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Double Bass Bluegrass album recommendation

#21
I'll second a few and add 1 or 2 more.

- Ricky Skaggs' band is burning and super fast, despite how you may feel about him personally (not judging, i get it) -- look for "Get Up John", not sure of album
- Anything from Del McCoury
- Flatt & Scruggs
- Bluegrass Cardinals
- Osbourne Bros
- Tony Rice, especially his version of Jerusalem Ridge
- pretty much any Ralph Stanley, 60s and 70s period has some hot numbers
- Hot Rize
- AK & Union Station -- though you do have to fast forward thru a lot of "crossover" pablum, they have some great fast grass numbers

Also can't resist the shameless plug -- I've got meself a little group too and we seem to get faster and faster all the time, for better or worse. Current recordings are with old (literally) fiddler who couldn't keep up but a new one is coming soon enough: Link Removed
 
#23
If you want burning fast banjo, hot playing and GREAT singing it has to be the Ricky Skaggs Bluegrass CDs -- "Bluegrass Rules" (with the forementioned "Get Up John"), "Ancient Tones", "Instrumentals" (all originals), and "History of the Future". The group also has a live CD from Charleston Hall or some such. Skaggs comes from the old Stanley Brothers tradition of Bluegrass and nobody does it better now. Skaggs has also totally immersed himself in the fantastic Bill Monroe style of mandolin playing. Don't miss any of these.

If you want the ultimate in Bluegrass Bass playing, get the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" (First Volume) which features the inimitable Junior Huskey on bass (Huskey is the father of Roy Huskey, Jr., another bass master heard on vols. 2 & 3 of "WTCBU" (though I don't totally recommend these CDs as the song and energy level doesn't match vol. 1). Vol.1 is, IMHO, the best thing ever put on vinyl!!! Period!!!

To finish out your collection get all the Bluegrass Album Band CDs you can find (vols. 1,2,5, and 6 are usually on sale everywhere). The amazing Todd Phillips holds down the bass chair impeccably, and the rest of the band are the cream of the cream of the bluegrass crop (I believe Mak Schatz takes over the bass on CD 5). J.D. Crowe is the banjo picker here, and is a master template for timing and taste. He also provides some fine backup singing. Tony Rice plays unbelievable flat-top guitar -- so clean and smooth!! Guitarists all over attempt to copy his every note. Plus at that time, he sang and sang very well with a pleasant baritone lead voice that really gives new life to these classic standard bluegrass tunes. Bobby Hicks is on fiddle, and he is one of the consummate bluegrass fiddle players, a true master of double and triple stops. Finally, Doyle Lawson brings some extrememly tasty mandolin playing and great backup singing to the table.

If you still have some cash left, get the Bill Monroe box set -- the 4 CD one (Mercury or Capitol I believe). That's where Bluegrass started, and the music, though some of it is quite old, it is all still relevant to today's tastes. The same goes for the "Complete Mercury Sessions of Flatt and Scruggs", a 2 CD set. The music is clear as a bell, and is very lively, 'though a little heavy on Gospel music. Check out the slap bass solo on "Foggy Mountain Special".
Mike
 
#24
"BILL MONROE and his Bluegrass Boys"

+1

I'm always amazed at how many younger "bluegrass fans" have never listened to Bill.

The various modern proponents of the genre have pulled different threads from the bluegrass cloth but only The Bluegrass Boys do it all, from sweet waltzes to murder ballads to killer gospel to smoking instrumentals. Monroe wrote over 600 tunes & songs, a truly worthy contribution, only a few of which get exposed today.

The 4 CD boxed set on MCA covers the best of Bill's Decca recordings from 1936 to 1979.
The Bear Family 4 CD set dovetails neatly with the MCA and has more of Bill's Columbia sides.

There are also two Smithsonian Folkways records that rock.
'Bill Monroe & Doc Watson; Live duet Recordings ' is the pared down essence of the style and 'Bill Monroe & the Bluegrass Boys; Live Recordings' is a great listen too.

