Chris Cooper - Posted - 01/19/2012:  10:38:36

What's your favourite bluegrass album?

Or top 3?

My #1 is "one step forward" by the Lonesome River Band

robbie93 - Posted - 01/19/2012:  10:43:14

I love The Mountain by Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band.

Beckyboy - Posted - 01/19/2012:  10:44:02

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band " Will the Circle be unbroken"

myfavefive - Posted - 01/19/2012:  10:52:13

Big & Country Instrumentals - Jimmy Martin & the Sunny Mt. Boys

BlueRanchRider - Posted - 01/19/2012:  11:06:43

Right now it's The Lonesome Whistle Railroad Classics. All the good ones Wreck of 97, train 45, OB Special, Fireball mail.... Might be different next month though.

snapjackson - Posted - 01/19/2012:  11:08:21

Ralph Stanley & Jimmy Martin: First Time Together.

kmwaters - Posted - 01/19/2012:  11:36:13

Beckyboy picks a good one - especially the actual circle song with all the greats chiming in. Then there's the Dillard's "live almost" album, Emmy Lou Harris from 1980 called Roses in the Snow, and so many of Earl's. Maybe my favorite is "Strictly Instrumental" with Earl and Doc Watson. The 2 CD set called Essentials by F&S is also a great collection of most of their best known songs. Lesser known is the Yonder Mountain String band and they have one called Old Hands that is really good.

sult - Posted - 01/19/2012:  11:36:23

How about Manzanita by the Tony Rice Unit?

Chris Cooper - Posted - 01/19/2012:  11:50:50

Nice one Larry, I love that album too! Ive been playing around with that one for ages.

Chris Cooper - Posted - 01/19/2012:  11:56:37

I really enjoy listening to iiird tyme out too, I guess the album"letter to home" would be my favourite of theirs. Although there are so many good songs on all of the other ones too. It was actually the back-up that Steve Dilling played behind the second verse on "raining in L.A" that inspired me to pick up a banjo in the first place. So thanks for that Steve.

stanrabb - Posted - 01/19/2012:  12:19:00

Rounder 0044. J.D. Crowe and the New South

Chris Cooper - Posted - 01/19/2012:  12:28:44

0044. That's the one with "Rock Salt and Nails on it isn't it?

steve davis - Posted - 01/19/2012:  12:30:04

The original 3 Circle albums.

fifthstringmike - Posted - 01/19/2012:  12:41:47

Tony Rice picks & sings bluegrass .The Ultimate Pickers are easy on the ears.

danielburdett - Posted - 01/19/2012:  12:47:55

Songs of flatt & Scruggs by the Bluegrass Album Band. Quality stuff there.

Kevin B - Posted - 01/19/2012:  12:58:19

The Seldom Scene "Live at the Cellar Door."

Prof - Posted - 01/19/2012:  13:20:41

In no particular order....

F&S: Foggy Mountain Banjo
Crowe, Lawson and Williams: Old Friends Get Together
Emerson: Home of the Red Fox

This list seems to change with the seasons....

banjomikey - Posted - 01/19/2012:  13:39:46

The Johnson Mountain Boys- Live at the Old Schoolhouse. 

P7183 - Posted - 01/19/2012:  14:08:23

Any and all of "The Bluegrass Album Band"

FatManMary - Posted - 01/19/2012:  14:14:18

Flatt & Scruggs Mercury Sessions. To me there is no better music in any genre then that right there.

Other than it'd be the various bluegrass Bear Family box sets.

Banjorb3 - Posted - 01/19/2012:  14:36:46

My favorite is an old Starday double album.  I'm at work right now, so I can't grab it to get the title.  The cover features a guy sitting in a chair (face not shown) with a wreath pattern Mastertone.

The album features the likes of Buzz Busby, Connie and Babe, Jim Eanes, etc.  I like everything on it, but I suppose my favorite cut is "Me and the Juke Box."

Ken   

Fathand - Posted - 01/19/2012:  14:36:49

Johnson Mountain Boys, Working Close

Hot Rize , 1st album and:

banjocat - Posted - 01/19/2012:  14:37:51

quote:

---

Originally posted by stanrabb

Rounder 0044. J.D. Crowe and the New South

---

 Ditto!

alfiedog - Posted - 01/19/2012:  16:13:48

The Album i always reach for when in Two Minds what to Play is the Dillards Almost, Live !

banjo5string - Posted - 01/19/2012:  16:16:38

This one:  ebay.com/itm/390078114935

coelhoe - Posted - 01/19/2012:  16:23:33

First two Newgrass Revival albums. Early Seldom Scene. Country Gents on Vanguard.

BanjoFlyboy - Posted - 01/19/2012:  16:45:03

"Foggy Mountain Banjo". Nothing but classics in this one!

bAJNo - Posted - 01/20/2012:  04:29:32

Rounder 44 JD Crowe and The New South
Flatt and Scruggs Foggy Mountain Banjo
Lonesome River Band Carrying The Tradition

hweinberg - Posted - 01/20/2012:  06:03:48

Johnson Mountain Boys' "Working Close". Just listened to it again flying to Dallas. Those boys were inspired.

JonT - Posted - 01/20/2012:  07:23:50

Easy: It's "New Dimensions in Banjo and Bluegrass," known these days as "Deliverence Sound Track," by Eric Weissberg and Marshall Brickman, hands down.

