COUNTRY,
BLUEGRASS & OLD-TIMEY
Vern
Gosdin -> Charles Lee Guy III
| VERN GOSDIN |
Columbia CK 45409 |
10 Years Of Greatest Hits |
● CD $9.98 |
11 songs including new recordings of some older songs by
this superb singer - If Your Gonna Do Me Wrong (Do Me Right)/ That
Ain't My First Rodeo/ Way Down Deep/ Friday Night Feelin' / I Can Tell By
The Way You Dance/ Was It Just The Wine?, etc.
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| GRANDPA JONES |
MCA Special Products MCAD 21144 |
Pickin' Time |
● CD $7.98 |
Short but sweet 10 track collection of sides from various
periods - All American Boy/ Mountain Dew/ Don't Bring Your Banjo Home
(A parody of of Don't Bring Your Guns To Town!)/ Old Rattler's
Pup/ Old Towzer/ Waiting For A Train, etc.
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| BOBBY
GREGORY & HIS CACTUS COWBOYS |
Cattle CCD 232 |
The Golden Age Of Bobby Gregory & His
Cactus Cowboys |
● CD $18.98 |
24 tracks from this performer whose career dates back to
1924 and who recorded over 350 songs and wrote over 1500 though he is
pretty much unknown to most country fans.
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| DAVID GRIER |
Rounder 0250 |
Freewheeling |
● CD $15.98 |
Guitarist Greer, son of banjoist Lamar Greer, is himself a
formidable picker, as this debut all instrumental album proves. Obvious
influences are Clarence White and Tony Rice, but Greer has plenty of
technique of his own, as he demonstrates on a couple of speedburners (Alabama
Jubilee and Roanoke. Also included are Bill Monroe's Goldrush,
Stephen Foster's Angeline The Baker, and six original compositions,
some of which are similar to Tony Rice's jazzier pieces. Greer is ably
abetted by some of the best--the remarkable Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Sam
Bush or Roland White on mandolin, Wyatt Rice on guitar, Billy Joe Foster
on banjo, and Mark Schatz on bass and frailed banjo. (RP)
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| REX GRIFFIN |
Bear Family BCD 15911 |
The Last Letter |
● CD $75.98 |
3 CD set featuring all the recordings cut by this fine
country singer and songwriter between 1935 and 1946 including recordings
for Decca King, Dude, Ekko and his rare World transcriptions. 16 page
booklet features first ever biography of Griffin.
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| NANCI GRIFFITH |
Elektra 61464 |
Other Voices, Other Rooms |
● CD $16.98 |
17 tracks, 62 min., recommended. Call her the folk music
missionary, bringing songs from her favorite folkies to a new audience.
She covers John Prine, Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Townes Van Zandt, Kate
Wolf, Malvina Reynolds, Jery Jeff Walker, and others, in a straight ahead
way, and gets away with it because she chooses great songs that haven't
been covered to death yet. Three of the best are Buddy Mondlock's Comin'
Down In The Rain, Janis Ian's This Old Town, and Vince Bell's Woman
Of The Phoenix. The album also features vocal and instrumental support
from Dylan, Prine, Arlo Guthrie, Frank Christian, Emmylou Harris, Carolyn
Hester, and other acoustic luminaries. A pleasant if predictable affair.
(JC)
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| NANCI GRIFFITH |
Philo 1098 |
Poet In My Window |
● CD $15.98 |
Reissue of album originally on Featherbed.
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| NANCI GRIFFITH |
Philo 1109 |
Last Of the True Believers |
● CD $15.98 |
Has success spoiled Nanci? Naw, her three previous LPs have
had their collective moments, but this is the first album that bears up to
repeated listening for me. The direction she has taken is toward the
bluegrass/ country fields. Will she be the next Emmylou Harris?
