Best Loved Bluegrass: 20 All-Time Favorites [PA]

Performer: Various Artists
Producer: David Freeman (Compilation)
Distributor: Ryko Distribution

Notes: Audio Remasterer: David Glasser. Best Loved Bluegrass is a 20-song collection of bluegrass songs and instrumentals from well-known and nearly forgotten pickers of the '60s and '70s. And while Keith Whitely may be better remembered today as a country singer, and the Boys from Indiana as a long-disbanded group, all of these musicians were "players" in their time. The selections include traditional material like Ted Lundy & the Southern Mountain Boys' "Poor Ellen Smith," more progressive cuts like the Seldom Scene's "Darling Corey," old-time-flavored cuts by Ralph Stanley and the Stanley Brothers, and early rustic cuts by Del McCoury ("The White House Blues," about President McKinley's assassination, is excellent). There's a lot of good music on Best Loved Bluegrass, though the liner notes offer little information on the origins of the recordings. In this sense, this collection of odds and ends seems to offer no more than a casual collection for a casual fan. The difference, however, is that the Rebel label was on the forefront of the bluegrass scene during the '60s and '70s. For anyone who fondly remembers the early work of Larry Sparks, the Country Gentlemen, and the Seldom Scene, Best Loved Bluegrass is a high-quality collection for hardcore bluegrass fans. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr.

Dirty Linen (p.77) - "[With] some of bluegrass' greatest gems....'Bringing Mary Home' is a tradition-based ghost ballad. Keith Whitley and Ricky Skaggas' brother duet, 'Dream of a Miner's Child,' is equally haunting."

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