Search - Various Artists :: Bluegrass Album

The prototype of the "Superstar Bluegrass Album"

Mark J. Fowler | Okinawa, Japan | 12/09/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bluegrass musicians love to "jam". They love to get together with other musicians and stretch out their own musical ideas on beloved old tunes and mesh with the ideas of others. When the musicians in question are the best in the business, the result is magic. The liner notes detail how this project came to be. All the band members were headlining their own groups except for Bobby Hicks, who was playing his fabulous fiddle for Ricky Skaggs and Todd Phillips who was playing bass for project leader Tony Rice. The songs are classics. The arrangements are beautiful in their simplicity. The performances are stunning. Later projects would add Jerry Douglas on resonator guitar and Vassar Clements on fiddle - on the all-instrumental project Vassar and Bobby play stunning twin fiddles that couldn't have been more heavenly if Bill Monroe had been guiding them directly. I won't go so far as to say that this is the greatest Bluegrass Recording of all time. It may not even be the best of the series.... but it started the "Bluegrass Albums" and it's a good'n. If you think your bluegrass collection should number about 5 to 10 discs and this isn't one of them - you're incomplete!"

Great Bluegrass by Some the Genre's Best Musicians

Mark J. Fowler | 01/10/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A Great Example of what makes bluegrass good. Harmony singing, acoustic instruments played by virtuoso's and songs that are fantastic. My favorite Bluegrass CD"

Good , not great

frmertd | 04/27/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This and the rest of the collection is good but not great. Tony Rice ( who tragically lost his voice and will probably never sing again) does a great job on the first song. The rest of the album and series is good. The main problem is sadly the quality of the recording studio. It's not terrible like the recordings back in the 1930's (but we still listen to them because they are classics) but if you buy a more newer recording like Tiny Rice's bluegrass guitar album ( an amazing album) or even a live album (Skaggs at Charleston Hall or Rhonda Vincent Live) you can hear immediately that the recording equipment is much better today than in the 90's and 80's. I listened to this a few times but it didn't get the play that the newer albums with better recording equipment got. (PS if you want some GREAT albums try the ones I mentionned above!)"