Favorite Bluegrass Band (Don't read the first paragraph)

[BeginnerMandolinistTyler]

Hey guys,
The reason why I am posting this in the first place is because I don't want to work on my Health project for college. It's due tomorrow... But in more interesting news, I finally completed Why Should the Fire Die? I own every single Punch Brother album including Chris Thile's How to Grow a Woman from the Ground and all of their various works on movie soundtracks including This is 40, The Hunger Games, the Holiday Rules album and etc....I have purchased other Nickel Creek songs but never the full albums. I'm listening to it right now while I am "working" on this project and it is phenomenal! (No surprise there) I now only need the remaining Nickel Creek albums plus Thile's first two solo albums and I will pretty much have all of the albums Chris has recorded. Ok, well now that I think about it, I don't have his album with Bela Fleck yet or Into the Cauldron with Mike Marhsall but I'm getting closer to having almost all of his work. I actually buy all of my music which is why this is taking me so long! And if you couldn't tell, I'm a huge Thile fan. The "Reason Why" (pun not intended, sort of) is because Punch Brothers were the reason I transitioned to bluegrass and eventually came to love it. Thile is the reason why I picked up the mandolin. If you read all of this, first of all, I'm sorry and second, I'm impressed.

What are your guys' favorite bluegrass bands? I'm looking to discover more amazing groups/musicians! My favorites are probably Punch Brothers/Nickel Creek (Even though most of their music really isn't all bluegrass), Sierra Hull and Highway 111, Hot Rize, and Alison Krauss and Union Station.

[allenhopkins]

Since I started listening to bluegrass in the Mesozoic Era (nearly), you'll find my "faves" are quite a bit different:

Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, especially the 1946 version with Flatt, Scruggs, Wise, Watts
Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys
Country Gentlemen -- especially the original Waller, Duffey, Adcock lineup
Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and the Foggy Mountain Boys
Osborne Brothers, especially the very early versions with Jimmy Martin, and later Red Allen
Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys -- and if you can get the very first trio album with Larry Roll, Sacred Songs of the Virginia Trio, wow!
Charles River Valley Boys -- the band I saw the most in person, the Joe Val lineup after Ethan Signer left
Lynn Morris Band -- Jeez, she was special, before her medical problems; Marshall Wilborn on bass
Johnson Mountain Boys

And, these days, Del McCoury.

[BeginnerMandolinistTyler]

Ok...Well I can't believe I forgot to put Bill Monroe in there... Just to clarify, Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs were meant to be apart of my favorites list. I can't wait to go check out those bands! There's a lot of music I need to listen to in order to really understand and appreciate this genre to the fullest! Thanks for the response Allen!

[Frank Farley]

The Bluegrass Album Band and IIIrd Tyme Out are 2 of my favorites.

[DataNick]

Don't know if I would categorize The Punch Brothers as Bluegrass...they seem much more eclectic and what I would call "Progressive Acoustic" as a genre; same for Nickel Creek.

My Top 10:

1. Bill Monroe & Blue Grass Boys 1946-48
2. Flatt & Scruggs & The Foggy Mountain Boys
3. Stanley Brothers & the Clinch Mountain Boys
4. Old & In The Way
5. J.D. Crowe & The New South 1975
6. Bluegrass Album Band 1980s
7. Jim & Jesse McReynolds and the Virginia Boys
8. The Grascals
9. Blue Highway
10. IIIrd Tyme Out

[Jim]

Sara Jarosz, Tim O'brien, The Dillards, New Grass Revival, Tony Rice, Steep Canyon Rangers, Dave Grissman lots of others including the ones you and Allen have mentioned. Oh and Jethro Burns

[sunburst]

If you really get into it, the history, the recordings, the "stories" and everything else, come to understand where Bluegrass came from and where it has gone, what the various off-shoots are and so forth, you may come to understand why many of us don't consider Nickel Greek's and Punch Brother's music to be Bluegrass music. Surely, it is Bluegrass influenced, and surely it is high quality music, and surely it is not important whether it is Bluegrass or not (not that the subject hasn't come up around here before...), but there is a good chance that the favorite Bluegrass bands of some long-time bluegrass fans will sound quite a bit different from Punch Brothers.

