Customer Reviews

Rural Rhythm Fiddle Collection: Best of 24 Bluegrass

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I own 100 bluegrass album and this one is one of the best. I have to warn you though, it is really a bunch of OLD STYLE fiddlin'. Every fiddler should get this to see how they used to fiddle. The sound quality isn't the greatest. If you want good sound quality bluegrass instrumental stuff, my favorite is Tony Rice Bluegrass Guitar Album or the Bryan Sutton albums.

With over 50 years in business, Rural Rhythm Records has built a catalog that connects many dots from past to present. Since its 1955 creation, Rural Rhythm has released hundreds of classic performances by many legendary bluegrass and old-time musicians such as J.E. Mainer, Don Reno, Red Smiley, Mac Wiseman, Vassar Clements, Hylo Brown, Bill Harrell, Jim Eanes, and many others. This album is part of that archival catalog. The label owes its Arcadia, California start to Uncle Jim O'Neal whose vision was to release the music of many top bluegrass and old-time musicians in the 1950-70s, seeking success where Starday had failed by producing records of limited appeal by lesser known, albeit talented, musicians. Early ads for records released by Uncle Jim O'Neal stated that the LPs sold for only $3.50 apiece. The self-professed "Little Cotton Picker," O'Neal also took an approach of releasing 20 songs on each 33 1/3 RPM album. These would have been great bargains in the mid-1960s when major label monaural records (with only about a dozen songs) were selling for $3.98 and stereophonic records were $4.98. The items still sold well, and Rural Rhythm Records thrived and flourished.

A sampler such as this CD will give you a taste of the large and varied Rural Rhythm musical archive. A few of the featured fiddlers: Buck Ryan, DeWayne Wear, Mutt Poston, Curly Fox, Vassar Clements, Tater Tate. They primarily play uptempo breakdowns, with a few blues and rags. Rural Rhythm didn't tap their extensive archive of waltzes that have been recorded over they years.

The label continues to demonstrate great business acumen in both issuing and reissuing traditional material to give it the attention and respect it deserves. Resurgence of interest in such material compels music fans with intellectual or fanatical streaks to dig deep into such archival material and seek it out. Songcarriers and musicologists would be particularly interested in this type of archival material.

Don't expect to hear any vocals ('cept maybe some calls), elaborate arrangements or the same level of clarion studio recording quality we hear today. Piano, drums, steel, and electric guitar would find their way into some of the Rural Rhythm mixes. Uncle Jim was striving for a commercial sound that sold records. Most of the cuts span about 2 minutes apiece. Just enjoy and relive a classic old-time fiddling sound of yesteryear. The strength of a sampler like this is its inherent rusticity, rootsy sounds, and historical value. If you're a traditional bluegrass fan, you're sure to discover artists for further exploration. Even after listening extensively to bluegrass for over four decades, my personal discovery was Mutt Poston & The Farm Hands. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)