Recommmend me some mandolin-heavy bluegrass.

[grassrootphilosopher]

Blip,

the recomendations to the musicians is great so far. I would like to stick my head out there and point you to some iconic records (along with my take why I think they are)

1. Bill Monroe
- The Essential Bill Monroe (because that´s what all bluegrass is modeled after; you have to take the fast stuff [which is there] with the slower stuff to understand how it is put together)
- Bluegrass Time (citybilly bluegrass with Bill at the helm; this contains some of the best newer Monroe; here too, you have to take the fast with the slower; here is a referrence to what´s on the record)

2. Jimmy Martin had good mando pickers. Like swampstomper said Paul Williams is one of the best
- Don´t Cry To Me (as a compilation of Jimmy´s and notably Paul´s work this is great; the DVD is not half bad either; here too, take the fast with the not so fast to understand the music better)

3. Lester Flatt had Marty Stuart in his Nashville Grass. That was great
- Essential Bluegrass Gospel (mostly not fast but very, very nice picking by Martiy Stuart [on the guitar too])

4. Osborne Bros. (you can´t leave Bobby Osborne out)
- 1956-1968 (I allways figured that they played awfully fast; maybe it´s not so, maybe it´s just their smoothness that makes listening to fast notes easy)

5. David Grisman (an iconic musician by any means)
- David Grisman Bluegrass Experience (some tunes are fast, while all in all the record shows what [modern] bluegrass is about)

6. Del McCoury Band (with Ronnie McCoury on the mandolin, he pulls an awesome tone)
- The Family (with some fast stuff, again a great way to show what bluegrass is about)

7 Ricky Skaggs (now he´s the guy who may float your boat as he surely does play fast)
- Live At Charleston Music Hall (an awesome live album with mighty fast picking)
- Honoring The Fathers... (a take on the classic early Bill Monroe recordings mentioned above, some mighty fast picking there, though not all)

Mind you, a lot of Bluegrass was played mighty fast in the 70ies to my mind. I think it hurt the expression in the music and guys like Bill Monroe, Joe Val, Frank Wakefield, Mike Compton, David Grisman, Ronnie McCoury ... show you how good bluegrass can sound when played at a slower tempo. Also you might mistake the tempo for being slow until you try to pick with the record. Some music will make you blush when you foul up because you cant keep up with the music. Playing fast and in time is very hard to acomplish. If you listen to the 70ies Bill Monroe "Bean Blossom" record (the one with the frog) you´ll hear Lester Flatt´s Nashville Grass burning it up, though the tempo keeps coming and going. Things like that may happen, but I like it better when the picking is on thime. I´d sacrifice speed for that any time.

[Mike Bunting]

Check out Buzz Busby.

[grassrootphilosopher]

By golly, I forgot to mention sugarmegs!!! There´s tons of incredible material there. Check out Bill Monroe´s Grand Ole Opry shows or other bluegrass festival recordings. There´s a bunch of great material out there!

Here´s the search for Bill´s shows: http://tela.sugarmegs.org/Default.aspx

[grassrootphilosopher]

Check out Buzz Busby.

Yeah, forgot Buzz Buzzby, he can play quite fast and furious. He surely had the wolf in him. Here´s the (memorial) website. The "Going Home" CD is especially great (and fast for your information).

[AlanN]

Skaggs - has been around so long and his current band has recorded a lot. Don't neglect his older stuff, 'though, when his mandolin style was surely different than now. Recordings like JD Crowe & NS, the watershed Rounder 0044 record, Boone Creek (2 LPs), his work with the Country Gentlemen (on fiddle), a thing he did called Family & Friends on Sugar Hill (I think, and has great duet singing with Peter Rowan)) and the old That's It record. This last one has a somewhat rough, elementary sound to it, and Ricky is hot, hot, hot - tunes like Sweet Georgia Brown, Florida Blues, a number with a Charleston-feel to it (forget the name). Niles' old Skaggs solos book tabbed out some of these breaks - Ricky would get these chromatic patterns (a la Vassar) and dim licks - very hip playing.

[Nolan]

The Bluegrass '95 Cd is awesome for mandolin heavy bluegrass.
Listen to it here...
http://www.amazon.com/Bluegrass-95-V.../dp/B000001U9S

[mandopete]

Bluegrass '95, Bluegrass '96, Bluegrass '97, and so on. All feature Wayne Benson on mandolin, all sound great!

Another suggestion might be any of the Skip Gorman CD's such as Old Style Mandolin or Monroeesque. Nice Monroe interpretations.

[Jonathan Peck]

"Red Allen/Frank Wakefield "Red Allen, Frank Wakefield and the Kentuckians" Folkways album originally issued in 1964 and recently reissued by Smithsonian on CD"

I'll second that one. Very tasty Monroe style mandolin which doesn't take a backseat to anything in the mix.

"At the time, Frank took bluegrass mandolin where it had never been before. "

yeah....about 350 degrees fahrenheit

[Gary Hedrick]

When you ask for mandolin heavy bluegrass that means many things to different people. You seem to want to have classic 3 chords and a cloud of dust playing.....then a Busby or a Monroe would be prime....
If you want dominate factor in the song presenation then perhaps a Duffy is a nice choice....Jessie McReynolds is great also..... many times the mandolin wasn't the lead instrument in defining a given song in bluegrass......Bill of course would lead most of his stuff unless he had a Baker, a Greene or a Keith to let shine then he backed up.

