Mountain Music Bluegrass Style

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 13, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Smithsonian Folkways
• ASIN: B000001DHY
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #332,731 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Unforgettable performances by Don Stover, Earl Taylor, Chubby Anthony, Tex Logan and many others. Traditional bluegrass played by some of the genre's most talented and committed musicians. For over 30 years, Mountain Music Bluegrass Style remains a superb anthology. "Listeners who value spirit over polish...will find many of these selections to be as exciting and powerful as they were over 30 years ago." — Bluegrass Unlimited

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early Bluegrass Album Captures Era & Style Well, January 9, 2002

By 

Todd A. Gracyk (Petaluma, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mountain Music Bluegrass Style (Audio CD)

"Mountain Music Bluegrass Style" features field recordings made by Mike Seeger, who was trying to showcase the more traditional side of bluegrass music as practiced by mostly part-timers in the Washington D.C. area (who had little chance of otherwise recording). This album was made when things were getting thin for professional bluegrass musicians and just before the folk music boom fully embraced bluegrass (this album was targeted at followers of the folk music). This re-issue contains the original 19 tracks plus 4 fine outakes. An insert features brief notes by Seeger written in 1990 plus extensive original notes (reportedly the first written description of bluegrass music).

For the most part the CD features that raw, hard-edged country singing that I like so well. Some of the fiddle work by Chubby Anthony is quite good, too. Especially noteworthy are the strong cuts by Earl Taylor and the Stoney Mountain Boys, Don Stover and half of the Lilly Brothers (this being Bea Lilly; Everett Lilly was off with Flatt and Scruggs), and Bob Baker and the Pike County Boys (with Seeger on banjo and tenor vocals).

My favorite cuts here are "Katy Cline," "Short Life of Trouble," "Little Willie", "There Ain't Nobody Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone," "White House Blues," "They're At Rest Together," "Foggy Mountain Top," "Cricket on the Hearth," "Snow Dove" (pretty much "The Butcher's Boy"), "Bile 'Em Cabbage Down." "All the Good Times Have Passed and Gone," and "Drifting Too Far From the Shore."