I've got a small collection of bluegrass, maybe 3 dozen. Bill Monroe, Osborne Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs, Newgrass Revival (1st album), Norman Blake, David Grisman. Those are the ones that come to mind. Been hunting for more. Those are some great ones you got there. I'd buy'em all from ya, but I'm sure you want to keep and enjoy them. Good luck in your search, bluegrass records aren't as prevalent as other genres.
Yep, had a number of those, in addition to Dawg LPs, Flatt and Scruggs, Hot Rize, Norman Blake, etc, etc. Sold them all to a small LP shop in Raleigh NC prior to our move to FL. I don't miss them. Anything I want to hear is on the web.
Charley
A bunch of stuff with four strings
Yeah I’d better hang on to these! I hope to find some more, the last record shop I went to, the bluegrass section was pretty slim pickins
I have friends who like the sound quality of LPs much better than CDs. I agree that there is something special about the LP experience, the cover art, putting the record on the turn table and lowering the needle. When I lived in Raleigh there was a bottle shop that let customers bring their LPs in and play them on a turn table sitting on the bar. Here in St Augustine my barber has a vintage 45 record player that you stack 10 or so 45s on and they drop when the previous one is done. He has a huge pile of 45s covering early rock and roll, country and jazz. Pretty fun.
Charley
A bunch of stuff with four strings
Dang, Manzanita is one I have been after but after Tony's passing the prices really jumped on all that stuff.
Discogs has been great for grabbing some relatively cheap vinyl. I try not to spend more than $15-20 on most of them, some for $5 or less even.
Here is my Collection in seemingly random order (was by Label name when I copied it):
Artist Title
The Osborne Brothers, Bobby & His Mandolin
The New Quicksilver, Ready For The Times
David Grisman, Hot Dawg
Darol Anger, Fiddlistics
Jethro Burns, Tea For One
David Grisman Quintet, The David Grisman Quintet
Tiny Moore & Jethro Burns, Back To Back
Modern Mandolin Quartet, Modern Mandolin Quartet
The Osborne Brothers, The Best Of The Osborne Brothers
The Tony Rice Unit, Mar West
Dolly Parton, Just Because I'm A Woman
The Osborne Brothers, Modern Sounds Of Bluegrass Music
Django Reinhardt, Django Reinhardt And The American Jazz Giants
Dolly Parton, 9 To 5 And Odd Jobs
Homer And Jethro, Playing It Straight
Homer And Jethro, It Ain't Necessarily Square
Dolly Parton, Golden Favorites
The Country Gentlemen, The Traveler And Other Favorites
Ricky Skaggs, That's It
Homer And Jethro, Homer And Jethro Will Drive You Nuts With Their Version Of The Standards
J.D. Crowe & The New South, The New South
David Grisman, The David Grisman Rounder Album
Ricky Skaggs, Family & Friends
Darol Anger & Mike Marshall, The Duo
David Grisman, David Grisman's Acoustic Christmas
Mike Marshall, Gator Strut
J.D. Crowe & The New South, J.D. Crowe And The New South
Boone Creek, One Way Track
Old & In The Way, Old And In The Way
Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, The News Is Out
Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver
David Grisman, Dawg Jazz / Dawg Grass
David Grisman, Quintet '80
Stephane Grappelli / David Grisman, Live
David Grisman, Mondo Mando
Darol Anger / Barbara Higbie Quintet With Mike Marshall, Todd Phillips And Andy Narell, Live At Montreux
Mike Marshall / Darol Anger, Chiaroscuro
David Grisman, Acousticity
I also have a few new vinyls from Sierra Hull (really cool Lemon color on 25 Trips), Steep Canyon Rangers (red white and blue for the NC Songbook Merlefest show), Mandolin Orange (clear Austin City Limits 2 LPs) and a few others.
Mostly I enjoy collecting them for the artwork and getting a few of the above that are no longer available, but I do listen occasionally as well.
