VARIOUS ARTISTS
World's Hottest Bluegrass (CMH)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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The title and track list pretty much sum up this collecton of 16 bluegrass classics from the CMH catalog. The disc features an assortment of some of the top traditional hot lickers, playing it straight with not a new-grass note to be found. Most of the tracks are short (a couple come in under two minutes) but that was the convention at the time they were recorded. It won't matter much, though, because these pickers specialize in cramming a lot of notes and a lot of joy into a small space. This stuff is the real deal and if you missed the formative years of the genre this is a good way to catch up on some great stuff.

Track List:

Bluegrass Breakdown/Wynn Osborne * Hillbilly Fever/The Osborne Brothers * Liberty/Joe Maphis * Are You From Dixie?/ Grandpa Jones * Katy Daly/Jim Silvers * Fiddlin' Cricket/Clarence "Tater" Tate w/Nashville Grass * Jesse James/The Osborne Brothers * Shiloh March/Josh Graves & Bobby Smith * Diesel On My Tail/Jim & Jesse * Durham's Bull/Fiddlin' Ronnie Stewart * Roanoke/The Nashville Grass feat. Mary Stuart * Earl's Breakdown/Wynn Osborne * Fiddle Pickin'/Joe Maphis * Cannonball Yodel/Heartbreak Mountain/The Stonemans * Lee Highway Blues/Chubby Anthony

© 2003 - Shaun Dale