Comparisons will no doubt be made, especially on the tunes that have a
beat - Fly By Night, Banks of the Pontchartrain, Lookin For the Time
(Working Girl) and Believers . Griffith, a fine songwriter, has
assembled a great supporting cast; guitarists Phillip Donnelly and Pat
alger, Bela Fleck on banjo, Mark O'Conner, mandolin, violin and pedal
sttel/ dobro player Lloyd Green. Her voice is in the same register as Dolly
Parton's, high and kinda thin, but producer Jim Rooney (a
collaborator of Peter Rowan's) has brought the absolute best out of his
musicians, and the songs arrangements are well-suited to Nanci's somewhat
limited range. I believe her real success will come when she completely
crosses over into the C/W field. (SG)
|
| DAVID GRISMAN |
A&M 75021 3292-2 |
Hot Dawg |
● CD $9.98 |
Early Grisman release, a groundbreaking fusion of bluegrass
and swing jazz known as "Dawg Music". With Tony Rice, Darol
Anger, Stephane Grappelli, Mike Marshall and more - 8 tracks from the late
70's.
|
| DAVID GRISMAN |
Acoustic Disc 1 |
Dawg '90 |
● CD $15.98 |
The man who has brought the mandolin further to the
forefront of American popular music than anyone imagined possible is at it
again with a new collection of his patented "dawg" music. There
are ten originals here, all instrumental, and they tend to lean toward the
Hot Club Of France and gypsy swing rhythms Grisman has been known for in
recent years. Needless to say, this disc swings like mad, due in part to
some wonderfully uninhibited fiddle from Mark O'Connor, the nicest stuff
on a recording I've heard from him in years. The other musicians, all
outstanding, are Joe Carlini (guitar), Matt Eakle (flute), Matt Glaser
(fiddle), James Kerwin (bass), and Joe Craven, Grisman's utility man these
past few years, who contributes imaginative percussion, as well as second
mandolin, fiddle and mandola. RP)
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| DAVID GRISMAN |
Rounder 0069 |
The David Grisman Rounder Compact Disc |
● CD $15.98 |
|
| DAVID GRISMAN |
Rounder 0251/2 |
Home Is Where The Heart Is |
● CD $29.98 |
Mandolin virtuoso David Grisman has returned to his first love, and here
proves that for tone, touch, feel and speed, he is as good as any
bluegrass mandolin player anywhere, equally adept at hot leads or
sympathetic back-up to his famous and talented friends (of whom there are
many) on this 2 CD set. This is pure bluegrass, in instrumentation,
approach and feel, and every cut is a gem. Some high points - his old boss
Red Allen, sings and plays guitar on 4 cuts, joined on tenor harmony by
his son Harley on 3 of them - Highway Of Sorrow/ My Aching Heart/ Sad
& Lonesome Day/ Teardrops In My Eyes . Members of the Nashville
Bluegrass Band also appear on 4 cuts incl. Dawn In The Willow garden/
Little Willie/ Leavin' Home/ Pretty Polly , and Stuart Duncan's
fiddling appears on other cuts. Sophronie is done by a stellar
group incl. Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs, J.D. Crowe & Roy Husky, Jr. in
addition to Grisman. Feast Here Tonight features an incredible trio
incl. Doc Watson and Ricky Skaggs. The great tenor singer Curly Seckler
& Doc Watson sing a killer version of My Long Journey Home .
Every cut is a classic. Highest recommendation. (RP)
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| DAVID GRISMAN QUINTET |
Rhino 71468 |
David Grisman Quintet |
● CD $15.98 |
Brilliant 1977 debut LP in which Grisman's concept of "Dawg"
music was fully realized. Eleven years later it remains the LP which truly
defined the Grisman sound. With Tony Rice (gtr), Mike Marshall (2nd mand),
Darol Anger (vln), and Bill Amatneek (bs), this recording marked a major
turn in acoustic music on a par with many classic jazz and bluegrass
recordings. Essential.
(RK)
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| BONNIE GUITAR |
Bear Family BCD 15531 |
Dark Moon |
● CD $21.98 |
Does Bonnie Guitar have a brother named "Fender"
or a nephew named "Heavy metal?" Nope, and as you probably
guessed, it wasn't even her real name (Buckingham). These sides were all
cut from 1956-1958 for Dot and include her best known early numbers, Ned
Miller's Dark Moon and the bizarre Mr. Fire Eyes (apparently
there was no "Mrs. Fire Eyes" . . . ). None of the 60s Dot
material, which accounted for most of her hits, is included. Most numbers
are mediocre attempts at putting a middling pop singer into a country
mold. Despite some genuinely weird numbers like the Johnny Cash ripoff Johnny
Vagabond and an oversung Making Believe, the rest is as
sleep-inducing as warm milk. The soppy string arrangements and ooh-aah
choruses don't help. Some of it doesn't sound all that different from the
schlock that passed for country music in the early 80s. Unless you have a
real liking for flaccid pop music of the fifties (some of which makes even
Patti Page sound ballsy), this won't be your kind of music. It sure isn't
mine. (RK)
|
| HARDROCK GUNTER |
Hydra 27108 |
I'll Give 'Em Rhythm |
● CD $21.98 |
29 tracks, 74 mins, highly recommended A fine collection of
29 tracks recorded between 1951 and '62 by this talented Alabama singer.
