From Amazon.com
possibly the best bluegrass album made
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: i beleive this album is arguably some of the best bluegrass ever recorded...not only does it consist of a superb lineup of musicians but its just an album that u can throw on from the begining and just let play without skipping a track...i beleive this is the best album with the seldom scene's "old train" a close second...i suggest listening to both of these albums
Bluegrass Classic
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: Every bluegrass fan should own this one. This is the original super group ... its almost hard to believe this guys were all in the same band at one time.
From "Old Home Place" to Gordon Lighfoots "10 Degree and Getting Colder" and "I'm Walkin'" Tony Rice is at his best.
The instrumental "Sally Goodin" is one of the best renditions of this classic ever recorded. JD cracks on this one.
It's always good to hear Ricky Skaggs sings gospel bluegass and the "Cryin Holy" on this CD is stained-glass bluegrass at its best.
This is what it's all about
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: One of the greatest blugrass recordings of one of the greatest bluegrass bands ever assembled. Skaggs' exuberant mandolin playing, Tony Rice's groundbreaking guitar licks, and tight vocals throughout. This recording rides that line between traditional and progressive bluegrass in a way that's so difficult to do with success. It's also a great historical point of reference within the incredible catalogs that Skaggs and Rice have put together. It belongs in every bluegrass fan's collection.
For So Many Reasons . . .
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: . . . this CD belongs in ANY serious bluegrass collection - the selection of material, the timeless vocals, the phenomemal musicianship, or the convergence of talent - take your pick.
A great mix of the traditional (Flatt & Scrugg's "Some Old Day" & "Nashville Blues"), progressive (Gordon Lightfoot's "Ten Degrees and Getting Colder" and "You Are What I Am"), and semi-novelty (Fats Domino's "I'm Walkin'), J.D. Crowe and crew (more on them in a minute) arranged the songs in a way that appealed to both hardcore and younger bluegrass audiences of the time. The vocal core of the group consisted of Tony Rice and Ricky Scaggs swapping leads, with Skaggs supplying high harmony and Crowe filling out the baritone. From the opening number, "The Old Homeplace" (a great tune that almost became bluegrass music's version of "Freebird," it was played so often), this vocal triumverate delivers arguably the best trio singing of the era.
And the picking! Rice gives a nice sampling of his guitar wizardtry throughout. Skaggs, of course, can hang with the best of them on a number of instruments, while Crowe, at least at that time, was far and away the best of the post-Scruggs style banjoists. Add to these guys a youngster by the name of Jerry Douglas, who merely re-invented resonator guitar (or "Dobro") stylings as we know them today - talk about a bluegrass dream team!
This is the only CD that this version of The New South ever recorded - it would have been impossible to keep this wealth of talent together - and certainly deserves the "Essential Recording" status it enjoys at Amazon.com and from virtually any other "Greatest" bluegrass list out there.
One of the Greatest Bluegrass Recordings
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: All too often, bands made up of big-name musicians don't work out that well (remember Blind Faith in the late 1960s?). The 1975 edition of the New South is a happy example of such a band that worked wonderfully. With J.D. Crowe as the leader and banjo picker, Tony Rice as the lead singer and guitarist, Ricky Skaggs on tenor vocal, mandolin, fiddle, and viola, and Jerry Douglas on dobro, this edition of the New South had four legendary performers (Bobby Slone is no slouch, either; he just isn't a legend). The result is one of the greatest bluegrass LPs (at the time) or CDs (now) ever, covering lots of ground, much of it previously unexplored.
Old Home Place starts out with J.D. playing the melody in a style thoroughly grounded in Earl Scruggs's playing, yet with a drive and invention that is J.D.'s own. Summer Wages, by Ian Tyson, is a moderately slow ballad from a songwriter in the folk, rather than bluegrass tradition, and it's a knockout, from Tony's singing to his tasteful guitar playing (even at age twenty-four, he understood that virtuosity doesn't consist of playing as many notes as you can) to Ricky's wonderful viola solo. Utah Phillips's mournful, waltz-tempo Rock Salt and Nails and a great version of Fats Domino's I'm Walkin' are two other examples of tunes that very few bluegrass bands would have tackled in 1975.
J.D.'s insistence on the highest levels of musicianship from everybody in the New South is legendary; he couldn't have asked for more than everybody displays here.
I could go on and on, but you'll understand a lot better if you buy the CD and listen.
Purchases
1 Old Home Place - J.D. Crowe, Jayne, Mitch
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