Blue Grass and Appalachian Music

I love this music. I don't hear enough of it in New York.

Those of you who have been listening to this music for a long time, please list your favorite artists (new or old), albums too.

Thank you.

The beauty of the Internet is Internet radio from many sources and you can get Blue Grass wherever you live.

I don't have any particular favorites but I love to listen to it at times. When I went to the University of Cincinnati back in the 60s there were many times impromptu concerts in Mt. Adams Park put on by locals. So when I catch it I am reminded of those days.

All the bluegrass you wanna listen to can be found here!!

http://www.bluegrasscountry.org

I agree internet radio at home and xm radio out and about will feed your needs.

Some I love.

Tony Rice
Alison Krauss and Union Station
Ricky Skaggs
Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver (Their album I Heard the Angels Signing is amazing!)
Larry Sparks
and I adore Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe

My daddy goes to a lot of bluegrass festivals. He introduces me to new artists all the time. Some remind you of the old days but many are contemporary artist who have become favorites.

Do you like Appalachian folk music as well? If so, check out Sheila Kay Adams. Two cds I can't live without..her Christmas On the Mountain and My Dearest Dear.

Mountain Stage on npr has a good bit of it. It's hosted in Charleston WV, smack dab in the middle of bluegrass country.

Carl Jackson - written many songs & has won a Grammy. Maybe two. And he's from my hometown. Comes back every year & does a fund raiser for our theatre renovation project. Great guy.

Doc Watson, The Stanly Brothers, Little Jimmy Dickens, and of course "Bill Monroe" Who I had the pleasure of hearing in person at the Frederick Md fairgrounds back in the late 70's Many a day of my lost wanton youth was spent wandering through the heart of Bluegrass country(Western MD the Shenandoah & W VA) going to weekend festivals!

I love bluegrass too. On New Year's Eve this year, there was a Prarie Home Companion on with a wonderful mix of bluegrass and country- Emmy Lou , Doyle Lawson, I forget who else but it made a rather boring evening highly enjoyable

The hubby and I used to go to bluegrass festivals out in upper New York state- we need to start going back now that the kids are gone

KB

Ah yes! Prairie Home Companion out of St. Paul, MN. I was always curious why so much blue grass was on that show because it is in no way native to Minnesota by any stretch of the imagination. Garrison Kiellor could never have picked it up in Anoka, MN where he grew up. Probably just a good fit with the tempo of the show. Nevertheless, I like it.

Ricky Scaggs...........................

Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, The Del McCoury Band, Jim Lauderdale, Alison Krauss and Union Station. More as I think of them.

Jerry Douglas

nuff said

I spent the first 45 years of my life in Wilkes County, NC in the middle of bluegrass music country, and moved back here last year after being gone for about 20 years. "Minton's" pawn shop here has a Friday morning bluegrass & mountain music jam similar to the Cajun music jam at Fred's in Mammou, Louisaina. I understand that Ricky Skaggs sometimes drops by.

The town of North Wilkesboro is 20 miles from Doc Watson's home in Deep Gap, NC and the local Wilkes Community College holds the annual "Merlefest" in honor of Doc and his late son, Merle. The festival was the brainchild of B. Townes, currently the schools vice president of development who was head of the horticulture department at the time. He asked Doc, who is blind, to hold a concert to raise money for a "garden of the senses". Doc invited some of his friends to join him, and the respect Doc gets from his fellow musicians is evidenced by the long list of luminaries who show up for the annual 4 day music fest. This little town is a true mecca for bluegrass and other old time mountain music the last of April every year.

Go to the website, www.merlefest.org, for a list of the 90 groups who have already commited for this year. You might recognize the names of Allison Kraus, Doyle Lawson, Del McCoury, Bela Fleck, Dixie Dawn, Elvis Costello, David Holt, Marty Stuart, Earl Scruggs and of course, Doc Watson. Emmy Lou Harris and Ricky Skaggs are usually there, but they aren't on the list yet.

