Bluegrass 96

Bluegrass Instrumental Recordings (Pinecastle Series) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 2, 1996)
• Original Release Date: June 18, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Pinecastle
• ASIN: B000001UAC
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #282,263 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Six Super-Pickers Blister Through Bluegrass Instrumentals, December 18, 2001

By 

Mark J. Fowler "Let's Play Two!" (Jacksonville, Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bluegrass 96 (Audio CD)

Once a year Scott Vestal - one of the most gifted musicians on the planet who just happens to be a master of the 5-string banjo - gathers together a handful of other "super-pickers". The results are uniformly good. Wayne Benson of Third Tyme Out on mandolin. Super sessionman Aubrey Haynie on fiddle. Blue Highway's standout Rob Ickes on dobro. Guitar monster Jeff Autrey (currently with the John Cowan band). Mark Schatz on bass. These gifted musical gunslingers attack blistering breakdowns like J.D. "Crowe's Blackjack" and Monroe's "Roanoke" as well as beautiful, tasty traditional numbers like "St. Anne's Reel". Scott Vestal's banjo work is at LEAST as impressive as the somewhat higher profiled Bela Fleck, Alison Brown or Tony Furtado - and his chosen partners on these projects are up to his example in every respect. If there is any part of you that thinks - "boy, I'd REALLY like to hear the BEST Bluegrass pickers REALLY bearing down on some classic instrumentals", look no further than this album..... actually look at the others in the series - they are white-hot as well, but THIS one is my personal favorite for "hottest".

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of the best, April 21, 2009

By 

Paul Magnussen (Campbell, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bluegrass 96 (Audio CD)

I see Mark Fowler has already said it all, so I'd just like to confirm what he says; in particular that this album is the best of the series (although they're all good). The others are:

Bluegrass '95
Bluegrass '97
Bluegrass '98
Bluegrass '99
Bluegrass 2000
Bluegrass 2001

and they cover just about every Bluegrass instrumental standard you can think of (no vocals).

Especial highlights here include Ralph Stanley's "Clinch Mountain Backstep", J.D. Crowe's "Blackjack", and Scott's own amazing "Up on the Blue Ridge".