A Duffy or a Monroe used the mandolin like an axe at times....chopping and shapeing the song to their satisfaction....

[mrkrgr]

Johnson Mountain Boys with David McLaughlin or any band he was or is in.

[Jonathan Peck]

Almost forgot about this one:

Young Mando Monsters http://www.elderly.com/recordings/items/VMP-CD0100.htm

It's not all bluegrass, buts it's all good. Steffey rips on one of the fastest versions of Big Mon I've ever heard.

[Rick Schmidlin]

Thanks a lot!

The Bill Monroe stuff I have found is slower and sounds more like country to my ears. Anything you recommend me to check out?

I'm more looking for that typical fast bluegrass playing.

Listen more closely to Monroe.

[Rick Schmidlin]

Blip,

the recomendations to the musicians is great so far. I would like to stick my head out there and point you to some iconic records (along with my take why I think they are).

Great choices but I didn't see early Stanley Brothers on this list.

[Tbone]

Jonas Brothers. Tons of mando-heavy stuff.

[Nolan]

Almost forgot about this one:

Young Mando Monsters http://www.elderly.com/recordings/items/VMP-CD0100.htm

It's not all bluegrass, buts it's all good. Steffey rips on one of the fastest versions of Big Mon I've ever heard.

I'll second that. Just got that CD from Alan Bibey last month. It's great...

I also really like Clay Jones' solo CD "Mountain Tradition"... it also has Steffey playing Big Mon at a break neck speed... but there's also some nice medium tempo tunes as well. Clay Jones was also the driving force behind the Bluegrass '95, 96, 97, etc, etc Cds. Shoot, while you're at it you should probably get some John Reischman and the Jaybirds stuff... it's some very tasting playing.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Don't forget Ricky Skaggs' CD "Instrumentals " it's ALL Mandolin orientated & his other CD's have plenty as well,
Ivan

[mandopete]

Jonas Brothers. Tons of mando-heavy stuff.

Yeah, I forgot about that one!

[AlanN]

Jimmy Gaudreau's recordings as leader feature a lot of tasty mandolin work. And as sideman extraordinaire on recording by Country Gentlemen, Tony Rice.

[barry k]

Any thing that has Frank Wakefield playing on it. His new CD is dynomite.
Roland White is a good one to study on also.

[Greg H.]

I can't believe it, but I believe one of the all time great recordings has been left out entirely:

Tony Rice, Manzanita. (I still view it as one of the all time best. . . ..and no banjo to boot).

Also, from the same mid/late 70's era, the classic

David Grisman Rounder Compact Disc

Yes, there are a vast number of recent cds. . .many of which are great,. . .but I view these two as required!

[Mike Crater]

Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder. He plays alot of Monroe stuff, but recorded on modern recording equipment so you can really hear what's going on. Hearing the bottom end on 40's era songs and tunes can take some getting used to.

[grassrootphilosopher]

Great choices but I didn't see early Stanley Brothers on this list.

You are right Tone Monster that early Stanley Bros. ought to be included. Check their Columbia recordings.

Tone Monster, while the original poster wants pointers towards "mandolin heavy recordings that are fast bluegrass" I really had to think hard about this. Even though Monroe could play (very) fast as could the Stanleys (and Pee Wee Lambert) and others, most musicians´ records (like Monroe´s and the Stanleys´) contained a wide variety of tempos which speaks of their musical qualities. To answer the original poster´s question therefore is a difficult task. As mandolin heavy bluegrass I would also like to ad Red Cravens and the Bray Brothers. But the fast thingy is mainly covered by Buzz Bussby and Ricky Skaggs I think. All the other stuff (that was mentioned in this thread) is pretty much all over the place concerning the tempo and the instrument weight (though Monroe was THE mando man, he let each of his musicians step to the spotlight and show their abilities; therefore even Monroe might not be "mando heavy" in all of the recordings - think the early Molly and Tenbrooks for example... no mando-solo there, methinks)

[grassrootphilosopher]

I can't believe it, but I believe one of the all time great recordings has been left out entirely:

Tony Rice, Manzanita. (I still view it as one of the all time best. . . ..and no banjo to boot).

Also, from the same mid/late 70's era, the classic

David Grisman Rounder Compact Disc

Yes, there are a vast number of recent cds. . .many of which are great,. . .but I view these two as required!

They are great, but they are not "that fast bluegrass kinda thing" that was the intent of the original poster´s question.

[JeffD]

The Bill Monroe stuff I have found is slower and sounds more like country to my ears. .

Yikes!

Its hard to figure how you managed not to bump into the fast stuff.

[jim_n_virginia]

Please?

A must have is the Mandolin Extravaganza by Ronnie McCoury and produced by Grisman.

It is one of my life's goal to play every song on that CD in every variation (or as close as I can get it by ear) that each person plays on it.

I have 12 of the 37 tunes down so far.