Customer Reviews

Best of Vanguard Years

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Frankly, I have been pestering Vanguard and its various minions to put this stuff out for about 10 years, so I am really happy it is out. The Greenbriar boys were great music and great fun. Ralph Rinzler was a great man who had a lot to do with making known people like Bill Monroe Clarence Ashley, Doc Watson, and founding the modern preservation and publishing of folk music by the Smithsonian, among other things. Johnny Herald was the king of the flat pickers in the folk revival and backed everyone from Doc Watson to Ian and Sylvia. When Frank Wakefield replaced Rinzler, the group moved closer to contemporary non-collegiate based bluegrass and became less collegiate. I remember being in Gerde's the last night when Frank said they could use the name Greenbriar Boys the last time, it was in 1970 or 71.

Of this group, Frank Wakefield is still out there touring and a web search will bring you to his web site, and you can see where he is. Several years ago, Rinzler joined the big bluegrass band in the sky and Bill Monroe came to Washington to sing Amazing Grace at his funeral. Herald writes poetry, I am told.

This is a record you will listen to, you will remember and will want to put on the CD when you need to perk up, when you realize you are getting too serious for yourself, and need to smile, laugh and feel ragged but right. Unlike the New Lost City Ramblers--who I love--the Greenbriars created their own mix of music basic on old timey and bluegrass with influences from jug bands and blues and folk.
Sadly missing from this collection is their great performance of Roll on John and Johnny Herald's original rendition of "Different Drum" done as an on Vanguard sampler in the early 1960s.

The later is more than made up with what might be the penultimate Greenbriars performance, the full band performance of Different Drum by John with Frank and Mr. Yellin on the last Greenbriars Album. Back in the day, everyone knew this song was Johnny's. Even Linda Ronstadt. I still shock folks when I perform it bluegrass style with flat picking on the guitar with a Scruggs picker accompanying me or vice versa. Listen to this cut and you will know who rules Different Drum.
You can catch more Greenbriars performances--including some that weren't issued back in the 1960s--on Vanguard's reissues of Bluegrass at Newport as well.

Maynard Solomon, of all people, should turn his prodigious writing skills to the history of the Vanguard Recording Society during the years he and his brother (the late) Seymour owned and managed it (until the mid-1980's). Superb as Vanguard's classical recordings were, the real interest would be its recordings of the many talented artists then at the center of the US folk music storm of the mid-1960's: Joan Baez, the Weavers, Erik Darling, Ian and Sylvia, John Hammond, Sandy Bull, Buffy Ste. Marie, and the Greenbriar Boys, among others. Mr. Solomon could, if he chose to, provide fascinating insights on just how his recordings were so phenomenally consistent in their high artistic quality. Most of these artists eventually went on to other labels, but with what seemed to me like notably less satisfactory artistic results. And of course, the musical Zeitgeist was evolving and artistic livelihoods adjusting accordingly.

I continue to listen to those old Vanguard recordings from time to time, but, yes, perhaps with less and less frequency. Nonetheless, forty years on, it is unmistakably clear to me that the impact of the three full recordings by the Greenbriar Boys on the Vanguard label is a lasting one. The group, whether in its Ralph Rinzler or Frank Wakefield configuration, still awes with its musicianship, vocal delivery, and sheer verve.

The Greenbriar Boys were thought of as "Bluegrass" musicians; and it is true, they did play exceedingly well the music developed by Monroe, the Stanleys, Flatt and Scruggs, Reno and Smiley, et al. They won top prizes at hypercritical Union Grove Fiddlers Convention in North Carolina in the early 1960's as well as becoming the first non-Southern band to fire real interest in this music among young urban audiences residing outside the music's own heartland. However, what the Greenbriar Boys played and how they presented it very clearly reflected their great love and knowledge of the much broader spectrum of popular music of the South: music that predated Bluegrass or was evolving collaterally with it, as well as other more contemporary elements. As I recall the impact of a typical performance of the Greenbriar Boys (and I saw them in college, coffee house and the Newport Folk Festival settings), their own enthusiasm and sense of fun never failed to win over an audience -- attending a Greenbriar Boys' concert or performance was really, first and foremost, intensely fun. But, at the same time, you could sure tell how seriously they took the music, its roots, traditions, and idioms-- and how these might be used, moving forward. Listen particularly to the selections here from their final recording, "Better Late Than Never." For years I used to think it their "messiest" work. But now I see it as probably the best thing they ever did. With new members Frank Wakefield and Jimmy Buchanan, it just exploded with creativity and new directions, but -- Bob Yellin's stunning "Russian Around" notwithstanding (and be prepared for a truly amazing guitar break by John Herald here) -- never moving all that far from the country spirit.

The Greenbriar Boys were superb showmen and convincing musical advocates who, like the older musicians they so obviously venerated, brought their immense talents into the studio, and not the other way around. Even today, listening to any of their records, I think, "This is the way moms and pops everywhere must have listened 'back then,' as they gathered around nightly live radio presentations of The Grand Old Opry or WWVA Jamboree." I know that I still pore over every word and every note, just as I did forty years ago, to my continuing unalloyed delight.

