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NEWSLETTER 298 PRIZE WINNERS
We are pleased to announce the winners of the
merchandise prizes that we listed in our last
Newsletter. They are:
1st PRIZE ($ 100.00 Store credit):
BRUCE FERGUSON, Scottsboro, Ala.
2nd PRIZE : (choice of any 4-CD BEAR FAMILY BOX SET):
RICHARD OWENS, McLeansville, N.C.
3rd PRIZE: (5 regular priced ($ 13.50) CDs of
your choice):
ANN DAY, Tucson, Ariz.
4th PRIZE: (3 regular priced ($ 13.50) CDs of
your choice):
ANTHONY SILSON, Australia
5th PRIZE (3 regular priced ($ 13.50) CDs of your
choice):
THOMAS DAVIES, Albuquerque, N.Mex.
Congratulations to all, and we will do this again
soon!
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ROU-0647-CD STEVE MARTIN 'The Crow' When celebrities venture into the world of music, the results are usually no more than marginally interesting novelties. Not so in this case: Martin, the well-known comedian, is a very adept banjo player who has produced a fine, thoroughly musical record here, with the help of some country/Bluegrass notables including Earl Scruggs, Tim O’Brien, Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, John McEuen, Pete Wernick and Tony Trischka. It is not “barn burning” banjo, but gentler, more introspective, and very tasteful music with all 15 tunes written by Martin. Most are instrumentals featuring sparse but appropriate accompaniment, with especially nice renditions of CLAWHAMMER MEDLEY, WALLY ON THE RUN, TIN ROOF and a very nice twin banjo workout with Pete Wernick on WORDS UNSPOKEN. Two guest vocals are really nice: DADDY PLAYED THE BANJO (well sung by Tim O’Brien and with Earl Scruggs adding a banjo part) and PRETTY FLOWERS (with a wonderful duet featuring Vince Gill and Dolly Parton). This is excellent, refreshing music, with the emphasis more on melody and mood than on speed and pyrotechnics. (more...) $13.50 Buy Now
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MCM-0050-CD DEL McCOURY 'Celebrating 50 Years Of Del McCoury' Over the years Del McCoury has recorded for a variety of labels including Rebel, Rounder, Arhoolie, Revonah, Ceili, and others, and he has maintained a remarkably consistent degree of quality throughout, even with numerous changes in band personnel in his early years. In this new 5-CD set, Del, and his current label, McCoury Music, have chosen to re-record songs from all those sources with his current band, making for a consistent sound, even if it’s not a true “retrospective”. The music is certainly solid and excellent throughout, and includes renditions of many lesser known songs in addition to his most popular numbers like RAIN & SNOW, HIGH ON A MOUNTAIN, GOOD MAN LIKE ME, COLD HARD FACTS, and 1952 VINCENT BLACK LIGHTNING. One negative here—and it is already being pointed to by some buyers—is the value factor. In this day of truly “DeLuxe” boxed sets, it seems a bit tacky to put only 10 songs on each CD, thereby stretching a comfortable 3-CD set into five discs in a transparent attempt to justify a higher price. Also, there’s just one 12-page, CD sized booklet, quite adequate and appropriate for a single CD, but far from what you would expect in a 5-record, 50-year compilation. It would be nice to see a few more pages of photos of his early bands and so on, although one nice touch is a list of all 33 of Del’s band members over the years, from Billy Baker to Alan Bartram. Despite these shortcomings, this is still a wonderful collection of songs by one of the finest singers in the history of Bluegrass music, and an artist who has remained true to his roots over half a century. 5-CD Boxed set: $ 45.00 (more...) $45.00 Buy Now
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PATUX-174-CD PATRICK McAVINUE 'Rutland's Reel' Following up a very good debut album (PATUX-149 “Grave Run”, $ 13.50) McAvinue uses a similar formula on this excellent recording, combining several fine fiddle tunes with some Bluegrass standards (LONESOME WITHOUT YOU, NO LONGER A SWEETHEART, WITH BODY & SOUL and SKIP, HOP & WOBBLE, and enlisting the services of another top group of musicians for backing: Audie Blaylock plays guitar and provides most of the lead vocals, with Michael Cleveland adding some twin fiddle and picking some great mandolin. Highlights include two superb fiddle & banjo duets by McAvinue and Chris Warner, SOPPING THE GRAVY and CHARLESTON NO. 1. Also DOWN YONDER, IRISH SPRING, OLD DANGERFIELD, etc. A fine CD. (more...) $13.50 Buy Now
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HRC-021-CD THE PINE RIVER BOYS 'The Pine River Boys With Maybelle' Here’s a re-issue of an old Heritage label LP from 1978 that features a Galax, VA. area old time band that was popular at the time. It features the fiddling of Richard Bowman and old-time banjo by Abe Horton. The dozen tunes & songs include SALLY ANN, WALKING IN THE PARLOR, JOHN BROWN’S DREAM, ROCKINGHAM CINDY, etc. (more...) $13.50 Buy Now
