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Thread: I was listening ot Earl......

  1. #1
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    I was listening to Earl Scrugg's "Essential" album today and i was really dwelling into the first disc. If you havnt heard it before the first disc starts out with some of his stuff from when he was with Monroe and then it goes to Flatt and Scruggs.

    Well thats most of the first disc. Anyway as i listened to that banjo ring and the vocals soar i thought to myself." Thats how music should be played". Even the older stuff with the "ok" sound quality seems alot better then the newer stuff.

    I think i would rather listen to new music that was played like those old recordings with that old sound. If i listen to a new bluegrass cd then i listen too a new one the newer one seems just so wrong.

    Anyway sorry to put you all asleep but my point is that old sound is lost in todays music. If it wasnt for theres recordings my music life would be so awful. We need that old sound back in bluegrass. There is nothing better then hearing old tracks of Stanley, Scruggs, and Monroe.

    Please share your comments on this kind of topic. Do you all agree with me?

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    I know my opinion means squat, but you hit the nail on the head.

    Although, there are those out there that are playing that type of music but aren't getting the exposure.

    Thank God for festivals where we can hear them.

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    Bill Healy mrbook's Avatar
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    A few months ago, I was looking through my CDs for something to play, and I realized that almost all the music that has really inspired me is in my record collection - not on CDs. Just a few exceptions, and some of those are reissues of records I borrowed from the library and was never able to buy.

    It will take a long time, but I am working on transferring more of my record collection to CDs. I play more of the CDs I make from records than new ones. Not just old Flatt & Scruggs and Monroe, but Vern & Ray, Bob Paisley & Ted Lundy, and lots of records with bands in blue leisure suits and white shoes. Plus the six lp set of the Anthology of American Folk Music.

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    MrBook..nothing stranger than the truth...I feel the same way..Although I love my Cd collection nothing can take the place of my Lps..




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    One & two mike(s): live shows.., no "monitors" - have your sh***it "down"..., go in the studio, start the tape...., no "gimmicks"..., no "overdub".., no re-runs...JUST DO IT! Yep... Don't mean to be sharp or "flip, but that's EXACTLY how I feel. 'Course ,I'm not in charge (luckily). Don't mean to step on anyone's toe's. Just my .02 - Thanks for the post(s) - a good thread. Bless the "road warriors... - and Jimmy Martin.

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    PGA - check out the Hunger Mountain Boys for a new approach to this 'older sound'.

    rasa

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    ..Okay...Moose is now officially in charge....he knows his stuff..

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    Bill Healy mrbook's Avatar
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    Reno & Smiley would drive several hours to a studio, writing songs on the way - they would record all night, everything in one or two takes - an album would be done in a day or two, warts and all, and most of it is still alive when it comes out of the speakers today.

    A couple big names I won't mention play great music, but it seems so "perfect" that it's not exciting. I would rather see someone like Frank Wakefield, where you never know what will happen - and when he's "on" you go home knowing you have really seen a show.

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    I love that story in "Can't You Hear me Calling'" where Lester is leaving the Opry and as he walks through the hall all the musican's are saying that "country music is finished, etc." and Lester is saying "Yeah, I believe it's just about all over..." as he climbs onto his tour bus to leave for the next show on his schedule which is fully booked into the next year.....
    But Amsterdam was always good for grieving
    And London never fails to leave me blue
    And Paris never was my kinda town
    So I walked around with the Ft. Worth Blues

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    The first days of *any* new music has an electricity that revival figures can't capture. I find most of the "jazz" made by conservatory-trained musicians unlistenable for exactly that reason, for instance.
    And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')

    C.S. Lewis

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    i'm in 99% agreement with you on the classic stuff. i think moose had it there - with the FIRE and LIFE that those old cuts had. those first generation pickers would wake up at 4:00am to do a morning farm show at 7, then another at noon, and then more than likely be somewhere later for a schoolhouse show or even a supermarket grand opening....it was really a different world than today. i know some of those old schoolers, they say you would play anywhere, drive any distance, anytime of day/night, pick on anything you could get your hands on, with anybody who had a gig, and usually for a pittance. those days are gone, and the music reflects it.

    there is some good music being made today, no doubt, the weird thing is that its NOT coming especially from the rural "indiginious" culture that spawned bluegrass. most of the better "classic" style bands are young well educated, writing their own stuff (keeping the feeling, not the same old repetoire) and going out and playing every college town in the country. they arent the hottest pickers, like earl and mon and the gang, but they are getting the word out and keeping it going. you would be surprised, most of them have a vast knowledge of the genre.

    what i think *hurts* (or waters down) the modern bluegrass sound (IMO) is the fact that all these current bands are interchangable parts. its like there is a pool of select pickers to choose from and all these guys just swap around bands. i've been to many a festival and all of a sudden mando X (or banjo, or singer) is in band A and the old mando player Y is in band B (mando X's old band)...and this goes on and on. even with monroes ever changing bands, he was such a STONG musical force, that everything seemed to fit seemlessly thru the years.

    and lastly, referring to jazz, even to this day, a serious jazz musician would NEVER go in the studio to overdub and over produce an album. the whole SPIRIT of jazz is the spontanious creativity during the tune. i think the old way of live recording was the way to catch that spirit in bluegrass too, which for the most part is lost.