See what you think.

The Greenbriar Boys -- featuring John Herald, Ralph Rinzler, Bob Yellin and Frank Wakefield -- were one of the most influential bands of the '60s bluegrass revival, helping bridge the gap between the semi-retired old-timers of the '40s and '50s and the eager young'uns of the early '60s folk boom, who wanted to soak up as much "authentic" hillbilly culture as they possibly could. In the early days of the Greenwich Village-based earnest folkie college/coffeehouse scene, *_what_* you knew was, quite frankly, more important than how well you could play it, and like many of the would-be bluegrassers of the time, the Greenbriar Boys did sound a bit ricketty from time to time. That was okay, though... their hearts were in the right place, and they had fun digging up material like the historically-oriented ballads such as "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight" and pop culture goofs like Wayne Raney's "We Need A Whole Lot More Of Jesus (And A Lot Less Rock and Roll)." This generously programmed 2-CD set collects material from their influential LPs on the Vanguard label, recorded between 1961-66, and charts the group's rapid progress from a somewhat awkward-sounding (but very enthusiastic) ensemble into a more, cohesive professional band. When Rinzler left the group in order to devote himself fulltime to booking shows and promoting events, hotshot mandolin whiz Frank Wakefield came in and added some extra instrumental ooompf. Fans of the New Lost City Ramblers and those interested in the history of the modern bluegrass scene should definitely check this collection out -- it's a nice glimpse into the innocent early years, and definitely shows these guys at their best.

Not all the best is issued here (you'll have to buy "Big Apple Bluegrass") but a fine collection nevertheless. It's amazing how these recordings stand the test of time. There's a huge esprit, unknown to a lot of modern albums...
Even if the lyrics sometimes make you go "uh", it's a brilliant buy. Honestly, I like the last record of the boys the best. The somehow "Nashville" tunes they did on "Better late than never" are truly brilliant. "Alligator man" blows me away.
I only hope the record with Di'an will be also re-released.
"Stewball" might be the best known, and really a brill tune, but there's so much more to discover....
Love it.

I had given up all hope that Vanguard would ever release this music on CD. Long ago I wore out my vinyls of everything these guys put out. This album combines most of what was on their 3 Vanguard albums, and the other new CD release--"Big Apple Bluegrass""--has nearly everything else, including "Roll On John" and Little Birdie," the 2 songs whose omission, with good reason, other reviewers lamented. This is great old time music, brilliantly selected, played and sung with spirit and intelligence. Now, if only Elektra would put out the wonderful album they did with Dian in the mid-60s...Then there was the solo album John Herald did.

Recently died. (...)

I love this cd set although I would love to have original lps (along with Dian and the Greenbriar Boys). His version of the Marty Robbins song "At the End of a Long Lonely Day" is just beautifully done, and in light of his recent death, a suicide, is really painful now.

This whole album is wonderful, especially those with Rinzler, who also died much too song. For an introduction to the Greenbriar Boys, this is way to go.

I have been waiting for this "re-issue" to come out for years. I didn't know in the early sixties what an effect this band was having on the music scene; I do know that their music changed my life, starting with the shock and pleasure of hearing them on Joan Baez' second album: hillbilly sounds from three New Yorkers that got me addicted to country music forever.

The group's first full album surprised me again, half of it seemingly lifted from the Pentecostal Hymnal; and here they started their bizarre "mission" of trying to make interesting music out of what I believe must've been a lot of really mediocre stuff (I say this with apologies to the musicians of the United Pentecostal Church)--a journey they continued on subsequent albums as they fooled around with ragtime ditties and the rest.

The brightness, spirit, inventiveness, strangeness, sense of humour (and technical prowess) of all of their arrangements still blow me away.

I do miss--if I may quibble for a moment--the version of "Little Birdie" on their first album, as well as "Stay all Night". Are these beauties lost to us forever (I ask the folks at Vanguard
Records)?

May God bless Ralph Rinzler up in heaven, and John Herald, Bob Yellin, and the others, wherever they may be. I still want John to sing at my funeral.

My God, how I've missed my Greenbriar Boys recording and how happy I was when I saw they had FINALLY been reissued. They had a unique combination of musical expertise, respect for the music, a sense of humor, a haunting sound, and the ability to transform the songs so that rather than playing a slavish imitation of an old 78 recording, they created a sound that was respectful, exciting, and damned good music.

Just wanted to echo my fellow reviewer who lamented the fact that the Greenbriar Boys' outstanding recording of "Roll On John" is not included on this reissue. Ralph Rinzler's lead vocal (with Herald singing harmony), was sensational, as was Bob Yellin's muted banjo accompaniment. But if it helps anyone: Palmer Crisp's 1946 field recording of this tune, which was Rinzler's source, is available on cassette or CD from Smithsonian/Folkways. Ask for #2342 ("Rufus Crisp"). Guess I'll have to put up with my scratchy old LP for yet another decade.

I was very happy to even find music by a group I used to see perform in Washington Square Park 40 years ago, let alone get a wonderful high quality CD for such a low price. Great value!!!