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Album Details

• Artist: Various Artists
• Album: Classic Bluegrass from Smithsonian Folkways
• Label: Smithsonian
• Year of Release: 2002
• Reviewed by: dscanland on 2003-04-01

Are looking at trying Bluegrass on for size? Have you just tired out of the O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack and are looking for something fresh and different? What better place to start than one of the originating Bluegrass labels: Smithsonian Folkways. They were the ones that got things going back in 1956 with American Banjo: Three-Finger and Scruggs Style, which was the first ever full-length bluegrass album. Classic Bluegrass give you a wide assortment of new and old and is a great bluegrass introduction album. Included here are The Johnson Mountain Boys, Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, Red Allen, The Country Gentlemen, the essential Doc Watson, The Stanley Brothers, and what bluegrass album would be complete without Bill Monroe, the godfather of the genre. There is some very nice harmonizing on tracks like The Nashville Grass’ “I heard my mother call my name in prayer� and then you have some rolling tracks that physically couldn’t be any faster. Smithsonian has put together a very impressive album here and anyone the least bit interested in Bluegrass best be checking this album out.

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