For me, who grew up hearing Flatt and Scruggs on TV every weekend (the source of those fabulous videos everybody has now), and then later, after my Rock and Roll days had been in full force for a while, it was the Seldom Scene that brought me back to Bluegrass in the mid 70s, though they were not main stream Bluegrass, and they were, in fact, somewhat controversial and considered pretty darned progressive at the time. From there I found my way back to Bill Monroe's earlier recordings, but it was a somewhat long and convoluted journey. Suffice it to say that there is Bluegrass music that I absolutely love and there is Bluegrass music that makes me suffer and there is everything in between, and that applies to the old and the new.

Listen to everything that ends up being suggested here, the old and the new and the in-between, the traditional and the variants, the off-shoots and the fringes. There will be stuff you like and stuff you don't like most likely, but it will be an education, and you will surely find your own way.

For example, of all the folks mentioned by Jim Richmond above, only a few have played much Bluegrass at all, and all have played mostly music other than Bluegrass. That's fine, it all good music and highly recommended listening, but when you get right down to the real die-hard Bluegrass fan "curmudgeons", those will probably not be the names you'll hear.

[P.D. Kirby]

Like most I am a fan of the older Bluegrass Groups but my favorite of the newer groups would be The SteelDrivers hands down. Check out their Hammer Down CD.

[AlanN]

Funny what some consider bluegrass. There is a definitive answer, of course, but individual likes creep in and color the answer. I suppose it's all good.

Can't forget the one hit (recording) wonders which disappear in the fog of time, and maybe they had more than one recording, but important, nonetheless. They are surely hard to find in the on-line world, and have faded from public eye, particularly if their work never made it to CD. Some great ones: Muleskinner, Collins & Blackwell, Bluegrass Cardinals, Kentucky Colonels, Bluegrass Blend, Spectrum, IInd Generation, Bluegrass 45, East Virginia...

[maj34]

My favorites are the early Bill Monroe, Stanley Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs, Red Allen from the early/mid '60s, Earl Taylor and the Stoney Mountain Boys, Larry Richardson and the Blue Ridge Boys. . .

[UsuallyPickin]

My personal favorites have been covered above. Add to those lists as worth hearing also are The Seldon Scene, The Dillards, Country Gazette and The Greenbriar Boys.

[Charley wild]

In no particular order:
Bill Monroe
Flatt & Scruggs
Stanley Brothers, Ralph Stanley
Jimmy Martin
Lilly Brothers
Country Gentlemen, early especially but all will do
Seldom Scene
Jim and Jesse, especially with Allen Shelton
And many others too numerous to name!

[RBMB]

These might not be Bluegrass, but since you like Nickel Creek check out: Plaidgrass, David Grisman Quintet, Psychograss, Strength in Numbers, New Grass Revival, Sam Bush, Mark O'Connor, Mike Marshall, Norman Blake, Tony Rice, Old and in the Way, and Tony Williamson. Not all of the individuals are mandolin players, but they play with great mandolin players. You'll see lots of great video on YouTube. Put these names into Pandora and it will lead you to other great players.

[BeginnerMandolinistTyler]

I can't wait to check out all of these groups! Thanks you guys! I have not heard of the majority of these groups and can't wait to check them out!

[Ipecac]

One of my main Influences...And never seen anyone mention them, which to me is astonishing.. Just different circles, I suppose...
1. The .357 String Band
2. Jayke Orvis - He was the mando player for first two .357 albums... Great Songwriter & awesome Mando riffs, Chops & Plays Like a MOFO..!! Haha
3. Split Lip Rayfield
4. Bill Monroe & Blue Grass Boys
5. Punch Brothers/Chris Thile (I think Step-Brothers, is his Best Soundtrack)
6. Sam Bush
7. Flatt & Scruggs & The Foggy
Mountain Boys
8. & Anything Else I hear & Like.. Whether I transcribe something or play along to the Black Crowes... Guitar Players, still influence my Mando playin.. Jimi Hendrix & John Frusciante's playing.. Very Chord-y w embellishments.. No Different than Double stops & Pull offs on the Mandolin... So I use everything I can that Appeals to me.. Cheers..!!