Excuse me, I have to go & put some Monroe in the CD player. :)
 
#25
Yeah, in that other thread we got into a bit of the "Bill Monroe can be an acquired taste, best not to scare newcomers" theme. I can dig that point of view. The singing in particular can strike some people the wrong way but to me, though, Bill's high tenor and his harmony singing are right there in the core of bluegrass, along with the Scruggs-style banjo and the Monroe mandolin chop. It's a whole style of harmony singing unto itself and it's so distinctively "bluegrass". So much of the high lonesome is in the vocals.

Even if you wind up not digging Bill, at least you'll know you've heard the Big Daddy.
 
#26
Damon Rondeau said:
"Bill Monroe can be an acquired taste, best not to scare newcomers" I can dig that point of view. The singing in particular can strike some people the wrong way but to me, though, Bill's high tenor and his harmony singing are right there in the core of bluegrass, along with the Scruggs-style banjo and the Monroe mandolin chop. It's a whole style of harmony singing unto itself and it's so distinctively "bluegrass". So much of the high lonesome is in the vocals.

Even if you wind up not digging Bill, at least you'll know you've heard the Big Daddy.
Click to expand...

sometimes with bill's old early recordings, you have to notch down the treble aways,(ear piercing) cause of that high tenor soulfull voice of his!! his voice is why i got hooked on bluegrass in the 1st place, plus the fast tempos..yes i can see how he can be an aquired taste!:) i dig that HIGH LONESOME SOUND...
 
#27
Damon Rondeau said:
Yeah, in that other thread we got into a bit of the "Bill Monroe can be an acquired taste, best not to scare newcomers" theme. I can dig that point of view. The singing in particular can strike some people the wrong way but to me, though, Bill's high tenor and his harmony singing are right there in the core of bluegrass, along with the Scruggs-style banjo and the Monroe mandolin chop. It's a whole style of harmony singing unto itself and it's so distinctively "bluegrass". So much of the high lonesome is in the vocals.

Even if you wind up not digging Bill, at least you'll know you've heard the Big Daddy.
Click to expand...

That was precisely why I recommended the Bluegrass Album Bands with Tony Rice singing. His voice WAS such a smooth baritone that it will be appreciated by anyone having a bias against "True" bluegrass. Eventually the great singing of Bill Monroe will raise the little hairs on your arm and back of the neck after you get to know him.
 
#28
Bill Monroe, of course, is to Bluegrass what James Brown is to funk. BUT, I can see how it might not be what newer fans are looking for, at first. For me, it's the quality of the recordings alone. It just isn't great. Not to take anything away from the music. But eventually everyone should give him a listen. He is after all the guy who came up with the term "bluegrass", no? To get away from the stigma of "hillbilly" music.

One I forgot to mention, if you can dig compilations, a great "intro" to straight-ahead grass is an album put out I think by Time/Life called "Pure Pickin' - Classic Bluegrass Instrumentals." Got a lot of stuff already mentioned:

Flatt && Scruggs / Foggy Mountain Breakdown
The Stanley Brothers / Clinch Mountain Backstep
Alison Krauss && Union Station / Cluck Old Hen
Fiddle Fever / Ashokan Farewell
Tony Rice / Jerusalem Ridge
Ricky Scaggs / Get Up John
Doc && Merle Watson / Black Mountain Rag
J.D. Crowe And The New South / Nashville Skyline Rag
Arthur Smith && Don Reno / Fuedin' Banjos
Bill Monroe / Dusty Miller
Bela Fleck / Blue Mountain Hop
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band / Orange Blossom Special
Bluegrass Album Band / Wheel Hoss
Reno && Smiley / Charlotte Breakdown
The Del McCoury Band / Baltimore Johnny
The Kentucky Colonels / Nine Pound Hammer
Vassar Clements / Turkey In The Straw
Mark O'Connor / Gold Rush
 

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