Best "newgrass" albums?

[viv]

oooo....ken p suggested 'strength in numbers'. truly outstanding recording.

[viv]

I'm currently learning Stingray note for note............. Get back to me in ten years

gee luke, somehow i'd be willin to bet you FORGET more about "stingray" than i'll ever learn in 10 years' time! right snappy tune, hmm? i have a live version that blows me away every single time i hear it.

[Luna Pick]

There are many great choices. Here are a few of my longtime favorites from NGR:

- On the Boulevard
- Friday Night in America
- Hold to a Dream

The vocals, musicality, punch, dynamics and drive on these never cease to amaze!

[Phillip Tigue]

I had Stingray roughly worked up at one time....now I can only remember the little dance on the E course...go figure.

[mandopete]

So it sounds like the best "newgrass" albums are actual Newgrass albums.

Makes sense.

[SternART]

Of all these above mentions.......Hop, Skip & Wobble with Barenberg, Douglas, Meyer & Sam Bush on a few cuts........and then of course Strength in Numbers, add O'Conner & Fleck, take away Barenberg are in a category by themselves. Really a supergroup, like CSNY in rock......those fellas are all top drawer pickers. I LOVE those albums, if you're looking for a more "new acoustic" sensibility to your newgrass these two are hard to beat. Same players add Tony Rice & in a more straight ahead BG groove and you have Bela Fleck's album Drive. Add Todd Phillips CD, In The Pines with more of an old ime feel and you have four desert island CD's...... IMHO!

I put the DGQ in another category, with the more complex arrangements and tightness of a permanent band & of course David's tunes........the others are more like the Supergroups you'd see at Merlefest or Telluride jamming together on stage.

[John Hill]

Strength In Numbers
Backwaters
DGQ
Drive
Not All Who Wonder

others I'm sure...

[mandolirius]

<So it sounds like the best "newgrass" albums are actual Newgrass albums.>

I wouldn't say so. "Newgrass" wouldn't be much of a category if it were the sound of one band. The fact that it spawned so many divergent offshoots is what makes it. NGR has some great stuff and Sam is a mando-hero, but there's a lot of really great stuff out there, any of which could be someone's "best".

[Steve Sikes-Nova]

Some friends of mine have, IMO, the best "progressive bluegrass" out there

1. Either of the two albums from Nashville's Crucial Smith (Kyle Wood - mando, Tim May, Doc Holladay, Chris Joslin, Gretchen Priest-May). CS will be putting out a third studio album in Feb/March of this year on Umbrello Records - "Unfinished Business".

2. My "bluegrass buddy" David Vai. Either his first CD or 2nd CD "In A Hollar On A Mountain" are very fine.

3. Newgrass Revival is great, of course. I am particularly partial to "Fly Through the Country".

Steve S-N

[Patrick Market]

Greensky Bluegrass "Five Interstates"

If you haven't already, check these guys' out. Michigan's finest.

Amen. I just had to resurrect this thread. I finally saw Greensky Bluegrass last night, and boy howdy! What a great group, and they seem to be having some serious fun on stage.

[JimRichter]

Frankly, I do not think that Drive, Strength in Numbers, Flexology or any of those 80's albums fit as New Grass. At the time, they were all being called "New Acoustic Music." I'm more inclined to agree with that term.

New Grass music really is the music made by New Grass Revival as Dawg is to Grisman. To me it was the incorporation of rock into bluegrass. Fleck's stuff in the 80's (and frankly, Deviation was his best album, not Drive) is more akin to Grisman than NGR. In fact, it was Grisman who wrote the liner notes to Natural Bridge and Fleck who contributed a tune to that album called Dawg's Due.

However, those that I think fit the New Grass bill and are essential:

NGR: Commonwealth
NGR: Barren County
NGR: Fly Through The Country
NGR: On the Boulevard

Hartford: Aero-Plane

II Generation

Bluegrass Alliance--1st album and "Newgrass" (the album that started it all)

New Deal String Band -- New Deal String Band

Any of Country Gazette's albums

Spectrum -- Opening Roll

Butch Robins: 40 Years Late
Butch Robins (w/ NGR): Fragments of My Imagicnation

Tony Trischka: Robot Plane

Seldom Scene (tough one to decide if really New Grass as more an extension of Country Gentlemen): Act 1 through Act IV and Old Train

Frankly, New Deal String Band probably was the first of the New Grass bands. If not, they were neck and neck with Bluegrass Alliance.

I really identify New Grass with either NGR or the 70's progressive bands. I don't know if anyone really is playing New Grass today.

[Scotti Adams]

Jim..Im leaning with your comments with the exception of the Scene..I would call them progressive...to me there is a diff between that and the Newgrass genra.

[JimRichter]

Jim..Im leaning with your comments with the exception of the Scene..I would call them progressive...to me there is a diff between that and the Newgrass genra.

Scotti--I agree w/ you, that's why I was hesitant to add them. Really the only similarity was pursuing material outside of bluegrass. The approach was more bluegrass than the newgrassers.

And actually, Country Gazette probably falls more in the progressive category than the New Grass category.

[allenhopkins]

Going back about 40 years, what about Poor Richard's Almanac with Sam Bush, Alan Munde, and Wayne Stewart? "Pre-newgrass" or what?

[J.Albert]

Jim Richter wrote:
"Frankly, I do not think that Drive, Strength in Numbers, Flexology or any of those 80's albums fit as New Grass. At the time, they were all being called "New Acoustic Music." I'm more inclined to agree with that term"

Jim, before I got as far as your post, I was thinking of putting up a post stating as much.

