EARL SCRUGGS
Classic Bluegrass Live 1959-1966 (Vanguard)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Drawn from a trio of performances at the Newport Folk Festival, in 1959 with Hylo Brown and the Timberliners and in 1960 and 1966 with Lester Flatt and the Foggy Mountain Boys, this disc features the work of five-string banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs playing traditional favorites and some of his original tunes that have since become traditional favorites.

Bill Monroe had already dubbed his band the Bluegrass Boys, but it was with the addition of Scruggs' distinctive three finger banjo style that the sound known as bluegrass music was formalized. It was also in the Bluegrass Boys that Scruggs hooked up with guitarist/ singer Lester Flatt, and Flatt and Scruggs would be the band that would take bluegrass to previously unrealized popularity with songs like "The Ballad Of Jed Clampett." That one's here, along with standards from the bluegrass songbook like "Orange Blossom Special," "Cumberland Gap" and "Wabash Cannonball." Old tunes or new, though, the performances throughout this disc are consistently excellent and it serves as an effective primer in the traditional bluegrass style.

Track List:

John Henry * Flint Hill Special * Girl In The Blue Velvet Band * Love And Wealth * Earl's Breakdown * Gathering Flowers From The Hillside * The Prisoner's Song * Cumberland Gap * Salty Dog Blues * Before I Met You * Cabin On The Hill * Jimmy Brown The Newsboy * Orange Blossom Special * Will You Be Lonesome Too * Foggy Mountain Chimes * Wabash Cannonball * When The Saints Go Marching In * The Ballad Of Jed Clampett

© 2002 - Shaun Dale