58 and Dok like this.
  25. cedarbrew

    cedarbrew Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco

Share This Page

molar-endocrine