In the very late sixties into the early seventies, it was "Newgrass" (often with much derision from the "traditional" folks).

Then, take out the banjo and it got the early nickname of "DAWG" music with the advent of the David Grisman Quintet.

But I believe that "New Acoustic Music" serves as a better term in which to bring this music together under a [mostly] common umbrella.

N.A.M. music can have a banjo, or no. It can be played in full ensembles, or with just a few instruments. It is not "bluegrass" in the traditional sense, but "not so far away" that folks (even of the "traditional" persuasion) who like bluegrass can relate to and understand it. At its furthest reaches it can approach truly "classical" music (as played by Thile), but not quite. Yet even as "traditional" a musician as Norman Blake can brush against its edges, too.

I've started keeping a "N.A.M." CD bin, for music that didn't seem to belong in my boxes (and boxes) of bluegrass CDs, nor in my "old time" CD boxes, etc.

One musician whose stuff I like a lot is a dobro player by the name of Ferrell Stowe. His discs "Stobro's Blues" and "Trnava" are both very pleasing and interesting. I believe he also is on the CDs by Cedar Hill. Good stuff.

- John

[GTG]

Bah, I'm not one for worrying about labels. 'New Acoustic Music' sounds totally pretentious and, well, kind of meaningless to me (how long will it be 'new' for? We are talking about music that's over 30 years old in some cases...). To most of their fans, it's bluegrass!

Anyway, when I hear most of the bands mentioned, I think of primarily bluegrass instrumentations with jazz and jam-band influences and sensibilities. Whatever you call it, I think it's fun stuff.

Another fun group that hasn't been mentioned is Hot Buttered Rum string band. No, they're not in the same league of virtuosity as Bush, Grisman, Fleck, etc., but they have some fun songwriting and great energy live.

[Ken_P]

Bah, I'm not one for worrying about labels. 'New Acoustic Music' sounds totally pretentious and, well, kind of meaningless to me (how long will it be 'new' for? We are talking about music that's over 30 years old in some cases...). To most of their fans, it's bluegrass!

I like 'Acoustic Music'. I agree that it's time to drop the "new" part, but it's a very simple and accurate description of music that can vary wildly in style and substance. I don't agree that it should just be lumped into bluegrass, though. Many of the musicians have bluegrass roots, but I have a hard time finding much of a link beyond that. Is the recent Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain album bluegrass? Hardly. But is it acoustic, yes. Is it music, well, I guess that's up to the listener, but I like to think so.

[CES]

With the talk above about rock infused BG (Jim, I'm still trying to get VooDoo Chile down...love that video!) the Avett Brothers and Old Crow Medicine Show popped into my head. Both groups latest offerings are not as raw, much more polished, probably as a function of their producers and in the case of the Avetts their new record deal...I think as a generalization I like the older stuff a little better but still dig both groups. Not a lot of mando content, but some great string music with some serious energy on both counts...

[AlanN]

Simply removing the banjo didn't 'make' Dawg music. It was a combo of things: re-defining all the instrument roles, coming up with new rhythmic grooves, using more complex, extended chord voicings, and the most important aspect of Dawg music: Grisman's singular creative genius.

The term New Acoustic Music was sweated over even back then. I agree it has lost some of its meaning by now. Maybe 'Un-Amplified Virtuosic Ensemble Groove' or UVEG...nah.

[fishdawg40]

I like 'Acoustic Music'.

Yes! Plain and simple. If you don't like it, "you ain't no part of nothin'".

[Bigtuna]

Tony Williamson - Sessions at McBane Mill

[man dough nollij]

I don't know if Yonder Mountain String Band would be classified as newgrass, but they have some great stuff. I don't have the title available, but one of their "Mountain Tracks" live albums is epic. I don't particularly like the studio albums of theirs, but the live ones are for the most part really good.

[Yellowdog]

Gotta say Andy Leftwich's new CD "Ride".
Mostly known as Ricky's fiddle man, this man can play some mandolin!
And a heckuva nice guy too.

[Don Stiernberg]

Did anyone mention Tony Trischka and Skyline's record "Late to Work" on Flying Fish? It's really a rare combination of talents, arrangements, and material.

Who makes all these categories? Bill Monroe recorded a Johnny Cash tune. Del McCoury recorded a Richard Thompson tune. The Country Gentlemen covered Bob Dylan, John Prine, Steve Goodman, Kris Kristoffersen. J.D. Crowe did tunes by Fats Domino and The Flying Burrito Brothers. And Tony Rice's Manzanita might be New Acoustic because the banjo is omitted?They're playing Hold Watcha Got, Little Sadie,and Blackberry Blossom. What if a cat almost single-handedly invents flatpicking, also fingerstyles like Merle Travis,is an outrageously great blues and rockabilly singer, and throws in a Gershwin tune for something fun to pick. What kind of music is that? Oooops, that's Doc Watson...

Charles River Valley Boys doing all Beatles/ Jim and Jesse's tribute to Chuck Berry?

Byron Berline and Sundance.California. The Kentucky Colonels. Muleskinner....

Sorry, I think I had too much fun with this discussion. I think some of you may some of the recordings referenced here, notwithstanding their "category"...

[Don Stiernberg]

Please also forgive my omission of the word "enjoy" in the last sentence of the last post.