It nicely complements the collection put out some years ago by Roller
Coaster (Roller Coaster 3013). The material is a satisfying mixture of
honky tonk, western flavored items, novelty songs, rockin' country and
country boogie with Gunter backed by fine swingin' bands with sidemen like
Grady Martin, Tommy Jackson, Billy Burke, Owen Bradley, Chet Atkins, Dale
Potter, Jerry Byrd, Zeke Turner and others. Many of the songs are Gunter
originals including the rockin' title song plus I've Done Gone Hog
Wild/ Hesitation Boogie/ Honky Tonk Baby/ Naptown, Ind./ Rebel Guitar
Picker
60 Minute Man done as duet with Roberta Lee and a Dixieland flavored
version of A White Sport Coat. The 24 page booklet has some great
and rare photos and other memorabilia, a biography and fascinating
commentary on the songs and the sessions by Gunter himself. A very classy
production. (FS)
|
| JACK GUTHRIE |
Bear Family BCD 15580 |
Oklahoma Hills |
● CD $21.98 |
This may be the greatest single CD Bear Family has done,
even among the dozens of high-quality single CD's they've done in the past
few years. Jack, Woody's cousin, worked with the legendary folksinger in
California, but was always more oriented toward straight country music
than Woody. In 1944, Jack recorded Woody's Oklahoma Hills for
Capitol and in 1945, while Jack was stationed in the Pacific as an Army
Special Services entertainer. By the time he left the service, he was
still hot and managed another hit in 1947 with Johnny Tyler's Oakie
Boogie, a song that's since become a rockabilly standard through Hank
Swatley's recording. But Jack, who could have become the West Coast's
answer to Ernest Tubb, died in 1948 of tuberculosis. He recorded a total
of 33 sides for Capitol and 29 of them are included here. Jack used a
small band with lead guitarist Porky Freeman and the swinging fiddling of
Billy Hughes or Smokey Fields the dominating instruments. Even with slight
surface noise, the remastering is so phenomenal you'd swear you were
sitting right in the middle of the group when they were recording. If
there has ever been an example of how good a well-mastered compact disc
can be, this is it. The notes by Guthrie authority Guy Logsdon are
revealing. Indeed, the booklet's so thick it points out another flaw of
the CD jewelbox when it comes to reissues. When you have a booklet this
detailed, it barely fits into the front tray of the box. The booklet is
loaded with rare illustrations and the back cover reproduces--in
color--the front and back of a 78 rpm "Memorial Album" issued
after Jack's death. One of Bear's finest moments--one we Jack Guthrie fans
have long awaited. And there are more Capitol Transcriptions that would
make an incredible Volume 2. (RK)
JACK GUTHRIE: Answer To Moonlights And Skies/ Careless Darlin'/ Chained To
A Memory/ Colorado Blues/ Dallas Darlin'/ For Oklahoma, I'm Yearing/ I
Loved You Once But I Can't Trust You Now/ I Still Love You As I Did In
Yesterday/ I Told You Once/ I'm Brandin' My Darlin' With My Heart/ I'm
Building A Stairway To Heaven/ I'm Tellin' You/ Ida Red/ In The Shadows Of
My Heart/ Look Out For The Crossing/ Next To The Soil/ No Need To Knock On
My Door/ Oakie Boogie/ Oklahoma Hills/ Oklahoma's Calling/ Out Of
Sight-out Of Mind/ Please, Oh Please/ San Antonio Rose/ Shame On You/ Shut
That Gate/ The Clouds Rained Trouble Down/ Welcome Home Stranger/ When The
Cactus Is In Bloom/ You Laughed And I Cried.
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