home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!caen!destroyer!ncar!uchinews!quads!akp1
- From: akp1@quads.uchicago.edu (Adam K. Powers)
- Subject: Re: Good Bluegrass CDs
- Message-ID: <1992Nov20.201808.11801@midway.uchicago.edu>
- Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System)
- Reply-To: akp1@midway.uchicago.edu
- Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
- References: <BxtpE6.7Ir@news.cso.uiuc.edu> <1992Nov19.041550.19241@Cadence.COM> <By0uut.5B1@hfglobe.intel.com>
- Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 20:18:08 GMT
- Lines: 28
-
- I just picked up _The Essential Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys_ double-CD
- set for $20 here in Chicago. It's part of Columbia Records' 'Country Classics'
- series and is very well done w/ lots of info on the history of the band and
- the recording sessions. The set covers 1945-49, the 'classic' Bill Monroe
- years, when Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs were in the band, and while it isn't
- as uptempo as more recent bluegrass, these guys could really cook! The
- sound quality is great, considering these are 1940's recordings, and Bill's
- vocals are downright stunning! After listening to his "Blue Moon of Kentucky"
- you'll forget all about Elvis Presley's version...
-
- Also, you gotta check out the stuff that Flatt & Scruggs did in the 50's and
- 60's - Earl Scruggs banjo pickin' is mindboggling. Their hit "Foggy Mountain
- Breakdown" was used in the movie _Bonnie and Clyde_ and stands a classic
- of the genre. Almost every banjo player cuts his teeth on Scruggs' style.
- The last time I was at Tower Records, I remember seeing an *immense* Flatt &
- Scruggs box set. Way too much stuff for a casual listener, but maybe I'll
- save up for it. I grew up on the edge of bluegrass country in western North
- Carolina (16 miles out of Burnsville, along the Cane River and up in the
- holler about a mile :-) and am starting to rediscover my, uh, roots, or
- something like that. Mostly I remember that every band in that part of the
- Appalachians plays a song called "Rocky Top" - I think I've heard it about
- 100,000 times now...
- -Adam K. Powers
- akp1@midway.uchicago.edu
-
- P.S. Check out the rhododendrons on Roan Mountain if you're ever in eastern
- Tennessee in late spring.
-
-