[Jim]

Your rock friends will say they are too Bluegrass and the bluegrass people will say they ain't no part of nuthin' but Yonder Mountain string Band, also Left over Salmon

[mandolirius]

If you're interested in early bluegrass, check out this link:

http://frobbi.org/picking.html

[DataNick]

If you're interested in early bluegrass, check out this link:

http://frobbi.org/picking.html

Dude!

Awesome!

[Eric C.]

I'm digging the Quarry Mountain Dead Rats. Fun stuff.

[oldwest]

Too many favorites to mention them all, but I'm surprised no-one has yet mentioned Longview. Their albums are old-school bluegrass, but with a great modern recording sound. Best of all, they never rehash old standards (no-one is going to do that better than the Bluegrass Album Band anyway).

They mine the old recordings for great songs that for one reason or another just didn't become standards. Worth a listen.

[KEB]

Since I started listening to bluegrass in the Mesozoic Era (nearly), you'll find my "faves" are quite a bit different:

Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, especially the 1946 version with Flatt, Scruggs, Wise, Watts
Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys
Country Gentlemen -- especially the original Waller, Duffey, Adcock lineup
Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and the Foggy Mountain Boys
Osborne Brothers, especially the very early versions with Jimmy Martin, and later Red Allen
Jim & Jesse and the Virginia Boys -- and if you can get the very first trio album with Larry Roll, Sacred Songs of the Virginia Trio, wow!
Charles River Valley Boys -- the band I saw the most in person, the Joe Val lineup after Ethan Signer left
Lynn Morris Band -- Jeez, she was special, before her medical problems; Marshall Wilborn on bass
Johnson Mountain Boys

And, these days, Del McCoury.

Looking at this list, I'd think you're about to break into All the Good Times are Past and Gone , but there's more folk than Del and the boys making good "real bluegrass" these days(if slightly more progressive from time to time).

Steep Canyon Rangers
Daily and Vincent
Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass
Mike Compton
Nashville Bluegrass Band
Dry Branch Fire Squad
Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper

to name a few.

Then again, I also like the "New Acoustic, Post-Bluegrass, Progressive Wave, New Old Timey, Blueground Undergrass Stuff" from time to time-- so don't miss any of Mike Marshall's projects, some of Bela Fleck's projects, Anything with Jerry Douglass involved, anything with Sam Bush involved, Crooked Still(... okay anything with Aoife O'Donovan), Sierra Hull, Ronda Vincent and the Rage.

But don't neglect those that Allen mentioned just because they're old-- they're the bands "that launched a thousand ships" as Homer (of Homer and Jethro?) said-- as someone recently said to me, "it's a deep vein to mine."

[johnhgayjr]

[Michael Bridges]

Earl Scruggs is from my hometown in N.C., so Flatt & Scruggs are my first exposure to bluegrass. HUGE Del Mcroury fan, you definitely need to check him out. Grisman, Skaggs, are great. Allison Krause and Union Station can do no wrong in my book, I'd pay to listen to her read the phone book. Modern mando players, Thile is fantastic. Technically maybe the best ever, and I love to listen to him and marvel. IMHO, he tends to sound a bit too sterile sometimes (Personal taste speaking here). Sam Bush is probably my all around favorite, the man just packs so much soul into his music.

[jefflester]

Hey guys,
I now only need the remaining Nickel Creek albums plus Thile's first two solo albums and I will pretty much have all of the albums Chris has recorded. Ok, well now that I think about it, I don't have his album with Bela Fleck yet or Into the Cauldron with Mike Marhsall but I'm getting closer to having almost all of his work.

Chris has recorded quite a few albums. I would highly recommend Into the Cauldron and Live Duets (both with Mike Marshall) and the album with Edgar Meyer as your next purchases - those 3 plus Not All Who Wander (is that the one you are referring to when you says the one with Bela Fleck?) are in my opinion the best of Chris' work. I love Nickel Creek and I really like Punch Brothers, but not as much as those albums I mention. You may have overlooked mentioning some others you do know about, but there is also the duet album with Michael Daves (most conventional bluegrass album Chris has recorded) and the Goat Rodeo Sessions.

[mandolinlee]

Hi Tyler -

Check out these young performers on YouTube:

The Tuttle Kids w/ A.J. Lee
The Turkey Creek Stringband
Della Mae
The Price Sisters

Young people, young ladies fantastic musicians!

Enjoy,
Lee