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The Complete Vanguard Recordings
The Country Gentlemen
The Complete Vanguard Recordings
Genres: Country, Pop
 
  •  Track Listings (24) - Disc #1

So many great musicians have played in the Country Gentlemen over the years, the ensemble sometimes seems more like a bluegrass finishing school than a band. On The Complete Vanguard Recordings, which includes two LPs reco...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: The Country Gentlemen
Title: The Complete Vanguard Recordings
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: Vanguard Records
Release Date: 2/5/2002
Genres: Country, Pop
Style: Bluegrass
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 015707971126, 0090204986378, 090204986378

Synopsis

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So many great musicians have played in the Country Gentlemen over the years, the ensemble sometimes seems more like a bluegrass finishing school than a band. On The Complete Vanguard Recordings, which includes two LPs recorded in the early 1970s, the young up-and-comers in that edition of the band included Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, and Doyle Lawson. Charlie Waller, the band's sole founding member, turned the Country Gentlemen into one of the most progressive bands in bluegrass by recruiting hot young talent and making canny song selections from the worlds of pop and country. At first glance compositions by people such as John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, Paul Simon, and Gordon Lightfoot may seem like poor fodder for bluegrass, but Waller and his cohorts proved that, with the application of some high-lonesome harmonies, a dash of banjo, and some front-porch fiddling, even the most urban songs can have a down-home country feel. --Michael Simmons

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CD Reviews

A classic band in classic form
Jerome Clark | Canby, Minnesota | 02/12/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)

"For most of their long history (which begins in the 1950s), the Country Gentlemen -- based in the Washington, D.C., area -- have been essentially vocalist/guitarist Charlie Waller and whoever was passing through at the time. Some of those passing through were major talents on their way to bluegrass legend. In 1973 and 1974, when these recordings were cut, they included Doyle Lawson, Bill Emerson, Ricky Skaggs, and Jerry Douglas. The result is a satisfying, tradition-rooted, but distinctly modern bluegrass -- or, on occasion, bluegrass-like -- sound. (Even the Country Gentlemen can't transform Kris Kristofferson's "Casey's Last Ride" into bluegrass.) The Gents' repertoire was self-consciously folk-inflected, or anyway folk-revival-inflected, in a way few other bands of the time were. Thus, they were tackling traditional songs such as "One Morning in May" and "House of the Rising Sun" which only their most adventurous contemporaries would have attempted.The first of the two LPs resurrected here, the eponymously titled The Country Gentlemen, consisted of songs that could have been heard in any Washington folk club of the period: current favorites by Kristofferson, John Prine, Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Simon, and others. When the album came out, I remember being annoyed at what I judged to be its overly familiar line-up. But today, when these songs are seldom heard, I am happy to be reminded just how good they were. Besides the folk-pop selections, there is the chilling vanishing-hitchhiker ballad "Bringing Mary Home," plus a pleasing take on Bob McDill and Allen Reynolds's "Catfish John," then a hit for country singer Johnny Russell.The second half, from 1974's Remembrances & Forecasts, draws on less covered material in the same vein, with a nod to standard bluegrass via classics from Jimmie Davis ("Home in Louisiana") and Bill Monroe ("Lord Protect My Soul"). Old or new, it's good, solid stuff. One standout is John D. Loudermilk's "The Little Grave," which expresses sentiments one would not expect to hear in a bluegrass song. It's all the more powerful for that, and emblematic of the Gents' admirable capacity for surprise."