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    Thanks for the "vote-of-confidence" folks! - I didn't know so many of ya' would agree - makes an 'ol(and "retired"##) picker feel good!

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    Quote Originally Posted by
    Moose Posted

    'Course ,I'm not in charge
    I get the feeling a lot of us would have more fun if you were!!!

    GVD
    GVD

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    Quote Originally Posted by
    PGA - check out the Hunger Mountain Boys for a new approach to this 'older sound'.
    I think i will do this. Do they have a website.

    It looks like most people are in agreement with me. Overall if i listen to bluegrass i want it played how it is supposed to be played.

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    Bill Healy mrbook's Avatar
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    Last year, a bluegrass record company sent me a special CD offer, and I ordered three I always wanted. When they arrived, I put them in my CD player while I worked. I couldn't tell when one ended and another started - same players on every record, different names on the albums, but all pretty much the same. With that going on, people might start saying all bluegrass music sounds alike. They all want to make a living, but do people lose the the fire to play when it becomes just a job? Maybe there's not much new anymore...

    I still remember the first Flatt & Scruggs record I bought as a teenager, when Randy Lynn Rag came on... the banjo, the dobro... no mandolin, but exciting music anyway.




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    Registered User Dave Gumbart's Avatar
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    A strong second on Rasa's recommendation of the Hunger Mountain Boys. #Just saw them at the Joe Val festival in Massachusetts, got their "Blue Ribbon Waltz" cd, and it's all good. #Two guys, great singing and playing (mostly mando and guitar), and just plain ol' refreshing. #Check 'em out.

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    Mr Book...You might be new comer to this forum but what you say is the same thing that I have trying to pound into these peoples head..."TRADITIONAL BLUEGRASS" Thats for me.
    Some of the best songs are the ones that only have two chords in the song...Moose says "You mean there`s more than two"?....Willie

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    Go, Willie, go! Nice to see your name, bud

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    King Wilkie, Open Road, Mike Compton, David Long, Hunger Mountain Boys, Frank Wakefield, Del McCoury Band, Gillian Welch, and ten more new names I'm forgetting to name who are the real deal and not overproduced slick bluegrass. Ricky Skaggs is great, but it's too slick for me and I stopped listening - no flames please, it's all IMHO territory, he is good no doubt, but is it all about how fast can you pick or how many harmonies you can layer? ZZZZZZ.......so go out there and check out those Red Allen reissues. The same debate exists in rock 'n roll, who's real and who's plastique.
    2006 Duff F5
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    Quote Originally Posted by
    Some of the best songs are the ones that only have two chords in the song...Moose says "You mean there`s more than two"?....Willie
    I will have to agree as well. Traditional bluegrass sometimes just has a few chords in it but that is why its traditional bluegrass. Great stuff. And easier to play. Thats just the way bluegrass is. I am totally agreeing Willie.

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    Reminds me of a little jingle my sister used to sing. "Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver but the other is gold." I prefer the traditional style but also enjoy some of the newer when it differs but still retains the excitement of the early years. The Gibson Brothers CD "Bona Fide" is a perfect example of what I am trying to say. Marc MacGlashan really rocks on mando.
    Rigel...the original Vermont Teddy Bear!

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    Has anyone else noticed how similar King Wilkie and The Steep Canyon Rangers sound? Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of both groups but do think they sound a lot alike.

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    Quote Originally Posted by
    Has anyone else noticed how similar King Wilkie and The Steep Canyon Rangers sound? Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of both groups but do think they sound a lot alike.
    I like Kind Wilkie alright, but neither of those groups do much for me. But i can see what you mean by a little alike.

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    I love some of the new stuff but when jamming at a festival the easiest way to break up the jam is to start playing something that has a bunch of chord changes that don`t have any rhyme or reason...It also takes a lot of practice to get it all down pat, I don`t mind practice but band members change pretty often in some groups and keeping it simple is a must in that case...Good post, glad to see some of the traditionlists jumping in here....Willie

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    What about Red Allen?

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