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KILBY-2008-CD CODY KILBY 'Many Roads Traveled' Kilby, the amazing young guitar wizard with Ricky Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder group, could certainly sustain an entire album’s worth of guitar instrumentals, but on this new CD he does something that really enhances the overall package. He alternates his 6 instrumental tracks with 5 guest vocals, which sets off every piece nicely. Kilby uses a power packed cast of characters—the instrumentalists include Stuart Duncan and Andy Leftwich on fiddle, Jim Mills on banjo, Jerry Douglas (dobro), Adam Steffey (mandolin) and both Byron House and Barry Bales on bass. OLD BUD is a typical Kilby tune, starting out slow and moody and ending up as a “barn burner”: the instrumentals are definitely of a very contemporary nature. As for the vocals , they include Ricky Skaggs & Paul Brewster’s take on CHOO CHOO COMING (the most traditional track on the CD), Sally Jones singing SHE (with The Whites adding harmony), and IT’S TIME TO SAY GOODBYE featuring Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent. Maybe the nicest track of all is NORTH CAROLINA 1943 with a fine vocal by Rhonda Vincent that includes harmony by Alison Krauss & Darrin Vincent. Kilby has reinforced his position as one of the 8 or 10 best guitarists working today, and this is an excellent & recommended CD. $ 13.50 (more...) $13.50 Buy Now
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TL-21911-DVD VARIOUS ARTISTS 'Opry Video Classics-Pioneers' Not to be confused with the wonderful Al Ganaway full color shows from the 1950s, this is a collection of 15 performances that were filmed in the 1950s and 1960s for various television shows. It is not clear just how much similar material from that period survives today, but the Time-Life company has done a good job in bringing at least some of this fascinating footage to market. It appears that the performances are drawn from these sources: the Ralston-Purina sponsored Opry shows of 1955-56, the Pet Milk Grand Ole Opry (1960-1963), The Bobby Lord Show and the National Life Grand Ole Opry (1965-66). The only Bluegrass here is a fine FOGGY MOUNTAIN BREAKDOWN by Flatt & Scruggs, and Bill Monroe doing UNCLE PEN (with Peter Rowan & Gene Lowinger among the Bluegrass Boys. But fans of classic country music will enjoy most or all of the 15 tracks here, which include a wonderful Louvin Brothers cut of their classic I DON’T BELIEVE YOU”VE MET MY BABY, Hank Snow’s I’M MOVIN’ ON (with fiddler Chubby Wise resplendent in bright yellow suit!), Grandpa Jones’ MOUNTAIN DEW, Tex Ritter’s HIGH NOON, and nice jobs by the Carter Sisters & Maybelle, Ray Price, the Sons Of The Pioneers and Roy Acuff (WABASH CANNONBALL). The quality of the sound and the video is excellent, and at a very fair price this is a neat item. DVD: $ 15.00 (more...) $15.00 Buy Now
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BEE BALM-305-CD ROBERT "GEORGIA SLIM" RUTLAND 'Raw Fiddle' Although “Georgia Slim” was one of the most respected fiddlers of his time (mainly the 1940s) he is not very well known today, which can only be attributed to the fact that he hardly recorded. Unlike some of his contemporaries (like Tommy Jackson, who produced a steady stream of records for Dot and Mercury), Rutland cut just a handful of 78s for the Mercury label. Though he came from Georgia and was exposed to the great old-time fiddlers like Lowe Stokes and Clayton McMichen, Rutland achieved significant local and regional fame in the Dallas, Texas area as part of radio station KRLD’s Texas Roundup show (which also included a brilliant young fiddler named Howdy Forrester). Although these tracks are from home recordings and not the greatest sound quality, there’s some wonderful fiddling here, and it’s easy to see where some of the Texas contest style of fiddling developed some of its ideas of variations on the melody of many standard old-time tunes. There are wonderful versions here of SOLDIER’S JOY, SALLY GOODIN, OLD JOE CLARK, CHICKEN REEL and MISSISSIPPI SAWYER among others. Rutland is accompanied here by a well-played piano supplying simple chords. This CD is a combination of two former discs on the Tri-Agle-Far label. Fine fiddling and an interesting CD. (more...) $13.50 Buy Now
