Bluegrass Videos

[Timbofood]

Curly Ray is such a "Raw" fiddle player, I really like his stage presence. He's so different from most other fiddle players. I remember years and years ago, he was playing and kept looking out the stage door like he was watching for the pizza guy.
This was a good one,
You guys are really finding some fun stuff!
This one got me through removing old shutters for replacement! Thanks boys!

[Willie Poole]

Tim, quite a few years I had the pleasure of jamming some out in the field at a bluegrass festival with Curley Ray and he played the fiddle the sweetest I have ever heard and I asked him why he didn`t play like that with Ralph and he said, "Raf don`t want me to" meaning Ralph liked that old timey sound, Curley Ray was underrated as a fiddle player because of that in my opinion....

Willie

[Ivan Kelsall]

I had the great pleasure of meeting & talking to Curly Ray when he came over to the UK with Ralph Stanley in 1991. An absolutely delightful character & the author of one of my favourite Bluegrass songs - 'Windy Mt.',
Ivan

[Timbofood]

Interesting Willie, out behind the stage he was a lot "smoother" but, it was "Ralph Stanley and Clinch Mountain Boys" after all. Ralph wrote the checks and called the tune (Style in this case). Curly was always so pleasant at every festival saw him, manning the sale table, selling key chains, signing albums, just a straight shooter.
Same with Kenny Baker, must be the fiddle!
Doggone it Ivan! Now I have more excellent video to watch instead of doing something productive, thanks!

[Ivan Kelsall]

Hi Tim - During one session,Ralph Stanley asked if anybody in the audience has been at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1966,when the Stanley Bros. played there. Me & one other guy put our hands up. I spoke with Ralph afterwards & he was a tickled as hell to meet somebody who'd seen them back then & we had a nice chat about it. Of course later that year,Carter passed way,so i was very lucky to have seen them. A good friend of mine,fellow Cafe member & amateur luthier (''Spruce 1'' i think),was also there,
Ivan

[Willie Poole]

Ralph also was a very pleasant fellow, My band went on before him at one festival and I asked Ralph if he minded if we did some of his songs and he said "Go to it, maybe you can do them some justice"...Since we couldn`t I changed he set list for that show, when we came off he said," I thought you were going to do some Stanley Brothers songs"...I told him I didn`t think we could do them any justice...He and Curley Ray got a kick out of my answer, and said their songs have been played buy hundreds of bands but when they still do them the crowd seems to like them the way they do them the best...

BTW...We got two encores on that show, Ralph and Larry Sparks bands didn`t get any...But our last number was Orange Blossom Special with twin fiddles and that brought the house down so to speak...

Willie

[Timbofood]

Yes indeed! I sat at any number of festivals and had wonderful chats with so many of the first generation pickers, Jim and Jesse McReynolds, Ralph, Kenny Baker, so many of the Bluegrass boys, too many to name but, they were all "within reach" and generous with time and talent. I miss all of them.
I never had the opportunity to meet Carter, Lester or, Earl. To this day, it makes me sad.

[Ky Slim]

There are a lot of great versions of these 2 songs on youtube with full bg bands but these solo versions seemed right to share. Dave Evans was one of the greatest.

[Timbofood]

Sorry to say, I saw Dave Evans treat the guys in his bad so horribly, I just won't watch him. No matter how talented, he was a complete jerk that day and the memory sticks very clearly in my mind. Sorry Slim. Just the way I feel about him.
Ready for a new one

[Ky Slim]

Hey Timbo, I've been going back and forth as to whether to say anything at all on this. I have no reason to defend Dave Evans and if you say he acted one way or the other toward his band I have no reason not to believe you. Dave hailed from the same neck of the woods that I do and he has always reminded me of the men from that region and from that generation. His voice accent or regional dialect is identical to the men I grew up around. Specifically, he reminds me of some of the baseball coaches and some the parents from my youth. I saw him play a few times but never met him. His soulful singing and direct banjo style is what drew me in. I knew nothing of his person other than that he led a hard life. Here's a write up of his passing from Bluegrass today with here's one with some additional bio.
There is no reason to apologize to me Tim and I promise I'm not trying to defend him or make you feel differently. If what you saw left a bad taste you have every right to feel how you do. With that said, I am a bit sorry for the folks that will follow this thread and read your post on DE before having a chance to check out his music. I'm afraid that it may cast a shadow before giving people the opportunity to form their own opinions of his music. Then again who knows? Some people may like him better because of that..
Moving right along.....Let's Roll On Buddy!!