I believe I'm going to attend Merlefest for the first time this year, Hillbilly. Elvis Costello drew me in when I first heard he was playing there last month and the rest of the line-up sealed the deal. Tickets seem pricey at first (200 for a 4-day pass) but considering the quality and quantity of the musicians there, it's quite a deal!

I love Ricky Skaggs. And one of my life highlights was seeing Bill Monroe perform in Portland.

I never really heard much in the way of this kind of music until I saw "O Brother, Where art Thou?" and I was hooked. Something in those harmonies touched me to the BONE.

quote:

Originally posted by improviser

I believe I'm going to attend Merlefest for the first time this year, Hillbilly. Elvis Costello drew me in when I first heard he was playing there last month and the rest of the line-up sealed the deal. Tickets seem pricey at first (200 for a 4-day pass) but considering the quality and quantity of the musicians there, it's quite a deal!

No need to be concerned about the $200 ticket. That is the price for reserved seats (the first 58 rows) and they probably sold out the first day tickets went on sale. General admission tickets for the 4 days are $135 dollars if you buy during the "early bird" period before March 15, and higher from then on. You probably should bring your own seating, too. There are 13 performance stages.

There are typically 75, 000 to 100,000 attendees from all 50 states and several foreign countries. It is a real event, and was from the first festival in 1988 featuring Earl Scruggs, Tony Rice, Chet Atkins, Grandpa Jones, John Hartford, Marty Stuart, Mike Cross, David Holt, New Grass Revival, Jerry Douglas, George Hamilton IV and others.

NY is pretty deficient in bg & "old timey" mountain music. I hear there's some original in New Jersey: I think there's a group in the Sourland Mountains (Somerset County)
www.cdbaby.com/cd/bliggisnand goines2
www.palaceofculture.org/music.hmt
www.veryseldom.com
on the "Ssourland sound"

and something in Wareham, NJ at Albert Hall, "Piney" group. We NYCers don't usually think of NJ as "Appalachia" but there is some similarity in the "mountain" area. Also i think the "Jackson Whites" up near Mahwah.

To reply further, since the web links above don't work so well, here's some interesting NY/NJ material (Biggins and Goines duo):

The Sourland Sound is a form of traditional piedmont style folk-blues with an above the Mason-Dixon-line twist that integrates the influences of Jug Band music, bluegrass, New York jazz and Philadelphia soul. The New Jersey Sourlands is a centrally located rural forest area approximately 60 miles between New York City and Philadelphia. Although the Sourlands always has forms of Irish/ English and Dutch folk music, it is speculated that southerners migrated to the Sourlands as early as 1820's to work in the open “trap rock” mines, which supplied belgian block to urban streets. They brought their music with them. In the song, “Minnetown” (a real place in the Sourlands near what is now Hillbilly Hall and was a predominately Afro-American town), I tell a story about the people, their hardships and travails. In the tunes, “1883 and Zion”, there is a sense that cultures were very integrated, life was shared up on the mountain, and the region conjured up its own folk lore. And, of course, we can’t forget “the crime of the century” depicted in the tune about Charles Augustus Lindbergh titled, “Highfields” named after his estate deep in the Sourland mountain where his new born son, Buddy, was kidnapped and murdered.

Yes, Sourland music is of piedmont extraction, but purely New Jersey. It is influenced by people from the South who came to the Sourlands and mixed their music with other folk sounds. In this way, a form of southern "piedmont music" came north, got infused and reconfigerated, reconstituted, and recreated to suit our particular tastes. Bluegrass came much later. In the late 19th century, it would not be uncommon to hear the music similar to Bliggins & Goines at a local bar or farm social. Yes, there is a reason why the Sourland sound is unique, and it’s mostly due to its location among the many rural and cosmopolitan influences of New Jersey. When folks around here dig into their roots, past the music, their lives in the Sourlands tell a story of American life and its history.

