Search - Various Artists :: Classic Bluegrass From Smithsonian Folkways

If you can't afford this sell your pop discs.

6XERVANTES | Dortmund, Ruhr Valley, Germany | 10/13/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"With 25 tracks from the FOLKWAYS archives this is the most generous helping of bluegrass music that one might
hope for. An incredible roller-coaster ride through the most diverse styles. If you aren't a fan of bluegrass music, just pick track 21, 'Billy in the Lowground' (an instrumental that clocks in at exactly o n e minute) and you'll see the light.
The sleeve notes, packaging and sound quality are superb, as you might expect from a record from the prestigious FOLKWAYS label. As a German, I must admit that in European folk music nothing that I know comes close to the sheer exuberant energy of bluegrass. It's the perfect antidote to the whole MTV catalogue with its 100 %predictability. Doc Watson's two tracks on this CD, 'The world is waiting for the sunrise' (track 11, together with the excellent Roger Sprung) and 'The train that carried my girl from town'(track 15) fill me with awe about the incredible wealth of material that this pivotal figure of American folk music has produced. Quite definitely one of my records of 2002."

Classic

James E. Bagley | Sanatoga, PA USA | 04/08/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The plethora of worthy collections riding on the coattails of O Brother, Where Art Thou? continues with Classic Bluegrass From Smithsonian Folkways, 25 tracks of serious bluegrass untarnished by rock, pop or other outside influences. Recorded between 1956 and 1992, it includes three numbers from what's purportedly the first bluegrass LP ever, Folkways' American Banjo: Three-Finger And Scruggs Style. Dashing mandolin runs by Earl Taylor (and his Stoney Mountain Boys) and bluegrass's patriarch Bill Monroe (with Peter Rowan) open and close this crisp disc while Ralph Stanley, singing with older brother Carter, offers clawhammer banjo picking. Many of the performers - Red Allen, Doc Watson and Hazel Dickens, for example - grew up with the music. The Harley Allen-Mike Lilly Band (Harley being Red's son) shows how the genre's trademark tight harmonies can turn smooth (in an Osborne Brothers style) rather than sharp, without sacrificing the essence of true bluegrass. The New Lost City Ramblers' "The Little Girl And The Dreadful Snake" as well as The Lilly Brothers And Don Stover's "'Neath That Cold Grey Tomb Of Stone" evoke mountain music's darkness, but then a wildfire fiddle breakdown such as David and Billy Ray Johnson's "Grey Eagle" comes along to show its fun side. It's a sumptuous buffett of bluegrass."

Absolutely the best

Mayaboy | Maryland, USA | 03/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I subscribe to a cable TV network who has a bluegrass music station. I noticed that all of the best songs (out of hundreds played on this network), the true "classics", were from this particular album, so I ordered it. If you want the best of the best, this is the one for you."