Your favourite Bluegrass LPs

[Rabshakeh]

We've had some chat about Bluegrass recently and I thought I'd start this thread.

What are your favourite bluegrass albums? Comps are allowed but more interested in LPs and records.

[jlhoots]

Molly Tuttle: City Of Gold

Might be too "modern" for some, but I like it.

Edited June 29 by jlhoots

[soulpope]

49 minutes ago, jlhoots said:

Molly Tuttle: City Of Gold

Might be too "modern" for some, but I like it.

"Crooked Tree" ain't too shabby either ....

[Teasing the Korean]

Albert Ayler - New Grass

[Ken Dryden]

 

I got to see the David Grisman Quintet twice in concert, Tony Rice with Norman Blake twice and Mark O'Connor three times, once solo and the other two times with his Hot Swing Trio.

[AllenLowe]

I find contemporary bluegrass to be mechanical and repetitive - too many of the same old patterns.

When I want to listen to bluegrass it's almost always from the 1940s and 1950s, when it still had an edge.

And I love the original Bill Monroe recordings from around 1940, which to me are the country equivalent of Bird's early records.

 

Edited June 29 by AllenLowe

[Rabshakeh]

13 hours ago, Ken Dryden said:

 

I got to see the David Grisman Quintet twice in concert, Tony Rice with Norman Blake twice and Mark O'Connor three times, once solo and the other two times with his Hot Swing Trio.

Thanks!

12 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

I find contemporary bluegrass to be mechanical and repetitive - too many of the same old patterns.

When I want to listen to bluegrass it's almost always from the 1940s and 1950s, when it still had an edge.

And I love the original Bill Monroe recordings from around 1940, which to me are the country equivalent of Bird's early records.

 

This is something we discussed last time round too (can't recall what the thread was). Purist bluegrass can easily be formulaic and generally requires "blues feeling". Early Bill Monroe obviously has it, as you say, and the earliest Stanley Brothers too, particularly those that John Fahey's Revenant label compiled a few years back:

Stanley Brothers – Earliest Recordings: The Complete Rich-R-Tone 78s (1947-1952)

That said, I do think that bluegrass is quite flexible, and lends itself well to fusion approaches, so I don't tend to think of it as only being confined to Monroe and the Stanleys.

Edited June 30 by Rabshakeh