Bluegrass recordings that are just TOO good? (performances)

[2121TrumbullAve]

I live in an area w/ some bluegrass studs and a thriving scene - any way, I think it's great - for about 1/2 a set. Beyond that it's pretty redundant. I appreciate chops and am a decent flatpicker myself.

Reminds me of seeing a young Yngwie Malmsteen in '83 at a club here in Denver. Our jaws were on the floor for an hour, then we left early - just couldn't take it anymore.

[honkyjonk]

That's pretty much how it is for any act that does the same thing for more than forty five minutes.

Enter Eric Clapton. Actually I'm bored out of my mind by him after about two notes.

But the old verse/solo/verse/solo whether it's blues/blugrass/Santana bullshit or whatever get's really old especially when you play the same solo over and over.

The best concerts I've ever seen were always an hour and a half or under and featured a lot of changes in ideas, tempo, and mood. Enter Medeski Martin and Wood, Calexico, and for someone with only a guitar and a voice, Dave Van Ronk was marvelous, may he rest in peace.

[PublicMelody]

Dave Van Ronk was marvelous, may he rest in peace.

My wife and I are huge fans. I got to see him play here in Philly a few years back -- great show! He opened up for Odetta...talk about anticlimactic.

If you haven't read Dave's memoirs The Mayor of Macdougal Street: A Memoir you should give it a look. My wife is reading it now, and she's constantly cracking up. If she ever puts it down, I may get a chance to read it myself.

- Jim

[numberthirty]

A point about right vs. wrong in Bluegrass. When Steve Earle cut his Bluegrass record, I recall a radio interview he did. A caller pointed out that to them Steve had added nothing to the tradition of Bluegrass. That he had injected none of what they seemed to figure were Steve Earle elements. Steve's reply was that had he done that, it really wouldn't have been much of a Bluegrass record. I'm very much of that mindset. For a few types of music, you really need to follow the parameters that define them. Bluegrass(as well as ska) comes to mind. The basic building blocks can't really be altered without veering into offshoot territory(Newgrass, Ska-punk, etc.) That said, it would be totally depressing to think of a world where Clarence White had stuck to fairly standard Bluegrass all his life.

PS: For those taken with the metal/Bluegrass axis, checking out Scroat Belly would be advisable.

[gauze]

I'm waiting for yngwie's bluegrass album personally.

[AGCurry]

A point about right vs. wrong in Bluegrass. When Steve Earle cut his Bluegrass record, I recall a radio interview he did. A caller pointed out that to them Steve had added nothing to the tradition of Bluegrass. That he had injected none of what they seemed to figure were Steve Earle elements. Steve's reply was that had he done that, it really wouldn't have been much of a Bluegrass record. I'm very much of that mindset. For a few types of music, you really need to follow the parameters that define them. Bluegrass(as well as ska) comes to mind. The basic building blocks can't really be altered without veering into offshoot territory(Newgrass, Ska-punk, etc.) That said, it would be totally depressing to think of a world where Clarence White had stuck to fairly standard Bluegrass all his life.

Great point. Bluegrass - according to the definition of Bill Monroe, who invented bluegrass - actually has a pretty specific and narrow definition, part of which is that it is played with fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo, upright bass, and dobro. Any instruments outside of this list mean that you don't call it bluegrass anymore.

Now, the question of whether you can take, say, a Motown hit, and play it with those instruments, and call it bluegrass... I don't know. But it can be fun.

[;ivlunsdystf]

I'm waiting for yngwie's bluegrass album personally. :roll:

Well, you can always settle for the David Lee Roth bluegrass...

[chovie d]

heres some bluegrass motorhead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFh6IU4ukjo

[2121TrumbullAve]

sloppy bluegrass on a flying V:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJszmOZp ... ed&search=

Buckethead is one chops monster I don't get tired of very quickly...with that kind of schtick, the numbchuck routines and robot dancing, that cat is an entertainer, baby...

[tonewoods]

Great point. Bluegrass - according to the definition of Bill Monroe, who invented bluegrass - actually has a pretty specific and narrow definition, part of which is that it is played with fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo, upright bass, and dobro.

Actually, Bill hated the Dobro and insisted that it was "no part of bluegrass"...

[PublicMelody]

Actually, Bill hated the Dobro and insisted that it was "no part of bluegrass"...

That's why Flatt and Scruggs had a dobro player, but did NOT have a mandolin player -- they couldn't stand working for Bill Monroe. They also called their music, "Mountain Music" not "Bluegrass".

They crushed Monroe's business in the late 50s and 60s -- The Bluegrass Boys were playing for peanuts, while Flatt and Scruggs were playing Carnegie Hall and appearing on The Beverly Hillbilies.

- Jim

[cjogo]

PLayed bluegrass for many years--they are just "on" most nights...Could play a zillion miles an hour... We played 2 ~ 4 hour sets many a day, on the weekends......

The lead singer~ flat picker just died this past July

....Bass player still plays bluegrass in Tahoe..

Fiddle player just moved up to the NorthWest US border ....

....the tall blonde lady, playing banjo, lives in LA

...I fried both my knees from playing drums--had them repaired in the 80's...


this is from a mono cassette recorder--- when where just kids >> LIVE , in the winter of 1976 > Truckee Ca

BLUEGRASSY ::::

http://www.redshift.com/~cjogo/TUNES/RE ... %20BOY.mp3

http://www.redshift.com/~cjogo/TUNES/RE ... AKDOWN.mp3

http://www.redshift.com/~cjogo/TUNES/RE ... OLLARS.mp3

http://www.redshift.com/~cjogo/TUNES/RE ... BANJOS.mp3

http://www.redshift.com/~cjogo/TUNES/RE ... DRIVIN.mp3

http://www.redshift.com/~cjogo/TUNES/RE ... HISKEY.mp3


OLD TIME + MOUNTAIN MUSIC


http://www.redshift.com/~cjogo/TUNES/OL ... EY.mp3[img]


Opening for Marshall Tucker Band 70's [/img]

[AstroDan]

I hang around bluegrass guys sometimes, and I think it's akin to metal in a few regards -- competitive, emphasis on speed and precision. At its worst. Bluegrass attracts some guys who are incredibily focused, detail-oriented, anal-retentive and can play really fast and accurately. In my hack-player opinion, you can lose touch with the music that way.

This is so true. I don't know if it's Romanticism or a sense of duty to sustain the purity of the art, but it attracts the same cocksuckers who would humiliate a grown man in front of his children if he accidently put a green glass bottle in the clear recycle bin. That's why I'm pretty much into 70's pop country; it still seems to have a low-brow air that detracts these types of guys from pursuing it.