The first two Dillards albums, "Backporch Bluegrass" and "Live - Almost" - are close co-seconds.

Snaps - Posted - 01/20/2012:  09:55:00

Kentucky Colonels Live in Sweden

bd - Posted - 01/20/2012:  10:37:35

Don't know if anyone else would consider this bluegrass but my favorite is the Folkways album of Bill Monroe and Doc Watson duets: Off The Record vol II

Flying Eagle - Posted - 01/20/2012:  11:35:02

"Bluegrass Collection" by The Osborne Brothers.

JW

Chris Cooper - Posted - 01/21/2012:  01:44:45

I'm really enjoying "talking to myself" by the Lonesome River Band at the moment. Some really great songs on that one. The title track "Talkin' To Myself" is my very favourite song at this point in time.

Some of LRB's best work is on this album right here, at least 6 of the 12 tracks I would class of some of the best Bluegrass I've ever heard.

Catman - Posted - 01/21/2012:  06:06:12

I still listen to "The Award Winning" Country Gentlemen on a regular basis. It's always been my favorite with some real classic tunes like Little Bessie, Down By The Waterfall and Breaking It Down just to name a few. A must for all Bill Emerson fans.

HSmith - Posted - 01/21/2012:  06:22:46

My all time favourite has to be Country Gazette's 'A Traitor In Our Midst'. When I first heard this way back in the seventies/eighties (on vinyl) it sounded so fresh and inventive. They were breaking new ground and pushing the boundaries. The astonishing thing is, it sounds every bit as good today!

Tom Robison - Posted - 01/21/2012:  06:31:16

There are so many wonderful bluegrass albums but these standout in my library.

Country Gentlemen "Live in Japan" is one of favorites.  It's well recorded with great tunes and Bill Emerson's banjo sounds great!  Another of my favorites is Blue Highway's "Blue Highway" cd.  Everything they do is great but the addition of Tom Adams' banjo drove the band to another level.  Tom's kickoff to "Born With A Hammer In My Hand" just explodes in my ears and is a study in solid banjo playing.  Tony Rice "Guitar" is another must have CD/Album (owned them both).  JD's playing can be studied over and over from those tracks.

Tom

Edited by - Tom Robison on 01/21/2012 06:32:24

Oldtwanger - Posted - 01/21/2012:  06:40:54

quote:

---

Originally posted by Banjorb3

My favorite is an old Starday double album.  I'm at work right now, so I can't grab it to get the title.  The cover features a guy sitting in a chair (face not shown) with a wreath pattern Mastertone.

The album features the likes of Buzz Busby, Connie and Babe, Jim Eanes, etc.  I like everything on it, but I suppose my favorite cut is "Me and the Juke Box."

 

Ken   

---

Ken, the guy in the chair was Joe Drumright with his wreath RB-3, the banjo Richard Bailey plays now.  I heard it was for sale recently, don't know if he sold it or not.

Great stuff on that collection!

granada40 - Posted - 01/21/2012:  09:42:55

My favorite album right now is Hartford, Rice, and Clements

Tom Robison - Posted - 01/21/2012:  10:02:00

quote:

---

Originally posted by Oldtwanger

quote:

---

Ken, the guy in the chair was Joe Drumright with his wreath RB-3, the banjo Richard Bailey plays now.  I heard it was for sale recently, don't know if he sold it or not.

Great stuff on that collection!

---

 It's for sale right here on BHO.  banjohangout.org/classified/23898

Tom

Harry - Posted - 01/21/2012:  11:28:37

Country Gazette "A Traitor In Our Midst"

El Dobro - Posted - 01/21/2012:  12:14:49

The Country Style of the Dixie Gentlemen.

Twelve Shades of Bluegrass, Bob Johnson and the Lonesome Travelers.

flatthead - Posted - 01/21/2012:  13:08:10

As with many, it changes, but I'd say that these have been in heavy rotation for the last 35 years or so:

Foggy Mountain Jamboree Flatt and Scruggs

The High Lonesome Sound of Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys

Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys King 615

Reno and Smiley Good Old Country  Ballads King 621

Jimmy Martin and The Sunny Mountain Boys Good 'n Country

drew-gurbach - Posted - 01/21/2012:  14:46:55

Lester & Mac... Actually, anything by Lester Flatt during that era. 

HuberTone - Posted - 01/21/2012:  19:12:12

Noooo way I could limit it to just one....maybe five?

Alison Krauss and Union Station - "So Long, So Wrong"

IIIrd Tyme Out - "Letter to Home"

Blue Highway - "Midnight Storm"

Hot Rize - "Take It Home"

Lonesome River Band - "Carrying the Tradition"

chaosfrailer - Posted - 01/21/2012:  22:03:52

Joe Val and The New England Bluegrass Boys--Diamond Joe.

garman - Posted - 01/21/2012:  23:43:27

I love many groups and their albums but until I am adequate with my banjo, Foggy Mountain Banjo will just have to be my focus for the past, present, and future.

Jim Yates - Posted - 01/22/2012:  06:30:25

Sorry, I'm not too current. 

Foggy Mountain Banjo - Flatt & Scruggs, 

Ragged But Right - Greenbriar Boys

Strictly Instrumental - Flat & Scruggs with Doc Watson

The Old Timer - Posted - 01/22/2012:  07:00:42

This one.