- - - Updated - - -

[Ky Slim]

[Timbofood]

Thanks Slim, you took it in the manner I had hoped, it was simply my opinion about his stage actions which embarrassed probably anyone at that show.
I'm certainly not saying he's not a good musician, far from it.
I'm just as sure there are folks who find people I have strong feelings about equally not to their liking.
It's a big world so, as you say,"Roll on, Buddy"!

[William Smith]

Now thats why Duffey is my favorite, improve on the spot! Not to mention the best tenor in my mind for grass

[DataNick]

When Our Lord Comes Again from the Shenandoah Valley Cutups from 1971 I think....Herschel's Loar is Monroeish off the scale!

[Timbofood]

I think spellcheck "corrected" your "improv" to improve, bluegrasser.
But, yeah, John had a whole different band not just a drummer in his take on so much. It's his overall skill and understanding of "who did what to whom with or without a kiss" and then did things his way. Fantastic musician, great front man, interesting character, I miss him a lot!

[Timbofood]

Nick, "Off the scale" is an understatement! "Whoosh" as Mr. Dickens might have said!

[Ky Slim]

....

[DataNick]

So I can see it Ky....

[Ivan Kelsall]

From Data Nick - "Herschel's Loar is Monroeish off the scale !". I could mistake that for Bill Monroe's Loar pretty easily, & that's a sound that i could recognise 99 times out of a 100 !.

I believe that Herschel has (or 'had') more than one Loar mandolin. The mandolin on the more modern CD's i have of him doesn't sound like that,but,the mandolin that he used on his famous CD ''Bounce Away'' could be the one ??,
Ivan

[Willie Poole]

Ivan, That video with The Cutups was done live on a stage and the Bounce Away was done in a studio with a lot more electronic devices to make any instrument sound like you wanted them to...

Looking close at those photos there doesn`t seem to be any binding around the peg head of Hershel`s mandolin, or is it just the lighting?

[Timbofood]

Been incommunicado for a week or so so, this was a joy to find when I got the time to snoop back here a minute!
Thanks guys, good tunes on return home makes life grand!
Willie, I think it's the lighting, I can see some on the treble side of the peghead but now t on the scroll ear.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Willie - I doubt very muich that during the ''Cut-ups' '' era,there was any ''electronic devices'' other than maybe '' fade / bass / treble / mid.'' to enhance anything - exactly the same as any other band. I'd reckon that all they asked for was a 'clear / clean' recording where the folks who bought it could hear everything. As long as each instrument sounded 'true' to itself,what would be the point of monkeying around to make them sound as they 'wanted' them to - they wanted them to sound as 'they did sound'.
I'm darned sure that Herschel Sizemore didn't need any tinkering with the 'sound / tone' of his Loar.

If you look closely at this pic. (LP released in 1978) you can just about see the binding inside the headstock scrolls. Anybody who has an original LP,would see it clearly. Could this also be the same mandolin circa.1967 ?,
Ivan

[Timbofood]

I agree, the older recordings were absolutely meant to be "accurate " to the bands sound. With the exception of Jim and Jesse, who appreciated the ability to manipulate some production value, most bands really wanted recordings to sound like they did on stage. Personally I'd prefer to have a batch of live recordings of J&J over the studio work, less reverb and so forth.
The pictures show the peg head in slightly different shadows which makes the whole peghead as properly bound, I am with you on it being the same mandolin.
Nice to be home and seeing this thread continuing to be interesting.

[chidave]

This is one of my favorites, new to the board so I apologize if it's a repost. I never knew Khrushchev could rip it up like that.

[Timbofood]

Well. That was fun!