Search - Various Artists :: Bluegrass Goes to Town: Pop Songs Bluegrass

Bluegrass musicians may have resisted the urge to trade in their banjos, fiddles, and mandolins for modern instruments like synthesizers and electric guitars, but as the selection of rock, soul, and mainstream country songs on Bluegrass Goes to Town shows, they haven't completely tuned out contemporary music. These 16 tracks, drawn from Rounder's extensive catalog, feature just about every branch of the bluegrass community, including traditionalists like Joe Val, progressives like Tony Rice and Tony Trischka, and smoother pop-styled singers like Alison Krauss. Most of the covers, particularly Krauss's lovely version of the Beatles' "I Will" (from her 1995 breakthrough collection Now That I've Found You) and Rice, Rice, Hillman, and Pedersen's reworking of the Grateful Dead's "Friend of the Devil," successfully make the transition into the bluegrass idiom, although a few of the songs, like the Doug Dillard Band's version of "Heartbreak Hotel" and the Whitstein Brothers' take on "Bridge over Troubled Water," barely rise above gimmick level. Still, Bluegrass Goes to Town is an excellent starting place for those who might want to get into bluegrass, but who need the reassurance of some familiar songs to ease them into the style. --Michael Simmons