Music recommendations please!

[Roda]

Hi there!

I'm mostly a folk & americana guy. I love Townes Van Zandt, Jason Isbell, Milk Carton Kids etc.

I would love some country or bluegrass tunes. I recently found "Wildfire" by Mandolin Orange which I find excellent.

Can you hit me up with some bluegrass tunes for a bluegrass newbie? Or maybe some americana including mandolins!

Best regards,

Roda

[Timbofood]

Start at the root! Go find some Bill Monroe on YouTube, the root of the music is always the best way to find what you really want to learn. Nothing against Mandolin Orange but they are a long way out the limbs.
I’m not trying to spark an argument here, just stating my opinion.
Edit:
Take a look at the thread started by DataNick, “Bill Monroe videos” in the “Tunes, video” heading.
Very interesting collection and quite wide reaching.

[Roda]

Start at the root! Go find some Bill Monroe on YouTube, the root of the music is always the best way to find what you really want to learn. Nothing against Mandolin Orange but they are a long way out the limbs.
I’m not trying to spark an argument here, just stating my opinion.
Edit:
Take a look at the thread started by DataNick, “Bill Monroe videos” in the “Tunes, video” heading.
Very interesting collection and quite wide reaching.

Cheers! Will do!

[banjoboy]

Any and all of the Bluegrass Album Band recordings.

[tiltman]

Check out the "holy trinity" of Bluegrass - Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, and the Stanley Brothers.

I was also going to suggest the Bluegrass Album Band. Old tunes from the masters but recorded by modern masters. May be more...approachable for those with more modern tastes.

Good luck!
Kirk

[Timbofood]

I was just thinking back to my musical youth and a band that had a huge influence on my band was “Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers”, they don’t get the recognition by a lot of folks I think they are due but, Wendy Miller was the first “big guy” I had the opportunity to really learn first hand from. He was really kind to a 16 year old kid who had no idea what fun he was going to have playing mandolin.
The “Footsteps of Tradition” album was one we played most of when we were young kids just starting to gig.
All the Mike Lilly and Wendy Miller records were good “learners” too!

[OneChordTrick]

Check out some of the Tired Pony stuff, nice mandolin parts there

[themandocello]

Here's a couple books:

1. The Fiddler's Fakebook by Dave Brody
2. The Portland Collection by Susan Songer (there are 3 in the series)
3. The Waltz Books by Bill Mathiesen - a must have for any musician's library.

[jaycat]

Check out the "holy trinity" of Bluegrass - Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, and the Stanley Brothers. . . .

Throw in some Jimmy Martin for a four-sided trinity.

[JeffD]

Here's a couple books:

3. The Waltz Books by Bill Mathiesen - a must have for any musician's library.

There are four in the series.

[tree]

Also dig up some Doc Watson and Norman Blake for the Americana side of bluegrass. And Sam Bush!

[Ivan Kelsall]

From Roda - " Can you hit me up with some bluegrass tunes for a bluegrass newbie ? " How many 1,000 would you like ??.

A good place to start is YouTube - just type in ''Bluegrass music'' & a host of things will pop up. Then,follow any of the other leads in the right hand sidebar & you'll continue to discover more & more & .....

Don't dismiss 'Bluegrass derived'' bands either - bands such as ''The Infamous Stringdusters'' & ''Greensky Bluegrass''. Not ''Trad.'' Bluegrass,but there's plenty of good playing to be heard,
Ivan

Infamous Stringdusters - ''You Can't Stop The Changes''

[Mark Gunter]

I asked this same question a couple years back, and since then have acquired a bunch of albums and tunes from Bill Monroe, The Stanley Brothers, as well as stuff by Longview, Joe Isaacs, The Crabb Family, Ricky Skaggs, Hickory Hill, Del McCoury, James King and a bunch of others I consider Bluegrass.

Non-Bluegrass Folk Stuff Worth Hearing
If you are truly into Folk and Americana then I would assume you already have stuff like Doc Watson - I had pretty much his entire catalog (which is a ton of music) for at least a decade before I ever started having a mild interest in Bluegrass. If you don't have any of these non-bluegrass albums, they're worth acquiring as well: NGDB Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Norman Blake (esp. the Directions album), Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Quartet (IMO one of the most beautiful records ever recorded), anything by Ricky Skaggs, Newgrass Revival stuff, Gillian Welch, Tim O'Brien (love his new Where The River Meets The Road album), Nickel Creek ... so many great ones to hear ... David Grisman, Sam Bush, ...

And I have some that I'd call Bluegrass though maybe others wouldn't consider traditional, they're worth checking out: Spinney Brothers, Dailey & Vincent, Plum Hollow Band, Tennessee Mafia Jug Band ...

Sorry about "too much info" but questions like this are hard to answer specifically, and you're going to end up just going where your interests lead you in the end.

The best suggestion, I believe, is to get familiar with the big three triumvirate mentioned above - Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Stanley Brothers.

I also think that if you are into more than just Bluegrass, it's a good idea to listen and learn more about the roots of bluegrass: (1.) acoustic Blues of the early 1900's. I was into that for a couple decades, you can get hold of entire catalogs of Lead Belly, Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bo Carter, etc. which is the type of music through Arnold Shultz and others that affected Bill Monroe in his formative years, along with (2.) old-time fiddle tunes from his Uncle Pen and others, and (3.) the American Folk tradition that became "Early Country" - The Carters, Jimmy Rodgers, and the early Grand Ole' Opry repertoire. If you like that stuff, and you like the Scruggs style banjo sound, you'll get into Bluegrass, which in my opinion is a supercharged mixture of all those influences and very difficult to play and feel properly - for me, anyway.

[Timbofood]

Let’s take this a slightly different direction...
Roda, what have you found that YOU enjoy and makes you seek out more?