Drew
2020 Northfield 4th Gen F5
2022 Northfield NFS-F5E
2019 Northfield Flat Top Octave
2021 Gold Tone Mando Cello
https://www.instagram.com/pilotdrew85
I much prefer the fullness of analog music. I also get into the tactile experience as well and modern LPs include additional info & even alternative mixes. We have a lot of record stores in the PNW so there's plenty of bin flipping to find a gem or a steal. It's admittedly a more expensive way to listen to music but there's no substitute
2020 Northfield Big Mon
2016 Skip Kelley A5
2011 Weber Gallatin A20
2021 Northfield Flattop Octave Mandolin
2019 Pono Flattop Octave
Richard Beard Celtic Flattop
And a few electrics
I have an enormous LP collection, but very few of them are bluegrass. I'll bet I have more Grisman than the rest of my bluegrass albums combined. Not that Grisman is bluegrass, mind you, but his music does feature mandolin pretty extensively. I think I have a Bill Monroe, a Flatt & Scruggs or two, and that's about it. Although I started building my collection back in The Beatles days, things mushroomed in the 80s, when CDs came in. Suddenly the college kids and probably lots of townies started dumping their vinyl in favor of the new smaller, lighter format. Resale shops sprang up all over town and around the area. It was customary for these stores to sell LPs with a scratch, however small, for 99¢. I often walked the mile or so from my place to work and back, and would pop into one store on my way pretty often, and often on Fridays with my pay in my pocket. I picked up a ton of records - literally - this way. My main interest was in rock from the psychedelic era, and I have an extraordinary number of such LPS, many of which have never been released on CD, being so obscure. With such a low price, I was fine with taking a chance on records that just looked interesting, even if I had no idea who the bands were. That could be hit or miss, but I found some gems. Aside from bands I'd heard of but didn't really know - like Small Faces and The Faces, and Mott The Hoople - I discovered quite by happenstance some great music. I am fond of saying the best dollar I ever spent was on an album by Shocking Blue, who turned out to be a phenomenal band - deeply into Americana way before the term existed, as well as delving into such non-mainstream instrumentation as sitar, and, as I discovered later, electric mandolin, among the first times that showed up in recordings. (Obligatory MC requirement satisfied.) Their monster hit "Venus" was not the best song on the album - it's great, but the album was filled with great songs. A couple years later I found another LP from them, a compilation from later albums - again for 99¢. Great stuff, and I would never have known if it hadn't been for this whole process. All these are in deep storage, and it's costing me a ludicrous amount to maintain that. But so many of these records are irreplaceable, if they can even be found - and if so, they would surely be ridiculously pricy on eBay. So my monthly bills have been a bit higher than I'd like, but for me, it's worth it. What else am I going to spend my money on, besides rent, food, and strings?
But don't use vinyl straps on your instrument. I've seen horror stories.
Last edited by journeybear; Oct-27-2021 at 12:08pm. Reason: just one more thing ... and another ...
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller
Furthering Mandolin Consciousness
Finders Keepers, my duo with the astoundingly talented and versatile Patti Rothberg. Our EP is finally done, and available! PM me, while they last!
I have a bunch but no turntable right now, a problem I am soon going to fix. I don't believe vinyl sounds better, but it is definitely a lot more fun.
Thanks, I have tried to gear it towards good mandolin picking as much as I can. As much Dawg and Mike Marshall as I can find, Alan Bibey in the New Quicksilver, Doyle, Ricky, Bobby Osborne. The Dolly records are for my fiancee lol.
Discogs is great. If you find something you like, check out what else the same seller has. Usually you can get a combined shipping discount.
I'm not far down the road from you looks like!
Drew
2020 Northfield 4th Gen F5
2022 Northfield NFS-F5E
2019 Northfield Flat Top Octave
2021 Gold Tone Mando Cello
https://www.instagram.com/pilotdrew85
I have a pretty large collection of Blue/Newgrass records but I would love to find a nice copy of Mike Marshalls Gator Strut. That one has eluded me.
