50 best bluegrass tracks ever

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50 Ralph Stanley 'Children Go Where i Send Thee'

― daavis sztaayenszzr, Wednesday, 21 September 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

Just to get this thing a-rollin'...

49. Flatt & Scruggs - "Foggy Mountain Breakdown"

― brianiac (briania), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

48. Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys - "Bluegrass Stomp"

how about some darker songs? i'm not the expert, but i'd like to hear more.

― viborgu, Wednesday, 21 September 2005 19:01 (twenty years ago)

47. Clarence Ashley--The Coo Coo Bird

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

OK scratch that--howzabout Top 10? Er, 8?

― matt carlson, Wednesday, 21 September 2005 20:06 (twenty years ago)

46. John Duffy & The Country Gentlemen - "Make Me A Pallette On Your Floor"

― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 20:30 (twenty years ago)

Fiddy did some bluegrass? Wow. He really is the future.

― PappaWheelie B.C., Wednesday, 21 September 2005 20:39 (twenty years ago)

"Pallette" is a great tune. Doc Watson also does a nice version.

44. Frankie And Johnnie - Jimmy Rodgers (traditional)

― jim wentworth (wench), Thursday, 22 September 2005 01:21 (twenty years ago)

You all realize I can't count at all.

― jim wentworth (wench), Thursday, 22 September 2005 01:21 (twenty years ago)

mmm... bluegrass and the women who play it...

― belaflexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 22 September 2005 01:42 (twenty years ago)

43. elvis presley - blue moon of kentucky (studio outtake version where sam phillips says "that's a POP SONG NOW, little guy")

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Thursday, 22 September 2005 01:52 (twenty years ago)

That brings up the issue of just how bluegrass these favorites are supposed to be. I can think of several songs I love by, say, J.D. Crowe & the New South, but I'm not really an aficinado the genre -- I tend to like their more country-oriented material. Same goes for the Country Gentlemen, Hot Rize, the Newgrass Revival or, goodness knows, Union Station or the Bad Livers. So, keeping it in a trad bag, I'll go with:

45. Jimmy Martin/Sunny Mountain Boys - "Hit Parade of Love"
42. Del McCoury/Dixie Pals - "High on a Mountain"

― brianiac (briania), Thursday, 22 September 2005 02:33 (twenty years ago)

that's "of the genre". Or maybe "aficionad o' the genre".

― brianiac (briania), Thursday, 22 September 2005 02:35 (twenty years ago)

Not to monopolize, but we can't forget:

41. Mac Wiseman - "In the Pines"

There's a dark one!

― brianiac (briania), Thursday, 22 September 2005 03:35 (twenty years ago)

40. The Osborne Brothers: "Long Lanky Woman"

― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 22 September 2005 08:42 (twenty years ago)

39. Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys, "Back Up And Push"

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 22 September 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

38. Stanley Brothers - "The White Dove"

― Keith C (lync0), Thursday, 22 September 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys, "Back Up And Push"

Did Juvenile cover that a few years back?

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 22 September 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

"The Pizza Tapes" - Jerry Garcia, Tony Rice, David Grisman. My favorite versions of the great bluegrass songs.

― Amy Meacham, Friday, 23 September 2005 03:17 (twenty years ago)

no bluegrass is good

― retroman, Friday, 23 September 2005 06:04 (twenty years ago)

http://www.lbah.com/images/canine/disk_disease/kneejerk.jpg

― viborgu, Friday, 23 September 2005 08:20 (twenty years ago)

37 - What Shall We Do With The Baby-Kossoy Sisters

― FACEBRACE (FACEBRACE), Friday, 23 September 2005 11:56 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2008/09/post_89.html

Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president tonight while the Illinois senator was on a campaign swing through Southwest Virginia.
"After the last eight years, Virginia families need someone on their side, someone looking out for their interests, and I know Barack Obama will be that leader," Stanley said. "He'll make it easier for parents to send their kids to college and make sure they have more money left in their pockets at the end of the month."

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 18:19 (seventeen years ago)

That is fucking awesome.
I am now listening to a Stanley Brothers record I got in the mail today.

― ian, Tuesday, 16 September 2008 22:42 (seventeen years ago)

I don't know how classic it is relative to other bluegrass works (I really only know bits of the canon) but Dolly Parton's "Silver Dagger" is one of the best songs I know, bluegrass or otherwise.

― it's a great breakup balllad sung by Bill Champlin (Euler), Tuesday, 16 September 2008 22:46 (seventeen years ago)

and yeah I know it's a cover but I mean her cover of the song

― it's a great breakup balllad sung by Bill Champlin (Euler), Tuesday, 16 September 2008 22:46 (seventeen years ago)

There's probably at least 50 versions of the Orange Blossom Special, and not to include one nullify this thread.

But my pick would be "Bugle Call Banjo" by the Bluegrass Travelers from the Fonotone box set.

― narlus spectre (gnarly sceptre), Wednesday, 17 September 2008 08:54 (seventeen years ago)

Or 'Old Joseph' by the Dillards.

Always makes me think the record is playing at the wrong speed cause it's so damn fast.

― narlus spectre (gnarly sceptre), Wednesday, 17 September 2008 09:00 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postrock/2009/12/local_author_eddie_dean_reflec.html

I missed Ralph Stanley live again recently and have not read his new co-written autobiography done with DC area writer Eddie Dean

― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 16 December 2009 14:17 (sixteen years ago)

ten months pass...

A friend of mine is looking for a very specific kind of bluegrass song. I don't actually know anything about the genre, so I told him I would ask ILM. Here's what he's looking for:
1) mostly instrumental
2) high-energy / fast-paced (ideally with percussion)
3) dark in tone - whether that means minor-key breakdowns, dark production, apocalyptic sound, etc.

He's trying to score a choreographed fight for a Kentucky-set play, so any country-tinged recordings could work but bluegrass is ideal. Also, vocals are okay but not preferred.

Does this ring anyone's bell?

― elephant rob, Friday, 29 October 2010 14:35 (fifteen years ago)

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