When I'm in the Oklahoma City area, I seek out a small (usually 2 or 3 piece) bluegrass group called "Brigade". They played at the University of Central Oklahoma jazz lab regularly when I was last in OKC, and I also caught them at "The Bluegrass Museum" in Del City a couple of Fridays. Mickey Flatt is one of the best banjo pickers I've seen.

OKC actually has a pretty strong bluegrass community, and regular weekly sessions at the Bluegrass museum.

quote:

Originally posted by Pwingsx

I never really heard much in the way of this kind of music until I saw "O Brother, Where art Thou?" and I was hooked. Something in those harmonies touched me to the BONE.

There is something about those harmonies yes!

another good group The Seldom Scene

KB

Heard plenty of it living in the Branson area, esp. out at Steal your Dollar City, er Silver Dollar City....

My kids, 10 and 14 like it also, one of their favorite movies is "Oh Brother, where art thou?" and they love to listen to the soundtrack of that "ol' timey music."

Every other year or so I attend Uncle Dave Macon Days in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It is always held the second weekend in July. I alternate that festival with the Smithville Fiddler's Jamboree in Smithville, Tennessee, which is always held the first weekend of July.

I prefer the older bluegrass artists, such as Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, Jimmy Martin, the Osborne Brothers, etc. If you can afford it, get the bluegrass sets that Bear Family puts out. They're expensive, but worth it.

quote:

Originally posted by NYNM

To reply further, since the web links above don't work so well

The link i posted above works fine (Stream sounds excellent)

quote:

Originally posted by Dude111

quote:

Originally posted by NYNM

To reply further, since the web links above don't work so well

The link i posted above works fine (Stream sounds excellent)

worked well for me, too.

One of my favorite sites is http://www.pandora.com/ where one can find just about any type of music.
I also get my Bluegrass fix on satellite, ours is Sirius which has a great variety of music that's not often heard on commercial and even public radio..

The Byron Berline Band is a local favorite.
Samples can be heard here: [url][/url]http://doublestop.com/music.html[url][/url]

Only Samples??

Blah

quote:

Originally posted by Hillbilly

quote:

Originally posted by improviser

I believe I'm going to attend Merlefest for the first time this year, Hillbilly. Elvis Costello drew me in when I first heard he was playing there last month and the rest of the line-up sealed the deal. Tickets seem pricey at first (200 for a 4-day pass) but considering the quality and quantity of the musicians there, it's quite a deal!

No need to be concerned about the $200 ticket. That is the price for reserved seats (the first 58 rows) and they probably sold out the first day tickets went on sale. General admission tickets for the 4 days are $135 dollars if you buy during the "early bird" period before March 15, and higher from then on. You probably should bring your own seating, too. There are 13 performance stages.

There are typically 75, 000 to 100,000 attendees from all 50 states and several foreign countries. It is a real event, and was from the first festival in 1988 featuring Earl Scruggs, Tony Rice, Chet Atkins, Grandpa Jones, John Hartford, Marty Stuart, Mike Cross, David Holt, New Grass Revival, Jerry Douglas, George Hamilton IV and others.

Thanks for the info, Hillbilly.

Fabulous Oyster - if by New York, you mean NYC, try the Parkside Lounge on E. Houston St. They have regular Bluegrass and Old-Time Country music concerts. ALso, WKCR, the Colombia University radio station (89.9, I think) has BG and OT music on Sunday mornings. They'll probably have announcements concerning BG shows in town. NYC has lots of BG, you just have to know where to look for it. Incidently, I'm playing in a show at the Parkside on March 10, 2007.

Someone above made a reference to Wareham NJ. It's actually Waretown, NJ, in Ocean County. The place is Albert Music Hall. The shows are on Saturday nights, 7-11pm. All the bands are local, and play BG, Old-Time Country and Country-Western. My band has been playing there since 1980. Each band plays a half-hour set, so that's about 8 bands each show. It's considered one of the top BG and Country music places on the East Coast.