Here's a picture of my good friend's LP collection. He has been buying records since he was in junior high in the late 1950s, and he doesn't get rid of anything. From the top, the first row is old-time and fiddle albums, second row is country, third row is bluegrass, fourth row is western swing and Irish, fourth row is blues, folk, and songwriter. A very large number of these are long-since out of print and not available digitally, and I'm very lucky to have a personal library card!
Marc
Are you talking LP or CD? Because the CD is available.
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller
Furthering Mandolin Consciousness
Finders Keepers, my duo with the astoundingly talented and versatile Patti Rothberg. Our EP is finally done, and available! PM me, while they last!
I've got a maybe three hundred, which I'm not gonna catalog for ya -- sorry! Many collected by cruising "cut-out bins" back during the 1970's and '80's. Lotsa major label Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Jimmy Martin. Jim & Jesse; whole bunch of Stardays and Kings, including Stanley Brothers, Hylo Brown, Moore & Napier, Lewis Family, stuff like that. Country Gents from their Folkways era. A few Prestige with my Boston/Cambridge faves from the '60's -- Charles River Valley Boys, Keith & Rooney; Osborne Brothers, including the small-label reissue of their recordings with Jimmy Martin (now, if that band had stayed together...!). Some off labels like Biograph -- Red Allen & the Kentuckians, early Stanleys with Leslie Keith on fiddle, etc.
I tried to pick up on quite a few of the "city-billy" bands as they came out: Greenbriar Boys, New Deal String Band, Tasty Licks, City Limits, Whetstone Run, Old & In the Way, Good Old Boys, Muleskinner, groups like that. Several pre-"folky" Dillards albums. The rest, really, just whatever I happened to come across.
My days of cruising record stores are long behind me; my vinyl pretty much sits unplayed. Keep intending to call in the local vintage record store owner and see what I can get for the lot; I have just about as many folk music recordings, and a small but interesting collection of old-time and blues LP's.
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
H-O mandolinetto
Stradolin Vega banjolin
Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
But for the few too many miles between us I'd be happy to take them off your hands Allen
2020 Northfield Big Mon
2016 Skip Kelley A5
2011 Weber Gallatin A20
2021 Northfield Flattop Octave Mandolin
2019 Pono Flattop Octave
Richard Beard Celtic Flattop
And a few electrics
I have about two hundred albums on vinyl, half of which are bluegrass. The Seldom Scene, Doyle & QS, Newgrass Revival, Osborne Bros, etc. Most of the stuff those groups put out back in the 70s and 80s. And of course any Flatt and Scruggs, Reno and Smiley, Stanley Bros. etc. Like Allen Hopkins did I would hit the cut out bins at the discount stores and find a few old gems on the old Starday label in there.
A few all time favorites:
Jim and Jesse Bluegrass Classics, still my favorite album of all time in BG.
The Seldom Scene Live at the Cellar Door.
Jethro Burns and Red Rector Old Friends, a tutorial for tasty mandolin players, plus a fun listen.
Doc Watson, three of his two-fer albums on the old Vanguard label.
I was fortunate to find a like new Panasonic Techniques direct drive turntable (the silver one with the strobe adjustment) at an estate sale a few years back for about ten bucks because it was missing the cartridge on the end of the arm. I just happened to have one from my old turntable of the same brand so I was back in business.
Lots of great music on those old records!
Ratliff R5 2007, Capek A5 2003, Washburn M5S-SB Jethro Burns 1982, Mid-Mo M-2, Epiphone MM 30 Bk mandolins, Harmony Batwing 1970's, George Bauer bowlback early 1900's Philadelphia.
"Don't cloud the issue with facts!" Groucho Marx
I converted to CD in the mid 90s - had over 3K when I last estimated about 15 years ago - prbly closer to 4K by now. All in less space (without the plastic) than my vinyl collection. Some BG, but 99% jazz/art music.
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