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ROU-0635-CD DOYLE LAWSON & QUICKSILVER 'Lonely Street' As expected, another first class album from Lawson and his current edition of Quicksilver—the band now includes Darren Beachley (guitar & lead vocals), Joey Cox (banjo), Josh Swift (dobro) and Carl White (bass). David Johnson and Brandon Goodman add some fiddle parts. Lawson uses some old country & western material to good advantage (LONELY STREET, CALL ME UP & I’LL COME CALLING ON YOU, and BIG WIND, a song made popular by the late Porter Wagoner, and what is likely to be the most played track on a good album). As always, the group’s harmonies are superb, and there’s a nice variety of material: MONROE’S MANDOLIN (a nice tribute to Bill Monroe), a fine older flavored YESTERDAY’S SONGS, and the hard driving gospel closer WHEN THE LAST OF OUR DAYS SHALL COME. Fine work. $ 13.50 (more...) $13.50 Buy Now
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BCD-0101-CD PATRICK & GOORSKEY 'Back When I Had You' Scott Patrick (guitar) and Abe Goorsky (mandolin) do a short but pleasant 10 cut contemporary Bluegrass album here, joined by a few other musicians including Jacob Eller on bass and Barry Collins on banjo (the group is out of Christiansburg, Va.). 4 instrumentals range from the very modern SODA FOUNTAIN SPLASH and ROAD TO GOORSKEY to the more traditional SILVERLEAF, half of which is a takeoff of Bill Monroe’s THE GOLD RUSH. Patrick & Goorsky do not do any singing, but they have enlisted the help of others to do that including Heather Berry (3 songs) and Milly Cavendar, who does a nice job on Gilliam Welch’s CALEB MEYER. FADE AWAY, SAWING ON THE STRINGS, ORPHAN’S PRAYER, etc. $ 13.50 (more...) $13.50 Buy Now
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MRR-ES-001-CD ELKVILLE STRING BAND WITH WAYNE HENDERSON 'Over The Mountain' Here is another nice record from the studios of Mountain Roads Records, a fairly new label based in Bristol, Tennessee that is starting to mine the wealth of old-time and Bluegrass talent from southwest Virginia and East Tennessee. Here we have 15 songs & tunes from four veteran musicians who are joined by master guitarist Wayne Henderson on a few pieces. Members of the group are Herb Key (guitar & vocals), fiddler Drake Walsh (son of noted old time legend Dock Walsh), Bill Williams on bass, and jack of all trades Jeff Michael who does some excellent work on clawhammer banjo, mandolin and guitar. There are really nice renditions of OTTO WOOD, TENNESSEE GREY EAGLE, WHERE THE ROSES NEVER FADE and the neat title tune. (more...) $13.50 Buy Now
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PATUX-175-CD MARK DeLANEY 'Sidecar' Delaney—a full time BMW motorcycle mechanic—is also a solid banjo picker currently playing with today’s version of the Country Gentlemen: he has also played in the past with Jim Eanes, Frank Wakefield and Buzz Busby, among others. On this nicely done disc he has the backing of Michael Cleveland (fiddle), Jesse Brock (mandolin) and Audie Blaylock (guitar). Eight of the 14 tracks are banjo instrumentals, mostly Delaney originals but also including Don Stover’s BLACK DIAMOND, Jesse McReynolds’ FIREBALL EXPRESS and Haskel McCormick’s STRING PICNIC. The 6 vocals are handled with varying degrees of success by Bryan Deere, Dede Wyland, Tom Mindte, John Miller, Charles Thompson and Rusty Vint. BIRD BATH, WHO DONE IT, MAGNETO, etc (more...) $13.50 Buy Now
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REB-1829-CD LOST & FOUND 'Love, Lost And Found' This Virginia band led by Allen Mills has been playing and recording for well over 30 years now, and they have another excellent album here, with current members Scottie Sparks (guitar), Scott Napier (mandolin), Ronald Smith (banjo) and Mills (bass). Sparks and Mills share the vocals. The album contains 7 songs from 2003 that feature the late Dempsey Young, including his fine version of A DAISY A DAY. Other highlights are Mills’ strong vocals on IF TODAY WAS THE LAST DAY, DON’T LET YOUR SWEET LOVE DIE, TRAIL OF SORROW and Pete Goble’s PRETTY ROSES REMIND ME OF YOU. A very nice 13-song collection by this great veteran Bluegrass band. (more...) $13.50 Buy Now
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JA-0085-CD UNCLE CHARLIE OSBORNE 'The June Appal Recordings' Charlie Osborne, born near Cumberland Gap in Southwest Virginia, was an old-time fiddler who lived to be 102 years old. Producers Tom Bledsoe, Rich Kirby and Suzanne Savell have done a very nice job presenting the 32 songs, tunes and stories on this disc (though the faded gold on black printing makes for some tough reading). A 24-page booklet of notes gives a good overview of Osborne’s life and music, and there are good notes for each of the tracks. Some of the music is edited down from previously issued LPs. Some of the tunes & songs here include RYE STRAW, CLUCK OLD HEN, OMIE WISE, SUGAR HILL, PREACHERS IN HELL, SOURWOOD MOUNTAIN, THE CAT CAME BACK, SCJHOOLHOUSE STORY, etc. $ 13.50 (more...) $13.50 Buy Now
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