Monday Music: Old Highway (The Hillbilly Thomists)

"Gonna start my life again in a Chevrolet."  They're monks (Dominican friars) and they play bluegrass music. They have a new album out, Holy Ghost Power. Here is one of the new tracks, "Old Highway." 

 

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Monday Music: Scotland (Emmylou Harris and The Nash Ramblers)

A bluegrass number, "Scotland,"  by Bill Monroe, performed live at the Ryman Auditorium in 1992  by  Emmylou Harris and The Nash Ramblers. 

 

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Monday Music: Rocketman (Iron Horse)

[During the month of July, I'm thinking about space exploration since we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. This re-post is a fun romp with a bluegrass version of Elton John's "Rocket Man."]

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Monday Music: Foggy Mountain Breakdown

Bluegrass fun on Late Night with David Letterman featuring Steve Martin, the legendary Earl Scruggs, and "Men with Banjos Who Know How to Use Them." "Foggy  Mountain Breakdown" was written by Earl Scruggs and first recorded in 1949 with his friend Lester Flatt by their group, "Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys."

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Shady Grove (Doc Watson)

Some bluegrass music from the legendary Doc Watson

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Monday Music: All My Life (Flatt Lonesome)

I just recently heard about the bluegrass group, Flatt Lonesome, when a friend talked about them performing in Ashland, Alabama at the Clay County Yellow Meated Watermelon Festival.

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Monday Music: Blue Moon of Kentucky

Great bluegrass music featuring an amazing seven-year-old, Carson Peters. "Blue Moon of Kentucky" was, of course, written by the founding father of bluegrass music, Mr. Bill Monroe.

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Monday Music: For What It's Worth

"Stop, hey, what's that sound, everybody look what's goin' down." "For What It's Worth" was a 1967 hit by Buffalo Springfield and it became a vehicle of protest against the Vietnam War and anti-establishment protest. The song was originally written in response to a no loitering ordinance to try to curb the party scene along Sunset Boulevard, but it morphed into a grander statement. This bluegrass version by The Travelin' McCourys brings a refreshing new life to an ever important message.

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Monday Music: Bluegrass and The Byrds

Fascinating footage of Roger McGuin and The Byrds mixing it up with bluegrass legend, Earl Scruggs in 1971. McGuin along with fellow musician Chris Hillman did the same kind of thing with the same song for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Vol. 2.

In this first video taken from the documentary, Earl Scruggs: His Family and Friends, you will see Roger McGuin and The Byrds performing with Earl Scruggs on the banjo. After a little bluegrass session, they do the song, "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," by Bob Dylan. The song had been in The Byrd's repertoire, having been recorded for the 1968 album, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo." (To watch the entire documentary, available on YouTube, go here)

This second video features the recording from Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Volume 2, with Roger McGuin, Chris Hillman and The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

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Monday Music: Here and Heaven

From The Goat Rodeo Sessions (Yo-Yo Ma's bluegrass-inspired recordings): musicians Aoife O'Donovan, Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, Stuart Duncan, and Yo-Yo Ma performing "Here and Heaven." This is another piece that I heard first at Penny Nash's Penelopepiscopalblog.

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Monday Music: Orange Blossom Special (Shades Mountain Air)

It was a joy to hear Shades Mountain Air perform at Moonlight on the Mountain last Saturday night. They did a variety of music from Bach to Bluegrass with Gershwin, Gospel, and some original songs thrown in along the way. They closed the show with an "Orange Blossom Special" medley.  Here is a recording of that same number from the 2013 Alabama Bluegrass Music Association Showcase of Bands held at the Bessemer Civic Center on March 16, 2013.

Monday Music: Bluegrass Rocketman

Iron Horse offers a lively bluegrass version of Elton John's "Rocketman."
BTW, Iron Horse says Elton John has seen their video, and yes, he loves it!

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Monday Music: Wayfaring Stranger

In 1980, country-music artist Emmylou Harris made history when she identified with the bluegrass genre in her sixth album, Roses in the Snow. Many guest-appearances are featured on the album including Johnny Cash and a young Ricky Skaggs, who would later proclaim to his own audiences that after wandering in the wilderness of country music he entered the promised land of bluegrass. "Wayfaring Stranger" became a hit single on the country charts that year.